The seemingly endless Iran-US war may be a disaster in most respects, but it’s got at least one upside: rising gasoline prices are convincing drivers around the world to switch to electric vehicles. China exported more than half a million hybrid and all-electric vehicles in June, the highest number ever in a single month. Even in the US, demand is leaping upward for used EVs while slumping for pickups and SUVs. BloombergNEF predicts more than one in four cars sold worldwide this year will be electric.
With that in mind, I thought it worth re-upping this slightly updated version of a post from a while back, in which I used a little math plus imagination to picture what the world might look like if we could reclaim some of the physical space currently occupied by gas stations, those unloved but ubiquitous automotive watering holes.
Goodbye Gas Stations, Hello Homes and Gardens?
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Here’s a little-noticed but potentially huge benefit of the switch to electric cars: we can start getting rid of gas stations. A staggering amount of real estate is currently occupied by these asphalt islands of fuel pumps and convenience stores. Imagine what else we could do with that space! Especially in urban areas, where space is always at a premium, those lots could be converted into housing, shops, parks, community gardens, libraries, you name it.
I’ve been wondering for a while about just how much land is devoted to gas stations, and decided to do a little research to figure it out. The best estimate is that across the United States there are about 150,000 locations that sell gasoline. About 80 percent of them are the kind with on-site convenience stores. Wal-Mart type superstores, truck plazas and other such make up the rest. It seems the minimum size for a gas station is about 10,000 square feet, or a quarter-acre—enough space for pumps, parking, and a little store. But I get the impression most American stations are substantially bigger. The gas stations for sale on this list, for instance, range from about 16,000 square feet to more than 30,000.
Even if we use 10,000 square feet as the average, that means America’s gas stations take up at least 1.5 billion square feet. That’s 34,435 acres—about the size of Bryce Canyon National Park, or more than two Manhattans. Either way: a lot.
But wait, won’t we still need filling stations to charge up our EVs? Sure, but not nearly as many. Unlike gas-powered cars, which require purpose-built stations equipped with elaborate underground storage tanks, you can refuel an EV anywhere you can find electricity—which includes most of the places your car already spends most of its time. 80 percent of EV charging happens at home. And a growing number of parking lots, including those of corporate giants from Walmart to Starbucks, provide chargers. That means driveways and parking lots become much more efficient uses of land, serving as places to both store and simultaneously refuel your car.
We’ll still need dedicated refueling stations on the highways and in remote locations, but the total number will be much lower. Even if we keep half the gas stations we currently have (converting many of them into charging stations) that still frees up 75,000 sizable and conveniently located lots.
There won’t be much to mourn in the passing of gas stations. They are, by and large, unattractive, germ-ridden, pollution spewing crime magnets. Gas pump handles are about the filthiest things you’re likely to touch on any given day. Researchers in 2011 found that 71 percent of gas pump handles were “‘highly contaminated’ with the kinds of germs most associated with a high risk of illness.”
Of course, if you’re a gas station owner, none of this is good news. Despite their corporate branding, most American stations are owned not by oil companies but by small-time, independent operators. The thousands of jobs that will disappear along with gas stations are another unfortunate cost of the transition to renewable energy. (Along, of course, with the damage done by the hunt for critical metals.) But hopefully those workers will find new jobs in the new Electro-Digital economy, just as thousands of stablehands, farriers and grooms did when we switched from horses to cars.
This new switch is already underway. Electric vehicles sales topped 20 million* last year, a new record. And gas stations are starting to disappear. Shell recently announced plans to close down 1,000 American stations. Almost all of the once-plentiful stations in Manhattan are now gone, bought up by developers who replaced them with condos and commercial spaces. Similar story in Vancouver, San Francisco and other places. Meanwhile, nearly a dozen towns in California have banned the construction of new gas stations, and many others are considering doing the same, from Los Angeles to Providence, Rhode Island.
The possibilities for those liberated lots are endless. Micro solar farms? Community gardens? Dog parks? If you’re motivated and creative enough, you can even convert an old gas station into a stylish house! As the pumps dry up, let a thousand flowers bloom.