20 mph speed limit

Yea...

Speed limits in built-up areas will be reduced from 30mph to 20mph in Wales from next year - a UK first that is controversial among some drivers.

The Welsh Parliament passed the law in a vote on Tuesday afternoon.

 

You think 20 mph is bad - look at this:

There are proposals to introduce road tolls and congestion charges in Wales as part of the Welsh Government's National Transport Delivery Plan 2022 - 2027.

 

Another money making scam.
They are doing their best to make life not worth living.

 

I understand they also want power points all over the place, along roads and in front of houses, for charging up electric cars. The electricity board have told them it is not possible because the grid will not be able to cope with it and it will cost millions of pounds, but the government don't care, they have told the electricity board to get it done.
This is what I've heard.
But the way electricity is going up nobody will be able to afford to charge their cars anyway ... and when petrol cars will be discontinued we'll all be stuck.
I believe it's a way of controlling us so they can't say anything about Putin etc, they're just as bad.

 

I find the way that they are controlling us in everything we do quite worrying.
When I think back how free and easy things used to be.
Mostly its being done in a way that they are making life better for us or safer, but controlling it is.

 

So what happens when you put your car on to charge in the street and the local youth decide to have some fun and disconnect everyone.
Are these things lockable so nobody can tamper with them.

 

And it's going to cost I don't know how much to change all the signs and paint '20' on the roads, when there are not enough ambulance drivers and the NHS is in a mess, but they don't care about that.
And we didn't vote them in for them to take control, they are there to serve us, but I think they're too greedy for power to care.

 

Yet you posted your criticism of them without fear of having to flee the country for your own safety. Our government has many faults, but I don't think we can say they're just as bad as Putin when we're allowed to have an opinion that differs from the state sanctioned one.

 

I'm sure the same as Putin remark shouldn't have been taken literally.

But who sectioned them to bring in this kind of stuff, you vote for a representative and before you know it they are coming up with all kinds of stupid ideas that were never even suggested at the voting stage.

You can have an opinion, but it doesn't matter.

 

I'm pretty sure there isn't some grand master plan to enslave us all. Lowering a default speed limit from 30 to 20, pushing infrastructure for electric vehicles, and introducing congestion charging and tolls on the most congested roads just sound like environmental initiatives to me. Nobody will ban driving any time soon. Private car ownership generates far too much revenue for that, and the supply chain involved is a significant chunk of our economy.

I agree it's ridiculous to insist on charging points all over the place without considering all the factors. I actually think it's proof that politicians in general are idiots. They've taken a headline and built a plan around it without looking at the detail. I think the grid not coping is the least of our worries. Right now, we can't extract enough lithium to make the batteries for all the electric cars they want, and if demand outstrips supply, which it will at some point, then prices will go so high that nobody will buy them anyway, so the demand on the grid is kind of naturally self regulating in this respect. I think electric cars are still at proof of concept stage. They seem great, except they take too long to charge, and they can't be produced in great numbers, both points due to the characteristics and availability of lithium ion batteries.

While on the subject of environmental initiatives gone seriously wrong. A few months ago the government mandated that 'standard' petrol has to be 10% bio ethanol, in order to cut carbon emissions because crops are carbon neutral. Another stupid idea based on a headline without considering the detail. The actual crop itself might be carbon neutral, but the heavy machinery farmers use to produce the crop is not, and then there's the fertiliser they have to use, then all that seed has to be crushed and the ethanol extracted, and it all has to be shipped, all while taking land away from food production, all to get a fuel with a lower energy density that petrol so you have to use more of it for the same power output. But that's another topic.

 

Everything I have seen and read from the National Grid say there is no issue with supplying power for charging electric cars. And if a car is locked so too are both ends of the charging cable.

 

Well there is probably no problem at the moment but when we all get EVs and everyone plugs in when they get home from work there is bound to be a surge.

They cant even cope with everyone plugging their kettle in during a commercial break in an important TV programme.

 

That might be true now. But it won't be if every car is electric. Or they might be able to supply power for all electric cars, by restarting every coal fired power station.

I should make it clear I'm not against electric cars. I look forward to the tech being ready for widespread adoption, but it isn't yet. Lithium mining is already an environmental nightmare, and that's before they ramp it up many times over. There are other battery technologies still in the research and development phase that will probably solve these issues, but they're not ready. Plus I'm still not convinced that the hydrogen fuel cell is dead, or even running an internal combustion engine off hydrogen.

If I was to bet on the future, it would look like this:

Hydrogen fueled vehicles, either electric via a fuel cell, or internal combustion.

Hydrogen produced cleanly by electrolysis, from wind turbines and solar at times when energy production exceeds demand.

Graphene 'super capacitors' allowing near instantaneous charging. These don't hold the charge that a battery can, but it facilitates true regenerative braking, to truly iron out the wastage of acceleration and braking.

More sustainable battery tech for the higher energy density requirements.

Most of the above is nearly there, but not quite yet.

 

Isn't it funny that there's never a 'cobblers' smiley when you need one....