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Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

fuelfinder.uk

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Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#21

Post by oarsinsync »

rich_sasha wrote: post #16
12ian34 wrote: post #10

This is great but I feel like it's more important to educate people not to panic-buy fuel since that's adding a significant strain to the problem (thanks to the media). If people filled up when they normally would have the problem wouldn't have been so huge. Also, why do I have to share my location? What happened to the good old days of just being able to enter postcode or town?!

>it's more important to educate people not to panic-buy fuel since that's adding a significant strain to the problem I wonder how true this actually is, certainly a useful narrative for the government. But surely, if fuel supply at point of sale is down 30%, there is 30% less fuel, no matter how you dress it. There were isolated reports of people bringing jerry cans to petrol stations, and I agree this is artificiall…

> There were isolated reports of people bringing jerry cans to petrol stations, and I agree this is artificially inflating demand, but I'm not sure this is very widespread.

I know several people who have brought jerry cans to petrol stations. None of them were panic buying / hoarding. All of them were buying fuel for other people who were literally at zero, having burned whatever little they had left in queues that led to nothing.

Beware the assumption that jerry cans == hoarding / panic buying. It's great for tabloids to stir up anger and resentment, but the real world is always more nuanced than the headline.

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#22

Post by danjac »

veltas wrote: post #8
trollied wrote: post #5

For those not in the UK wondering what this is all about: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/24/what-is-cau...

The overriding sentiment right now is isolated shortages have turned into widespread shortages because of panic buying, not actual shortages or HGV driver shortages.

That's not what news reports say outside the tame media of the UK's "managed democracy".

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/opinion/britain-fuel-cris...

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#23

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rich_sasha wrote: post #16
12ian34 wrote: post #10

This is great but I feel like it's more important to educate people not to panic-buy fuel since that's adding a significant strain to the problem (thanks to the media). If people filled up when they normally would have the problem wouldn't have been so huge. Also, why do I have to share my location? What happened to the good old days of just being able to enter postcode or town?!

>it's more important to educate people not to panic-buy fuel since that's adding a significant strain to the problem I wonder how true this actually is, certainly a useful narrative for the government. But surely, if fuel supply at point of sale is down 30%, there is 30% less fuel, no matter how you dress it. There were isolated reports of people bringing jerry cans to petrol stations, and I agree this is artificiall…

It doesn't need to be panic buying, a relatively small increase in demand - 10-20% - can already put a lot of strain on the system. I don't recall there being much toilet paper hoarding over here, but stores were still sold out because people bought a little extra, just in case they would be out later.

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#24

Post by alias_neo »

buro9 wrote: post #6

The fuel crisis in the UK has been great at being EV advocates out of the woodwork, but our infrastructure for charging cars is appalling and as I cycled I rather smugly saw queues at the ev chargers too. But something like this for EVs that also shows the cost of charging would be great. Yes I know about zap map, etc... But in my area the choices are poor, the availability difficult to discover (rate limited and pol…

The national grid is barely keeping up with current demand for electricity, I will be astounded if we manage to pull off anything nearing a reasonable solution to electrifying private vehicles.

With the government imposing a ban on the manufacture of ICE vehicles this decade, we have an upper limit of what, 20 years before ICE vehicles are being run into the ground?

Great for ICE mechanics in the UK I suppose.

My dad recently retired from a team building substations all over the UK, using equipment from a well-respected European vendor, he noted that the contract has now gone to someone else making inferior equipment which he and other retired/semi-retired members of his team have been called back in to help rectify, in part because the skills and experience required exist with a very select few old-guard who've been doing the job for decades.

Aside from that potentially not going well in the log run, I don't see how we can be ready, or even close to ready for electrification of private vehicles unless every parking space in the country becomes a charging point and huge additional power supplies are created.

The Shell garage near my home, in a London borough is so far from anything useful, that if you manage to get one of the 3 electric charging stations there, you're either grabbing an Uber to head somewhere, or waiting in your car until it's charged, how are we going to work around the productivity decline of having to wait hours to charge up?

Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely love to own and drive an EV but it's so impractical that I can't even consider it.

It's an interesting problem that will be entertaining to watch play out, one way or another.

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#25

Post by mavhc »

intricatedetail wrote: post #12
buro9 wrote: post #6

The fuel crisis in the UK has been great at being EV advocates out of the woodwork, but our infrastructure for charging cars is appalling and as I cycled I rather smugly saw queues at the ev chargers too. But something like this for EVs that also shows the cost of charging would be great. Yes I know about zap map, etc... But in my area the choices are poor, the availability difficult to discover (rate limited and pol…

Without a network of nuclear power plants I fear the EV revolution will not come to fruition. The government seem to have jumped on the bandwagon without thinking it through.

Average USA electricity usage per capita: 12 MWh Average distance driven: 14300 miles Assume 4 miles/kwh, that's 3.5 MWh extra (although only 70% of people in USA are drivers)

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#26

Post by smcl »

lol768 wrote: post #3

Suggestion: allow override of the geolocation-derived search epicentre, it's not always (read: has never been reliable for me, unless I'm using a device with a GPS chip). I do appreciate that's the primary aim for this project, rather than desktop, though. Also, perhaps display where it thinks you are too, so you can determine if it's massively off.

Or provide a fallback for when you don't want to share location - like manual postcode entry

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#27

Post by neilsense »

danjac wrote: post #22
veltas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The overriding sentiment right now is isolated shortages have turned into widespread shortages because of panic buying, not actual shortages or HGV driver shortages.

That's not what news reports say outside the tame media of the UK's "managed democracy". https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/opinion/britain-fuel-cris...

Ah, yes, the NYT, for when you really want the truth...

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#28

Post by sztanko »

mobiuscog wrote: post #20

Whilst I applaud the sentiment, this demonstrates one of the flaws with crowdsourced data (I presume). The result list for me (that goes as far as 7.5 miles away) shows 'unknown' for every garage, which therefore renders the list useless. No doubt it would improve as more users offered up information, but unless there is a way to automate the data the majority of more rural areas (perhaps even anywhere that is not a…

This project is like 8 hours old :)

It really depends on the traction now.

Re: Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

#29

Post by 12ian34 »

Aeolun wrote: post #18
12ian34 wrote: post #10

This is great but I feel like it's more important to educate people not to panic-buy fuel since that's adding a significant strain to the problem (thanks to the media). If people filled up when they normally would have the problem wouldn't have been so huge. Also, why do I have to share my location? What happened to the good old days of just being able to enter postcode or town?!

If everyone is panic buying, the only solution to your own fuel problems is to buy as well. This is ultimately worse for society, but the only rational response as a single actor.

Surely there's another (partial) solution - reduce your own demand for fuel. Cars are generally overused in western countries which I think is one factor in the obesity pandemic.
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