SkodaMart’s ‘green air’ solution.

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SkodaMart

SkodaMart

I am an electrician and trained charge point installer.
(Rolec and Pod Point).
I am also a vehicle enthusiast and general petrol head, I have owned 39 vehicles in my lifetime and I’m not 50 yet!
I do my own repairs and servicing wherever I can.
I am also an ex cyclist (change of jobs and ill health forced me to stop).
I am a non smoker, I have never smoked and despite this I have been diagnosed with emphysema.
I can only attribute this to years of cycling in heavy rush hour traffic.
I’m still reasonably fit however with a good lung capacity from cycling so it doesn’t really affect me (not looking for sympathy here.)

I really do think that air pollution has gone too far mainly because too many people are driving too many miles.
We are being told that the answer to this is electric vehicles, with which I massively disagree.
It’s as big a lie as the diesel scam / scandal was.
I often thought to myself if VW where cheating who else was too? It turned out Mercedes was, but I’m pretty sure all Diesel engines from that time of similar power and capacity produce similar pollutants.
So the answer is electric? Well no I don’t think it is at all.
All electric vehicles do is move the pollution elsewhere, what’s the point of having ‘green’ city centres when the Scottish coast has been turned to power stations (only and small percentage of U.K. electricity is from genuinely renewable sources, but even then what are the environmental costs of making and installing wind farms?)

So let’s improve things now, with the technology we already have.
Not 2030 or 2050 or whatever date some politician chooses at random.
 
(I’m typing this from my iPhone in a hotel whilst working away in Glasgow)

So firstly let’s stop using motor vehicles so much.
Encourage cycle to work schemes including local working.
Employers should be encouraged to employ people from the local area wherever possible.
Also let’s make city centres no go zones for most vehicles with a few exceptions such as taxis, buses, emergency vehicles and tradesmen contracted to do work.
Let’s create park and ride zones with large secure car parks.
Vehicles that do enter the city centres should be as green as possible, petrol hybrids and electric buses where possible.
I accept that some larger delivery vehicles will be diesel powered, but let’s make these hybrid also and use particulate filters and ad blue etc to reduce pollution as much as possible.
Next let’s get HGVs off the roads as much as we can, let’s move goods back onto rail, using electrified lines wherever possible.
Then use green delivery vehicles to deliver locally as required.

One of the biggest causes of pollution is speeding, you can basically double your fuel consumption by driving quickly, this is part of the reason HGVs are limited to 56mph.
Cars and other modes of personal transport should have limited top speeds.
Let’s say 80mph however 70 isn’t unreasonable.
Next let’s remove the need for stupid journeys such as me driving from a Manchester to Glasgow each week to work as an electrician.
I’m pretty sure there will be Scottish electricians driving to Manchester somewhere doing the opposite.
Let’s encourage working from home, 2 wheel commuting on economical bikes (not sports bikes that are less economical than cars)
 
You do raise an interesting point regarding pollution. I do wonder if fewer people will use public transport due to Covid? I don’t really have a desire to sit on a train currently. The train is also pretty damn expensive unless you book way in advance.

Agreed about cycling, I’d cycle more if we had more cycle lanes and cycle storage facilities.
 
So if the top speed is restricted to 80mph there is no need at all for large powerful engines.
My 1.0 petrol civic will do over 120mph
It’s totally excessive.
Manufacturers should be encouraged to produce economical vehicles, I’m very sure than 100mpg would be easily achieve able within a very short space of time.
Hyundai in particular seem to have a very modern approach to green vehicles.
I should imagine that 150 to 200mpg be possible infact I think VW made a car around 2014 that would do just that as a technical showcase.

So all my points above would take the fun out of driving? Well no that needn’t be the case either, I had great fun in my mini 1.0 and my Mk1 XR2 (which has a top speed of 105 mph) ish.
The mini would be lucky to see 90.
Also 80 mph is plenty fast enough on 2 wheels.
 
SkodaMart said:
So if the top speed is restricted to 80mph there is no need at all for large powerful engines.
My 1.0 petrol civic will do over 120mph
It’s totally excessive.
Manufacturers should be encouraged to produce economical vehicles, I’m very sure than 100mpg would be easily achieve able within a very short space of time.
Hyundai in particular seem to have a very modern approach to green vehicles.
I should imagine that 150 to 200mpg be possible infact I think VW made a car around 2014 that would do just that as a technical showcase.

