Oxford Is Banning Everything With An Engine - Starting In 2020
Well, how do you like this? Anything Paris can do, Oxford can look down its nose at. The English city, famous for its university and for generally hating cars in general, has announced a zero-emission zone starting in 2020.
This ban is more clearly-worded than the others we’ve seen. It’s a straightforward zero-emission policy, banning petrol and diesel cars as well as any hybrid that has a fossil-fuel combustion engine. So, if you live just outside Oxford, work in the centre and have just bought a Porsche 918 Spyder thinking you’d be safe from low-emission zone restrictions, Oxford City Council would like to tell you to get bent.
Actually, it’s not quite that bad. In 2020 just a few streets will start operating a policy that sees every vehicle with an engine banned. Even taxis and buses will be affected. Gradually, the whole city will be added to the scheme and even HGVs will be stopped from entering to deliver goods. If there aren’t widely available (and financially viable) electric trucks and vans by then… well, the people of Oxford will be in trouble, won’t they.
The full scheme won’t be in place until 2035, but busy city centre streets will be metaphorically roped off to combustion engines in just over a couple of years. How, exactly, are deliveries going to be made? Will the postal services have to invest in electric vans just for Oxford? This reeks of poorly thought-out political point-scoring.
Oxford’s EV infrastructure growth plans at this point are pretty pathetic. There’s half a million pounds on tap for charging points for taxis, and £800,000 more for – wait for it – a whole 100 charging points for residents. Yep, £8000 each for something you can buy yourself for your home or office for comfortably less than £1000. That’s including fitting, too. Here, good CTzens, is typical British council mismanagement at its finest. Idiots.
Meanwhile, the population of Oxford is currently about 160,000. A hundred charging sockets isn’t going to cut it. The council is throwing this new legislation around while the actual practicalities of making it happen – we call it ‘common sense’ – has been forgotten. Well done, guys.
Comments
Inb4 rolls up in a 1998 Dodge Ram with overboosted cummins and rolls coal
If electric cars were really better for people, then people would be buying them. The government wouldn’t have to enforce electric cars if it actually made any sense to use them. Capitalism 101.
CT news feed:
33% cities and countries banning ICE
33% new EV cars/concepts/startups
33% funny videos
1% new petrol cars
They’re clearly forgetting the pollution involved with mining the lithium for the batteries and the pollution from the power stations to make the electricity in the first place
Oxford - the anti-car city of Britain. Even for a long time.
Felt very weird upvoting this post
I hope the government plans to invest in electric vans and trucks, and helping businesses in Oxford financially with sourcing their expensive new vehicles. Would be nice if Hydrogen fueled vehicles (being zero emmision) were allowed.
Failing that, if businesses start to leave Oxford because it wouldn’t make financial sense for them to overhaul their delivery systems to account for a single area, maybe rent prices in Oxford will drop to a slightly less horrendous level
Edit: Will this ban include construction vehicles and power generators? If so, that could make any construction/demolition work in Oxford quite entertaining to witness
Not this kind of news again 😐
UK: we are banning new ICE car sales by 2040!
Paris: hold my croissant. ..
-bans ICE cars by 2030
Oxford: hold my dictionary…
-bans ICE by 2020.
How forward thinking of them! Especially considering the technology that it will take to make this happen isn’t 2.5 years out from production. You stupid libs enjoy having UPS and Fed Ex deliver via tri-cycle. I wonder how they will supply stores with necessities?