Ban on new petrol/diesel cars by 2030 - AIBU to be excited?

[almostautumn]

The government are set to announce a ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. As someone who lives in a polluted city (London) and worries about the effect that carbon emissions are having on my family’s health, I’m so excited by this news because I think it will really change our children’s lives for the better. And it’s fantastic that it’s only 10 years away!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54981425

Unfair to do pay per mile in remote areas where there are no alternatives

Kazzyhoward this presupposes that people who live rurally and people who live in towns and cities have (or should have) everything equal on every axis, but they don't.

If you live rurally then you almost certainly have a far better quality of air for you and your children, which will have both short-term and long-term benefits for your health and potential longevity.

If you live rurally then you are far more likely to have far greater access to outside space, and a bigger garden, and access to outdoor pursuits.

If you live rurally then your house is likely to be larger for the price you paid.

If you live in a town or city then you will have greater access, across a much shorter distance, to a wide range of facilities, including leisure, retail and education.

If you live in a town or city then you are likely to have much easier access to regular, reliable public transport.

Paying per mile might cost people who live in rural areas more, but greater petrol car use tends to penalise people who live in cities more.

It's likely that pay per mile, if used, will vary across the country and according to time of day.

So it might cost considerably more to do 5 miles in a city at 8 am on a Monday compared with 50 miles at 10 am in a rural area.

The govt missed the target to get smart meters into homes, it would be amazing if they could get the infrastructure in place, but they can't even get the Track and Trace to work 100%!

@ivykaty44

As governments gives dates for liquid fuel cars to cease then the car manufactures will work harder and quicker for an easy solution to charging

Considering not all countries are imposing this madness, many car manufacturers will continue to produce petrol and diesel cars but put more effort into selling them to all the countries who aren't banning them.

It's easy enough for Eastern manufacturers to export to Russia, Africa, America or Australia instead of Europe.

There will also be "loopholes" such as buying/importing petrol/diesel cars registered abroad. After all, it's still easy to buy old fashioned light bulbs and high wattage vacuum cleaners despite them supposedly being banned for sale in the UK!

@MullinerSpec

The govt missed the target to get smart meters into homes, it would be amazing if they could get the infrastructure in place, but they can't even get the Track and Trace to work 100%!

Exactly - a critical mass of customers don't want smart meters, so the roll out has pretty much stalled now after the initial surge from a minority who actually wanted them. Now energy companies are heavily pushing customers to have them, even going to the extent of charging more for those that don't, and still take up is very slow.

Same with digital radios - the old analogue radios should have been obsolete years ago, but they're still here in large numbers. Same reason, the general public didn't see the need/benefit to buy new digital radios, so just keep the old ones, which you can still buy.

Only when drivers see a real benefit in electric cars will they switch over in the numbers needed. Customers don't like being told what to do, especially when there's no benefit for them. In the case of electric cars, they cost more and have lower range - that's a massive problem for the govt and manufacturers to solve before they'll become mainstream.

We can't have smart meters in our village. The data network isn't good enough. A few people had them installed but their energy suppliers have given up trying to get them to work and now just tell people who enquire that they are not available in our area. We are just over 50 miles from London so hardly remote.

Smart meters were always a bit of a con, they do nothing much for the consumer except the inconvenience of getting them installed. Most people who work in the construction industry always thought that without other measures they were a bit of a waste of time in terms of sustainability, they were at best a supporting measure but it was rolled out as if it was a primary sustainability issue.
Electric cars have more direct impact on users however as this whole thread discusses they cannot be thought of in isolation.
The problem with 'sustainability' and being green is that it's complex. There is no one thing that will 'save the day' and people en mass find it harder to grasp complex problems and that's before competing interests get involved in lobbying.

Considering not all countries are imposing this madness

you may consider it madness, but there is a whole list of countries that are going ahead with this and it will have an impact on manufactoring, as running 2 different lines isn't as cost affective

europe will impose very strict emission rules soon.
that will have a great impact on car manufacturers and I can imagine that they might switch to electric sooner as building low emission fossil fuel cars is more cumberdome/expensive that electric.

Do you honestly think the plan is to have just as many cars available to everybody and every socioeconomic point that can afford a car now?
The cost will be astronomical, both in car costs and infrastructure. It's about getting poorer people out of cars and back onto public transport. Only the better off will be able to afford a car let alone two or more per household as now.

@Childrenofthestones

Do you honestly think the plan is to have just as many cars available to everybody and every socioeconomic point that can afford a car now? The cost will be astronomical, both in car costs and infrastructure. It's about getting poorer people out of cars and back onto public transport. Only the better off will be able to afford a car let alone two or more per household as now.

It'll cost more to provide public transport to be capable of serving most people. Fine for those in big cities that already enjoy good public transport. But public transport is often poor in smaller cities and larger towns, and virtually non existent in smaller towns, villages, etc. It's not just routes, but also timings - few places have 24/7 public transport and some towns have very limited weekend services, meaning the likes of shift workers simply can't use public transport. Before we think of reducing car numbers, we need to massively improve public transport and integrate it between different modes of transport. So, not only does the country have to pay billions to improve the electric/charging infrastructure for the "lucky" few who can afford electric cars, it also has to pay billions to create a "fit for purpose" public transport system. Considering we can't even get full coverage for broadband or even mobile phone signals, we're a long way from full coverage for electric car charging points and public transport.

It'll cost more to provide public transport to be capable of serving most people.

where is your evidence that providing public transport will cost more? id like to see it as it would be very interesting. the cost of maintaining the highways now and then with fewer private vehicles. The amount that wouldn't need to be spent on new roads to fill capacity would run into the billions and HS2 is taking a large amount of HGV of the major roads

Yanbu, it is exciting. My son saw the headline and was saying happily how the streets will smell so much better when he’s a grown up. And he’s right! We will look back and marvel that people thought it was ok for kids to walk along in clouds of toxins.

It will be hugely less convenient than now but we’ll get used to it and infrastructure will adapt and it is a while lot less inconvenient than global warming is to farming / flooding / migration etc. Currently electric cars go about 250 miles before needing a charge and this will improve.