Does the lady protest too much?

[Rolfe]

You eloquently expressed what I couldn't be bothered writing. But people believe the rubbish that paper publishes.

 

[Exdro]

Hmm. I bought a CO2 meter to monitor air quality as a covid avoidance measure (CO2 is a proxy measurement that can indicate whether or not you're breathing air that someone else has recently exhaled). I thought there was something wrong with it, because even taking it outside, it never goes below 400 ppm. I was taught that CO2 of fresh air was around 350 ppm.

Not any more it isn't. Not even here, in a very rural area up in the Scottish uplands. It's the whole atmosphere.

And talking of here, the average summer daytime high is 17 degrees. I'm sitting here in a sundress, uncomfortably hot, and this has been going on since May. Today isn't even sunny - it's overcast and there have been two quite heavy rain showers. But when I got up I wondered if I'd somehow, unaccountably, turned on the central heating. It's never this hot. Except it is now.

The world's need for Shell to diversify into clean energy and stop roasting the planet is what's "desperate".

Pardon my assumption but I had envisaged Rolfe as a male. The vision in a sundress as claimed is somewhat disconcerting but in this day and age, anything goes??

 

[Rolfe]

Sorry for the confusion!

 

[Amun]

The game is being upped. Pretty obvious thing to say though is that the 2030 target is for 2030 not 2023.

In 2022 More than 8,700 chargers were installed, bringing total to 37,000 in a 30% increase...
source ..https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/01/record-number-of-public-electric-vehicle-chargers-installed-in-uk-in-2022

So far this year as of end of June there are over 44,000 chargers in place....
source How many EV charging points are there in the UK - Zapmap

Osprey alone have more than doubled the number of their chargers in the last year and progress continues everywhere, but the 2030 target cannot and will not be met overnight. But it is ramping up at pace now.

It's not just about numbers, it's about providing safe, sheltered and convenient access, so that people on their own feel comfortable about charging.

 

[gus]

I wonder if a series of letters ok emails to various charging companies plus forecourt operators might be worth a go asking why they don’t install covers/good lighting, just thinking out loud.

 

[Rolfe]

It's not just about numbers, it's about providing safe, sheltered and convenient access, so that people on their own feel comfortable about charging.

This. It hit me when I stopped for my first away-from-home charge at Southwaite. I headed for the car park and found the chargers, on the opposite side of the car park from the filling station. Over there, drivers had a canopy and lights and a shop. Even though most probably just filled up quickly and either went on their way or moved to the car park to go to the food court. The chargers were deserted, backing on to a high laurel hedge. Open to the elements, and not a soul in sight.

It was fine at lunchtline on a warm dry spring day. I imagined it at night, in the pouring rain. Even leaving aside the safety aspect (which wasn't quite as bad as it looked, because the food court was close, just hidden by the hedge), the thought of getting out to get soaked and maybe wrestle with a recalcitrant charger in the dark was not appealling.

And they are still installing new chargers like that. No thought for the comfort of the EV driver, never mind the safety aspect for a driver on their own. Some woman is going to get attacked at a charger in a lonely place after dark, inevitably.

It seems to me it may even be necessary to drive in waterproof clothes and boots. If the rain is heavy, just carrying these in the car might not be enough - you'll be soaked before you can get them on.

 

[Rolfe]

I wonder if a series of letters ok emails to various charging companies plus forecourt operators might be worth a go asking why they don’t install covers/good lighting, just thinking out loud.

I'm just so surprised more isn't being said about this. Even in this forum people are posting delightedly about banks of new chargers being installed here there and everywhere, with photos that show no shelter and no amenities at all.

 

[Grriff]

While I totally agree with the need for improved EV facilities, I can't get worked up about the Daily Mail which has always been against any development taking place. It would rather Britain was back in the days of Empire.

 

[Rolfe]

I just wanted to have a rant about that stupid Dorries woman!

 

[Gomev]

Life's too short!



