Today, I've solved the energy crisis (Friday post)!

See my commentary on

Rob Enderle's post: The Desk That Could Save Your Life.

Actually, I think I've solved several problems:

• reduce dependency on (foreign) oil and other fossile energy sources via a totally renewable (read "breeding) source
• reduce NHS deficit and combat obesity epidemic
• solve back problems of office workers
• provide new-age management metrics
• and many more!

Environmental perversity...

Because the Government has imposed a "use it or loose it" rule for those precious Heathrow take-off and landing slots, some airlines such as BMI plan to have planes ‘fly empty’ to keep slots at Heathrow.

This shows the difficulty of governing in a free market economy (if there's such a thing?): any regulation potentially affects market forces and can be perverse.

In this case, the perversity is that if prevents short term downwards capacity adjustment.

However, it brings the LHR third runway question again: at a time where the Government seems to already have made its mind (read Hutton signals go-ahead for Heathrow expansion before consultation), another proof of its collusion with BA and BAA, it seems that with oil prices at a record level and not going down any time soon the need for additional capacity may not be there anyway.

Tags: airlines, LHR, Heathrow, T5, T6, HeatrowExpansion, BA, BAA, transportation, environment, UK, Politics, DfT, richmondtransits.blog

Greenpocrisy

So politicians want us to be green... Seems laudable, especially since it is badly needed, the country being bad at recycling, etc...

But then, it seems it always only translate in one thing for citizens: more taxes. Car are an obvious and easy target, but even if one accepts taxing based on CO2 is a good idea (I don't), France for instance have figured out a way to achieve the same goals with a fiscally neutral system.

But in the UK, nope -it's always tax more.

For example, there are no incentives to install solar panels for (the payback is something like 15 years) the German or France again goverments provides grants in the shape of subsidised feed-in tariffs (home and business can sell solar-generated electricity back into the grid), which makes it affordable and reduces the return on investment to 3-5 years). As a result, over half a million homes are equiped in Germany, helping with mass production scale economies -and creating 400 000 jobs in the process.

But in the UK? Nope. Another bad example is public transportation, where the goverment wants rail users to contribute more: reduced subsidies mean that passengers revenue will climb from 50 to 75%!!!

This is my point: the Government is taxing polluting cars on one hand, but not taxing aviation fuel and increasing the cost of alternative, less polluting, transportation modes. Can't think of being more hypocritical on green issues!


Tags: UK, Politics, green, greenwash, environment, transportation, airlines, railways, rail, train, richmondtransits.blog.uk

Heathrow expansion is vital...

...for Mr. Walsh's bonus!

His arguments in this Richmond and Twickenham Times article dubious for the least:

1. The jobs impact has never been quantified by an independent survey

2. Comparing LHR alone to other airports is dishonest for the least because London has FIVE (international) airports.

3. Finally, BA and BAA just can't be trusted: T5 was given planning permission on the condition there will not be further expansion...


Tags: Heathrow, LHR, T5, BA, BAA, airport, airlines, UK, transportation, environment, richmondtransits.blog

Where to buy some cheese in Richmond?

Here's one of Richmond's best secrets: every Saturdays and Sundays, on the Homebase/Curry's car park, there's a French-style market van, complete with the Frenchman selling cheese inside!

See the picture as proof.

He sells alls sorts of cheeses, including some real unpasteurised ones such as Camembert de Normandie AOC, Roquefort, Comté, etc... All very reasonably priced, which is even better!


Tags: cheese, Richmond, richmondtransits.blog, foodings.blog.uk, foodings, food

Should cyclists follow the same rules than cars?

Read today:
BBC NEWS | England | Cyclists 'don't obey road laws'

IMHO, why should cylists follows a road legislation designed a long time ago and mainly for cars?

For instance, for cyclists to start ahead of a green light is much safer and allows to avoid being mowed down by lorries and busses.

The insurance law need to change to give automatic rights to cyclists vs. cars, it's how it works in Netherlands.

Resistance, un-informed comments and inadequate cyling infrastructures (like paths stopping where one needs them most) usually comes from automobilists who have never cycled.

Kew treetop walk

Tony has visited the new treetop walk at Kew Gardens and took this picture:

Makes for a really nice day out!

