As an experienced driver with a long no claims discount I'm much less likely to have an accident than a spotty chav in his "souped up" supermini - you know, the one where the stereo cost more than the car, but with go-faster stripes and exhausts the size of cannons.
Under your proposal I'd be subsidising him even more than I already am.
I'd propose instead that we simply get people to obey the fairly sensible laws about vehicle insurance and licensing, and punish those who don't.
I totally agree, I paid my high premiums when I was a teenager. The system of earning a no claims bonus gave me an incentive to be a better driver, with the result that as a 24 year old I have earned sufficient no-claims to be able to insure an open top sports car.
Charging everyone the same through fuel would provide no incentive to be a good driver
This is useful - most fully-comprehensive policies give you third party cover driving any car which isn't yours as long as you have the owner's permission.
The car you are driving has to be insured by the owner.
If they use CCTV to catch uninsured cars, it must be massively ineffective, since there are 1.4 million uninsured cars still. This in a country whose total population is only about 70 million. It sounds like they just need to pick a day and set up roadblocks, impounding all uninsured cars found. Repeat until that 1.4 million is down to some less insane number.
They already know, and publish, the areas with the highest proportion of un-insured vehicles, so they could target those areas.
What's to say that they will have an override button?
There will have to be, but you can bet your life it will be logged and over use investigated.
Fuel for lawnmower, maximum 10 litres, usually sold in the spring. Thats when I fill my can up, then whats left gets poured into the car at the end of September (fuel goes stale), when the lawn is cut for the last time. But most will fill the can when they are filling the car.
Insurance error, log of details, confirmation from insurance company.
In my experience petrol prices do not vary by that much in Europe, the only western country where petrol is cheaper is Luxembourg, and that takes basically a tankful in each direction from the UK. Its worth a 50 mile detour when travellin back from Germany however.
My other favourite with the congestion charge was people applying for a private-hire taxi license, which only cost £82 to apply and then £27pa. Then you were exempt from the £8 per day congestion charge. From memory there were Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces registered in this way.
They should make it illegal for a taxi driver to refuse a fare.
In the UK, I have only come across them with 4 brands, 3 being major supermarkets.
Shell (not all), Tesco and Morrisions give you the choice to pay at pump, or fill up and then pay at the shop after filling up. Tesco, I know, becomes unmanned and therefore pay-at-pump only at night when the shop is closed. I have not been to a Shell or Morrisons at night to know.
Asda (owned by Walmart), usually have a separate line for pay at pump, the others having a desk to drive up to pay after refueling. They also have some completely unmanned petrol stations which are pay at pump only.
You can be bonded in the UK too, but you need to be very rich or be a large company. But I guess you get a certificate for this which will work like an insurance certificate and hence put you on the database of insured vehicles.
Insurance prices can vary enormously, I pay just under £300 for my main car, fully comprehensive, protected no-claims.
The price varies depending on where you live, age, gender (but not for much longer), job (engineers and techies are seen as a low risk), where you park at night and where you park when you are at work.
Exactly, and similarly what happens if you run out of petrol and have to walk to a garage with an empty petrol can, will the pumps refuse to serve you?
Will probably work the same way it does at the moment, remember the ANPR cameras already exist and prevent you refueling without capturing your registration number. I guess you just talk nicely to the cashier, which you sometimes need to do anyway as they may check that your container is a proper one and not an old oil can.
Mind you I would not fancy a 2 mile walk to the petrol station and back carrying a 5-litres of petrol, I always fill mine when I am refueling the car.
Petrol mowers are not that common in the UK, most are electric, hover types
Composite or HDMI monitor.
Unfortunatelly Raspberry Pi does not have VGA output - the Broadcom SoC used it's a "mobile phone" version and it has only HDMI, Composite & DSI outputs (for direct LCD flat-panel connection)
The SoCs with VGA output were unfortunatelly too expensive.
Not such a bad idea, when you take into account the target audience, and slightly retro too. Remember early home computers used the TV as a monitor. Most households no longer have a desktop PC, \nd its only us geeks who will have kept the monitor, just in case.
What most households have, and remember that in the UK, HD ready LCD TVs have been the norm for several years now. Most will have a TV with HDMI. Seeing 4:3 CRT TVs on sale in Canada 3 years ago was quite a shock.
"in time for the London Olympics"... which takes place in the east of London, in Stratford, far from any of these boroughs.
Most of Londons hotels and resturants are in this area and this is where tourists will spend most of their time and money when not watching the events.
Local businesses in East London will see very little tourist money.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not "business hostile", it's just unfair.
As an experienced driver with a long no claims discount I'm much less likely to have an accident than a spotty chav in his "souped up" supermini - you know, the one where the stereo cost more than the car, but with go-faster stripes and exhausts the size of cannons.
Under your proposal I'd be subsidising him even more than I already am.
I'd propose instead that we simply get people to obey the fairly sensible laws about vehicle insurance and licensing, and punish those who don't.
I totally agree, I paid my high premiums when I was a teenager. The system of earning a no claims bonus gave me an incentive to be a better driver, with the result that as a 24 year old I have earned sufficient no-claims to be able to insure an open top sports car.
Charging everyone the same through fuel would provide no incentive to be a good driver
how does that work if your parents are nondrivers
I guess you are at a disadvantage. Most people start learning to drive by watching their parents, years before they ever sit behind the wheel.
Does Germany have usable public transit?
