This bloke speaks sense................. Again!

[Yoshi]

Carrot not stick

Noticed how almost every plan allegedly aimed at reducing car exhaust emissions and jams involves motorists getting poorer and cynical, opportunist Governments and local authorities getting richer?

I think it's time for the abandonment of fatuous 'green' taxes, congestion charges and other money making, state-sponsored scams which we can all see through. How about doing things the other way round by seriously rewarding thoughtful drivers who take positive steps to reduce the size of the vehicles they drive, the amount of fuel they consume and the overall environmental impact of their particular cars?

It's called more carrot, less stick.

And here are a few examples of how such fuel-reducing, congestion-busting, planet-saving incentives could be implemented to appeal to the hearts - and wallets - of drivers.

1) Petrol/electric Toyota, Honda and Lexus hybrid models from Japan have their plus points, but the fact is that they are not, all things considered, the most environmentally friendly or fuel efficient cars on sale in Britain. There are other conventional motors built much closer to home that don't drink as much. The diesel-powered Volkswagen Polo Blue Motion, for example, will officially average 72.4 mpg while the Toyota Aygo diesel will do an average of 68.9 mpg, making both of these European-built cars less thirsty than every singe hybrid on the market. So state- sponsored inducements to buy the small Polo Blue Motion, Aygo and similarly impressive fuel misers must be a priority.

2) Why don't the politicians allow the cars that sip the least fuel pay little or no Value Added Tax when the vehicles are purchased? Anything that does, say, 66 mpg or over could be VAT exempt, and that means the Polo Blue Motion and Aygo would qualify along with other frugal models including the Citroen C1 diesel which is another brilliant little 68.9 mpg machine.

3) Buyers of 60-66 mpg cars could pay only five per cent VAT instead of the usual 17.5 per cent. The Honda Civic and Toyota Prius hybrids would fall into this category along with plenty of other small and not so small cars.

4) Cars in the still impressive 53-60 mpg average consumption bracket could perhaps pay 10 per cent VAT, thereby enjoying a 7.5per cent VAT discount. Family motorists who genuinely require mid-size to large MPVS, estates and saloons could still have such spacious models but, if they're sensible and financially astute, they'd only go for those fitted with the most fuel efficient engines.

5) Since easily understood and widely available official mpg figures aren't the only way to judge the environmental impact of cars, precise levels of emissions (confusingly measured and quoted in C02 g/km form) have to be considered, too. Hybrids usually do well in this department. But often they do appallingly. So don't be fooled by environmentally-questionable hybrids such as the 192 g/km Lexus 400h but do be impressed with the best such as the Prius (104 g/km) and Civic (109). At the very least such cars should be blessed with enticements such as exemptions from current bridge, tunnel and road toll fees, for example. As should the non-hybrid 109 g/km Citroen C1 diesel.

6) Since we're a small country and there is only limited space in moving traffic lanes and at kerbside where cars park up, let's give all drivers who buy the tiniest cars free or greatly-reduced parking fees, courtesy of central Government and local councils. The benefits of having, for instance, two Smart cars occupying just one normal-size bay are obvious.

7)Employees should get small but useful tax breaks for themselves and their properties plus access to cost-price computers systems, office furniture and garden offices in return for agreeing to work from home for at least 100 days per annum - less than half the typical working year. This would free up the roads and public transport vehicles for other workers who have no alternative but to commute to the office, factory or shop on a daily basis.

8) Drivers who go to the time, trouble and expense of personally growing or making planet-friendly crops or materials which they then convert into fuel for their own cars should not be subjected to hefty taxes and duties on those fuels. If anything, it should be the other way round: they should get fiscal inducements to invest in the land, equipment and education required to create their own eco-friendly energy supply, thereby reducing the need for petrol, diesel and oil to be shipped around Britain and the World.

9) Live in a tiny, remote village, hamlet or urbanisation that needs a traditional, heavily-subsidised bus service for the handful of residents without cars? But what if there aren't enough customers to justify the huge financial and environmental cost of paying bus drivers to go around in circles in large, thirsty, mostly empty vehicles? Why not abandon that traditional bus service and pay local, vetted car owners to set-up daily rota systems whereby they each spend a few hours a week chauffeuring non-car owning neighbours, especially the elderly, to and from the shops, GPs, homes of relatives or wherever. The added bonus is that some local car owners (active recent retirees with plenty of time on their hands, for example) will be performing a valuable and personal door-to-door public service while making a bit of pocket money for themselves, too. And why not?

