James Woods, a former Hollywood celebrity, declared in 2017 that he was effectively done with acting since he had been banned from the industry and no longer needed the money from having purchased Apple stock in the 1980s, adding: Absolutely. The only reason I express my views is that I have accepted the fact that I’m blacklisted. Also I bought Apple stock in the 80’s.
He is therefore ready and able to be rather outspoken about his opinions, and he frequently makes advantage of this freedom on Twitter, where he is well-recognized for being a right-leaning dissident, especially on cultural matters.
And now he’s back at it, this time ranting about electric cars, which have managed to catch on despite being almost worthless for road trips or the everyday jobs that people expect them to perform. However, Woods doesn’t emphasize those common, everyday issues with electric automobiles in his condemnation of them. All of those issues—including having to wait an eternity for them to charge, coping with technology as it advances and batteries gradually become more ueseful, and the dangers of lithium fires—have already been raised and will continue to be the subject of heated discussion.
Thus, in his criticism of EVs, Woods brought up the safety concern related to them, which has not yet been really addressed by anybody else. Woods tweeted about it and stated: The unspoken nightmare of owning an electric vehicle is the safety issue. A woman alone forced to sit for an hour charging her EV on a dark highway is not a comforting scenario, except to the roving gangs of hoodie thugs roaming our streets and highways.
The issue of women being harassed at a gas station is extremely real, even if there aren’t many publications about it yet. In spite of the fact that filling up at gas stations just takes a few minutes, harassment is already a significant issue there. Consider how serious of a problem it would be if charging took an hour or longer. For instance, Clean Technica published a nice piece addressing existing issues with petrol stations and charging for electric vehicles, stating:
EV charging operators need to prioritize safety — especially women’s safety. Our friends at IrishEVs shared two articles with me that touch upon safety issues that women are dealing with while charging their EVs while traveling. They highlight how EV charging operators need to take safety into account in order to not lose/miss customers and also simply make sure their stations are safe places to charge.
I can’t count how many times I was harassed when I ducked by the Circle K just to grab an energy drink for work when I worked in retail — and I don’t even have a car. “Hey, little lady, where you going? I can give you a ride? No? Okay, you ugly b*tch.”
There are countless stories of women being harassed at gas stations. Just last month in Atlanta, a woman was shot and killed at a gas station. So, our friends at IrishEVs are making an excellent point about safety at EV charging sites — especially women’s safety.
In November, IrishEVs wrote this article addressing safety and security at EV charging points and then followed that up with this one pointing out the need for EV charging operators to take women’s safety seriously. In the first article, IrishEVs highlighted Maddie Moat, who presented a beginners guide series for Fully Charged. In 2020, she flagged concerns about a lack of lighting and the positioning of public EV chargers.
In a related Twitter conversation, the author, a woman, made the following statements:
I’ve been pondering why I felt so stressed about struggling to find an #EV charger last night… I had 30 miles left and this morning I was able to solve the problem pretty quickly. Then it hit me. It was dark, past 10pm, I was alone in a car park and I was scared. 1/4
I’m fed up of charging in pitch black car parks when I’m by myself (often on the phone to get a machine restarted). I’ve realised one of the reasons I feel vulnerable is because I’m a solo woman hanging about in the dark, in a situation where I can’t necessarily drive away. 2/4
Obviously this isn’t the case for ALL charge points and this only happens when I’m on the road, but so many of them are tucked away in car parks, behind pubs, at business centres etc. Places I would never go by myself at night. 3/4
Why are these public charge points not installed with lights? It would instantly make them feel safer and less intimidating. Am I alone or do other women (or anyone) feel the same?
Gas stations are already risky places in terms of safety, especially in light of rising crime and laws that are lenient against offenders. As EVs take a long time to charge and crooks continue to gain confidence, that situation will probably only grow worse.
This story syndicated with permission from Gen Z Conservative
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