[Closed] Driving Rant: An act of unparalleled egocentrism

Crap rant. Far too correct for starters. And you've used logic.

No mention of "migrants", the welfare state, obsolete wheel sizes, Jeremy Corbyn / David Hameron, Tamiya R/C Cars or historical child abuse perpetrated by 70's PE teachers.
A poor effort. 3/10.
You'll need to up your game if you want to be next weeks Star Baker.

I pay road tax.
It's my god(vla) given right.
You'll prise my keys out of my cold dead hands.
I am The Road Warrior

no one would possibly think of parking some ways away from their destination

And of course when we get home many of us (including me) expect to be able to just leave our car sat on the public highway outside our house where it will spend the majority of its time. And everyone just accepts this as normal and reasonable.

to harness that much power, just to transport a single, 80 kilogram* creature 4 miles*

4 miles? I know plenty of people who'd automatically get in their car if they had to travel more than 10 yards. To all intents and purposes they've effectively lost the use of their legs. You always knew Wall-e was going to be taken as something to aim for, right?...

[img] [/img]

And of course when we get home many of us (including me) expect to be able to just leave our car sat on the public highway outside our house

In the actual street? 😯
My driver would be getting his jotters if he did that.

I'm assuming you subsequently arrived at work a little earlier than usual, thus giving you some free time to have a moan about...... What exactly?

80 kilogram* creature 4 miles* so that s/he can earn enough money to pay for the car that gets him/her there, has got to be one of the most inefficient enterprises the human race has ever engaged in.

I work to pay for many more things than a car.

4 miles? I know plenty of people who'd automatically get in their car if they had to travel more than 10 yards. To all intents and purposes they've effectively lost the use of their legs. You always knew Wall-e was going to be taken as something to aim for, right?...

Yep, sounds about right. I ride to work through a housing development in the morning. There's a path from there through a nice park to the station, about 400m.

I quite often see this guy waddle out his house in his bulging suit, into his big Merc E class and drive to the station.

In my old job, I had a colleague who drove 300m to work from his house. It was 300m to walk, and about 600m to drive followed by a 100m walk. Total stupidity.

I have a vague notion that something is fundamentally wrong with our way of thinking when the majority of people have jobs/houses that mean their commute is longer than a walk/quick cycle/short bus ride. The idea that people willingly spend 1-2 hrs every day driving (or even worse, stuck in traffic jams) baffles me. Unfortunately, it's probably not fixable given the nature of our society.

Everyone taking public transport whenever possible would be a good start though - the massive influx of cash would bring very rapid infrastructure improvements I'm sure. Of course no-one is prepared to do that as long as driving is as cheap as it is.

Som of the research into the psychology behind driving behaviours is very interesting and somewhat disturbing...

I'm assuming you subsequently arrived at work a little earlier than usual, thus giving you some free time to have a moan about...... What exactly?

The philosophy, or lack of it, behind driving a car when it is less than necessary.

I work to pay for many more things than a car.

My assumption may have been based on a degree of rant-based exaggeration.

I have a vague notion that something is fundamentally wrong with our way of thinking when the majority of people have jobs/houses that mean their commute is longer than a walk/quick cycle/short bus ride. The idea that people willingly spend 1-2 hrs every day driving (or even worse, stuck in traffic jams) baffles me. Unfortunately, it's probably not fixable given the nature of our society.

I would agree with that.

The problem is that car use is so ingrained in many people that the idea of not using one is completely alien, it's not a concious decision for most people "I shall drive", it's just what they do and to not do it takes a real change of mindset.

I sold my car last year as it was spending too much time sat doing nothing and even for a cycling, train loving, bus tolerating person like me it took some real effort to adapt.

Unfortunately, it's probably not fixable given the nature of our society.

You shouldn't be so pessimistic. Peoples behaviour is changing. All shopping trends show that people are rejecting out-of-town shops they have to drive too, in favour of more local shopping. Hence all the supermarkets shelving all there plans for more of their mega-barns, in favour of small local shops.

