What Do You Do When Gas is $10 a Gallon in London - Go Electric

While Lulu is with her class - I just love to look at cars and scooters. In London where petrol is $10 a gallon - people are very innovative about ways to save fuel and money.

Back in the 50s - when you came to London you had to fight the smog. To this day - London homes have lots of chimneys - some as many as 12 of them. They used to burn bituminous coal which was very smokey. It mixed with the ocean fog to make a very thick messy pea soup. The government outlawed bituminous fireplaces. Today - we are truly surprised how nice the weather is here. Of course it is July - but we have had mostly sunny days with temperatures in the low 70s - sort of like Tallahassee in March.

The government has come up with a plan to save fuel - reduce congestion - and cut down on pollution. First off - over half of the $10 a gallon is gas tax. That really encourages people to buy thrifty cars and drive less. Then they tack on a large road tax. If that isn't bad enough - if you want to drive your car in downtown London - there is a $16 a day congestion tax. Also parking can be as much as $8 an hour downtown.

As a result of the above "incentives" - London has mostly buses - taxis - rich people with expensive cars - and of course the scooters. Scooters are allowed to park for free. They do not have to pay the road or incentive taxes. Also - many of the scooters get over 100 miles per gallon. I would guess that there are more scooters than cars here in town.

I could walk around all town all day just taking pictures of cars and scooters - and I have enough in my album to bore you to death.

The newest rage is the electric car. The government has encouraged this alternative by waiving the road and congestion tax. They have also offer free parking and some free recharging spots.

Yesterday - Lulu and I visited the NICE Car Company yesterday - http://www.nicecarcompany.co.uk.

NICE means "no internal combustion engine." They offer a very nice small 4 passenger car - a few delivery trucks - and even some electric scooters. The cars can go about 50 mph and offer a range of 60 miles. The scooters can go about 35 mph and have a range of up to 100 miles.

The cars cost about $22,000 - the trucks about $21,000 - and the scooters are about $5000. They are all equipped with regenerating brakes which means that when you brake - you are re-charging the battery.

I do have a Vespa scooter at home and would trade it for one of these electric jobs in a second. They are perfect in town vehicles. What a souvenir this would be to bring back to Tallahassee. Now if we could only get the Department of Transportation to offer - no road taxes - parking - and free charging stations - we would be on our way to leading this country into energy independence and clean air.