Automobiles Commuting Data visualizations Travel
by Patrick
Comments Off on Where to find alternative fuel stations in Texas
Where to find alternative fuel stations in Texas
If you’re going to invest in an alternative-fuel vehicle, you might want to check where you can fill up. The city you’re in makes a difference.
For those relying on biodiesel, you’re good to go in Austin and not so bad in San Antonio, recent data from DriveBiodiesel.net shows.
Dallas has a broad mix of E85 and natural gas pumps, according to E85Locator.net and CNGLocator.net. Houston has a decent spread of E85 stations.
West Texas? One station, in Midland. Natural gas.
One thing’s for sure, if you want to take a road trip in an alternative-fuel vehicle, plan well. Some places will leave you with fumes.
I put together an interactive Texas map so you can see what I mean. There’s likely more out there than what the sources listed – i.e., a few years ago Valero announced it would sell E85 in new stores, but E85Locator.net doesn’t show any.
I’ll add stations if you provide addresses with accurate latitude and longitude coordinates pulled from a map like Mapquest, Google or Bing. I’ll also fix any mistakes you find that I didn’t. It’s amazing how messy geocoding raw addresses can be and how imprecise geolocation often is.
But given the available data, stored as a CSV file, D3.js and the newest Google Maps API does a fine job visualizing the locations, including custom info windows with street views, zooms and driving directions. Hope it’s helpful.