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:


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.



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