This kind of all-embracing enviro-crap is dangerous

[craig-pd130]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6990446.stm

The upshot of the piece is that the car tested produced 30% more CO2 cruising at 80mph instead of 70mph.

That's fine for that specific car, under those specific conditions ... but not for all cars.

E.g. my PD with 6-speed box is more economical cruising at 85 than at 70 ... I've proved it many, many times on long m-way journeys.

This is a combination of aerodynamics, gearing, and the higher cruising speed means less time spent being baulked by lorries etc in lanes 1 and 2.

Next thing will be a blanket 55mph speed limit for "environmental" reasons.

 

[jonjay]

I do think its time for cars to be more economical and cleaner. Lets face it the enviroment is changing and we have to change with it. HOWEVER you can still have fast cars and be clean...

 

[si-mate]

Oh how I enjoyed listening to that on the radio on my way in this morning doing 29mpg and emitting 280g C02 / km.

And I had the air conditioning on

 

[ChrisUK]

Just get the fat americans to stop buying 8 litre run arounds !!

I read somewhere once that if we all bought a 4x4 (as in every car driver in the UK) - the world CO2 emissions would only rise 1%.

America is over half......

 

[UncleFester]

Hahahahahaha and i quote;

"Ford's director of sustainability Andy Taylor says: "Our own analysis indicates that a driver can save around 25% of fuel consumption in a year.

"That will save around up to £200 a year, helping your wallet, but also making a material difference to the planet. At the end of the day for the vast majority of people, it's about the money."

That's hilarious ... i was sticking nearly £400 a month in the previous Honda! So the average driver only uses £800 worth of fuel in a year?

Average mileage 10,000 a year, 10,000 miles at say 30mpg and about £4.00 a gallon?

Odd ... i work that out at £1333 on fuel, 25% of that is more like £333.

So according to Fords 'experts' the average driver in this country is only doing 6,000 miles a year???

Bah flustering humbug - i'd like to see how much worse the figures are at 'town' speeds or in the Luton M1 roadworks for example!

If they want us out of cars, start providing suitable alternatives BEFORE taxing us to death to get us out of the car. Start building cheaper affordable pleasant city homes so that people don't need to commute 2 hours + to get to work.

It's all wrong if you ask me, you have to work to pay for your house, houses near to where you work will often be 3 times the price of one further out or in such a crap area you'd not want to live there. If you live f urther out you have poor or no transport apart from a car / bike because Deregulation killed off all the loss making transport links - if you have to use a car or bike then you get shafted for not being green.

Anyone who has sat behind ANY bus in traffic will tell you just how green that exhaust is - if my car smoked that bad i'd take it off the road voluntarily.

They're all quite quite mad!

 

[oldman]

i thought i'd woken up on April 1st when i heard this on radio on way in to work. bloody madness.
i tried the bus to work thing for a while, 25miles on two buses at £11 a week. took 90mins each way and upshot, late for work, pi$$ed off when home. went back to the car; more time in bed and i'm not late anymore.

 

[jtmac]

I do an average of 500 miles a week I've tried driving at 65 max all week to see how much more MPG I could get. I got about 3mpg more. That would cut my anual fuel bill from about £2600 to £2400 which is nearly 10% ish I suppose, but it's not the 25% in the article. Maybe there is less to gain in a diesel. Then of course there is all the time that you creep along or sit still with the engine running. They forgot about that part of nearly everyone's commute.

What surprised me is how little difference it made to when I got where i'm going. Don't get me wrong I still try and beat the ETA on the sat-nav if it's vital that I'm not late or somehow got held up at the begining of the journey. But, otherwise driving like a granddad doesn't hold me up as much as I thought it would.

Might start drivng like this more often but only for my own pocket, no guilt over the CO2.

 

[sssstew]

its just silly, the amount saved in the big scope is next to nothing. they need to look to the big CO2 producers not our cars.

 

[Trumpetman21]

Welcome to the future people - there are plenty who dislike ANY sort of personal private transport and lots of them are in positions of power & influence.

Lowering speed limits, road pricing, pay-as-you-drive insurance, long-term roadworks....all designed to make driving as unpleasant & unbearable as possible!

 

[UncleFester]

Welcome to the future people - there are plenty who dislike ANY sort of personal private transport and lots of them are in positions of power & influence.

Lowering speed limits, road pricing, pay-as-you-drive insurance, long-term roadworks....all designed to make driving as unpleasant & unbearable as possible!