Depends where you live too. When I lived in the city, I didn't need a car. I cycled or used public transport all the time. Which was always great.

Now I'm out in the sticks you genuinely can't manage without one. The public transport is laughable. I recently tried to conduct a journey of 14 miles to the next town, when my car was in for a service. It took hours, massive detours, and constant changes. To get 14 bloody miles! To a major town! On a weekday morning! I then had to scrounge a lift home as the buses stopped at 5. Nobody is going to leave their cars at home when public transport is so truly appalling

near my work there are a couple of "2+" lanes - i.e. lanes that you're only allowed to use if there are 2 or more people in your car.

Occasionally i get a lift to work and we sail up these completely empty lanes, past the standstill traffic in the other two lanes.

Took me a while for it to really sink in that, therefore, almost every one of this ocean of 1500kg lumps of metal full of fuel and oil is just transporting a single person. You could probably fit them all on a couple of buses.

It's obvious really, but still struck me as somehow surreal...

An anecdote.

I took my daughter to school in the bike trailer. The lane I wanted was blocked by cars all doing the drop off, so I had to wait. As I was waiting, a motorist complained to me that the congestion was all because of parents doing the school run. Said motorist was dropping her daughter off at the school.

With such a stunning lack of self-awareness, I suggest prospects for improvement are weak.

Hence all the supermarkets shelving all there plans for more of their mega-barns, in favour of small local shops

doris5000 - Member

Took me a while for it to really sink in that, therefore, almost every one of this ocean of 1500kg lumps of metal full of fuel and oil is just transporting a single person. You could probably fit them all on a couple of buses.

It's obvious really, but still struck me as somehow surreal...

This times a gazillion. You have said what I had wanted to in a more succinct way.

My assumption may have been based on a degree of rant-based exaggeration.

We'll have none of that on here. I've never heard of such a thing happening.

I still love driving around the country 😀 just like I did on my first legal motorbike ride at 16.

Occasionally i get a lift to work and we sail up these completely empty lanes, past the standstill traffic in the other two lanes.

In a recent FB discussion loads of people were complaining about 2+ lanes and bus/taxi/cycle lanes - saying they were virtually empty whilst [i]everyone[/i] driving was stuck in stationary traffic.

It was completely lost on them that:

A) most of them had the option to use those lanes too if they changed their transport choices.

B) they were "virtually empty" because they worked well and allowed buses, taxis and 2+ cars to get on with their journey smoothly. If they were just as packed as the other lanes [i]then[/i] they would be pointless.

You could probably fit them all on a couple of buses.

Famous image that has been reproduced quite a few times, but people still don't get the message:

[img] [/img]

I quite often see this guy waddle out his house in his bulging suit, into his big Merc E class and drive to the station.

In my old job, I had a colleague who drove 300m to work from his house. It was 300m to walk, and about 600m to drive followed by a 100m walk. Total stupidity.

I asked a former colleague about that once. He said he did it because if he didn't then he'd lose his parking spot. I pointed out that he had another one 300m away that he couldn't possibly lose and he looked at me like I'd been huffing paint thinners.

one of the most inefficient enterprises the human race has ever engaged in.

Efficient in terms of what?

Our entire civilisation is based on growth, and from that point of view it's very efficient. You buy a new car, it drives engineering and research into better cars to get you to buy another one. You buy fuel, which transfers money to companies that can invest in getting more fuel out of the ground and making it cheaper, which allows you to buy more, which allows them to expand and employ more people, and so on.

Growth is still universally seen as good, and it has a lot of benefits, but it can have lots of massive downsides too. What we need is a way of generating growth that doens't rely on material goods, but that's scorned on STW.

No mention of........historical child abuse perpetrated by 70's

He did start to sing a bit of the theme tune for Jim'l fix it......

I mean, to use that many resources (in terms of raw materials), and to harness that much power, just to transport a single, 80 kilogram* creature 4 miles* so that s/he can earn enough money to pay for the car that gets him/her there, has got to be one of the most inefficient enterprises the human race has ever engaged in.

epic fail.