So all my points above would take the fun out of driving? Well no that needn’t be the case either, I had great fun in my mini 1.0 and my Mk1 XR2 (which has a top speed of 105 mph) ish.
The mini would be lucky to see 90.
Also 80 mph is plenty fast enough on 2 wheels.
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The wider issue is surely the manufacturing processes and the fact that cars are seen as fashion accessories/status symbols. Perhaps it’ll change in 100 years time. We might just be at the start of that change. The issue is that we need better investment in public transport.
 
sigma said:
The wider issue is surely the manufacturing processes and the fact that cars are seen as fashion accessories/status symbols. Perhaps it’ll change in 100 years time. We might just be at the start of that change. The issue is that we need better investment in public transport.
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As a lover of personal transport that will be a sad day for me.
I would sooner cycle or walk than take a bus.
I’m all for making the vehicles we use greener, I think electric powered motorcycles make far more sense than trying to propel a 1500kg car along the road.
 
Do I swipe right or left to show I disagree - I’m new to this WhingR dating app. Bit hypocritical going on a rant like that and fitting EV chargers.

I think a lot of Scotland is power generation, isn’t that those wind turbines though?..
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Do I swipe right or left to show I disagree - I’m new to this WhingR dating app. Bit hypocritical going on a rant like that and fitting EV chargers.

I think a lot of Scotland is power generation, isn’t that those wind turbines though?..
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Strangely enough my family has to eat food, they also need shelter etc.
I’m happy to be paid to work as an electrician, on occasion I have worked in flea ridden social housing properties.
What I am suggesting is there are better solutions to clean air than electric vehicles.

My Scotland quote was hypothetical
We ‘could’ make city centres green if we turned Scotland into a power station.

My point being you are just relocating the problem.
 
Bit The Sun / Clarkson to see it like that - it’s a vastly more efficient use of the fuel we have and will only get cleaner.
Bit like our rubbish problem i guess when we ship that abroad... out of sight out of mind.

Imagine those who can charge EVs with solar panels.
Risk this thread will turn into usual discussion though so not sure how much entertainment it will provide.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Bit The Sun / Clarkson to see it like that - it’s a vastly more efficient use of the fuel we have and will only get cleaner.
Bit like our rubbish problem i guess when we ship that abroad... out of sight out of mind.
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What? Every time energy changes form efficiency is lost.
There’s nothing to be gained by generating electricity and storing it in batteries to be used later on.
It’s a lie
Ok it ‘works’ while only a minority of people drive electric vehicles but wait until many of us have them.
The infrastructure isn’t in place for a start.
It will cripple the national grid, just trying to supply EV charge points.

And exactly, let’s make the fuel we have last longer and aim for more economical vehicles.
I mean massively so
 
IIRC braking and tyres also produce a lot of small particles which are damaging to health as well not just the exhaust.

One of the solutions is to remove as many unnecessary vehicles from the road as possible i.e. people absolutely should be working from home when possible - a change that needs to come from society and employers.
 
As long as there are people who attach social value to their rented vehicles, the legacy of the illusion of the relationship between engine displacement and financial fluidity will perpetuate. There are people out there who really try hard to show others they have the latest vehicle with all mod cons, you know. They'll even go so far as to highlight their registration year (cough cough @Jonnycoupe cough cough....please excuse me).

Regarding the issue of moving the problem, I was under the impression that switching the energy source for vehicles to generated electricity was much more efficient than ICE, especially when considered in the context of the logistics of fuel sourcing and distribution. So much so that it was a vital stepping stone towards a much more efficient solution. I was never under the impression that it was the 'final solution'.
 
Rroff said:
IIRC braking and tyres also produce a lot of small particles which are damaging to health as well not just the exhaust.

One of the solutions is to remove as many unnecessary vehicles from the road as possible i.e. people absolutely should be working from home when possible - a change that needs to come from society and employers.
Click to expand...

I agree we use vehicles unnecessarily.
There was a noticeable improvement in air quality during lockdown.
We could use regenerative braking to reduce brake lining pollution, moving HGVs onto rail would reduce tyre pollution.
But a general over all reduction would be beneficial.
I am not anti motor vehicle.
I love personal transport, however I do feel we could take a more responsible attitude towards it.

I think in a nutshell it’s like most things in our capitalist lives, all about money.
The true environmental impact is secondary to making money (fuel sales and new vehicles).
 
I agree we are judged by the car we drive in the U.K. (to some degree and by some people at least)
Holland less so. You don’t see as many sports models, they are happy to just have transport.
This was part of the reason for my user name SkodaMart
I really don’t care what people think about the vehicle I choose.
(Not as relevant these days as Skoda are no longer really a budget brand)
 
SkodaMart said:
There was a noticeable improvement in air quality during lockdown.
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Was noticeable where I live - I was still commuting as a key worker and at the peak of it the environment was hugely different - foliage alongside my normal route was thicker and greener (and not due to lack of maintenance as it rarely gets that anyway) loads of animals were present playing on the verges, etc. (I could go ~6 miles between seeing another vehicle along the A30 even) and the air quality was definitely much improved.
 
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