They've still got some way to go before they make it less bearable than ANY of the affordable public transport options, that's before we get to the nitty gritty of whether or not it's viable .... then they've still got to persuade me that i like driving less than all of the above

 

[daveyonthemove]

Its all about getting more money from us.
I drive about 500 miles per week, without my weekend drives for shopping etc. It takes me exactly an hour to get to work if i stick religously to the speed limit, and i get an average of 52MPG on A/B roads, so i'm constantly up and down the gear box and stuck behind slow vehicles etc.
If i do that journey at the cars limit, not the speed limit i can get there in 45 mins and still acheive 46MPG. Not really a massive saving on fuel considering, and the aircon is ALWAYS on in my car, and when it's off i see no difference in MPG.
The Gov't forget that we drive cars with low CO2 figures, and fill up on fossil fuel half as much, yet we still pay a £10 surcharge on tax. (At least we get that back on the first tankfull though)

 

[glynnd]

Personally I will never got o work on public transport. If we all left our cars at home and didnt buy fuel where is the chancellor going to get the lost revenue on fuel tax from?
Ofcourse they dont want us to stop driving but to be fair I am sick of paying through the nose for nothing. Better stop before I get carried away
Glynn

 

[JonoUK]

Next thing will be a blanket 55mph speed limit for "environmental" reasons.

They already do that in parts of France, down near the alps anyway. I can kinda agree with that, since I don't want the alps to be ruined.
They should renovate the canal network and put more cargo on trains and boats. Get stupid lorries off the roads at peak times or at least ban them from overtaking on anything other than 3 lane motorways.

Either that or stop focusing on improving the rail network between London and Paris... yay for 20 mins saved for that journey but what if I don't want to go to france.

I love the way it costs about 3x the price of driving (including maintenance etc I reckon) to use public transport to work, takes at least 2x as long and I have to put up with smelly, unclean peasants (the public) and disrespectful children spitting all over the place. AND their "music".

No thank you, I'll drive in my nice air conditioned car, listening to whatever I like and take the scenic route if i want to.

Meh.

I get at least 44mpg (avg), sometimes up to 53 depending on how slow everyone else is making me drive

 

[Trumpetman21]

I know they would never be able to ban cars completely but headlines such as this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6991009.stm

Can all make me feel a bit apprehensive of what the future holds for road users. All this is at the same time a group of enviro-nutters is asking government to 'downsize' bikes:

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/N...107outrageoverbigbikesbanletter/?&R=EPI-94519

Seems to me that they are starting with the smallest (read easiest) target first and wil move onto another if they get their way....

 

[Phil_beeza]

whatever i do, air force 1 will still have it's air con on I'm sure.

I slow down at red lights gradually anyway, saves the discs and pads.

 

[Trumpetman21]

I know they would never be able to ban cars completely but headlines such as this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6991009.stm

Can all make me feel a bit apprehensive of what the future holds for road users. All this is at the same time a group of enviro-nutters is asking government to 'downsize' bikes:

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/N...107outrageoverbigbikesbanletter/?&R=EPI-94519

Seems to me that they are starting with the smallest (read easiest) target first and wil move onto another if they get their way....

More on this way of thinking - straight from Europe:

http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/severing-car-dependency-eu-cities-realistic/article-166731

This is our future UNLESS we get out of Europe - and there isn't much hope of that!

 

[Phil_beeza]

seriously strange article that.

the gov't don't know what will happen by 2010, let alone 2030.

maybe the polar ice caps will have dissappeared by 2009.

maybe our good friends the US of A will dissappear into the sea next year and we can all forget about global warming completely

 

[beefy]

my question is. if all car users left there car and took the bus to work.

how many more buses would be required to transport them.

putting all those buses on the road to transport everyone to their work would produce a lot of co2 emissions.

then when everyone is in work, do all those buses continue driving round in circles takin unemployed people to pound land until we all finish work and they can take us home again.

the polar ice caps would be gone by next week

the saying would change to, you wait 15 minutes oon a bus then all of a sudden 36 come at once

 

[TornadoRed]

Maybe it's all a conspiracy to get you out of your private automobile.

What am I thinking, of course it's a conspiracy!

Apparently some of you believe this global warming crap. Oh yeah, you heard it on the BBC.

The global climate is ALWAYS changing -- if it's not getting warmer, then it's getting colder. It is NEVER constant. Never has been, never will be.

Are the snows melting in the Alps? Yeah, and what is being revealed? Signs of human habitation covered up by ice and snow 500, 1000, 2000 years ago.

Has the sea level been higher or lower in the past? Yes. Is it rising now? The IBCC says it might rise 18-22 inches in the next century. Is that a reason to change our entire way of life?

 

[Phil_beeza]

the louder my sub goes, the more driving I'll do*.

i don't see any shortage in the number of loud subs availabe for sale.


*of course not in built up areas where it could be considered a disturbance
(usually...)