I work so that I can pay mortgage, clothes, food, holidays, kids activities, bikes blah blah blah. The cost of the car is small outgoing compared to other life costs.

Pah, that wasn't a rant - that was a mild musing. (I agree, btw)

[b]This[/b] is a [s]poem[/s] rant:

[url] http://cfu.freehostia.com/Members/colin/autogeddon/ [/url]

I used to ride the 14 miles into work. The reaction I'd get when I said I'd done that was like I'd announced I'd run 5 back-to-back marathons, then done a few thousand press-ups for good measure.

To most people, riding that distance was about as likely to happen as paragliding to the moon. I'm not convinced it would have been any more likely if it was only 2 miles. They simply couldn't conceive of not arriving at work by car. Its just what you do, isn't it?

80kg - optimistic aren't you? Or is that just the children of those who absolutely have to drive everywhere? 🙂

Just had the parking rant at work. Someone with a BMW X5 always abandons it near the building rather than use the overflow carpark. Now either the X5 is so cr@p at off road that it can't cope with a gravel overflow carpark, or the fat bloke driving it is a fat bloke because he can't walk the extra 200 yards 🙁

one of the most inefficient enterprises the human race has ever engaged in

Unlike trying to get the wife, 3 kids and the mother in law on to a bicycle to transport them 70 miles for a weekend away which is massively efficient compared to going in the car. 😯

I'm pretty comfortable in my belief that the modern automobile has a useful function to serve in our society.

"Only 65 Miles to go guys! Keep pedalling Granny!

[img] [/img]

^^WTF^^^ 😀

Because of my job, it's pretty difficult for me to be able to use anything other than a van to get to work. I hate that - of course, I use it to justify to myself, that [b][i]I'm[/i][/b] ok to be on the road but every other bastard is just delaying me.

I'm sick of bloody plodding around in a van everywhere, most every bloody day. I am actively involved in changing my shite to have to drive less.

And that (from reading posts above*) is what a lot of people seem to miss. You are traffic. I am traffic. We are all ****ing traffic and we are all delaying one another from getting from A to B. As roads become more congested, we're all behaving like rats in a cage ie. happy to co-exist when there's lots of space for everyone, but as it gets more congested, we become more aggressive towards one another - all in the name of making brief progress to the back of another queue somewhere.

I do quite a bit of daddy day care and try to do all our non-cyclable journeys on a bus - not because it's the fluffy right thing to do, but he's going to have to get used to how expensive it will become to use a car in the future. (I don't think self-driving cars are as close as we think sometimes.)

*EDIT: I didn't mean that most posters were missing this, rather implying it.

OP is spot on.

My commute is pretty short (5.5 miles). I cycle most days but not all.

I often wonder how many people are actually travelling further than me in their cars.

Most journeys of between 2 and 5 miles are done by car, why?

Even if we could persuade people to cycle one day a week the benefits would be huge.

Efficient in terms of what?

It is inefficient in that most of the fuel used is spent on moving the vehicle itself. The weight of the passenger is a fraction of the overall mass.

Likewise it uses a huge amount of space just to transport one person.

Unlike trying to get the wife, 3 kids and the mother in law on to a bicycle to transport them 70 miles for a weekend away which is massively efficient compared to going in the car.

I'm pretty comfortable in my belief that the modern automobile has a useful function to serve in our society.

No one is saying otherwise.

This one comes up a lot with the anti-everything-but-cars mob.

"Yeah these bus and cycle lanes are all well and good, but how am I supposed to get a three flat pack wardrobes and a double bed back from Ikea on a bike?"

Use a car/van. They are good for those jobs. That doesn't mean you also have to use one to drive 200 yards to buy a pint of milk.

You shouldn't be so pessimistic. Peoples behaviour is changing. All shopping trends show that people are rejecting out-of-town shops they have to drive too, in favour of more local shopping.