Tags: kew, richmondtransits.blog

Smile... and don't film back

Most of us are incredibly uncomfortable with the increased surveillance we're coming under:
This surveillance onslaught is draconian and creepy

The cameras, they are multiplying - and now they even have ears. But the state hasn't stopped to run the plan past us, by Marina Hyde in The Guardian, on Saturday June 28, 2008. And now, they're even using military technology to track us.

Especially when the wombles tell you not to film in public places:
Pretend cops bully videographer, videographer wins - Boing Boing

So, next time you're signing up for an Oyster Card, think again.

I did not say it!

I don't have much to add to this article: British cities shun London’s wasteful car tax - Times Online

"[...] overheads are now so high that they burn up the equivalent of almost £4 of a standard £8 charge. Money
raised to improve public transport has been cut by 10% in the past year."

I've always thought the congestion charge was quite a daft idea, a return to the middle ages or later turnpikes and toll-gates. I am all for better public transport, more bus lanes and cycle paths, trams, etc... But I don't see the point of reserving the centre of London to an elite nor to make it more difficult for cars to get around via light phasing, cul de sacs, narrow lanes, etc... It just creates unncessary pollution.

Tags: transportation, london, cars, congestioncharge, richmondtransits.blog

How to keep customers (happy)

In my previous post about The great holiday ripp-off... I spoke about Expedia and Hertz, on baby car seat rental charges and thought I'd let you know the rest.

I've complained to both companies about the doubful practice of allowing you to rent a device to make your children safe while refusing to let you know how much it will call you. Hertz came back to me (only after I threated to blog about it) and said they will refund me EUR33 -half of the charge.

And as good news never comes alone, Expedia also called me back because I complained my rental accomodation was far from being clean (we had to bleach-wash the fridge before storing anything). They will refund me £200 on my holiday bill, which is much welcome.

Note to self: I should have known better, since a great feature of the Expedia web-site is that it allows clients to rate their hotels/cottages. This is good use of the Web 2.0, I really like it.

So while it's best to make sure you don't make your customers unhappy in the first place, Hertz and Expedia deserve brownie points for addressing my complaints.

My advice: ALWAYS write to the customer department. It's not only that you might be compensated but it's also a service to the company (poor service will kill a service company) and other customers.

Tags: holidays, money, richmondtransits.blog, expedia, hertz

The great holiday ripp-off...

A cautionary tale today because it's bad enough that the Euro makes holidaying on the Continent much more expensive.

Car Seat Hire with Car Rentals Companies

We've rented a car through Expedia and Hertz came up at a quite competitive rate (about £85 for a week -you can only figure out this by removing or adding the car to the trip as Expedia doesn't provide a breakdown). I've asked for a car seat and was told by Expedia they could not get the price before and would need to see on the spot.

So we turn up at the aiport and they tell me a car seat it... 66 Euros! I complained on the spot and raised the matter with Hertz customer service which answered they "[were] sorry to learn that you were not satisfied with the price of the child seat you received. Unfortunately this is the locations privilege to quote a price for the additional equipments.
[We are] sorry [we] cannot be more of a help for you now." I've came back threating to make sure I would tell as many people as possible and blogged it. And to their honour, they came back and said they'll refund half.

Which is nice, but a shame putting things right needed a an argument.

My advice: either check-in a your own car seat (make sure you have a good travel insurance, I got one damaged between Pisa and Gatwick on Monarch once) or if you arrive not too late, buy a cheap one from a local supermarket. Oh, and by the way, do check the car thoroughly before you go: the first one Hertz wanted to give me had a flat tyre and the other one was dented all over. Do make sure you take pictures before you leave the rental company parking, it may prove useful if you misplace the rental contract.... And make sure they charge what they're supposed to: Avis two years ago tried to apply me a different tariff than I had booked!

Bank charges
I have a Coventry Building Society current account because it pays 5.60 AER without cap, however their charges for cash withdrawals abroad are steep: up to £3.50 for EUR200 (2%). I was with Citibank before and they don't charge for getting money out of the wall overseas. But then their interest rate on current accounts is misery. So,do check the charges carefully and try to pay using a credit card without fixed charge such as the Nationwide Cash Reward.