10) Other areas for discussion and negotiation should include help for car owners making a special effort to park off-street (thereby freeing up highway space) in newly built bays, car ports or garages which they could get financial inducements to construct; recognition that a parent who runs a vehicle such as a double cab pick-up as a working light commercial in the day and a family car at evenings and weekends is doing his bit and should be encouraged not discouraged from running such a vehicle; an acknowledgement from Government that its current 'green' tax band system is a fraudulent sham because there isn't a single proper car (not even the holier than though Prius) that qualifies as a Band A motor and therefore able to be blessed with the zero cost disc that goes with; regional grants for big employers to take their factories, offices, stores, workers and customers out of traffic choked city centres out and into more remote areas where there is additional space for people and cars. It's called spreading the load!

And where does the money come from to pay for all the emission and traffic busting incentives and financial rewards listed above? From the £50 billion per annum gross profit the Treasury currently makes from drivers in motoring taxation!

I've had my say on the matter. Now it's your turn. What would you like the authorities to do to incentivise you and other motorists to reduce congestion, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions?

[Range Rover Blues]

The way to reduce emissions, and congestion come to that , is to reduce the DEMAND for travel.

I still con't comprehend the bums on seats mentality that says people have to travel to work just to sit at a computer just like the one in their living room.

As for hybrids.........

Toyota factory turns landscape to arid wilderness
By MARTIN DELGADO, Mail on Sunday - More by this author » Last updated at 22:36pm on 18th November 2006
 Comments (9)
The 'green-living' Toyota Prius has become the ultimate statement for those seeking to stress their commitment to the environment.
However, the environment-saving credentials of the cars are seriously undermined by the disclosure that one of the car's essential components is produced at a factory that has created devastation likened to the arid environment of the moon.
So many plants and trees around the factory at Sudbury in Ontario, Canada, have died that astronauts from Nasa practised driving moon buggies on the outskirts of the city because it was considered the closest thing on earth to the rocky lunar landscape.
 
Unlike normal cars, hybrids such as the Prius, whose proud owners include Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and ex-Tory leader Michael Howard, are powered by a battery that contains nickel - as well as a traditional petrol engine.
Toyota gets the metal from a Canadian company whose smelting facility at Sudbury has spewed sulphur dioxide into the air for more than a century.
The car giant buys about 1,000 tons a year from the plant, which is owned by Inco, one of the world's largest nickel-mining companies.
Fumes emerging from the factory are so poisonous that they have destroyed vegetation in the surrounding countryside, turning the once-beautiful landscape into the bare, rocky terrain astronauts might expect to find in outer space.
Although efforts have been made in recent years to reduce emissions from the plant's 1,250ft chimney - dubbed the Superstack - campaigners say the factory is still respon-sible for some of the worst pollution in North America.
David Martin, energy co-ordinator of Greenpeace Canada, said: "The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside.
"The solution they came up with was the Superstack. The idea was to dilute the pollution, but all it did was spread the fallout right across northern Ontario. Things improved in the Nineties but the plant is still responsible for large-scale emissions of sulphur dioxide.
"Sudbury remains a major environmental and health problem. The environmental cost of producing that car battery is pretty high."
Once the nickel is smelted it is sent 10,000 miles on a container ship journey which in itself consumes vast quantities of fuel and energy.
First it is shipped to Europe's biggest nickel refinery at Clydach near Swansea, South Wales. From there it is transported to the Chinese cities of Dalian and Shenyang to be turned into a lightweight substance called nickel foam.
The final stage of the manufacturing process takes place in Japan where the Prius batteries are made.
Toyota produced nearly 180,000 Prius cars last year, some 4,000 of which were sold in Britain. Last week 14 MPs from all parties claimed they had exchanged their petrol-guzzling vehicles for a Prius or similar hybrid.
But some experts doubt whether the Prius even wins the argument over fuel consumption.
Robert Fowler, of the Battery Vehicle Association, said: "It is questionable whether it does any more miles to the gallon than a good diesel.
"The hybrid system has a very small battery so most of the time it's operating as a petrol car, particularly out of town and above 30mph."
A Toyota spokesman said last night: "I cannot confirm the source of the nickel used in the Prius battery. It is true there is a slight increase in the energy required to produce the materials for the car."

[fudge]

At a recent smart meet 4 carpark bays were occupied by 7 cars, 4 tickets were bought from the machine and 3 "failuer to display" tickets were issued by a certain coastal authority, a car that I was in was ticketed as non displaying....

Luckily I am wise in such matters and no one actually paid the penaltys 8) obviously the three that were ticketed had tickets that must have somehow in all cases blown on the floor....so the tickets were sent off as proof. but how is that fair, the cars didn't overstep the bays and the bay had been paid for in each case!

I'd rather pay £2 to park a Landcruiser Amazon 4.8Litre 7 seater in a space than £14 for seven smarts!

Alll this green crap sounds good on paper, but in reality green will never mean reduced costs or advantageous rates, appart from RFL of course.

[barnhill4x4]

Hey Fudge!
   Small world, You may remember me as David from Smart-Suits!