The fact that I pull up on my bike outside Mozzers Megamart and lock it up alongside two other bicycles (one I'm sure never leaves the rail so probablybelongs to a shelf-stacker) and look back at a sea of parked cars...leads me to skepticism.

Also, 'city' living extends much farther than the centre. In my (most of lifetime) experience as a cycling commuter in the Midlands - cars are the norm for most short journeys in the (massive) conurbation, as are retail parks. The only differences made to the growing car usage seems to be easing the passage of this increased traffic by the building of bypasses and wider roads. It feels like chasing the dragon.

I'm part of the problem.

Every morning I take the 5 steps to my car on the drive, for an 18-mile commute which is mostly motoprway. I park about 20 yards from the office door.

This takes approximately 1 hour. Yesterday it took 1.5 hours (no accidents, just traffic). Thats an average of 12mph, sat there getting slowly closer to death, all alone in my tin coffin belching fumes (and not just any fumes, these were VW fumes).

I could cycle to work, which is actually shorter (14 miles) but which is the shittest ride you could imagine, straight the the centre of Southampton from one side to the other, with a good selection of major A roads, complex junctions and huge roundabouts. Even the bits on cycle lanes are lethal, I'd be surprised if I lasted a week doing that.

And it was raining this morning. *Despairs*

cars are the norm for most short journeys in the (massive) conurbation,

So, basically, what you're saying is that car drivers are a bunch of massive conurbators? 😯

Any train/ride hybrid options?

I wonder if anyone's thought of making a 'crosslift' bus service - like an uplift, but to take you across the ugly bit of whatever town you live in. So cyclists would go to a hub in the pleasant suburbs, get on a bus, put the bike in a trailer, and get dropped off somewhere else useful.

car drivers are a bunch of massive conurbators?

No worse than the fervent mass debaters on here.

Our entire civilisation is based on growth, and from that point of view it's very efficient. You buy a new car, it drives engineering and research into better cars to get you to buy another one. You buy fuel, which transfers money to companies that can invest in getting more fuel out of the ground and making it cheaper, which allows you to buy more, which allows them to expand and employ more people, and so on.

franksinatra - Member
I mean, to use that many resources (in terms of raw materials), and to harness that much power, just to transport a single, 80 kilogram* creature 4 miles* so that s/he can earn enough money to pay for the car that gets him/her there, has got to be one of the most inefficient enterprises the human race has ever engaged in.
epic fail.

I work so that I can pay mortgage, clothes, food, holidays, kids activities, bikes blah blah blah. The cost of the car is small outgoing compared to other life costs

The cost of the car may be small for you but for a lot of people, an increasing number of people, the cost of the car is a major thing. How many people lease cars? At a minimum of a couple of hundred a month, plus insurance and everything else? You are talking, what, £300+ just to run a smallish car, just to keep up with the neighbours on the new car front. I know people who lease two cars for the family, spending £500+ on cars they don't own every month. That's ludicrous.

Thats an average of 12mph, sat there getting slowly closer to death, all alone in my tin coffin belching fumes

I had the unpleasant experience of having to get from the East of Manchester to the west in the rush hour. People do that journey every day, in both directions. My god, all that wasted time. What else could we be doing? Spending time with our families, learning a foreign language, cooking, enjoying the outdoors, inventing cures for cancer.
It's bad enough having to go to work without spending 4 hours a day sitting in traffic for the privilege.
It doesn't pay to think too hard about a lot of aspects of modern life...

The idea that people willingly spend 1-2 hrs every day driving

I'm far happier spending 40 minutes riding than 45 minutes driving to work. I get to use the car twice a week to keep the Spottydog amused otherwise he goes stir crazy at home. (We sometimes drive part way and ride in but that adds an hour to the commute. The river has a strange attraction to him even in the depths of winter).

I had the unpleasant experience of having to get from the East of Manchester to the west in the rush hour. People do that journey every day, in both directions.

I know people who lease two cars for the family, spending £500+ on cars they don't own every month. That's ludicrous.

