Free mass transit in Paris while smog persists
http://www.thelocal.fr/20161208/pari...-million-a-day
Also males comparison to India levels

Smog limits visibility to 50 m at the worst times in Delhi which continues to try to meet its 2001 target for eliminating diesel buses[1]. Air in new commercial buildings in Beijing is heavily filtered. Look up Asia-Pacific's Green Building Award winners. The Great Smog of London, 5 days in 1952, produced 4-12 thousand dead & 100,000 sick. Paris, Mexico City, Madrid and Athens to ban diesel vehicles by 2025 putting pressure on London to follow suit[2]. Diesel particulate filters on vehicles built to the 2009 'Euro 5' standard require high maintenance to work well[3]. Meanwhile, there are concerns about exhaust from burning natural gas[4]; next step fuel cells?

[1] http://scroll.in/article/807463/delh...work-this-time
[2] http://www.independent.co.uk/environ...-a7451611.html
[3] http://www.truckinginfo.com/article/...and-curse.aspx
[4] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/48398994.cms

On Thu, 8 Dec 2016 20:47:02 -0800 (PST)
Ding Bat wrote:
Smog limits visibility to 50 m at the worst times in Delhi which continues =
to try to meet its 2001 target for eliminating diesel buses[1]. Air in new =

India is a 3rd world country pretending to be 1st world. This comes as a shock
to no one.

--
Spud

On 2016-12-09 04:47:02 +0000, Ding Bat said:

Meanwhile, there are concerns about exhaust from burning natural
gas[4]; next step fuel cells?

Get the wires up, get the trams and trolleybuses rolling.

And get rid of black cabs in their current form. They are large,
polluting and utterly unnecessary for anyone other than those of
limited mobility - it's very rare indeed for them to be the quickest
way of making any journey in central London, so those who are not of
limited mobility are basically just being lazy[1] by using them. Stop
issuing licences and let the trade die naturally over the next 30
years, replacing it with some form of service for those of limited
mobility using electric vehicles.

[1] Corporate travel policies increasingly ban them, which is sensible
as they are a waste of money when a Travelcard or Oyster can be used
for the journey instead.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Ding Bat wrote on 09 Dec 2016 at 04:47 ...
Free mass transit in Paris while smog persists
http://www.thelocal.fr/20161208/pari...-million-a-day

It's been an interesting time in Paris transport-wise for the last few
weeks. After very high pollution levels last week (when London levels
weren't much lower), the Mayor of Paris was pushing for restrictions on
road traffic, and was furious that the police wouldn't act until Tuesday
this week (6 Dec). Since then, vehicles have been usable only if the
last numeric digit on the number plate matches the odd/even status of
the date, and through transit of Paris by heavy vehicles was banned,
though there were exemptions for public service vehicles, taxis, food
deliveries, etc. etc., and (fortunately for me for my return to London
yesterday) foreign-registered vehicles. Speed limits throughout
Ile-de-France (Paris region) are currently 20 km/h below the posted limit.

There seemed to be a lot of non-allowed vehicles on the roads (Le
Parisien newspaper estimated 25%) and the police were handing out
thousands of fines at various check points around the city.

Buses, trains, the Métro were all free, as were Vélib (city bike hire)
and Autolib (ditto for electric cars). However, the bliss of free
trains was marred somewhat by an RER B train brringing down a kilometre
of catenary on Tuesday in the morning peak, stranding 8 packed commuter
trains whose passengers had to walk along the track to the nearest
station. SNCF laid on 5 TGV trains to provide a service to CDG airport
using unaffected tracks.

