Petrol and Diesel as dear as safron

N9eav

I don't know if youe have noticed, but fuel is rising at a tremendous rate at the moment, Diesel is now 90p a litre at Tesco near me in Cornwall. No doubt heating oil will be going up the same.... The thing is there is'nt a darn thing we can do about it!

IvanOpinion

Blame the Americans for using more than their fair share and the Chinese for their dastardly acts towards world domination of starting to get close to their fair share. Given the worlds demands for oil the only way is up.... does anybody want to start a book as to when we will see £1 litre at the pumps?

Ivan

Austin_Allegro

Well, there are some things we can do about it - namely don't buy any fuel or use as little as possible.

Ride a bicycle or a moped, take the bus or the train, take taxis, walk, etc etc

I know it's not easy for everybody but most people in big towns don't need cars, I've lived in London most of my life and have never had a car. Much of society has become dependent on cars (out of town shopping centres etc) but until the 70s most people got by perfectly well without them.

Xbigman

London is one of the few places with an acceptable public transport network (I said acceptable, not good). Where I live you either have a car or you don't go more than 2 miles.
Regards



X

IvanOpinion

Dampen it ??????

At the minute my understanding is that world wide oil production is at its highest but the problem is that as quick as it can be produced it is being bought. In particular the Americans are, according to one set of figures, using approximately 25% of the worlds resources for 5% of the population (I think oil may be a higher percentage than 25%). China at the minute has a growing economy that needs more and more oil therefore they are buying what they can get their hands on.

It is what is known as supply and demand. Yes countries that produce oil could produce more but that will just waste the little that we have left therefore the price is being pushed up because it is a sellers market. Last I heard a barrel of oil ran at about $52 ... it was not that long ago that the same barrel used to be in the teens.

Oil prices are ridiculous but if you had a commodity that was very much sought after what would you do ... let me guess, sell to the highest bidder? Why blame oil companies for doing the same thing. The best way to negate the effect is to reduce your consumption which has a 3-fold effect
1. it reduces how much you spend on it
2. ir helps the environment
3. it ekes out a precious commodity for longer

There are bigger issues ... I have heard on more than one occasion someone using the expression that the 21st century will belong to Asia. That is exactly what we are seeing, the question is how much decline will the west be going into.

Also, what the heck is going to power aircraft once the oil has gone ?

Ivan

N9eav

Aircraft with sails?

The Americans have very little tax on their fuel so it makes it really cheap comparitively speaking. That means you can go out and buy a Chevy Suburban with a V10 engine and trundle about town doing some shopping at 8mpg. Although I like The USA, they do tend to use things to excess.

It still does not help my fuel tank though. I have no choice but to use the car, I live 5 miles from town, there is no bus and I have 4 children.... My main grievance is the tax the government puts on my fuel. They say it's to get people out of cars and on to public transport, but that's rubbish. Public transport costs have soared and services worsened....

shrek101

The problem we also have today is that we are too reliant on cars. People managed quiet easily 20 years ago without cars, the problem in particularly acute in rural areas, local shops and post offices have closed, and yes public transport is either no excsistant or has increased at an unaffordable rate, that's a fact.

Whether we like it or not running in car is going to cost more in years to come, we are going to pay per mile (which is a good thing) once the technology is there, car tax will be removed and also insurance will go this way, it is already being tested as we speak.

I am quite passionate about the environmental issues associated with motor vehicles, and for the record I also own a car abet hardly use.

I welcome increased car costs, not because I like paying more or can afford too, but we must get out of our cars (its a shame Bush wont do begger all to acknowledge the problem)

I am concerned however that rising costs will prevent people who can least afford to run a car and those that have to like rural communities. The rich will so love to get the least well off, off the road, so we need to address that problem, the only solution I can see is that it may be some sort of smart box and quota system.

If we stand by and let vehicle ownership increase has it has done all over the world well the consequences are far reaching, and 10,000's of thousands of lives will be lost by global warming, and not just vehicle accidents.

N9eav wrote:

Aircraft with sails?

The Americans have very little tax on their fuel so it makes it really cheap comparitively speaking. That means you can go out and buy a Chevy Suburban with a V10 engine and trundle about town doing some shopping at 8mpg. Although I like The USA, they do tend to use things to excess.

It still does not help my fuel tank though. I have no choice but to use the car, I live 5 miles from town, there is no bus and I have 4 children.... My main grievance is the tax the government puts on my fuel. They say it's to get people out of cars and on to public transport, but that's rubbish. Public transport costs have soared and services worsened....

IvanOpinion

Personally I think the whole transport policy is wrong. Public transport should be concentrated on where it can make a benefit. This generally includes links to large cities (e.g. London, Manchester, Birmingham etc.) and transport within these cities. There is absolutely no way that any intelligent or useful public transport system can be devised for people not going to or coming from these major areas.

Therefore concentrate on stopping private cars from entering these areas by increasing substantially the cost of parking and making a 'free car parking space' in such zones a taxable benefit. This should cause more people to utilise public transport and those that don't pay heavy for it if they enter the cities. This would then free up road space to allow those that are not going into the cities.

I have also heard about tests on a mileage based scheme being done ... I wonder how many of us will be complaining when our weekly shopping suddenly increases by £10 or so per week to cover these charges. Maybe the solution is try to utilise the railways more for goods delivery with large centralised warehouses being used for pick-up and drop-off points.

Also ban the flamin school run. All it does is make the kids fat and lazy and the air around the school unbreathable.


There is no way I can use public transport to get in and out of work ... it just isn't feasible. My journey time would go from about 1.5 hours per day to about 5 hours per day (and that is assuming everything is running on time).


Ivan

shrek101

In my home town we have a park and ride system, its very popularly particularly in Summer being at a sea side resort, it is going to get expanded in the near future. We also have a residents parking system.

I wish they would ban the school run, the problem is that many parents are sadly misguided that they believe that by driving there kids to school they will be safe, they forget that in doing so they endanger children who do walk or cycle, and pollute and damage our children's future in the process.

I do recognize that there are also circumstances as to why parents also drive to school, the problems often is parents lead busy lives, work often miles away where as years ago only one parent worked, and work was often close by.

If we want to change these habits we have to provide cheap and affordable transport, not just public transport but also schemes like car sharing etc too.

We are going to have to get use to paying far more for fuel whether we want to or not, my concerns are fuel for heating, and people who can least afford to pay more for running a car, but have no choice as there is no alternatives at present.

Bring back the trams any day.

IvanOpinion

shrek101 wrote:

Bring back the trams any day.

Gosh that brings back memories ... I can just about remember trams ... my grandfather used to drive one.

Whatever happened to electric/battery cars? Surely by now they should be able to devise a battery car that could do a reasonable speed, have reasonable acceleration and still hold its charge for the equivalent of a tank of fuel. The question I have always wondered is the environmental impact for the material to create and dispose of batteries and the cost of charging.

Ivan

shrek101

Trams are definitely the way forward, whilst many other countries kept there we on the other hand scrapped them its only recently that we realise this was a big mistake. You can now even get Tram buses, that look like a tram but run of low emissions (diesel no doubt)

I think fuel cells will be the best way forward TBH, although expensive at moment batteries are very limited, cant go very far or need charging although hybrid cars have both engine (petrol) and battery for town driving and charge up using petrol engine, that are more environmental friendly but still consume petrol, abet less.

I have seen cars that run on battery and are quick in accelertaion, however is there any real need for acceleration?

The other problem is that UK is such a crowded island so we have to look at ways for reducing congestion whilst maintaining a eco friendly policy and allow people freedom of movement.