Clean Air/Congestion Charging set to be introduced by 2030

no one's stopping you doing it, in your own car in your own yard, away from other people that choose not to be exposed to the ugliness of your/any car, the noise of it, the smell of it etc. JUst don't have it driving or parked in front of beside me while I try to enjoy a coffee or a meal- than ks :)

The low emissions zones are there to prevent the last few stragglers from bringing in their loud, toxic vehicles into built up urban areas

Anyone who is considering a new ICE vehicle today needs to know that they will be restricted in driving that vehicle in our towns and cities in less than 6 years time, reducing the utility and value of their asset

Gave two examples of when the public didn't want change and it hugely benefited Ireland. That's a government leading the people like they are supposed to, Im sure if you look around you will still find people who complain about those changes. Some people just love to moan about everything and anything.

So in terms of the post I quoted, an excellent example of the government leading the population.

In terms of light bulbs, is that about Ireland banning the sale older bulbs years ago? You will need to explain to what the issue was with that one because I am struggling to see why that is an issue

I bought have a fairly big period property in the countryside. One of the reasons for doing so (apart from the increased mental wellbeing and benefits of living in a rural area versus the noise, pollution and general unpleasantness of an urban one) was that I could be caretaker/custodian of a a protected property. A property which the government actively wants civilians to look after as it's part of our history and heritage.

The house has a huge thermal mass thanks to the very thick walls. All good there. However it has some original single glazed glass, some of which is of similar thickness to that which you would find in a picture frame and was produced in a way that is not done any more so as a result I am unable to swap it out for something kinder to the environment and that also allows the house to be heated using less fossil fuels. And therein lies a problem - because I have to create a lot of heat to counteract the shortcomings of the thin single glazed glass, my option is more or less a large kerosene boiler that pumps out lots of heat. A heat pump would be of no use, at best it would be on 24/7 outside of the summer months. But the Green party is removing more and more ways that homes can be heated but for people with protected homes (protected at Government level), the amount of ways to usefully and legally heat those homes is continually being reduced and I'm not seeing the corresponding alternatives that are being made available to people like myself. I am being constrained by the same government who won't allow me to swap out my 200 year old thin single glazing.

I have plenty of wood available on the land so I have one fuel source there but sometimes I need more heat than the wood can provide. I'm swapping out the open fires for stoves as that is permitted and will help things. I was hoping to keep one open fire but heating wise, I've decided it'll be stoves all the way. I use the excellent colombian coal that has also been banned in the ROI. You get fantastic heat from it and don't have to use much of it. The "smokeless" processed coal that is only available to buy now is not in any way smokeless plus it burns with less heat so after testing it for a while, I found that I burn about twice as much of it compared to real coal so it's over double the price of the processed/fake coal that most likely used a huge amount of energy to be created in the first place as they are all perfectly formed rugby ball shaped identically sized pieces......I don't want to even think how much energy was wasted creating the fake coal!

They will bring in bus lane enforcement soon which will stop the mis-use of bus lanes. Can't come sooner after driving in Dublin for years and watching so many clowns thinking it's their own private lane

Once that is in place then an empty bus lane is exactly what is required so the bus can travel faster and easier from one destination to another quicker,

In terms of the number of people who don't have access to public transport compared to the number of cars on the road, it's no contest to be honest. Removing a couple of thousand vehicles daily off the roads in Dublin will be a success. The few people without access to public transport should be in support as it will make it easier for them to get into the city.

And you can pay a hefty fee for the comfort of doing so in 2030 (if you decide to keep driving a high emissions vehicle)

The EU plan to ban incandescent light bulbs has been an overwhelmingly positive one. Energy usage from lighting has plummeted, the technology around LEDs has massively improved and now you can get LEDs cheaper than you could buy an old incandescent light bulb, but it costs the user 90% less in electricity

The same morons who opposed the ban on incandescent light bulbs are going to be opposed to stricter emissions rules in built up areas. Luckily for them, they still get to breath the cleaner air and benefit from the cheaper, better technology as a result of these measures.

