EV owners to pay Tax.....

[pwa]

Yesterday morning I saw something I knew I would see one day, which is an EV charging lead draped across a footway to allow a car to be charged whilst parked on a road. So far I have only seen this once, but I expect it to become a common sight. For those of us who can see. My fear is that footways will become a no-go area for the blind and partially sighted, with trip lines a regular hazard. Footways can already be an obstacle course, with cars, motorcycles, bins and whatever, but a cable on the floor presents a less easily detected hazard. I think we have a budding problem with this and nobody seems to be talking about it.

[Cugel]

Yesterday morning I saw something I knew I would see one day, which is an EV charging lead draped across a footway to allow a car to be charged whilst parked on a road. So far I have only seen this once, but I expect it to become a common sight. For those of us who can see. My fear is that footways will become a no-go area for the blind and partially sighted, with trip lines a regular hazard. Footways can already be an obstacle course, with cars, motorcycles, bins and whatever, but a cable on the floor presents a less easily detected hazard. I think we have a budding problem with this and nobody seems to be talking about it.

You're correct to foresee a problem in this, I feel. I've lived in places that consist of dozens or perhaps hundreds of streets of terraced housing wherein the parking of cars is itself a problem (tin litter, pavement blocking and dangerous driving along the resultant narrow bit of road left uncluttered). It'll get worse for the pedestrian when the pavements are not only festooned with half-cars but also their feeder-wires.

At present, most terraced housing of the denser sort is inhabited by those lower in the economic hierarchy that's so evident in broken britain today. Not that many can afford the unsubsidised cost of a new electric car, But this will change as the second hand market blossoms and ICE cars disappear from the market. The pestilential mobile tinned humans will become an even greater blight about the place!

************
But our economic situation, as a whole, may get significantly worse yet. Even the middle classes might find they have to choose between a car or eating/heating. Only the rich will go about in their wheeled chrome bombs. They generally charge them in the quadruple garages they have, before they go out for a drive to hunt and run down cyclists in their way. Perhaps they'll have a greater number to murder in future times, as the hoi-polloi find it'll have to be the bike or a bus/train that rarely appears?

Cugel

[al_yrpal]

I have seen a photo of a groove across a pavement with two lengths of angle iron bordering a slot just wide enough for a wire. That seems like a good solution to me but how to get your wire in if there is a wall or step? And, how to get your EV into the right spot anyway? Terrace street wire wars?

For recent cost free entertainment we have been visiting local show homes of which there are legions. Only in one very expensive one was there an EV charging point! And...they all had nice gas boilers and tiny radiators which would need to be changed for larger ones should they install heat pumps. The tiny gardens, each with a whirring heat pump fan would be like living hell.
Towards the end of this decade there will doubtless be a mad rush to install your new gas boiler and purchase a nice new petrol or diesel car with spares of each ready in the garage.

Al

[gbnz]

Of course, one could always use a bicycle, or walk, or a bus, or a train, rather than a vehicle. Of course, I've only got a partial disability and a left leg snapped in three places, a broken hip, a broken pelvis and a few other broken bones from a few weeks back, so I must find it so easy to get to the supermarket compared with those living around me, who are forced to drive to buy their milk & bread.

It'll be so difficult soon, if they're forced to plug it in when they get back . I was speaking to one the other day, he lives about 200 metres from a bus route and didn't have access to a car for a week . How are they supposed to live

[Carlton green]

I have seen a photo of a groove across a pavement with two lengths of angle iron bordering a slot just wide enough for a wire. That seems like a good solution to me but how to get your wire in if there is a wall or step? And, how to get your EV into the right spot anyway? Wire wars?
For recent cost free entertainment we have been visiting local show homes of which there are legions. Only in one very expensive one was there an EV charging point!
Towards the end of this decade there will doubtless be a mad rush to install your new gas boiler and purchase a nice new petrol or diesel car with spares of each ready in the garage.

Al

Yes, when the Train hits the Buffers there’s going to be an awful mess. How will things will turn out in practice? Chaos I suspect; grand people have grand ideas and grand plans but few understand just how very complex situations are. Cut-off dates and hard targets are all very well in theory but in practice they’re much less so and sometimes just plain impractical.

[Psamathe]

Yesterday morning I saw something I knew I would see one day, which is an EV charging lead draped across a footway to allow a car to be charged whilst parked on a road. So far I have only seen this once, but I expect it to become a common sight. For those of us who can see. My fear is that footways will become a no-go area for the blind and partially sighted, with trip lines a regular hazard. Footways can already be an obstacle course, with cars, motorcycles, bins and whatever, but a cable on the floor presents a less easily detected hazard. I think we have a budding problem with this and nobody seems to be talking about it.

I have similar concerns. I have wondered about those cable things that used to be common in offices, strip of heavy rubber "rampy thing" within a cable channel running through middle and ribbed bottom to stop it sliding on carpets (all the Misco Catalogues sold them). Safety thing to allow cables to be run across gangways a bit safer than just cable alone. Wonder if an outdoor version with some lower anti-slip surface more effective of concrete.

Or people installing those water channel things across pavement (steel duct with a 1cm slot in the uppwer surface but use for a cable rather than a water channel.

Given it's going to become commonplace there must be a easy to install cheap channel that Council approved contractors could fit in minutes (arrive with angle grinder, cur channel, install duct with fast drying cement and done (using channel with slot in top so cable can be laid in when in use and removed when not in use so not a permanent installation).

Ian

[Jdsk]

Yesterday morning I saw something I knew I would see one day, which is an EV charging lead draped across a footway to allow a car to be charged whilst parked on a road. So far I have only seen this once, but I expect it to become a common sight. For those of us who can see. My fear is that footways will become a no-go area for the blind and partially sighted, with trip lines a regular hazard. Footways can already be an obstacle course, with cars, motorcycles, bins and whatever, but a cable on the floor presents a less easily detected hazard. I think we have a budding problem with this and nobody seems to be talking about it.

I have similar concerns. I have wondered about those cable things that used to be common in offices, strip of heavy rubber "rampy thing" within a cable channel running through middle and ribbed bottom to stop it sliding on carpets (all the Misco Catalogues sold them). Safety thing to allow cables to be run across gangways a bit safer than just cable alone. Wonder if an outdoor version with some lower anti-slip surface more effective of concrete.

Or people installing those water channel things across pavement (steel duct with a 1cm slot in the uppwer surface but use for a cable rather than a water channel.

Given it's going to become commonplace there must be a easy to install cheap channel that Council approved contractors could fit in minutes (arrive with angle grinder, cur channel, install duct with fast drying cement and done (using channel with slot in top so cable can be laid in when in use and removed when not in use so not a permanent installation).

Commercial products are available, eg Pavecross:
https://www.pavecross.com

But I haven't seen this advocated or supported by a council... anyone?

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

"Approved pavement crossings":
https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permis ... -crossings

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

Trial of Kerbo Charge in Milton Keynes:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... s-64887387
https://www.kerbocharge.com

Jonathan