Hard News: Policy, finally
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If we are to meet the 80% reduction in carbon emissions needed to hopefully stall catastrophic climate change, we're going to need to get serious about better solutions than the Prius. Has anyone calculated its cradle-to-grave carbon footprint? Or any of the other electic hotrods that are missing the point so spectacularly?
They may be rubbished by Jeremy Clarkson, but the G-Whiz <http://www.goingreen.co.uk/> has more chance of keeping us mobile without taking out the biosphere. Personally I suspect we'll have to think in terms of the Aerorider <http://www.aerorider.com/> if we really want to keep emissions down.
Actually, we're going to have think a lot harder about the whole deal with transport, to reduce all unnecessary trips, even if it means radically rebuilt cities.... which are likely if the sea-level rises envisaged prove correct.
Note: it's BY 80% not to 80%!!
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On the subject of forestry, I think I heard the word 'voluntary' connected to that. Doesn't that mean the people cutting trees down will just opt out?
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Meh, get a scooter.
My 50cc Hyosung Fast SF50 (seriously) costs me $4.55 a week in petrol AND you get the thrill of surviving the ride to work each day! My god, the adrenalin! All that for $1000 up front.
I did get to drive a Lexus hybrid and I'm glad to see a serious car company going down the hybrid route... each model will have a hybrid version and the only major difference (aside from the engine of course) is the additional "h" on the badge. No boxy boringness for Lexus. Not sure it helped with the environment though - I drove it with a heavy foot and used the V6 petrol engine like a kind of turbo (creep along silently then ... WAMMO! MORE POWER!!) but I did like having a car that was almost silent on the motorway. Very nice.
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Me? Well, I drove a Prius around for a week last week...The car was a loaner
OMG, you're like the new Bic Runga!
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I drove a Prius for a week a couple of months back. With a combination of open road and city driving, our estimated fuel economy for the week was ~ 5 liters per 100km. My Toyota Corolla gets about 7 litres per 100km and about a third the price.
I've been watching the G-Whiz (or Reva, as the Indian's call it - http://www.revaindia.com/) with interest for a couple of years now. The Australians have been refusing to give it a safety pass, and having seen Top Gear's video of the Reva in a 40mph crash I can't say that it thrills me either.
Reva are apparently building a new version that should pass the Australian safety requirements, and will cost "less than AUD20,000". If it passes in Australia, it will probably be accepted here.
I'm tempted, since most days I'm driving less than 30km, and mostly in city speed zones. (At the moment, my pet peeve is that it's cheaper to drive to town _and_ pay parking than it is to catch the bus - sigh.)
My efficient vehicle of interest at the moment is the Loremo, which according to the press can get 1.3 litres of diesel per 100km of travel. I'm not sure NZ diesel would be good for it though. The Loremo is due on the European market in 2009...
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To be fair to Espiner, I don't think are are many (if any) independent voices with the detailed grasp of the issue that I/S has.
Journalists must by their nature be generalists, and rely primarily on picking other people's brains. But still, this stuff is FAQ, so I'd expect them to get it basically right.
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OMG, you're like the new Bic Runga!
If only. Oliver Driver's tooling around town in a Lexus hybrid ...
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of course, the true environmentalist would only drive the Tesla...
I'd include a photo but frankly it's beyond me.
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I wish WOFs tested emissions the amount of crap spewing on NZ streets is really sad
I live on Mt Eden Road - a major Auckland non-motorway arterial road - and my flat is pretty close to the road itself.
As a result, all the dust in my flat is black. I've had grey dust in other flats, but never this dirty black dust.
And when I'm down at the Mt Eden Village shops, I've noticed that their shop interiors and stock have the same fine smattering of black dust.
Now I'm just waiting for some scientist to tell me I'd be better off living in coal mine.
Lower emissions are OK by me!
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Now I'm just waiting for some scientist to tell me I'd be better off living in coal mine.
Lower emissions are OK by me!
I must say, that's something you really feel the benefit of in Los Angeles. They might be damn near living in their cars, but at least when you're stuck in a freeeway jam you can open your windows and breathe.
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At the moment, my pet peeve is that it's cheaper to drive to town and pay parking than it is to catch the bus - sigh.
Which is why the greenies want changes. It's cheaper to go by car because you are not really paying for the true cost of running your car. Hence the carbon tax. Once that is factored in you may well find it cheaper to catch a bus to work. They might be belching diesel dinosaurs but their carbon tax while be met by ratepayers to ensure tickets remain cheaper.
If we really want to get serious about getting people to use buses we should introduce Random Slapping at traffic lights. On designated mornings Police should force drivers stuck in rush hour traffic to wind down their windows and receive an open handed slap to the face (delivered with reasonable force only, and without malice). Drivers wouldn't know where or when they might be randomly selected to receive this negative reinforcement and it may work well to force even the most intransient onto public transport.
