[LINK] Standards, please! The third coming of electric vehicles

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2012-04-20 at 15:54 +1000, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> This is the point I was making, we need to move away from dependence
> on private vehicles (allocation of land for roads/parking etc).

Of copurse we do! But we can't do it all at once, and we can't wait for
another few decades while the perfect solution is developed. we need to
start doing useful things now. and electric cars *are* a useful way
forward.

> Is changing from petrol to electric powered vehicles (noting all the 
> infrastructure (from recharge points, new safety standards for car 
> accidents etc) really worth the effort, only to continue with a flawed
> urban design and poor transport planning?

Recharge points are a giant red herring. The idea that they are needed
springs from our desire to make EVs as much like FFVs as possible,
including having large ugly refuelling points everywhere. If you need to
refuel, the trip probably needs public transport or an FFV. In any case,
if charging points become necessary, rest assured the market will
provide them. There is definitely no need to wait for them.

What's a "safety standard for a car accident"?

We are stuck with the cities we have built. Barring an apocalypse, they
are NOT going to change physically in any significant way, or at least
not rapidly. Any solutions have to fit into the physical structures we
already have.

Within those constraints, though, we can do a LOT to lower emissions,
and one of those things is move to EVs for the HUGE number of short,
single-person, low-freight, low speed trips that city dwellers make.

> >     "The cost of running a car in Sydney is undoubtedly starting to
> stretch the budget and force people off the road."

The cost of running an EV is way lower than the cost of running an FFV.
Quite apart from the hugely lower fuel costs, the maintenance is
simpler, cheaper and required less often. EVs are generally smaller and
lighter, meaning less damaging to roads, less damaging when they hit
something, and easier to park. 

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer

GPG fingerprint: AE1D 4868 6420 AD9A A698 5251 1699 7B78 4EEE 6017
Old fingerprint: DA41 51B1 1481 16E1 F7E2 B2E9 3007 14ED 5736 F687
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 230 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <https://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/attachments/20120420/a6b43784/attachment.sig>