Jump-start the electric revolution

Jump-start the electric revolution | Letters

Bridget Rosewell calls for a national vehicle charging network; Bob Pike thinks it is good news that car production is plunging; David Flint says the Green party has the right idea

Your story “Electric vehicle drivers at risk by charging from home mains supply” (theguardian.com, 30 May) shows why it is vital that the government provides the right charging infrastructure. After 100 years of incremental change, we are on the cusp of a revolution. The age of the internal combustion engine is being consigned to history. But all too slowly. Today, vehicles contribute to 80% of air pollution breaches in the UK. The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), in its first published assessment of the UK’s needs to 2050, called for sales of new cars and vans to be all electric from 2030. That will only be achieved with the introduction of a truly national, visible charging network.

More direct and ambitious action is needed to jump-start the change. That means meeting the need where the market will not deliver in the short term; getting local authorities to identify where chargers could most usefully be provided and making the spaces available for them; subsidising the provision of rapid charging points in remote areas by 2022; and it means Ofgem removing barriers to connecting to the network.

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The car made pedestrians second-class citizens. Don’t let driverless vehicles push us off the road altogether | Adam Tranter

If we want autonomous tech to succeed it must be designed to share space with us, rather than forcing us to adapt to it Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking commissioner under mayor Andy Street This week, the UK government announced its plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK. One of the key companies involved noted that London presents a significant challenge: “It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.” There’s more than one problem with that statement – and it encapsulates so much of what’s already going wrong in the adoption of driverless cars. For a start, “jaywalking” isn’t even a thing in the UK. We thankfully have no such concept or offence. Unlike in many US cities, pedestrians here are free to cross the road wherever they see fit. And thank goodness for that. Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking co...

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