OK we haven't made savings on actual journeys - we have just made savings on the number of 'taxis' and private cars needed to deliver those journeys.
The "death" of the car, (as we know it)
- Thread starter SHAN
- Start date
True, and there certainly are savings there. Not sure how the environmental impact of a parked car compares with that of a moving one. It's got to be a fair bit less, but still not negligible.
We can't apply the costs of construction and disposal though, since the taxis will be doing 12X the mileage (24X if they are 50% empty) and so will wear out 12X (or 24X) as quickly, so there are still the same number of vehicles to be constructed and disposed of. I know it's not as simple as that (what proportion of vehicles disposed of are actually worn beyond repair?), but that's the potential. Frequency of "Write-off" accidents should also be a factor of mileage. I'd like to think it would be lower for the Ubers, since they should be better drivers, but...
Things are heading that way, From TfL:
We will introduce new licensing requirements from 1 January 2018 to reduce emissions from the taxi fleet by phasing out diesel taxis and increasing the number of ZEC vehicles in London. The maximum 15 year age limit remains in place.
- From 1 January 2018, taxis presented for licensing for the first time will need to be ZEC. This means having CO2 emissions of no more than 50g/km and a minimum 30 mile zero emission range
- A first-time taxi vehicle licence will no longer be granted to a diesel taxi. ZEC taxis with petrol engines will need to meet the latest emissions standard (currently Euro 6)
From the makers of London Taxis:
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/new-coventry-made-electric-london-13424402
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Its about 50% of the impact, as it will probably last as just as long ,rust and paint wear , battery degradation, interior vinyl and rubber perishing, even in the tyres is not use dependent. Much better to have fewer cars running their socks off and getting replacement parts as needed.
None of the discussion has bothered to include the additional distances spent in actually getting a parking spot.
I am not advocating for Uber or any other brand, just for the general concept of more" shared " vehicles, whether this sharing is by taxis, by rental or by car clubs.
But probably not for taxi use, since EVs need (with current technology) to spend more time parked on charge than they do in motion.
Probably my view is coloured by not living in a city (I rarely have trouble parking, for example), but I tend to see the inefficiencies resulting from shared vehicles simply not being where they are needed (whatever system is used to control them) as greater than the inefficiencies of owned vehicles.
If we start to see these systems as only for urban short hops, then they compete directly with cycling, which is a better thing to encourage.
The same problem occurs with Boris bikes and similar, where they all end up a popular drop-off spots and have to be returned to popular start points in a van. That doesn't mean they are not useful, but if you use a bike every day it's likely more efficient to have your own.
Marine 12 volt turbine (about the size of a satellite dish), charging three banks of 2 volt lead acid cells, each connected in series to give 12 volt, charged via split charge relays, and backed up with solar. Generator runs on vegetable oil and drives two high output automotive alternators. Lighting etc is 12 volt, anything that requires 240 is run through a voltage invertor 12volt < 240 volt. Heating cooking etc by wood burner/multifuel, all low tech, low cost and low maintenance. Diesel engine is a 1960's Lister that originally operated a tile hoist. Fridge freezer runs off LPG.
For London the best solution is probably what I posted about on this link.
Using the new Coventry plug in hybrid London taxi there's a pure electric range well over 70 miles. Since much of London's taxi needs are concentrated there's much current taxi time spent on the ranks provided, which of course will be the ideal charge points for toppping up.
And there's enforcement. Since London has many major streets where pollution limits are being greatly exceeded, TfL are introducing regulations which will ban any non-electric taxi operation in those streets. Of course a big reason for them being so polluted is that since they are the most lucrative streets they're cruised by numerous taxis.
That means those without the new hybrid will suffer a very big drop in earnings, so will have every motivation to buy a new hybrid cab. That will be helped by the big purchase subsidy, and there's a new scrappage scheme for the oldest diesels too.
It's a clever package which I expect will see a rapid induction of the hybrids spending a very high proportion of their time running pure electric.
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Only disagree in the sense that charging times are reducing dramatically, as range increases.
Another popular misunderstanding regarding EV cars, ref the charging time.
My Nissan Leaf with a 24 kWh battery can charge from say 10% to 90%, in about 30 minutes on a rapid charger.
If this was being used for taxi services, it would only mean about 2 rapid charges each day.
A conventional ICE taxi does not have 100% driving time.
My Nissan Leaf with a 24 kWh battery can charge from say 10% to 90%, in about 30 minutes on a rapid charger.
If this was being used for taxi services, it would only mean about 2 rapid charges each day.
A conventional ICE taxi does not have 100% driving time.
So a network of rapid chargers every 150 km on major routes would solve a lot of problems. Funny thing, several car makers are grouping together to set up such a beast!
