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Archive for September, 2007
“Now is the time to start lobbying your MP and inviting him or her to pick up your children after school,” is the opening line of a press release from GEM Motoring Assist (formerly the Guild of Experienced Motorists).
Switching to a completely separate news story, I note that a senior aide to MPs at the House of Commons was recently jailed for having child porn on his computer.
Jumping back to the first story, however, GEM Motoring Assist suggests that your MP should be asked to pick up your kids from school in November, when the “darker, murky afternoons have set in”. This will help your MP to realise that putting the clocks back each autumn is “endangering life and limb of our younger population.” GEM doesn’t, however, see any risks in letting a stranger pick up your children from school on a dark, murky afternoon.
It goes without saying that all MPs are entirely good, honest people on account of their profession. They’re politicians, after all, and so naturally we trust each and every one of them. Even the recently jailed child pornographer was said to be “a highly respected member of the civil staff who was implicitly trusted by colleagues and MPs.” So that’s all right then.
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Cars and their drivers have always been an easy target, and right now they’re under pressure like never before. Blamed for all of society’s ills, from climate change to poor air quality and the cause of death and destruction galore, the car is a convenient scapegoat. And that’s the key word here; convenient. Nothing matches the convenience of the car when it comes to getting on with your life.
I’m a keen cyclist, but when I’ve got to lug my camera gear even a short distance, it’s not the Claude Butler that’s going to make the journey. If I’m just nipping into town, I’ll always walk – if I’ve got the time. The problem is, I often haven’t. As a result, I select the best of mode of transport for the task in hand and that’s often the car, even if I’d rather walk or cycle.
So far so good, but there’s a bunch of people who reckon they can determine which journeys are essential and which are not – and they’re taking over transport planning. There’s a growing number of folks who reckon that public transport is good and private transport is bad, whatever the circumstances. Then there are the professional campaigners, who spend their lives protesting against any development whatsoever; they’re the ones who insist that much-needed bypasses only encourage more travel, so all roadbuilding must be halted.
If you’ve got a strong stomach and a decent sense of self-restraint, perhaps you’d like to encounter some of these people first-hand. I’ve done it and I can honestly say that you have to experience these people to believe them; they’d generally prefer us to go back to the days of the horse and cart and are often the biggest hypocrites you’ll ever meet. If you don’t believe me, get along to this year’s Roadblock extravaganza, in Birmingham on 27 October. Intriguingly, it’s run by the Campaign for Better Transport – which of course really means the Campaign for No Transport.
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| "How you say? You can stick Logan." |
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Renault makes a cheap car called the Logan. It’s made in the old Dacia plant in Romania and you wouldn’t want one, especially if you can recall the truly dreadful Dacia Duster.
The Logan is not intended for Europe: it’s a car made for ‘emerging markets’ where anything with four wheels is preferable to a camel or a donkey. And it’s selling like hot cakes, particularly in Iran, where 89,000 punters have already paid to take delivery even though the local factory – it can hardly be called a plant - that assembles the Logan from crates of bits shipped from Romania can’t cope with the rush of orders.
And there is an interesting sub-plot to add to Renault’s woes. The French government is preparing for possible sanctions against Iran and will expect Renault and others to back its stance, by restricting business with the country until it shelves its nuclear programme. I believe the word is dichotomy. Whom to upset: Nicolas Sarkozy or Mahmud Ahmadinejad?
According to Reuters, Renault’s strategy chief Patrick Pelata is reported to have said (in connection with pressure from the French government): “Together we have to find a solution, we cannot let the clients down. They have written out a cheque and they need to get a car or get their money back,” adding that the latter “…would not be good for Renault’s reputation”.
If the Iranian situation gets out of hand, I imagine that being a supplier to a Middle East aggressor “…would not be good for Renault’s reputation,” either. What was that word again?