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Yeah, because nothing as awful as a slap in the face could happen on public transport.
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Will they have white gloves? I sincerely hope so because that would be awesome.
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well I walk down the hill to the uni - that's free, catch the bus back up $1.20 despite having the Prius I think that's still a good deal - at those sorts of prices I don't think it's a bad deal and I try and do it 2-3 times a week - I just wish they wouldn't use those ancient diesel buses that blow the black smoke out the back (remember when we had clean green trolley buses ....) - I still take them because I know they'll be driving around blowing the smoke whether I take them or not
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Ick!
the G-Wiz and the Aerorider are ugly!
Whereas the Tesla is so pretty. Zap cars are somewhere in the middle.And I agree, the rearview in the Prius is bad enough for me to call it a hazard, especially when I was pulling out into traffic.
With regard to fuel efficiency, how is it calculated? Is it based on a "real driving simulation"?
For example in town your car sits stopped for long periods (If I drove a Prius up to the lights and sat there for 5 hours wouldn't it have better efficiency than any kind of diesel?)
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Which is why the greenies want changes. It's cheaper to go by car because you are not really paying for the true cost of running your car. Hence the carbon tax. Once that is factored in you may well find it cheaper to catch a bus to work.
I'm cheating a bit, since really we're car-pooling, but given that it costs me about $3 in gas to go to town, and $6 to park for the day (way down by westpac stadium) and it costs me and the SO $11.20 per day to catch the bus if we use multi-trip tickets ($14 if we pay cash), they could double the price of gas and it would still be tempting to take the car.
Using the car can also give me up to an extra hour of time at the end of the day compared with the bus (which can take more than an hour to get me home on occasion, plus the half hour or more of waiting for a bus that was due at 5:15pm but actually went past at 5:10, and the following one due at 5:45 will be late...) which is very attractive on days like today.
I llike the idea of public transport, and used to use it a lot more when I lived closer to town, but the reality for me has degraded in recent years.
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For example in town your car sits stopped for long periods (If I drove a Prius up to the lights and sat there for 5 hours wouldn't it have better efficiency than any kind of diesel?)
Diesels are getting much better at stuff like that too with the use of Mild hybrid (or bigar$e starter motors)
From Wiki's mini page
From 2008, all MINI models will be equipped with BMW Efficient Dynamics technology. This includes a start-stop feature shutting off the engine when the car is stationary. When the gas pedal is depressed the engine is restarted with electricity generated from Brake Energy Regeneration.
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I llike the idea of public transport, and used to use it a lot more when I lived closer to town, but the reality for me has degraded in recent years.
My SO drives the older boy a km or two to school in the morning, parks up and buses to and from work. I work from home and on a good day drive Car A a km or not at all.
But Auckland public transport just doesn't work for me in the middle of the day. I've got a kid at home and just don't have the time for the bus journeys to and from the likes of Newmarket, where we make the radio show. If only Mayor Robbie had won his argument for a pervasive rapid transit system ...
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the ability to drag off hoons, sneaking up on little old ladies in parking lots on the electric motor ...
It's a big Friday night here in Dunedin...
I must say, that's something you really feel the benefit of in Los Angeles. They might be damn near living in their cars, but at least when you're stuck in a freeeway jam you can open your windows and breathe.
You must be talking about Los Angeles. Texas. Los Angeles, California, you can feel the smog around you. My ex doesn't hang her clothes on the washing line anymore, because they go out clean, and come in slightly brown. And that's in her back yard.
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Has anyone else watched the latest, in America, episode of Weeds? That's the ultimate use of a prius in pop culture at the moment.
U-Turn equips his whole crew with them for a gang war "they're really quiet. Good for sneaking up on mother fuckers."
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sneaking up on little old ladies in parking lots on the electric motor ...
Actually, I'm reliably told that the Foundation for the Blind is really quite anti them for this reason. (cue image of blind person stepping out on a quiet street and taking a Prius in the side at 40kmh)
I've suggested that they should have someone walking in front of them with a bell, or more realistically perhaps, some sort of artificial noisemaker.
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Yeah I heard something similar a couple of years ago about pedestrians getting run over by electric cars in Paris. Didn't hear them coming.
I've suggested that they should have someone walking in front of them with a bell, or more realistically perhaps, some sort of artificial noisemaker.
You could have speaks on them so the little boy racers go have the big exhaust or the little bridge port whoosh sound. lol
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Waaaaaaay aaaaaaaages ago on Beyond 2000 (yep that long ago), they showed a device that ran through your car's speakers via the rev counter. You make your car sound like a Porsche or a truck or a jet and it would accurately match your actual speed and revs.
So you could have your Prius sitting at the lights thudding like it was a suped up Skyline.
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I/S - just wanted to say thanks - you make it comprehensible, and I'm sure it takes you a fair bit of work to master all the setail and the digest out for lazy ones like me ;-)
Much appreciated.
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