[url= http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/audi-tts-driven-exclusively-by-people-who-cant-really-afford-them-2014052186817 ]Indeed[/url] 😀

Also people are brain dead enough to complain about being stuck daily in rush hour traffic. You are the problem you idiot!

excellent contribution, 10/10

would read again

Our entire civilisation is based on growth

Absent an agreed definition of 'civilisation' ... and 'growth' for that matter. Plants grow, for instance and get recycled.

Other types of growth not so much:

[img] http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2014-04-08-OceanPlasticsEarthDrReeseHalter [/img]

Complaining about traffic while driving a car is a bit like going swimming and moaning about getting wet.

Douglas Adams was right when he named one of his characters Ford Prefect* - they were visting from Beetlegeuse and had mistaken the dominant life form. Naming themselves after a car seemed like the best way to blend in.

*suppose it would be Ford Focus these days

molgrips: I've seen stuff like that in other countries.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

But if anything the UK is moving away from any notion of integrated public transport. Most trains don't take bikes now (or only have room for two at off peak times, provided nobody in a wheelchair needs the space) and I've never seen a regular public transport bus or tram with a bike rack.

In Newcastle [url= http://road.cc/content/news/52483-tyne-wear-metro-operator-rejects-calls-allow-trial-letting-bikes-trains ]after years of campaigning[/url] they finally plan to run a six-month trial of allowing bikes on the Metro this autumn [i]"in order to understand the benefits to users of being able to use bicycles on the Metro system along with any restrictions which are needed "[/i]

Naturally the trial is only operating between a couple of stations, at off-peak times:

[b]Scheme rules[/b]

• Bicycles can be carried between Jesmond and Callerton Parkway in both directions Monday – Friday, 1000 hours – 1500 hours only;

• No bicycles will be allowed during engineering works which affect this area of the network due to bus access restrictions;

• Bicycles must be stored safely in the designated area and not left unattended at any time;

• A maximum of two bicycles per train (one per carriage) can be carried at any one time;

• Where a wheelchair user is already on board the cyclist will need to move to another Metrocar or wait for the next service;

• Where a wheelchair user intends to board the cyclist will need
to move to another Metrocar or wait for the next service.

🙄

I love to drive to trail centers and ride my bike, I'm not one of those losers who needs to ride to work. A man has a right to jump in his Audi and go!

But if anything the UK is moving away from any notion of integrated public transport

I've got so many rants about public transport I'd better not start. (Oh I will - after many years of opposing a bypass, to take traffic away from my neighbourhood, the council built a bus lane specially for the new bendy buses. Because, what public transport needs is to go down a road where there's nobody to pick up. 🙄 The bendy buses are now being retired for various reasons only a few years after massively redesigning the city centre to accomodate them.)

Anyway, I went to a funeral yesterday about 20 miles away. A town right next to the M4. My MiL got the bus - it took two and a half hours to get there. Why do people bother with cars?

^^^^

It's stuff like that that really pisses me off.

Everyone acknowledges that increased cycling is a Good Thing.

Central government, health professionals, Local government all agree, more cycling is a Good Thing.

But on the ground the square root of chuff all is actually done to support it. There are portions of the press that actively portray cycling negatively as well.

There are portions of the press that actively portray cycling negatively as well.

The local paper was trying to stir up debate on the cost of the new cycle lane to the new uni campus. How many millions are we talking? £50,000.
I'd have thought that was a bargain, but it seems that not everyone agrees.

after many years of opposing a bypass, to take traffic away from my neighbourhood, the council built a bus lane specially for the new bendy buses. Because, what public transport needs is to go down a road where there's nobody to pick up. The bendy buses are now being retired for various reasons only a few years after massively redesigning the city centre to accomodate them

argh!

but, does that provide the opportunity to campaign for the council to designate these nice new bus lanes as cycle routes?

How many millions are we talking? £50,000.
I'd have thought that was a bargain, but it seems that not everyone agrees.

People have no idea how much is spent on roads though.

£50 grand is still £28 grand less than the cost of ONE YARD of the M74.