Germany is famous for it, particilarly for puncuality.
But like anywhere else, it is at its best in the cities, if you live in the countryside you need a car.
You can check if your vehicle, or any other, is insured online.
The maximum legal size for a fuel can is 10 litres, but you rarely see them on sale. Most are 5 litres
Anyone walking is unlikely to carry a 10 litre container
If a 25 litre container were legal, when full of fuel it would be near impossible for most people to carry far without a vehicle.
How big is your lawn? Most buy at most 5 litres to last all season and pour whats left at the end into the car
I think motor trade policies might be different, but unless you're a motor trader you won't have one of those.
Motor traders will be driving on trade plates, which will be picked up by the system as valid.
This is useful - most fully-comprehensive policies give you third party cover driving any car which isn't yours as long as you have the owner's permission.
The car you are driving has to be insured by the owner.
If they use CCTV to catch uninsured cars, it must be massively ineffective, since there are 1.4 million uninsured cars still. This in a country whose total population is only about 70 million. It sounds like they just need to pick a day and set up roadblocks, impounding all uninsured cars found. Repeat until that 1.4 million is down to some less insane number.
They already know, and publish, the areas with the highest proportion of un-insured vehicles, so they could target those areas.
What's to say that they will have an override button?
There will have to be, but you can bet your life it will be logged and over use investigated.
Fuel for lawnmower, maximum 10 litres, usually sold in the spring. Thats when I fill my can up, then whats left gets poured into the car at the end of September (fuel goes stale), when the lawn is cut for the last time. But most will fill the can when they are filling the car.
Insurance error, log of details, confirmation from insurance company.
In my experience petrol prices do not vary by that much in Europe, the only western country where petrol is cheaper is Luxembourg, and that takes basically a tankful in each direction from the UK. Its worth a 50 mile detour when travellin back from Germany however.
My other favourite with the congestion charge was people applying for a private-hire taxi license, which only cost £82 to apply and then £27pa. Then you were exempt from the £8 per day congestion charge. From memory there were Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces registered in this way.
They should make it illegal for a taxi driver to refuse a fare.
In the UK, I have only come across them with 4 brands, 3 being major supermarkets.
Shell (not all), Tesco and Morrisions give you the choice to pay at pump, or fill up and then pay at the shop after filling up. Tesco, I know, becomes unmanned and therefore pay-at-pump only at night when the shop is closed. I have not been to a Shell or Morrisons at night to know.
Asda (owned by Walmart), usually have a separate line for pay at pump, the others having a desk to drive up to pay after refueling. They also have some completely unmanned petrol stations which are pay at pump only.
In the UK it is illegal for anyone under 16 to buy petrol, the same age as you need to be to ride a moped.
You can be bonded in the UK too, but you need to be very rich or be a large company. But I guess you get a certificate for this which will work like an insurance certificate and hence put you on the database of insured vehicles.
Insurance prices can vary enormously, I pay just under £300 for my main car, fully comprehensive, protected no-claims. The price varies depending on where you live, age, gender (but not for much longer), job (engineers and techies are seen as a low risk), where you park at night and where you park when you are at work.
Some companies just give stupid quotes, on compare the market my quotes ranged from £160 to £9000.
Exactly, and similarly what happens if you run out of petrol and have to walk to a garage with an empty petrol can, will the pumps refuse to serve you?
Will probably work the same way it does at the moment, remember the ANPR cameras already exist and prevent you refueling without capturing your registration number. I guess you just talk nicely to the cashier, which you sometimes need to do anyway as they may check that your container is a proper one and not an old oil can.
Mind you I would not fancy a 2 mile walk to the petrol station and back carrying a 5-litres of petrol, I always fill mine when I am refueling the car.
Petrol mowers are not that common in the UK, most are electric, hover types
Or when a child's ball comes bouncing into the street.
A very good example, the primary objective is not to avoid the ball. Would love to see how they handle all of the single track roads around here.
Traffic lights make use of position as well as color.
They do, and have used the same position in every country I have driven in, except Quebec.
Where I live pedestrian lights are advisory. They are only enforcable for drivers and cyclists.
Composite or HDMI monitor. Unfortunatelly Raspberry Pi does not have VGA output - the Broadcom SoC used it's a "mobile phone" version and it has only HDMI, Composite & DSI outputs (for direct LCD flat-panel connection) The SoCs with VGA output were unfortunatelly too expensive.
Not such a bad idea, when you take into account the target audience, and slightly retro too. Remember early home computers used the TV as a monitor. Most households no longer have a desktop PC, \nd its only us geeks who will have kept the monitor, just in case.
What most households have, and remember that in the UK, HD ready LCD TVs have been the norm for several years now. Most will have a TV with HDMI. Seeing 4:3 CRT TVs on sale in Canada 3 years ago was quite a shock.
I think you'll find it is in Europe, where do you think it is?
who is paying for this?
According to the article O2, at no cost to the council or taxpayer.
"in time for the London Olympics"... which takes place in the east of London, in Stratford, far from any of these boroughs.
Most of Londons hotels and resturants are in this area and this is where tourists will spend most of their time and money when not watching the events. Local businesses in East London will see very little tourist money.
It doesn't stick up very far, and they often don't have any markings on them. They also look "outside electronics-y" if you know what I mean.
Have seen some, at ASDA, that give a verbal reminder when they detect a car parking in a disabled space.