There is a god and I think he must be a petrol-head...

[Petrol Pete]

Thank god that she’s come up with this idea to replace that “transport is a two tonne box” thing.

From California to Calcutta kids are kicking out that old car thing.

If these, and WFH, can halve the number of cars on the road, we’ll be in a better place

View attachment 138800

Ban them today.

California might not be the best example to use when promoting electric scooters. I spent the whole of January in California and am here again for another 5 weeks , home till the end of April.

Where I am right now I have yet to see one single E-scooter and without a car you are screwed. The traffic is as bad as the roads and I don't know the answer , but it's not scooters, not yet.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Ban them today.

California might not be the best example to use when promoting electric scooters. I spent the whole of January in California and am here again for another 5 weeks , home till the end of April.

Where I am right now I have yet to see one single E-scooter and without a car you are screwed. The traffic is as bad as the roads and I don't know the answer , but it's not scooters, not yet.

My nephew loved to commute from his city centre apartment on his e-scooter in LA.
Folded easily and stored away under his desk.
Meant that he could cheerfully wave at the tramps, druggies and Vets as he rode by.
California's a great example of a state trying to reduct emissions and car dependency.

 

[190]

Will cities enter a slow decline due to the local authorities continual meddling that's making it harder to get into them and travel around them (Oxford) or more expensive to stay in them (Manchester's new hotel levy). Working from home must be doing considerable damage as it is without persuading more people to stay away.

US cities in particular sound grim.

The decline and fall of urban America

 

[markjay]

Will better public transport and more pedestrian zones help revive city centres?

 

[ALFAitalia]

No....

 

[davymead]

Ferrari resists pressure to phase out combustion engine

The boss of the supercar maker said it would be "arrogant" to dictate to customers what they can buy.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[190]

Great news and it seems, driven by the Germans: Net zero ban on petrol cars in chaos after Brussels climbdown.

Going back to the first post on this thread I think there is plenty more chaos to come and more political U turns. Many instinctively believe, me included, that outside of large cities, EV's are not going to be a universal solution any time soon, at least not unless they get substantially cheaper to buy and run. It seems the market thinks so too as EV's are not selling anywhere near fast enough for either manufacturers forecasts or political deadlines to be met. The latest media story is about VW having to cut EV production but there is a suggestion that the market reluctance is widespread across other makes. It was bound to stall at some point once the relatively well off early adopters had bought one

The pressure on personal finances won't be helping and neither will the auto industries concerted efforts to escalate the size and price of cars to the point that small cars will no longer exist. Fiesta production ends next week so that Ford can use the factory space to build very substantially larger EV's with correspondingly higher manufacturing emissions. I wonder what Ford will do if they don't sell.

It's a perverse and bizarre out come that the net zero policies are the driving force behind pushing short term emissions ever higher and I suppose the inevitable outcome of excessive political meddling.

‘Strong customer reluctance’ forces Volkswagen to slash electric vehicle production

 

[davymead]

Absolutely ^^^^^^
The general public’s ‘reluctance’ to buy an EV, be it new or used was always clearly evident to seemingly anyone other than those too blind to bother looking. How any vehicle manufacturing board of directors oversaw the restructuring of their companies toward full production of plug-in EV‘s is IMHO absolutely beyond belief.