Cab drivers charged with taking the lead

We can all surely agree that older diesel and petrol cars are not good for the atmosphere. Electric cars, we are told, are now the future and in the Canterbury district, it’s the taxi drivers who are being charged with taking the lead. The city council is proposing the phased removal of their older vehicles and wants them all to be hybrids by 2025 and all electric by 2030.

The authority admits it’s an ambitious target but says taxis cause a “disproportionate” amount of pollution because of their multiple short local journeys.

And as the council licences them and has set its own target to be carbon neutral by 2030, it has to make a serious start. Not surprisingly, cabbies have blown a fuse at the potential expense. But it also raises wider issues about the practicality of electric cars, especially how they can be charged.

The council says it will install fast chargers at ranks but cabbies have immediately identified a problem with that, shuffling along the ranks as fares come and go with no time to plug in.

And what about people who live in terraced houses who can’t charge a vehicle overnight?

The environmental cost of producing millions of new batteries and the strain on the national grid to cope with their charging are also serious questions which do not appear to be addressed.

Yes, the technology will improve but perhaps the best way of reducing traffic pollution is by getting more people out of their cars and onto very efficient and cheap public transport.