JANUARY-APRIL 2019
ELECTRIC
CARS
OK. The issues are fuel cost and
charging time.
FUEL
COST Instead of liters
of petrol, an electric car uses KWH of
electricity. So lets calculate how
many KWH a battery must store,
and how much does that electricity cost?
FACTS
- Petrol
has a calorific value of about 46MJ/Kg
- Petrol
has SG of 0.74
- So
petrol has a calorific value of 46*.74
= 34 MJ/liter.
- Petrol
Engine has about 35% overall
efficiency
- Electric
motor efficiency including variable
speed and regenerative braking say
100%
- A KWH is
1,000 Joules/sec for an hour = 1,000 *
60 * 60 = 3.6 MJ
- Electricity
to the home in NSW is 33.3c/KWH
- The
85KWH battery weighs 540Kg.
Usable energy in petrol.. about
35% of the 34 MJ in a liter of petrol is
turned into mechanical energy.
That's
11.9 MJ per liter petrol.
So how many KWH of electricity has the
same usable energy content as a tank full
(say 60 liters) of petrol?
Divide the usable MJ in a liter of petrol
(11.9) by 3.6 we get:
3.3
KWH is the equivalent of 1 liter
petrol.
So battery capacity to equal 60 liters would
be 3.3 x 60 = 198 KWH. Say 200KWH and
weigh 1270Kg.
So the
NSW electricity equivalent of 1 liter
of petrol costs 3.3KWH*33.3c
~ $1.10
If we removed the petrol tax, petrol
cars would be cheaper than electric
cars.
CHARGING TIME Suppose we
want to charge our battery above in 5
minutes. Then we need 200 KWH to be
downloaded in 5 minutes or 1/12th of an
hour.
To deliver 200 KWH in 5 minutes we would
need a charging rate of 200 x 12 = 2,400 KW.
To
deliver 200 KWH in 1 hour we would need a
charging rate of 200 KW.
To deliver 200
KWH in 10 hours we would need a charging
rate of 20 KW.
For comparison, daily household
electricity consumption (gas hot water)
in Australia is 7 KWH. Or a bit
less than 1/30th of a full tank.
SYDNEY TRAFFIC MATTERS
Traffic control by government should
be to benefit the public.
I suggest the following as a guide in
determining control measures.
- Public
safety.
- Saving
time.
- Utility
and simplicity.
Let's assess a few actual
situations.
CASE 1 PARKING.
I recently had reason to park in Wulaba Park
on a road called Hatbox Place which is in
Surry Hills, Sydney. I parked in a bay
in front of another car. There are
signs at the entry that say "Shared Zone"
and "park in bays only". The bay in
which I parked (black car) looked identical
to all the other bays (blue car, white van)
which had cars parked in them. The only
difference was the other car bays had
notices restricting parking to 2 hours
during daylight hours. Based on my
guilt, presumably it is illegal to park
anywhere at night.
![v](bays.gif)
|
![Blue car
legal. Black not. Blue car
legal. Black not.](carbayx.jpg)
|
I got a ticket for $263. When I
complained to the RTA citing ambiguous
signage, I was told that the sign said "Park
in Designated Parking Bays only". I
made an application to take them to
court. They withdrew the action
noting. "Due to circumstances the
issuing authority has decided to withdraw
the matter".
I checked on 29th April 2019. The
signs were unchanged. Presumably these spots
are still moneyspinners.
CASE 2 INTERSECTION LIGHTS
Where a one way street enters an
intersection and the traffic light is red, I
see no reason why pedestrians wanting to
cross in front of those stopped cars should
have a "No Walk" sign. Such is the
case in many locations. eg Cleveland
& Bourke.
As a driver I find it a problem that green
traffic lights (especially for right turns)
are frequently of very short duration (3 to
7 seconds), and the amber lights seem to
vary in time from 3 to 7 seconds. At
Canal Road - Pacific Highway I recently had
to wait three traffic light change cycles to
turn into the Pacific Highway.
CASE 3 SPEED CAMERAS.
The speed camera set at 50KPH (40KPH during
critical school hours) in the stretch of
Cleveland Street outside Sydney High Schools
is notorious for being the largest revenue
raiser in NSW. If you look at the
speed limits set in nearby roads it is easy
to see why. Adjacent & connecting roads
with similar feel & characteristics
such as same count of lanes, low
pedestrian density protected by
trees, not built up area, few
driveways etc. have higher speed limits.
(Anzac Parade 70KPH. South Dowling St,
& Dacey Ave 60KPH.)