In the UK you have a UK problem: semidetached or terrassed housing with few to no attached garages. Here we have the lotissement where every house has a garage and that is usually where the electric meter is! Appartement buildings often have underground parking these days and it is common today that EV charging has been planned for. I can't see charging being a problem in France in the very near future. On the public parking charging stations here in town the electricity is free between 23:00 and 6:00 a.m., what is there not to like about that (other than not getting a full 7 hours of sleep if you want to scrooge it).
In the UK you have a UK problem: semidetached or terrassed housing with few to no attached garages. Here we have the lotissement where every house has a garage and that is usually where the electric meter is! Appartement buildings often have underground parking these days and it is common today that EV charging has been planned for. I can't see charging being a problem in France in the very near future. On the public parking charging stations here in town the electricity is free between 23:00 and 6:00 a.m., what is there not to like about that (other than not getting a full 7 hours of sleep if you want to scrooge it).
I worked for a company in the late 90's that introduced an incentive programme for car sharing, I teamed up with a fellow who lived in the same village as me around 20 miles away from work, another lady joined who lived about 5 miles further on down the same road. Initially she drove to our village then we alternated between the 3 cars as to who drove the rest of the way.I'm all for it, it's what other people should do.
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Inevitably one or other of them overslept/had a childcare issue/was ill etc. etc. meaning we were usually half an hour late into work. Then the other chaps wife got an evening job so he had to be back at a certain time to allow her to leave for work so we all agreed to work through our lunch hours and finish earlier.
My work mainly involved maintaining equipment that had to be in service the next day, prior to car sharing I could always stay late to finish, the need to be away on time to accommodate the other two meant that I often couldn't start jobs that came in less than an hour and a half before finishing time as I couldn't be sure of finishing them meaning often the last hour of the working day was wasted.
Add in the inevitable one person has to rush off early due to illness/childcare/whatever...
Very soon we gave up and all went back to independent travel, almost everyone else who tried it did too.
Indeed, I also had a long period when others were reliant on me giving them lifts, but they often didn't advise when they didn't need one, meaning me hanging around needlessly. I finally lost patience and said no more.
Car sharing is a theory that in practice is unlikely to ever become very widespread.
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Well it depends,
I did say from about 10% to 90%, a lot depends on how low the battery charge is on starting the charge.
It only slows down the rate of charge after reaching 80%.
Ecotricity Rapids now allow for anything up to 45 minutes, but it all depends on how much charge you need /want.
Uber Flying Taxi
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https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/8/16613228/uber-flying-car-la-nasa-space-act
https://digitaledition.telegraph.co.uk/editions/edition_dr7CK_2017-11-09/data/404456/index.html?share=1&WT.mc_id=tmgapp_inar_share&utm_source=tmgapp&utm_medium=inar&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=tmgapp_inar_share&Expires=1512604800&Signature=osmpCgJHIvI-8koxYv5MDU5Le6Ia83WyhjjOLTsTpwDnjg8qCtkReAUlicIJGpdl9ryVezFEweyatxbu6OJuc69n7kzqUZu~b5b0onZpxNm8ayCniWfCQPELA2p2zVnRr2CkBgp9REPs4Zqeujf~o0ufOL041e~QZX7PjWMIXyCGLFMtlqbw6Do4hciTNyyeqPvJ3W10Qyh-8mtfR0Uuo3xFLZ2kSy9YdEiFwBTfWPOTCkRKQzwDnpNvJDGTDYfzhzhb6Y8H2xxAQhVsqZgYx2pDGuGciWRQFMRY9O7E3pZANjC50T8tX041iXCZ-OT-DSbR-7cnyPjacnebhXX0VQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLCEPDGCTPVKXNOA
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/8/16613228/uber-flying-car-la-nasa-space-act
https://digitaledition.telegraph.co.uk/editions/edition_dr7CK_2017-11-09/data/404456/index.html?share=1&WT.mc_id=tmgapp_inar_share&utm_source=tmgapp&utm_medium=inar&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=tmgapp_inar_share&Expires=1512604800&Signature=osmpCgJHIvI-8koxYv5MDU5Le6Ia83WyhjjOLTsTpwDnjg8qCtkReAUlicIJGpdl9ryVezFEweyatxbu6OJuc69n7kzqUZu~b5b0onZpxNm8ayCniWfCQPELA2p2zVnRr2CkBgp9REPs4Zqeujf~o0ufOL041e~QZX7PjWMIXyCGLFMtlqbw6Do4hciTNyyeqPvJ3W10Qyh-8mtfR0Uuo3xFLZ2kSy9YdEiFwBTfWPOTCkRKQzwDnpNvJDGTDYfzhzhb6Y8H2xxAQhVsqZgYx2pDGuGciWRQFMRY9O7E3pZANjC50T8tX041iXCZ-OT-DSbR-7cnyPjacnebhXX0VQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLCEPDGCTPVKXNOA
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