UK switching to electric vehicles discussion

[johncrossley]

For goodness sake, you can still buy a Black & White TV licence in 2026, when such TV's haven't been available to buy for at least over 40 years and any old sets, if still working (doubtful ???) can't receive today's live broadcasts anyway.

Some older Freeview boxes have the ability to connect a coaxial cable to a TV enabling you to tune in the Freeview broadcast on a specific UHF channel, which would work for any 625 line TV from the 60s onwards. If it doesn't have that but has SCART, then you can connect it via a VHS video recorder.

There are even enthusiasts who maintain and repair vintage 405 line TVs and use converters so they can show modern broadcasts. 405 line was the UK TV standard from 1936 until it was superseded by 625 lines in the 60s. 405 line TV broadcasting in the UK continued in parallel with 625 line until 405 line ceased in 1985 but by then almost nobody was using it.

Of course, I fully understand and agree with your point!

 

[HSTEd]

I am afraid there will always be an anti car brigade.

But a problem I have is that the growing dependency on cars was not stemmed when it could have been. We have over recent decades watched the growth of out of town shopping centres and entertainment venues. Ironically leaving town centres often to run down. This could/should have been controlled by planning authorities.

Instead we have public transport networks centred on redundant town centres (principally buses) and the need for people to own and operate a car.

Well a lot of this is the result of local authorities and campaigners trying to 'Canute' the car.
If bus and other public transport networks shifted to support the places people want to go, rather than the legacy town centre, we'd be in a much better spot.

New developments should include dedicated public transport routes in their fundamental design (nothing in the way).

I also feel money should be put into proving low capital cost automated or semi automated transport solutions and making them available for widespread deployment

From a transport perspective I think we should probably encourage or outright develop properly managed home delivery system that can eliminate many shopping trips entirely.



The psychic impact of the 'high street' remains powerful, but I think webe reached the point that political obsession with it is counterproductive.