[koehr]

It's interesting how this sounds like a cutting edge experiment, while this is a common thing to see in Germany and other European states for quite a while now.

[cjs_ac]

I live in the UK; my postman walks up to my house and posts my letters through a flap in the door. I grew up in Australia, where our postman used to ride up to our letterbox on a postal-service-issued motorbike, because the suburban houses are too far apart to make walking economical.

The fact that putting EV chargers in lampposts works in Europe doesn't necessitate that doing so will work in the natural environment, built environment and cultural context of the US. They have to do their own assessments to work out the best solution to the same problem in a different context.

[darkwater]

Well, if we are discussing the scenario where people live in tall buildings with no private parking available and need to park the car overnight on the street (which is the scenario depicted by the study)... It sounds a lot like your average European city.

[dlcarrier]

In the US, the postal service contacts out rural mail routes, and in many states it's legal for the contractor to drive from the passenger seat.

[perilunar]

Americans do that all the time though. E.g. Celsius vs Fahrenheit, Metric vs US Customary units, getting rid of copper coins, 230 vs 110 V electricity, etc.

The fact that large parts of the world do something without any problems is no guarantee that people in the U.S. won't argue about it endlessly.

[tracker1]

Note the US is about as big as all of Europe, so it's easy enough for the US to do something different from other countries in a similar fashion to the EU doing something different themselves. Sometimes this complements things and the effects can be seen everywhere (USB charging/connectivity) and sometimes not.

[fumblebee]

Indeed, the several streets around me in London just had hundreds of EV chargers attached to lampposts.

[dboreham]

I saw them in London a couple of years ago, and they looked like they had been there for a long time then.

[jandrese]

Meanwhile on Reddit you will find people who delight in cutting charging cables they find plugged into street lights and the like. "Sticking it to the electricity thieves".

[vel0city]

There were lamppost based chargers in Montréal last time I was there. They're a thing in North America as well.

[cmrdporcupine]

Quebec is ahead of the game vs most other places in North America when it comes to anything EV.

Having some of the cheapest and most plentiful electricity in North America, courtesy giant hydroelectric facilities, helps. (Also why it's a major aluminum producer)

As an EV owner, crossing the border into Quebec from Ontario gives me about 5x the charging options. Everything from ski hills to grocery stores are set up with a mixture of charging types it's great. Get a 20 minute DC fast charge while running into the IGA to grab groceries and conveniences blew my mind.

[asciimov]

Grants are given to those that can make the mundane seem new and exciting.

[m463]

I'll bet its even better since the standard voltage is double what the US uses, giving 2x energy over similar wires.

[kevin_thibedeau]

US municipal lighting is 240V.

[SiempreViernes]

I think the "bold innovation" framing partly because the current administration is making green technology a though crime, and partly just the ambient American tendency to describe any incremental improvement as groundbreaking.