That is not what I'm talking about. While we occasionally see an article about an "electric forecourt", the vast majority of these new chargers are still being installed open to the elements, often some distance from any refreshments or waiting area. We need decent facilities to accompany these chargers. Shelter, light, somewhere to buy a coffee and drink it in reasonable comfort. A human presence to deter predators.

Nobody would install new card-only petrol pumps open to the elements in the corner of a wind-swept car park with no refreshments within reach. Why are they doing this with EV chargers?

I wasn't responding to or quoting you.

 

[Lguk]

I wonder if a series of letters ok emails to various charging companies plus forecourt operators might be worth a go asking why they don’t install covers/good lighting, just thinking out loud.

I think many would be happy if the first step was them ensuring the chargers are maintained and in working order.

 

[Rolfe]

I wasn't responding to or quoting you.

That sentence was actually in response to the post above it, in which you did respond to and quote me, sorry for not being clear.

 

[Rolfe]

I think many would be happy if the first step was them ensuring the chargers are maintained and in working order.

It would be an improvement, but that should really be the bare minimum. I don't think "working petrol pumps" would make people happy if they had to get out and fill their cars with no shelter in the pouring rain, and walk several minutes in that pouring rain if they wanted to buy a bar of chocolate or something.

 

[Harry 17]

Talking of newspaper articles, did anyone see that one by Rowan Atkinson? For an educated man with a degree to his name, he didn't use any up to date references or fact check anything he wrote. The Guardian had to do a couple of post publication edits it was that poor.

How embarrassing for him.

Used to like the bloke a lot…..that was until he moved to Uffington (since left) an utter berk of a man and was really high and mighty. I have also since learnt that he had the same delusions of grandeur with his fellow cast members of ‘Not the nine o’clock news’ as he did with his neighbours

 

[GaryMG4]

I sometimes wonder if we as EV drivers expect too much in wanting the same infrastructure as we were used to as Ice drivers? After all if our houses had been petrol fuelled and our cars had 20L tanks, how many petrol stations would be around if most of our petrol came from a tap at home?

 

[tsedge]

I sometimes wonder if we as EV drivers expect too much in wanting the same infrastructure as we were used to as Ice drivers? After all if our houses had been petrol fuelled and our cars had 20L tanks, how many petrol stations would be around if most of our petrol came from a tap at home?

I don't know but I do know that houses burning down would be an everyday occurrence. The thought of what people would do with petrol drums or petrol taps at home gives me the shivers.

 

[Harry 17]

I don't know but I do know that houses burning down would be an everyday occurrence. The thought of what people would do with petrol drums or petrol taps at home gives me the shivers.

Reminds me of an idiot (think it was somewhere in the MIdlands) who filled up his wheelie bin with petrol during the fuel strikes circa 2008

 

[5teep]

I sometimes wonder if we as EV drivers expect too much in wanting the same infrastructure as we were used to as Ice drivers? After all if our houses had been petrol fuelled and our cars had 20L tanks, how many petrol stations would be around if most of our petrol came from a tap at home?

Not forgetting that the petrol station infrastructure has had over 100 years to grow. I'm quite certain there were people 140 years ago saying "My horse is fine, I don't have to ride him to the chemist to fill him up every couple of days"

 

[Gadget Geek]

Hey, I found something the Daily Mail is really good at today!

I volunteer at a local hedgehog rescue centre (we've got 17 hoglets in at the moment), and the Daily Mail absorbs the wee and holds the poo really well.

 

[Rolfe]

I got into a conversation with a lady while we were drinking coffee outside the church after morning service. All the knocking points. The cars are horrendously environmentally unfriendly. The batteries explode. They're really bad for the roads. And the rest. I suggested she'd been reading too much Daily Mail. She said (and I believe her) that she never reads the Daily Mail.

Maybe some of it was that Rowan Atkinson article in the Guardian, I could believe she reads that, but I think what's going on is that the Mail puts these talking points out there and they become part of general discourse. It's depressing.