Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads. This week’s list:
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- • How accessible are London’s new electric black cabs (DisabilityHorizons)
- • LTM Acton Depot celebrating Capital Design this weekend (TransportDesigned)
- • Why doesn’t the UK have more trams? (Wired)
- • Toronto subway font’s London roots (Globe&Mail)
- • Why New York City stopped building subways (CityLab)
- • Better Transit Hub: reopening Seattle’s Union Station (TheUrbanist)
- • How to counter negative transit myths (MobilityLab)
- • RIP personal rapid transit (TreeHugger)
- • Graveyards of unused US dockless vehicles (Slate)
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If you have something you feel we should read or include in a future list, please email [email protected].
I forgot to email in: last Thursday’s In Our Time (R4 or Podcast) was about George and Robert Stephenson.
Briantist
That was the 12th of April broadcast..
Direct link here
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The “Wired” article on trams is deeply annoying – they don’t have a comments section.
… and also on Radio 4, last Tuesday’s “The long View” had a discussion about safety concerns and the introduction of new technology, comparing Huskisson’s death on the opening day of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, with the first fatality arising from driverless cars.
The electric taxi. Looks like an impressive vehicle, but London is still very short of charging infrastructure. (Perhaps I should say, working infrastructure, there’s a number of chargers in place that are broken).
I’m not clear why tfl seem so against lpg. This isn’t perfect (CO2 emissions), but removes the particulates issue. Could be implemented very quickly as an interim step before electrification is mainstream. Especially useful in order boroughs where charging infrastructure is even scarcer? But apparently tfl seem very against lpg?
https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2016/07/25/autogas-to-trial-lpg-taxi-trial-in-london
ID
Even odder is that many of the individual Boroughs have quite sizeable fleets of small lpg-poiwered vehicles – usually street-sweeping machines & similar.
[Snip. LBM]
What do we know of the charging facilities in London, especially the taxi-specific sites?
60% of charging is done at homes overnight. Bear that in mind when considering the availability of charging infrastructure.
@Peewee
……which is only possible if you have off street parking available at home. What proportion of London’s car owners have that facility?
You can ask some councils for an on-street charging point, eg https://www.westminster.gov.uk/request-vehicle-charging-point
Hammersmith & Fulham have ( and are) rolling out on-street charging points in significant numbers.
https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/parking/parking-permits/electric-vehicles
With more points in supermarkets and forecourts the coverage is getting close to being good.
Although I would note that some “available” points can be blocked by “not in use but not being charged” vehicles of the “Bluecity” electric car club
@Timbeau – A valid point. According to this study around 48% of Londoners have off-street parking: https://www.pwc.co.uk/power-utilities/assets/electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure.pdf
I wonder how many cabbies choose to live in homes that have off-street parking though? Surely it ranks higher in importance to them than to the average Joe.
There is a specific TfL programme aimed at providing rapid charging points at taxi ranks, I understand