If you build it, they will come is true for roads. If you build more roads, people will live further away from where they work.

People measure the distance from work in the length of time it takes to get there, not the actual number of kilometres they live from their destination.

Building roads just leads to more congestion with people clogging up those roads by travelling from further away.

Improve public transport will lead to more people taking public transport, and this is a much much better use of scarce space than roads for private motor vehicles

I think the electric bikes will be a huge part of future urban transport. It solves the Hill problem we have in Ireland, which is the biggest pain point for commuting by bikes (cycling up hills is miserable for normal people, (yes i know some wierdos like it))

Provide safe corridors for ebikes and we don't need everyone to have their own car, and we don't need short hop public transport in small urban centres as much. If people can get to where they're going in 10 minutes by ebike instead of 50 minutes walking, they're less likely to take a car which then requires that they have to find somewhere to park it with the costs and effort involved there....

The dutch have been doing this for decades and they love their bikes. Ebikes make that accessible for Irish people even with our hilly streets

Except none of this is true

"milk float"

😂

The majority of electric cars are faster, better handling, more responsive than a diesel car will ever be. Bang away at the diesel car, nobody is stopping you but don't slag off another car when you clearly have no idea how they drive or their performance

Literally spoke to a main dealer last weekend that is now refusing trade ins of any EV bar the single one that they produce themselves. Too much of a risk to be sitting on the forecourt with no potential buyers around.

I know what happens in our house now - more light bulbs and they just get left on. And of course on the roads, these wonderful LED headlights blind us.

The point about the bulbs is that come the last time the Greens were in, it was one of the things that got them a right kicking in subsequent election. Another great disastrous Green policy of that time was banning bedsits. Absolutely disgraceful and has led in no small part to the hideous rental costs now forced on young and old single renters.

It's not huge by country house standards (about 5,000 square feet) although I'm getting a +2,000 square foot extension built at the moment but that will be of modern standards and that end of it will be heated by more regular means.

Why I want to live where I live is because old protected homes and other buildings need looking after and people who do so are basically volunteering to be custodians of such properties so that the buildings can remain extant, thus preserving the history and heritage of the country. Would you prefer if we just knocked all buildings that don't meet current build standards and erase all physical presences of them? How would the Green party deal with it if in power?

Because we don't have any actual journalists left in the country

Yeah I hope. What a terrible future I yearn for.

Except that what I hope for is actually being legislated for. What you hope for, is some kind of anti environmentalist populist takeover in which case we'll all suffer from worse air, worse water, worse congestion, poorer health etc etc etc

You literally spoke to someone... were you trying to trade in a BEV when you spoke to him, or was he trying to sell you one of the ICE cars he has on his forecourt and spinning you the story he wants you to hear?

I have had plenty of Passats over my life, also Golfs. Big VW fan.

None of them have come close to the performance or speed of an electric car. Plus it didn't cost me 50k to buy

Over that 10 years the cost in repairs and fuel you put into the car will be how much? Im not saying to sell it by the way, the best thing for environment is to keep old cars on the road.

But in terms of driving experience a Passat wouldn't touch my car. Test one and come back to me about "milk float"

I seen a mechanic on another page posting that electric cars would run out of battery because you have to use the wipers in Ireland 🤣 the internet is full of mechanics making videos and dont understand the difference in a hybrid and an electric car.

I also drive a nice big Q7 diesel and guess what, that cost a lot more than 50k and a couple of years later it is worth probably less than half. It's called depreciation, all cars have it

go listen to the scrapes of metal of the dart & luas as they go by. they arent quiet at all. Dublin bus barely use their BEV buses.

and if your suggestions are right, they'll not be stopped for long in congestion. so noise emitting most of the time.

Moving 100 people in one bus v 100 people in 100 cars? which is better

Plus if they get the rollout of low emission buses then it will make it even better