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| What part of Road Closed do you not understand? |
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I live on a private estate, alongside one of the access roads, which has just been re-surfaced. The road was closed during the re-surfacing work, creating a short cul-de-sac that terminated a few yards beyond my house. Two large road signs were prominently placed at the entrance to the road in order to warn people of its closure. The wording on each was clear enough: ‘ROAD AHEAD CLOSED – ACCESS ONLY’. Just past my house, and no more than fifty yards from the signs, was a bright orange barrier. It stretched the whole width of the road, and was clearly visible to anyone approaching the warning signs.
My office window overlooks the road, and time after time I saw inattentive motorists drive right past the warning signs and right up to the barrier before realising there was an obstruction. This happened three or four times an hour, every hour, throughout the week during which the road was closed.
These drivers were then faced with the problem of extricating themselves from a situation of their own making, at which point they revealed that their reversing skills were as inadequate as their observational skills.
But it is the latter that bothers me most. Even the most rudimentary driving skills demand rapid progression through five crucial steps: Look, See, Assimilate, Decide, Commit. How frequently these steps are repeated, and how quickly, determine the difference between a poor or average driver and a skilled one. What I find really disturbing is that the drivers in question didn’t even pass first base, yet they, and others like them, are at liberty to populate our roads, to drive on our motorways, and to place at risk anyone unfortunate enough to be driving in their vicinity.
Of the cars I observed, most were small, and the majority of those were silver, so some rule of thumb can be applied: the drivers of small, silver cars are a menace. Indeed, I now regard this as an immutable fact.
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Drivers who rely on satellite navigation more often than not arrive at their destination without knowing how they got there. It therefore follows that for the most part they are lost. I think it ironic that equipment costing many hundreds of pounds has this shortcoming whereas a £4.95 atlas does not.
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Insurance companies have on the whole kept quiet about the phased introduction of Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) policies enabled by the proliferation of satellite navigation.
Indeed, the European market for telematics-based car insurance systems is expected to grow from the present €2.5 million to €477.8 million by 2015.
According to a recent report published by the Royal Institute of Navigation, growth will come mainly through Europe’s pending eCall legislation and growth in GPS technology and applications. Norwich Union’s pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) insurance model is the first such product commercially available.
eCall is designed to automatically alert local emergency services with the vehicle’s location in the event of a crash.
According the the insurance industry, PAYD offers a good opportunity to save on annual premiums for certain classes of drivers - particularly low-mileage and young drivers. It is reported by Norwich Union that around a quarter of drivers in these two categories alone achieved savings of up to 30 per cent by switching to PAYD.
Another advantage claimed for PAYD, telematics-based insurance systems working on GPS technology is that the vehicle’s route and speed can easily and fully be traced, making insurance fraud, say the experts, ‘virtually impossible to commit’.
It is this very function that introduces civil-liberty implications, which are likely to delay the widespread adoption of PAYD for years to come. Would you consent to be spied on if you thought it would save you money?
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| It's the left wing that fell off... |
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I was at Donington Park at the weekend, for the VSCC’s SeeRed historic race meeting.
Fabulous meeting, but what’s happened to the full-size, glassfibre Spitfire which sits high up on the Donington infield? With one wing hanging off and a broken tail, it’s a national embarrassment.
In fact, it’s more than an embarrassment. If someone like me, who was born more than 20 years after WWII ended, can be offended by the sight of those broken remnants hanging on a pole, how must it seem to veterans? Poignantly, Saturday was Battle of Britain Day – hence a real Spitfire (with both wings still stuck on) flew over the circuit.
Why doesn’t the new management, which recently took over the circuit on a 150-year lease, repair the glassfibre Spitfire? Or if they really can’t be bothered, will they please show some mercy and take down the broken, uncared-for, dismembered remains and give them a decent burial.
On a more cheerful note, I heard one competitor mutter, “Thank goodness the circuit’s on a 150-year lease. I’ve just seen my lap-times…”
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Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman is facing fresh embarrassment after being caught speeding – for the second time in four years. However, of less concern to me is that she got nicked; what riles is the treatment she’s received.
