[LINK] 'Smart' cars as fuel-efficient as hybrids

[Eleanor Lister]

Antony Barry wrote:
>
> On 13/05/2007, at 4:31 PM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>
>> And therefore, I suppose, since a hybrid uses petrol as well, it
>> could be made more efficient by the same techniques...
>
> And if we also cut the speed limit and banned SUVs for city driving....
>
> Tony

why not go the whole hog and ban all cars from cities?  public transport
can be effective, safe and cheap.

i know this is heresy, but in a world of Peak Oil, it's just too damn
useful to burn, it should be reserved for chemical feedstock.

yes, you probably want to have some delivery vehicles running about, and
some taxis; but these could all be electric.

the big advantage of electricity is that it comes from a handful of
power stations, thus isolating the fuel/waste/pollution problem to a
handful of places that can have money thrown at them to solve these
problems, instead of cleaning up millions of cars including dodgy old
rustbuckets.

i know some folk will say that they live in places that never will have
much public transport, or they need to be able to go to various places
by some whimsical route, so clean up their cars, let them drive .... but
keep them out of cities, have carparks at the transport nexii around the
edges of the cities.

all these sorts of problems can be solved with a little careful
planning, but we absolutely must stop pumping pollution into our air ...
and imagine the improvement in public health (and hence the associated
costs) without the smog.

regards,
    EL 
------------
Eleanor Ashley Lister
South Sydney Greens
http://ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
webmistress at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au