BY BRIGG RESIDENT KEN HARRISON
With the proposed phasing-out of new, solely petrol and diesel cars by 2040, within a generation, there will be a need for re-thinking and addressing the domestic needs of both car-parking facilities and associated electrical power points on both new and proposed extensions to housing projects.
Cars are not going to disappear from our roads.
The revolution In car technology is evolving In two parallel lines....GPS-guided vehicles and independently electrically powered cars.
Town planners need to be proactive now and recognise that in the not-too-distant future the demands exerted by these systems.
Locally, for example, while residents of St Clare's Walk could take their cars and plug in on their driveways, what facilities will be available in other major zones in Brigg, i.e. Grammar School Rd, the residents in the town centre, and so on?
Apart from the 'Six O'clock Consumer Demand', when residents re-charge their vehicles after work and nationally, the foreseen surge will have to be resolved before 2040, North Lincs needs to very seriously consider the how/where power points are located to serve adequately and sufficiently serve the community.
It is unrealistics to assume that car drivers will accept the notion of centralising such power points in specific locations; waiting/queueing for 2 plus hours before travelling home.
There is going to be a massive demand for home-based power points.....but one cannot accept cables snaking across pathways in front of Brigg's Victorian terraced housing.
Indeed, there may be a need to nationally consider making the area in front of certain housing private to the nearby householder.....it would be ironic if one access to a power-point was restricted by someone else's car.
Now is the time to make plans for the future...the street-landscape and demands will revolutionally change.....and North Lincs could be in the forefront with some creative and futuralistic thinking.
Our picture shows a charging point for vehicles made available by North Lincolnshire Council in the Angel car park.
There will be a need for workplaces to have charging points; do we buy the car and rent the battery pack?; we will no longer refuel in a couple of minutes - recharging will take time and will probably cause changes in people's behaviour/requirements; will folks with wide drives have a number of power points to 'rent' out to neighbours?;There are few moving parts on electric motors, so garages will need to assume a different role - the car body could perish long b4 the motor;Local authorities need to consider and perhaps incorporate a caveat of power-points b4 approving a new housing/retail/industrial development; Local authorities need to reconsider the policy of urban, brown field sites, if the development will deprive a community of a future site/facility for communal power points; there will be a national rethinking underground services - will they be private, or public? - how will this be controlled so such installation is not on a piecemeal basis, thus exacerbating traffic/road disruption? Will there be a national need to create more electrical power?; will there be a need to install more local elect. substations to reduce the affect of local power-surges?
ReplyDeleteThe proposal to phase out solely fossil fuel cars by 2040 is not just an exercise of just swapping cars; it has massive and radical environmental/street landscaping/urban planning/folks' behaviour & needs by the time our present 3 year olds and their peers reach the age of 25.....
There will be a need for workplaces to have charging points; do we buy the car and rent the battery pack?; we will no longer refuel in a couple of minutes - recharging will take time and will probably cause changes in people's behaviour/requirements; will folks with wide drives have a number of power points to 'rent' out to neighbours?;There are few moving parts on electric motors, so garages will need to assume a different role - the car body could perish long b4 the motor;Local authorities need to consider and perhaps incorporate a caveat of power-points b4 approving a new housing/retail/industrial development; Local authorities need to reconsider the policy of urban, brown field sites, if the development will deprive a community of a future site/facility for communal power points; there will be a national rethinking underground services - will they be private, or public? - how will this be controlled so such installation is not on a piecemeal basis, thus exacerbating traffic/road disruption? Will there be a national need to create more electrical power?; will there be a need to install more local elect. substations to reduce the affect of local power-surges?
ReplyDeleteThe proposal to phase out solely fossil fuel cars by 2040 is not just an exercise of just swapping cars; it has massive and radical environmental/street landscaping/urban planning/folks' behaviour & needs by the time our present 3 year olds and their peers reach the age of 25.....