Category Archives: Transport

Can we afford such a cosseted society?

For the last 15 months or so, I’ve been taking my life in my hands on my daily commute to and from work. My chosen route takes me along a notorious stretch of road in the Hampshire countryside. Judging by what I seen with my own eyes, the warnings are justified. Firstly, if the regular collections of roadside flowers and ‘CRASH’ appeal signs are anything to go by, at least 5 people have lost their lives during the time I have been travelling this route.

Now, granted I don’t know the particular details of each fatality but I have seen how stupidly people can choose to drive and ride along this road. For ‘petrolheads’ and ‘speedfreaks’ it is what you would describe as an excellent ‘recreational’ road, with twisting corners, gradients and long sweeping sections.

Next time I am on a motorbike I am going to make a point of riding this road and I am well aware I will be doing so at my own risk. If I ride dangerously and ‘don’t’ think about what I’m doing I expect to do damage either to myself, the bike, another person or all of these. I expect to have to take responsibility for these actions.

What I don’t expect however is if I should kill myself through stupid actions that the local authorities will spend countless thousands on adding more warning signs, resurfacing the road in pretty colours, writing ‘slow’ on every corner and putting padding around telegraph poles. Continue reading →

iCar = Efficient + Intelligent + Fun

When I first started my current role in the automotive industry last year, I met with a bunch of publishers to understand more about the industry and how the media were covering it. Towards the top of the list was Future Publishing with titles like Fast Bikes, Fast Car and Redline and well known car mod events such as TRAX, JapFest and FordFair.

Fast forward 12 months and Future has just launched Issue One of iCar described as ‘The Definitive Guide to More Efficient Motoring’ and with a tagline of Efficient, Intelligent, Fun.

Now, there are posts on this blog that make it clear I like ‘fast’ and I like ‘fun’ however, having attended a few of these car mod events in the last year, I have to be brutally honest and say that the words ‘Efficient’ and ‘Intelligent’ would be pretty low down the list of adjectives I’d associate with them. Therefore, reading the manifesto of the iCar editorial team is like taking a breath of fresh (exhaust fume free) air… Continue reading →

Something well worth boasting about…

In contrast to my previous post about the self-congratulatory double page spread McDonalds had in The Times the other day, IBM took a more modest single page today to publicise their 100th anniversary.

As readers of my often cynical and sceptical blog posts about the murky activities of corporate organisations may know, I have deep respect and a bit of a soft spot for ‘Big Blue’. To say that it is an organisation with substance and authenticity is an understatement and just those few highlights of achievements in the advert below reinforce that view.

click for larger view

The 100 Icons of Progress can be read more easily and in its entirety here. Here are my top ten from an organisation that really has changed the world for the better… Continue reading →

Having fun with the sun

Saturday in the Hoskins household was Dad and youngest Daughter day as Mum and eldest Daughter went off to the cinema and shopping. It was a nice sunny winter’s day for a change, after several weeks of rain and a great opportunity to play with a toy I bought her for Christmas. As I have daughters and not sons, the usual tradition of fathers buying toys for their sons that they can play with themselves hasn’t really applied in our household to date, as I grew out of playing with dolls when I was about five 😉

The toy is an interesting kit that I spotted a while back that enables you to experiment with solar power. Although it is designed for the 10+ age category, my daughter, who is close to 9, had no problems following the assembly instructions and building the various components from the ‘Airfix’ style kit. That process was a useful lesson in how an electric motor and gears work and also the basic elements of a solar panel. The only fiddly bit was attaching the wires and when I finally twigged that I was making it more complicated than it needed to be, even that was pretty simple.

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A Cartorcycle? – WOOT! (before 2020 please)…

I’m not particularly materialistic and hardly ever feel the need to have the latest and greatest gadget – be that a big expensive gadget like a car or a small one like a phone. And when I do invest in something, you can be sure that pragmatic practicality, robustness, economy and value for money are top of the list of considerations. So it is a rare occasion when I see an item, or the concept for one, and think – I really, really ‘Want One Of Those’.

With my current interest in the automotive industry and the gathering pace of innovation that currently surrounds it, I have researched and reviewed many different automotive ideas during the last 18 months or so. One that has stood out particularly is the increasing convergence of the car and motorcycle.

Continue reading →