Cars

It is news that will have parents asking: Is that all? For a survey of driving habits claims they are spending an average of 13 hours a year driving their children to social events. The figure comes in research for an insurance company that also reckons Britons are spending a total of more than two years of their lives in cars. Each year motorists spend a total of 33 hours driving to and from the supermarket and 35 hours driving to meet friends and family – on top of the 13 hours spent as the ‘taxi of mum and dad’. Road rage: Motorists spend over three weeks of their lives shouting and swearing at other drivers Topping them all, however, is the 63 hours a year simply commuting to and from work in the car. It’s not all bad. For many people, the car is a sanctuary.  The research, by Privilege Car Insurance, found that nearly six out of ten (59 per cent) motorists agree that driving is a great opportunity for some thinking time, and more than half (52 per … [Read more...] about Exhausting… We spend TWO YEARS of our lives in cars – with commuting to and from work taking up the bulk of the time

In 2010, the small community of specialists who pay attention to US road safety statistics picked up the first signs of a troubling trend: more and more pedestrians were being killed on American roads. That year, 4,302 American pedestrians died, an increase of almost 5% from 2009. The tally has increased almost every year since, with particularly sharp spikes in 2015 and 2016. Last year, 41% more US pedestrians were killed than in 2008. During this same period, overall non-pedestrian road fatalities moved in the opposite direction, decreasing by more than 7%. For drivers, roads are as safe as they have ever been; for people on foot, roads keep getting deadlier. Through the 90s and 00s, the pedestrian death count had declined almost every year. No one would have confused the US for a walkers’ paradise – at least part of the reason fewer pedestrians died in this period was that people were driving more and walking less, which meant that there were fewer opportunities to be … [Read more...] about Collision course: why are cars killing more and more pedestrians?

The billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson has scrapped plans to build an electric car after deciding the project was not commercially viable. Dyson, who is one of the most prominent business figures to back Brexit, confirmed in 2017 that he planned to invest £2.5bn in technologies including a battery-powered vehicle, which was due to roll off production lines in 2021. But in an email to staff on Thursday, he said that while his automotive team had built a “fantastic car” the project had ultimately been unsuccessful. “[…] Though we have tried very hard throughout the development process, we simply can no longer see a way to make it commercially viable,” he said. The entrepreneur told staff he had tried to sell the division, which employs 523 people, but that no buyer had been forthcoming. In a statement, the company said it hoped to find employment elsewhere in the company for most of the staff who were working on the project, including 498 in the UK. … [Read more...] about James Dyson scraps plans to build electric car

This feels like one of the “You’re the expert” questions that appear in Guardian Money every week. I have an old-ish petrol-fuelled car, sitting parked outside my terraced home, which I use only at weekends. And I have a brother-in-law who is evangelical about his Nissan Leaf. I’d like to be more like him. Yet the closest charging point for me is a 10-minute walk away, and often busy. Is it just too early to ditch my old car and go electric? The question marks over electric vehicles used to be about battery technology and the cost. But “range anxiety” has largely been conquered. The first Nissan Leaf batteries took you about 80-85 miles without needing a charge; the latest ones do 150 miles. The new Kia e-Niro family car manages 300 miles, while at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Mercedes was showing off its Vision EQS model with a “comfortable” range of 435 miles. Given that the average car journey in the UK is just 10 miles, according to the … [Read more...] about Is it just laziness that stops me from switching to an electric car?

A disgruntled resident has been caught planting fake parking notices on cars. The notices featured the City of Greater Geelong's emblem, but the plan was foiled when the Victorian residents realised the note was signed GGCC instead of CoGG. A female motorist said she was exiting a hair salon when she noticed an old man placing the note under the wipers of her Barina. She posted a photo of the notice on social media on Thursday to express her outrage, Geelong Advertiser reported. An disgruntled resident has been caught planting fake parking notices on cars to stop them from parking on a residential street. 'Illegal parking will no longer be tolerated in side streets in the Newtown area. 'Council Officers will be patrolling for illegal offences' the note read 'Illegal parking will no longer be tolerated in side streets in the Newtown area,' the note read.  'Council Officers will be patrolling for illegal offences.' The notice went on to list the various parking … [Read more...] about Motorists left outraged as disgruntled resident plants FAKE council parking notices on cars to reduce traffic in his street – only to be caught out by a tiny error