Air travel

Did you book a cheap air ticket with a low cost carrier? Just check how much luggage you bring, make sure you bring your own sandwiches and turn up way in advance: Ryanair once closed it checkin desk although it was over 40mn before the flight and we were in the right queue. The guy just left the counter! At first they were not even rebooking us and it took a 10 mn heated conversation to fly us to Limoges or Bergerac instead of Bordeaux. Quite inconvenient as you can imagine...

On the luggage front, most low cost charge you for checking in stuff: remember you always bring too many shoes, that you can wash clothes and buy shower gel anywhere in the world!

Read also in The Guardian: BA and Virgin face compensation deluge
Apparently "British Airways and Virgin Atlantic face a compensation deluge after agreeing that any passenger who flew long-haul on those airlines between August 2004 and March 2006 can claim a £20 refund per journey following a $200m (£102m) legal settlement."

PS: read also on the Fool.co.uk how to Avoid These Airport Rip-Offs!

Tags: holidays, money, richmondtransits.blog

Politics and GreenWash

I've always been interested by ecology, tryign to do my bit -like leaving a camping/picinic site cleaner than when I arrived. But my green attitude is based on common sense, not on any form of green religion inspired by city-luddites, the kind of people who were trotskyst before, green priests now and impose on others their attitude of green moral superiority.

For instance, at a time where we had agricultural surpluses subsidised by the EU, it only made sense to me that we should do biofuels. The current debate now about sustanability of biofuels comes from a herd movement towards biofuels when the infrastructure is not there.

Then the polititians came in and suddenly started to talk green. The only issue is that for politicians, it seems that Green = More Taxes. And we only see tax, tax, tax -but still no rail infrastructures
or maybe the're taxing the wrong stuff: Focussing on CO2: good for bears, bad for humans? Methane for instance stays in the atmosphere longuer than CO2: should we fit a meter at the back of each cow, or become vegeterians? (seems vegan is not a good idea...)

In my mind, it's not only taxes but there are many other ways of being greenner: microgeneration is one. The Guardian had a great full page article on how power from the people could cut CO2 emissions - with government help (shame the online version doesn't have the graphs).

But it seems the government is busy making broken promises and trying to substanciate the fact that Heathrow, thanks to its "Low Emission Zone" will be clean. In passing, we have to thank the EU for imposing stricter anti-pollution norms... (and NB: no, curbing LHR's growth won't harm the capital because it's only one of the FIVE London airports).

This is why I've become highly suspicious of Green Politicians: to me they will provoke a backlash and what they decide isn't even good for the environment.

PS: but kudos to Westminster to allow cyclists use one way streets riding counterflow. This is commen sense, doesn't cost anything and works (just go to The Hague if you don't belive me).

Tax, tax, tax -but still no rail infrastructures

The government keeps on taxing automobilists but fails to invest in public transportation:

Read in
BBC NEWS | England | London | New station's opening postponed: "The station will be the first new suburban station built in south London since the Second World War, according to Merton Council."

What a disgrace! Rail fares up, taxes on petrol up, local council tax up and interest rates up. The Richmond commuters feel the pinch on the wallet more than ever recently.

In the meantime, kerosene is still not taxed and now Boris bailed off the massive demonstration against Heathrow -this doesn't detract the Beeb to pedal the BAA spin comparing Heathrow to other cites, conveniently forgetting that London has no less than FIVE international airports.

All that could have been avoided if instead of perpetuating a 1950ies planning error the government had planned to build a new airport in the estuary as it has often been suggested -and close other airports such as Gatwick, City or Heathrow like it has been done in Berlin and other European cities.

It seems that the government is very short sighted indeed when it comes to transportation.... It maybe why we still don't have a footbridge in North Sheen?

Is the DfT deaf?

Read this morning in the Richmond and Twickenham Times: Court challenge to early morning Heathrow jumbos.

I find difficult to agree that a 747 could wrongly be put in a category of "quiet planes", unless maybe the transportation ministry staff never flew, quite alike the urban planners who designed cycling path clearly never rode a bicycle.

For me, it is yet another proof of the collusion between the Department for Transport and BAA.