SUMMARY
1) The illegal parking space in Case 1 was
not of any observable benefit to the
public. Except maybe allowing parking
officers to collect revenue for the NSW
government & Sydney City. Might I
add the "Park in Bays" sign together with
the "Shared Zone" was identical to the signs
in Charles St. Surry Hills. Might I
further point out that there are usually
about 30 cars cars parked in Mount Street
and Rennie Street off Charles St which are
just as illegally parked in unmarked bays as
was I. At $263 per car the parking
officers could easily make over $7,000 per
visit.
2) In Bondi Junction (Oxford & Newland)
there is a "don't walk" sign that has an
amber countdown. As pedestrians cross
the light shows how many seconds until the
lights show a red "don't walk" & cars
get a green light. Perhaps that
initiative could be expanded Sydney
wide. I note that pedestrians at that
intersection seem more traffic aware.
Hence safer.
3) Traffic lights for vehicles would also
benefit from countdown amber lights.
These have been introduced in overseas
countries.
Countdown amber lights would better advise
the driver approaching an intersection of
the urgency of braking, and perhaps stop a
few rear end collisions. It might also
reduce red light camera revenue.
4) Regarding Speed Cameras I would like to
observe that drivers normally drive at a
speed they consider safe. Best
overseas world practice for setting a speed
limit on a stretch of road is to have no
speed limit for a few weeks and watch to set
the speed limit at the speed that 85% of
drivers observe. Increasing the speed limit
on Cleveland Street between South Dowling St
and Anzac Parade would save drivers on one
of Sydney's busiest roads a few minutes.
5) Fines in Australia are higher than
overseas. For instance the maximum
parking penalty in New York City is $50 down
to $15 for overstay on a meter.
Running a red light in NYC is $150 for a
first offense.
I would like to suggest to our government
that they set up a special division to
look at any location that seems to collect
exceptional amounts of revenue from
parking or traffic. This body should
then suggest ways to reduce the revenue
from those locations.
- 1) For instance if there
had been a "No Parking" sign in Hatbox
Place there would have been no
ambiguity.
- 2) I suspect that amber
countdown lights would significantly
reduce the number of cars entering
intersections when the lights are red. Hence improve
safety. And reduce revenue.
- 3) Perhaps the camera
outside Sydney High School is set too
slow. If the issue is safety, then
perhaps protect pedestrians with
stronger barriers.
I am aware that Roads &
Motor Transport already reviews some of
these issues. However perhaps that
relationship is a little too incestuous.
For instance Transport
NSW in their paper Top 100
Safer Roads looked at Cleveland
Street (see item 24 on list of top 100),
but failed to distinguish the section
between South Dowling and Anzac Parade
from the rest of Cleveland St.
ASSANGE
The Ecuadorians invited the
London police to remove him. He has
been judged and sentenced to 50 weeks for
bail jumping. The USA is applying to
extradite him.
Mostly comments in "The
Australian" are unsympathetic.
To recap. (I am
writing this from memory, and would
appreciate any correction.)
Julian visited Sweden circa
2011. He attended a conference and
found & had consensual sex with two
girls who knew each other. Shortly
after he left Sweden, they each put in a
complaint that after a night of sex, while
they were still asleep, he had performed
sex without a condom. The prosecutor
had asked for extradition to question
Assange. Suspecting an attempt by
the USA to get him away from UK law to the
more compliant Swedes, Assange applied for
& was granted asylum by Ecuador.
After some time the two
girls withdrew their complaint. The
Swedish Prosecutor withdrew the
application for extradition. Some
time later another prosecutor resumed the
action for extradition. The statute of
limitations on most of the potential
charges expired.
Then the government in
Ecuador changed. The new government was
apparently interested in improving
relations with the USA. The London
Police were invited to evict Julian and
the courts have made their Judgement.
An action for extradition
begins on 2nd May 2019.
VOTE
FLUX.ORG
I have recently become
aware of a new political party. Run
by a bunch of nerds.
Their idea is that their
elected politicians should set up a
website, and allow the constituents to
tell the politician how to vote on any
upcoming legislation. Sounds great
to me. Like the original Greek democratic
ideal.
Like nerds everywhere they
have in my opinion gone a bit overboard
with their idea of "trading" votes.
But I'll let you work that out for
yourself.
However I would put it that
any elected politician could do the same
thing.
- On their personal
website the politician could ask
interested voters in their electorate to
register. Then they could check the
electoral roll and send the applicant a
username & password by snailmail.
- The voter could then log
in, and vote how they would like the
politician to vote on any particular
piece of legislation.
- There would need to be
rules for the politician to obey.
Say only 5% of the electorate votes,
then the vote would need to be unanimous.
If say 70% voted, then a 51% majority
determines how the politician should
vote.
MAIL
TO barvennon@hotmail.com