Upgraded street lamps become EV charging points

A German company has developed street lighting technology that allows Electric Vehicles to be charged at adapted street lamps. When street lighting is upgraded to low energy LED technology, the cables that supply the lamps with power are effectively under used. This is where the EV charging technology comes in. Ubitricity can install the EV charging technology in any style of lamp post, retro or modern.

Once a street lamp is installed all an EV owner has to do is to sign up with Ubitricity, the owner then receives a special cable from Ubitricity which monitors electricity usage of the owner. The user is then debted the cost of the electricity. The cable has an inline small box with buttons and a display, so I presume that it is password protected to prevent possible mis-use. However I assume that if the cable were stolen, it could be reported and the account suspended until a new cable were supplied.

No additional load is put on the local electricity cables because they were originally designed to take a bigger load than the LED lighting puts on the system.

Robert L explains in this video how it works and interviews the local council that has installed the lamps as well as a representative of Ubitricity.



https://www.ubitricity.com/en

I like classic cars, especially when they are electric

A classic car:

Some cyclists abuse the Eclipse priority bus lane

I'll start this blog post by saying I am a big supporter of cycling. The only personal transport vehicle I own is a bicycle, if I don't use that, then it's walking, bus or train.

Sadly some selfish cyclists abuse the facilities that are provided for public use and this is the case I witnessed recently on the Eclipse bus route.

I posted about this service before:

http://lovelywaterlooville.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/eclipse-bus-ride-to-hovercraft-museum.html

There are some cyclists that are using the long straight section of the Eclipse route as a cycle race/training track. I witnessed two cyclists on racing bikes and (yes you guessed it) lycra basically racing up and down the stretch of special road at least 3 times whilst I was waiting for a bus.
I witnessed them reaching the end of the road (Hutfield Link) and turning around to head back towards Fareham for another circuit.

On top of that they broke the highway code by overtaking the bus parked at the bus stop and forced an oncoming bus to slow to a stop, something the highway code specifically warns against because it is dangerous. The bus driver in the oncoming bus threw his arms up in the air in despair.

Imagine if two car drivers decided to use a stretch of road to charge up and down in preparation for a motor race?

The fact is it would be an illegal use of the road and the police would at least give both the drivers fines. Isn't this cyclist behaviour just as bad?

There are a lot of cyclists that use the Eclipse route to transport them to work and shops, they use it for the purpose it was designed for. Cyclists that want to race on a track (because that is what these cyclists were using the road for, they didn't have a destination) should find a dedicated track just like motor racing enthusiasts do.

I don't think it would be unreasonable to ban this type of use on this special road. There are already restrictions on vehicle types, it wouldn't be unfair to ban these fanatics and make sure other cyclists that use the road are protected.

Electric bike association

Yep, the electric bike industry is so big now that it has it's own association:

www.beba.info

Looking at buying one myself in the not to distant future.

The Big Green Commuter Challenge 2010

This years Portsmouth City Council Big Green Commuter Challenge starts on 17th of May and finishes on the 23rd.

There are a lot of prizes to be won.

Organisations can win:
Commuter Challenge Shield
Trophies

Individuals can win:
iPOD
CycleWorld £150 voucher
FIRST, 1 month ticket (FirstWeek Hampshire)
Fitness First memberships
Gosport Ferry, 8 ten trip tickets to 1 person
Stagecoach, 1 month ticket (SouthHants Megarider)