Tags: transportation, air, airlines, heathrow, london, uk, politics, ba, baa, richmondtransits.blog

0870 numbers ripp-off

Here's a very good web site with alternatives to the 7 or 10 pence per minutes numbers that many companies insist on you to call:

SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers

And yet another broken promise by DfT and BAA...

This morning the RTT ran another story on the continued lies and broken promises by the infamous Department of Transport, BAA and BA ménage a trois:
Secret Heathrow plan to reduce air quality (Richmond and Twickenham Times)

"The Government wants to sacrifice air quality across London to allow an
extra 60,000 flights a year into Heathrow, according to reports."

Just in case the 2 millions living around the area did not already felt conned...

I've already blogged many times on Heathrow, a "dump" according to American Airlines' Head of Customer Services (Europe) Don Langford:
Is Heathrow really out of capacity?
More on Heathrow
Is sustainability sacrificed on the Heathrow altar?
Transported logic



Tags: heathrow, airport, BAA, DfT, UK, politics, transportation, environment, richmondtransits.blog

It's not only taxes...

I've long been annoyed by those people talking about CO2 emissions regardless of the context, etc...
Some say the publicity helps the green cause, I am rather more cynical and think that greenwash, just like idiotic taxes, is going to make people feel sick and tired and that the backlash is going to be a rejection of the need to be green.

It seems I am not alone:
Advertising watchdog receives record complaints over corporate 'greenwash' | Environment | guardian.co.uk

PS: read also Focussing on CO2: good for bears, bad for humans?

Tags: green, greenwash, richmondtransits.blog, ecology, environment

Green = More Taxes (for Politicians)

I thought I'd blog an extension to this post as I've been mullling over this all day:
Richmond Transits: Blatant hypocrisy over parking spaces

A few simple ideas:
- Why don't we get reduced VAT (from 17.5 to 5%) on all loft conversions incorporating a planted roof?
- Or a tax credit when installing solar / geothermic central heating?
- Or get grants for all renovations achieving a set target for insulation?

Both would save significant carbon emissions and make buildings more sustainable.

To me, politicians are hypocritical about green issues: it's not that they don't care. They do. A lot: it allows to raise taxes, such as congestion charge, road pricing, etc etc...

The endless greenwhash (non-sensical talks incorporating green keywords) only harms everyone's acceptance of the need to act now whithout producing significant results. Greenwash kills Green Goodwill because the consumers intimately feel they're not getting a good deal.

Blatant hypocrisy over parking spaces

Richmond council announced they will be taxing parents for dropping off their kids at local schools (through ending the 15 mn free parking allowance in a CPZ).

They are blaming the lack of parking places in the borough, paving the way for more CPZ (Controlled Parking Zones): More CPZ to come? (Richmond and Twickenham Times, 25/4/08)

This is simply and utterly hypocrisy: just consider the fact the council limits parking places in new developments such as the scheme in Garden road or the the office block extended in Chalkers corner.

But then, to me it looks like Green has become a synonym for "more taxes": every time taxpayers are being hit, especially in Richmond, it's in the name of the Carbon Reduction God, just like the failed congestion charge is now disguised into a low emission zone, etc...

When I read Jeremy Clarkson saying the greenies are the new trotskysts I thought it was amusing and second degree. Actually, I don't anymore. While I am all for doing everything we can to not leave the planet in a better state that the baby boomers are now handing it over to Generation X, the issue with the "green issue" is polititians who have managed to remove all substance and tax more.

It's always the stick: you drive a large car? Market forces and fuel prices are not enough, here's an additional parking tax. But that applies mostly to motorists, not to Heathrow. Nor do we get carrots: on the continent you get tax breaks for installing solar powered heating, geothermal exchanger, etc... Here, we just get free rockwool. Just like the congestion charge: a plaster on a broken leg.


Tags: richmondtransits.blog, green, CPZ, gardenroad, congestioncharge, london, cars, transportation, UK, politics

Greengauge 21

Found this great web site today, much of it reflects my own positions on high-speed rails in the UK (or the lack thereof) and suggestions for a second high-speed train line (HS2):
Greengauge21 – driving the debate on high speed rail

This should also be of interest to Richmond residents:
The Impact of High Speed Rail on Heathrow Airport, March 2006 500Kb


Tags: richmondtransits.blog, rail, transportation, UK, environment, heathrow