This was only a few days after a (newish) MF01 Métro train was derailed
on one of the elevated open sections (line 2) when a heavy item of
electrical equipment fell off the train and derailed it. No casualties
thank goodness, but alarmingly similar to the Chancery Lane derailment
in 2003. (Managed to get on-topic eventually!)
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

In message , at 16:53:09 on Fri, 9 Dec
2016, Neil Williams remarked:

And get rid of black cabs in their current form. They are large,
polluting and utterly unnecessary for anyone other than those of
limited mobility

They are also useful for people who don't know London like the back of
their hand, in bad weather, and when public transport has shut for the
night. I rarely use black cabs myself, but the last one was to and from
an evening dinner (full dress), in the Winter rain, to a banqueting
location I'd not heard of before, but turned out to be near Horse Guards
Parade.
--
Roland Perry

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On 2016-12-09 04:47:02 +0000, Ding Bat said:

Meanwhile, there are concerns about exhaust from burning natural gas[4];
next step fuel cells?

Get the wires up, get the trams and trolleybuses rolling.

And get rid of black cabs in their current form. They are large,
polluting and utterly unnecessary for anyone other than those of limited
mobility - it's very rare indeed for them to be the quickest way of making
any journey in central London, so those who are not of limited mobility
are basically just being lazy[1] by using them. Stop issuing licences and
let the trade die naturally over the next 30 years, replacing it with some
form of service for those of limited mobility using electric vehicles.

[1] Corporate travel policies increasingly ban them,

the only time that I got a London taxi on company money was when we had to
transport a number of full sized presentation boards to a demonstration
across town.

we easily got them in the back of a taxi, but without that option would have
had to hire a van (which would have been difficult to arrange "now", even if
it were cheaper)

tim






---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On 2016-12-10 10:48:19 +0000, Roland Perry said:

They are also useful for people who don't know London like the back of
their hand, in bad weather, and when public transport has shut for the
night. I rarely use black cabs myself, but the last one was to and from
an evening dinner (full dress), in the Winter rain, to a banqueting
location I'd not heard of before, but turned out to be near Horse
Guards Parade.

The weather aside, for which I'm sure you can carry an umbrella, may I
present to you https://maps.google.com/ and its public transport search
facility?

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2016-12-11 11:43:04 +0000, tim... said:

we easily got them in the back of a taxi, but without that option would
have had to hire a van (which would have been difficult to arrange "now"

Proper prior planning...

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Neil Williams wrote:
On 2016-12-10 10:48:19 +0000, Roland Perry said:

They are also useful for people who don't know London like the back of
their hand, in bad weather, and when public transport has shut for the
night. I rarely use black cabs myself, but the last one was to and from
an evening dinner (full dress), in the Winter rain, to a banqueting
location I'd not heard of before, but turned out to be near Horse
Guards Parade.

The weather aside, for which I'm sure you can carry an umbrella, may I
present to you https://maps.google.com/ and its public transport search
facility?

I hope that cake is tasty. Other reasons you might want a cab:

Too much luggage to carry
Valuables/confidential documents you need to keep safe
Work you want to do en route
Discussions you want to have in private
Personal safety
Easily-confused travellers
Not having to deal with the ticketing system
(it's fun watching the 'not a ticket office, honest' staff at KX trying to
ascertain what kinds of bank cards visitors might have and if they're usable
as a payment method)
Not having to deal with the steps at the majority of stations that aren't
step-free

As usual, it varies. Not everyone is a smartphone-toting Londoner with an
Oyster in their pocket.

Theo

In message , at 22:25:46 on Sun, 11
Dec 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

They are also useful for people who don't know London like the back
of their hand, in bad weather, and when public transport has shut for
the night. I rarely use black cabs myself, but the last one was to
and from an evening dinner (full dress), in the Winter rain, to a
banqueting location I'd not heard of before, but turned out to be
near Horse Guards Parade.

The weather aside, for which I'm sure you can carry an umbrella, may I
present to you https://maps.google.com/ and its public transport search
facility?

My date for the night is not going to happy on the tube in a cocktail
dress and high heels (or walking ten minutes[1] in the rain even with an
umbrella).

[1] That's four minutes to one tube station and six minutes from
another. I know where the stations are.
--
Roland Perry