22 November 2006

Four cylinder Stanhope

| johnboy
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Our Brave Leader has proudly announced that he’s downsized to a four cylinder car and is taking the rest of the ACT fleet with him. While he’s at it he’s lifted the restriction to Australian made cars as there’s only one.

Is this for general reasons of fuel efficiency? Well partly, but that gets second billing throughout the announcement. As always it is to be sanctimonious, this time about greenhouse gases.

“The Government is determined to lead by example when it comes to economic efficiency and when it comes to addressing the looming threat of climate change”

But not by doing anything concrete about public transport or placing community assets out in the community thereby reducing travel distances. Maybe if Mr. Stanhope did away with a car for a week or two he’d realise how non-car use isn’t a viable option in the city he’s remaking.

(and on that note isn’t it wonderful to hear Simon Corbell announce that we’ll all have to get used to the parking nightmare his crappy planning has unleashed on Civic)

Meanwhile on greenhouse issues the Greens have been pointing out that the Government has yet to compile any statistics on greenhouse emissions in the ACT, without which any decision making is just useless tokenism.

But useless tokenism is what the ACT Government does best!

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eh – this is a non event – dunno why we are still talking about it.

There was a problem with a badly mangled hyperlink bit it was corrected after Danman drew my attention to it.

(better done with an email BTW but thanks nonetheless)

Jazz – Oh and whats with the Riotact homepage right now – the frames are all out of wack

Comment by Danman — November 22, 2006 @ 2:32 pm

All good now.

Danman, not exactly sure what you can see, but we dont use frames on RiotACT. Try refreshing your browser.
Looks ok from where i sit.

one of the arguments missing in the ‘who killed the elctric car’ movie was that if the californian govt mandated zero emission vehicles as a percentage of the californian vehicle fleet – why didnt they BUY any of the electric vehicles when they were being offered in 1996 ?

“Simon the Constructor”

No, it’s more like “Simon the Builder – Can We F*ck It?”

Sorting out some of the local traffic snarls would make a big difference to how much fuel is consumed. When cruising at moderate speeds without starting and stopping even my V8 is reasonably economical.

I have to say, though, that I like the idea of small cars for city work. That’s why I usually use my Astra for commuting.

Thumper – only until the move the Mort St compound of DEWR out to the airport.
(oh Yes They Are. Only gonna be the Parlimentary teams in the other building that’ll stay. theres 2 massive buildings out at brindabella ear marked for DEWR, capable of holding easily 1500 pax

The “parking nightmare” seems to have been somewhat alleviated with the new canberra centre parking – I just dropped in to pick up some takeaway lunch from the Tip Top and had an entire row of empty spots to myself. The walk to Garema didn’t seem much longer than to the old carpark that’s been built over either.

Yeah I knida assumed that – I park right near the container in the corner – I was just wondering what fate has befallen him now ?

Oh and whats with the Riotact homepage right now – the frames are all out of wack

Mythbusters ran a car on waste vege oil that had only been filtered through filter paper.

vehicle had no mods what so ever.

Not to say that is the way to go (longterm gumming of valves etc etc) but surely it would not be that hard to filtyer impurities from WVO – your mods to th eengine would be minimal.

Maybe you would need a concealed heater element for the tank in winter – and some heat device pre injectors.

Thumper – RE Rex paid parking – I heard that the free car park is owned by the Tradsmens Labour club and will be there for quite a while – in any case – theres about 30 more cars there at 0700 now. As for what happening to th eother car park – anyon eknow. Didnt they just recently up it from 3 bucks to 4.

And what about that cheerful guy who was there cleaning that car park every morning in his original condition HG? Is he now unemployed?

Anyone ?

Biodiesel: Making your own is illegal. The Feds want excise on it and they want every batch lab tested @ $2,000 a pop.

Access to biodiesel is only limited by your level of enthusiasm to start making (brewing?) your own, smokey2.

What about access to biodiesel. I still want to do my bit for the planet.

Thumper, bullocks pass methane-filled wind, so they’re no good either.

And let us never forget the toxic waste issue of the Prius’s large and bulky batteries.

environmental my arse

better fuel economy from a good diesel but less sanctimony.

Forget a Prius, get a turbo diesel car – same fuel economy, but great performance – and you don’t drive around looking like the sort of person who’d own a recumbent bike.

That’s what I mean about Simple Simon getting worked over by industry JB.

When planning these developments the companies have a choice between suitable levels of parking for the custom they’ll attract or developing the whole site as retail/commercial space with minimum parking and then passing the parking problem onto the Govt. in the knowledge that the electorate will force their elected representatives to fix the problem. The developer wins because they can maximize letable space and externalize the cost of parking.

Lots of people don’t want to walk long distance – older people, those with babies/toddlers/prams, and women after dark.
Real environmentalists in the public service and unis are getting fleets of toyota prius. Jon S is way behind the times.

I don’t want free parking Big Al, just convenient is fine.

Simon’s idea that we can just walk long distances doesn’t stack up for shopping.

Big whoop.

I’m not 100% convinced that 4cyc is better for the environment. Sure they use less petrol, but (in my experience) they don’t last as long.

The difference between fuel efficiency of a 6cyc Camry vs. a 4cyc Camry is marginal (my experience, less than 10%). The 6cyc motors seem to last for ever (seen examples with 400,000km on the clock), I’ve seen two of the 4cyc motors worn out in less than 200,000km (but I’m no mechanic, just going on my families experience with cars, and no they were not used to tow).

Someone should do the math, work out how much energy it takes to build a car and work out how many years/km it would have to last to justify a 10-15% fuel saving. It’s not like building cars has no green house impact. Even recycling cars consumes large amounts of energy.

This may not work with fleets, but then again why do MLA’s need cars provided?

He (Stanhope) really is a soft cock and a national embarassment.

Simple Simon got completely blind-sided on the civic parking thing. To be honest I’m surprised that he and the shiny-arsed bureaucrats in planning got duded on such old play from the private sector.

That said, there’s almost a grain of reason in his statements about Canberran’s having to get used to not having an unlimited supply of free parking right out the front of where-ever we’re going.

I’m with Thumper – whatever the reason, at least it’s a positive step by the CM … and as for Simon the Constructor did he say something?

barking toad11:25 am 22 Nov 06

“The government is determined to lead by example when it comes to economic efficiency….”

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Doesn’t the mayor just kill ya

…and kudos to W_W for not throwing a hissy fit when mentioning the word “Liberal”.

Good move che – I’m right there with you.

Glenloch is looking increasingly like the makings of a gigantic clusterfuck.

I rode my bike to work today not for green reasons but because once they start stuffing over the glenloch intersection I decided I’d rather spend 30-40 minutes on a bike than the same time sitting in traffic
will see if I can stick with it

And so the Liberals, (to out-do Stanhope) will have to downsize to 2 cylindar motor-bikes.

And then the Greens will downsize to pedal-power.

And I will ride the bus.

captainwhorebags11:05 am 22 Nov 06

Perhaps remove the MLA entitlement to free reserved car parking at the Assembly so they can get a taste of what most Civic workers endure.

I think the TWU might be up in arms, as this policy decision takes away much needed customers to the ACTION network.

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