Any other driver is allowed only 28 days to pay a £60 fixed penalty fine, yet Harman was allowed to pay hers more than five months after the offence, to avoid her case being heard in open court. On this occasion, she was issued with a fixed penalty notice after being caught on camera doing 50mph in a temporary 40mph zone through roadworks on the A14 near Ipswich in early April. She “forgot” to pay the fine within the allotted time and was due to have her case heard recently by Ipswich magistrates.
However, the CPS withdrew the summons and the court was later told that the matter had been settled. The official policy of the Suffolk Safety Camera Partnership is that the option of paying a fixed penalty is conditional and only open to motorists for 28 days after a notice is issued. If not, the partnership says that a court summons is “automatic”.
Despite this, a spokesman is quoted as claiming that “this matter was dealt with by standard procedure. If we can, we will deal with matters by way of a fixed penalty even at the stage after a summons has been sent. It is standard procedure and the same for any member of the public. It is done to save the court time.”
Harman could have been fined up to £1,000 and received six points had the case been heard by magistrates. As it was, she got away with three points and the fixed, £60 fine. Bear that in mind if you receive a summons in the near future; a precedent has now been set.
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Here’s a question to use as a tie-breaker in a pub quiz. There are now fewer petrol stations in the United Kingdom than in which year?
I’ll give you a few clues: Captain Oates uttered those fateful words “I am just going outside and may be some time”; the Royal Flying Corps was established; and Piltdown man was ‘discovered’ in East Sussex. Oh, and Titanic sank. The year was 1912.
Fuel sales are not declining, but inceases in fuel duty - with another two pence per litre due this autimn - in many cases create circumstances in which retailers are forced to sell up, or like the Titanic, go under. The heavy duties are squeezing the retailers’ margins to such an extent that only those petrol stations with a high turnover can make a living. As far as the rest are concerened, the land on which they stand will earn more when sold for development than a dozen years of acting as largely unpaid revenue agents.
For example, five years ago Kingston Hill and Kingston Vale had between them about half-a-dozen petrol stations: now there are just two; the rest have become apartment blocks. And this story is repeated around the country.
How many petrol stations has your town lost in the last five years? Post your answer here and let’s start counting.
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There is a tiff building up between BMW, Mercedes Benz and the importers of certain Chinese cars that bear a striking resemblance to products of the erstwhile German manufacturers.
The matter was brought to a head by the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA), where the Chinese importer threatened to put the look-alikes on show and in response to which the German auto-makers threatened legal action.
The cars involved were the Noble, which Mercedes asserts is a Smart clone; the UFO, a dead-ringer for a Toyota RAV4; and the CEO, which closely resembles the previous model of the BMW X5.
Although the Smart look-alike Noble car was withdrawn from its Frankfurt stand, China Automobile Deutschland (CAD) is showing the CEO, which BMW contends is a copy of the X5, and thus infringes its intellectual property rights.
The CEO is already on sale in Germany – via 25 outlets – at 25,900 euros (£17,763). It is manufactured in China by Shuanghuan Automobile and is powered by a 2.4-litre bi-fuel Mitsubishi engine.
But the CEO is not imported directly from China: instead CAD is buying the car from an Italian company, Martin Motors, which is Shuanghuan’s European distributor. In a rather curious twist, Martin Motors claims on its Anglo-Italian website that it has ‘collaborated’ with Mitsubishi ‘…for design and frame development’, a fact hitherto not mentioned.
I should be interested in your thoughts. Vist the Martin Motors website and tell me what you think. Does the CEO strike you as BMW X5 rip-off? And if there are any Italian readers out there: is the reference to Mitsubishi’s ‘collaboration’ on the CEO’s design reiterated on the Italian-language pages, or has something been lost in translation?
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