I have become rather anxious by the Government’s news that we will all have to drive electric vehicles very soon. I fear that there will be fast, silent killers on all our roads and lanes.
I am fortunate to own and drive a second-hand hybrid car which, on the occasions when I have very light pressure on my right pedal, I travel along in silence.
Cyclists are not aware I am behind them.
Recently, a young schoolgirl stepped straight off the kerb as I was quietly (and slowly) approaching her. Clearly, she should have adhered to the kerb-side code but with no mechanical sounds coming from my vehicle, she wasn’t prompted to check around her as she stepped into the road with something on her mind.
It’s the problem of having access to charging points, with roads full of these vehicles on the move and drivers having one nervous eye on their electric meter, that I have serious concerns.
It takes a few minutes to fill a car with fuel and move on. How long will it take cars plugged into charging points to become fully charged? I envisage queues of waiting electric vehicles, with almost discharged engines, at motorway stops stretching back onto the motorways.
Or perhaps, will we have to endure forests of charging pods at each motorway stop?
Furthermore, how many home dwellers have garages? Those that do, probably use them to store their BBQs and summer garden furniture. Even if the car can enter, in order to be charged up, with so much DIY clutter, drivers may not be able to extricate themselves out of their cars! I see trips to recycling centres.
Many dwellings have had their front gardens converted from lawns and rose bushes to multi-car tarred forecourts. Soon electric cables will be strewn all around, tripping up the early morning milkman or postperson (note my diversity training!).
And then there is the matter of car owners who have to leave their vehicles at the roadside, notwithstanding those car owners living in flats and apartments. So why not treat yourself to a copy of my book – Poems by an Old Codger and have it with you in your electric car. So that when you find yourself in one of those long charging queues you can sit back and dip into my book of poems.