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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

#31

Post by Angostura »

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…

> 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 large city centre) will never find any use for this. reply

I disagree - I uploaded a simple shared spreadsheet to our neighbourhood Facebook page last week. When I added it, it had 20 garages - all unknown, other than 1 - which I filled in. A week later it is getting a lot of use.

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

#32

Post by Angostura »

revorad wrote: post #4

Great idea! On iPhone Safari it’s not detecting my location. Is it supposed to prompt me to share the location? I don’t get anything. Update: Nevermind, it works once I enabled location sharing in my privacy settings. I will share this with others. As per another comment, it would be good if we could search or choose a location.

You don't have iOS 15 with the Private Relay enabled, do you?

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

#33

Post by Angostura »

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.

I belived that for the first week. I's harder to stockpile petrol than toilet paper, though.

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

#35

Post by 12ian34 »

sztanko wrote: post #17
jamesfmilne wrote: post #11

Might need to work on your heuristics for finding petrol stations a little bit. The site suggested Refuel near me in Soho, London but that’s a bar/restaurant :-) https://www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/london/the-soho-hotel/...

Thanks! I think I know what is that :) I was grepping for "fuel" in osmconvert csv dump (as in ameniity=fuel)

I've used Addressbase a LOT before and they're separating out the core[0] of it to give it a more permissive license[1]. It has the Classification Code attribute which has an identifier for the kind of property you're looking for[2].

Not sure on the licensing details for this but I think your use could be accepted. This could work as a more established alternative from the true golden source of property records in the UK - if you ever fancy switching over.

[0]: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/product...

[1]: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/access-free-address-data-using-a...

[2]: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/tools-s...

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

#36

Post by danjac »

neilsense wrote: post #27
danjac wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

The NYT does not have an axe to grind with Brexit, an issue for a foreign country. Even when it does have an axe to grind, it's default flex is "to both sides" an issue to the point of parody. Yet even the NYT can see the elephant in the room the UK media refuses to address.

Don't trust the NYT?

https://www.vox.com/22700343/uk-fuel-crisis-brexit-covid-19-...

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/28/business/brexit-fuel-food...

https://www.indiatoday.in/business/story/uk-fuel-crisis-chao...

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

#38

Post by OJFord »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #23
rich_sasha wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

And then seemingly over-corrected for it - a while later (late 2020 iirc, or early this year) a Waitrose delivery driver gave me a pack (I hadn't ordered) for free.

I was quite confused at the time, but I assume they were just dishing them out to free up capacity for other products. (I also assume stock control is quite highly automated, so you can certainly see how it would happen.)

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

#39

Post by Veen »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #23
rich_sasha wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Yes, that's a consequence of just in time supply chains. The benefit is that you dont' have to store a lot of product, but the downside is you run out unless you're careful about demand prediction.

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

#40

Post by onethought »

alias_neo wrote: post #24
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…

To combat your anecdata: I have an ev, and a pile of solar, I charge at home on a standard plug that goes into a wall socket. I don’t use any grid power and my car stays charged. I don’t put any strain on the grid.

Pretty obvious how ev ownership will play out. More chargers, more pv.

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