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Show HN: Open-source UK fuel availability tracker

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

#51

Post by rich_sasha »

oarsinsync wrote: post #21
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…

> 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 l…

Yeah I'm not judging. Also I can imagine people whose lives depend on petrol (taxi drivers, delivery drivers etc.), at least I sympathise with the position.

In any case it seems to be the exceptions, not "everyone fills up the tank, then 20 jerry cans and a bottle of Coke".

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

#52

Post by alias_neo »

londons_explore wrote: post #45
alias_neo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> The national grid is barely keeping up with current demand for electricity, Citation needed... The national grid transports less power today than it did 40 years ago, despite a much bigger population.

The statement was incorrect, I agree, I've clarified my point in response to another comment, I'll leave it as-is for the integrity of the discussion.

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

#53

Post by sofixa »

Veen wrote: post #42
danjac wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-foo…

The New York Times has consistently awful UK coverage. And it certainly has an anti-Tory Remainer bias. Personally, I think the shortage is related to Brexit, and it's a short-term consequence of not being able to import cheap foreign labour instead of paying reasonable wages. We do have a driver shortage because haulage firms don't want to pay drivers a competitive salary. Plus, COVID disrupted driver testing and th…

> And it certainly has an anti-Tory Remainer bias

And so does reality. Brexit, recent Tory governments are mismanaged unmitigated disasters. Is there anything broadly positive that can be said of them? Vaccination was decently managed, that's for sure.

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

#54

Post by [deleted] »

leoedin wrote: post #44
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…

We're talking about only selling EVs from 2030, but the state of EV chargers, especially in urban areas, is absolutely dire. And there doesn't seem to be enough recognition of that. Take for example the London borough of Haringey. There's 81 publicly accessible EV charging points, and they're making a song and dance about installing a further 37. https://www.haringey.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/travel/... How man…

[deleted]

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

#55

Post by sztanko »

12ian34 wrote: post #35
sztanko wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Thank you! Will have a look.

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

#56

Post by Veen »

sofixa wrote: post #53
Veen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The New York Times has consistently awful UK coverage. And it certainly has an anti-Tory Remainer bias. Personally, I think the shortage is related to Brexit, and it's a short-term consequence of not being able to import cheap foreign labour instead of paying reasonable wages. We do have a driver shortage because haulage firms don't want to pay drivers a competitive salary. Plus, COVID disrupted driver testing and th…

> And it certainly has an anti-Tory Remainer bias And so does reality. Brexit, recent Tory governments are mismanaged unmitigated disasters. Is there anything broadly positive that can be said of them? Vaccination was decently managed, that's for sure.

What do you expect me to say in response? You've stated that your opinion is the only realistic appraisal of the situation. That implies we don't merely disagree in our intepretation of events, but that you understand reality and I am deluded. We can't have a polite disagreement among equals because "reality" is on your side and not mine. Why would I bother to talk to someone who thinks like that?

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

#57

Post by sofixa »

Veen wrote: post #56
sofixa wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it certainly has an anti-Tory Remainer bias And so does reality. Brexit, recent Tory governments are mismanaged unmitigated disasters. Is there anything broadly positive that can be said of them? Vaccination was decently managed, that's for sure.

What do you expect me to say in response? You've stated that your opinion is the only realistic appraisal of the situation. That implies we don't merely disagree in our intepretation of events, but that you understand reality and I am deluded. We can't have a polite disagreement among equals because "reality" is on your side and not mine. Why would I bother to talk to someone who thinks like that?

I'm not trying to convince you, i'm merely stating that it's incredibly hard to look at the Tories and Brexit and come out with positive things to say. If that doesn't match your opinion, i highly doubt you'd reconsider based on an online discussion. Anyone who can overlook everything they've failed at ( be it on a diplomatic, personal or whatever level) - just the corrupt crony contracts they gave for the emergency Brexit ferries or NHS emergency supplies at the beginning at the pandemic and their violation of just signed international agreements by them would be game over for me - either sees things very differently ( e.g. agrees with their generic policies and is willing to accept utter clowns failing at being even remotely competent) or is too stupid/brainwashed/naive/etc. to even consider the reality. I can somewhat understand the first one, but neither can be changed IMHO. And i don't actually care, it's not my country, it's one that's really trying to distance itself from mine, so goodspeed to them.

And note, i'm not in any way saying the other UK parties are somewhat better or would do a better job, i don't have a serious opinion on them. But that does in no way excuse the clown car crash.

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

#58

Post by ashtonkem »

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.

Classic problem for commodities. Fuel demand isn’t terribly elastic, most of us won’t random change how much we need to drive, but fuel purchases are very elastic. Given a risk of a shortage everyone can decide to top up their tank today rather than next week, and if enough people do that stations can run out.

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

#59

Post by signaturefish »

alias_neo wrote: post #48
onethought wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure what "more pv" means here, apologies. I see your point, in your situation that's great, but I live in an Nth floor apartment in a London borough, I don't have an option for solar, nor for a wall socket to power an EV, nor do any of my neighbours. We're entirely at the mercy of Freeholders to consider putting EV charging in and _only_ charging us the price of a small motor vehicle for the privilege, if th…

pv == photovoltaics - rooftop solar panels, in this case.

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

#60

Post by ashtonkem »

Veen wrote: post #56
sofixa wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it certainly has an anti-Tory Remainer bias And so does reality. Brexit, recent Tory governments are mismanaged unmitigated disasters. Is there anything broadly positive that can be said of them? Vaccination was decently managed, that's for sure.

What do you expect me to say in response? You've stated that your opinion is the only realistic appraisal of the situation. That implies we don't merely disagree in our intepretation of events, but that you understand reality and I am deluded. We can't have a polite disagreement among equals because "reality" is on your side and not mine. Why would I bother to talk to someone who thinks like that?

One can have their own opinion on whether brexit should have happened, but it’s extremely hard to argue that the tories haven’t been handling this poorly.
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