[img] [/img]

Total cost of the 5-mile extension to the M74? [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13931242 ]£692 million[/url]

Spend a lot of times on the roads as part of my job, quote often able to sit there (going nowhere on the m25 normally) and and muse objectively at the sheer madness of it all.

How bad does it have to get before there is a real change? And what would that change be? It's one of those profoundly difficult (and depressing) problems we face*. Surely something has to give, as it's only going to get a lot lot worse. So what is the solution?

My thoery - mass public transit systems of some description, possibly yet to be invented, and 'cars' being increasingly the preserve of the rich/privileged.
Either that or a dramatic reduction/removal in the requirement for so many people to move around.

*See also; Obesity, over population, dwindling natural resources, economic inequality, etc..

How bad does it have to get before there is a real change?

Well the government gave a pretty strong signal on their commitment to public transport when, within 3 seconds of being elected, they scrapped all the promised rail improvements to George's 'Northern Powerhouse'.

The railways in the north are a shambles. Truly terrible services, with ancient rolling stock running on victorian tracks. There will now be no investment. Or in the similarly awful road links between the northern cities.

We will be getting HS2 though. A huge ****ing stupid white elephant that will cost christ knows how much, and allow bankers to buy big 2nd homes in the Peak District at some indeterminable point in the future.

Unlike trying to get the wife, 3 kids and the mother in law on to a bicycle to transport them 70 miles for a weekend away which is massively efficient compared to going in the car.

Which has chuff all to do with commuting to work. It is simply a fact that most car journeys are short and single-occupancy.

UK

integrated public transport.

It's a real shame, but the sad fact is that public transport in the UK - as a general rule - is simply utter, utter, utter c*ck.

Unless you (by happy accident) live right next to a mainline station, and want to visit somewhere right next to a mainline station. Otherwise I cannot think of a single reason why anyone would want to use it.

As binners posted earlier in thread, if you are remotely near the countryside, forget it, you're better off calling for a taxi.

The older I get, the more I'm becoming anti-mass-excessive-default usage of the fossil-fuel burning private motor vehicle. The amount of damage this behaviour does to the drivers, everyone else in the community and to the planet is collossal...

The good news is now more than any other time in my life (born 1973), we're beginning to accept this, have a dialogue about it and agitate for change. I guess the damage has got so great now - global warming, pollution, obesity, that we can't ignore it - the costs are so clearly greater than the benefits.

You can see from the abuse and bullying meted out to cyclists that a lot of people (in the UK at least) are struggling to cope with the change that's happening, but if you look at government, health professionals and other people who make decisions about how we live, and they're moving in the right direction, albeit at snail's pace...

It'll be interesting to see what the VW situation does to force the debate - this looks likely to impact many more manufacturers. It may wreck VW. It's put the fact that driving is poisoning us all with the fumes right out there into the spotlight - and we all have to face up to this as drivers - we're as complicit as the manufacturers.

I'm particularly interested in this

jamj1974 - Member
Som of the research into the psychology behind driving behaviours is very interesting and somewhat disturbing...

The good news is that this 'addiction' we have to excessive use of the car is relatively recent - back in the 70's and 80's far more people cycled or shared cars - we just have to turn the clock back 30 years to make massive positive change.

I think excessive use of car has gone hand-in-hand with excessive consumerism and debt - and the tide is turning on both these things- we're looking at secular stagnation - static/falling real incomes and living standards. This will help people reconsider how much they can afford to drive everywhere, all the time.

I think everything's falling into place to bring about change but there's vested interests, poor leadership from government, resistance to change amongst the population and utter stupidity to overcome before we get to travel utopia...

I used to ride the 14 miles into work. The reaction I'd get when I said I'd done that was like I'd announced I'd run 5 back-to-back marathons, then done a few thousand press-ups for good measure.

This x 1000

When I tell people I cycled 30 miles at the weekend or cycled from Bolton to Blackpool, I might as well have 2 heads they just don't get it.

Apart from the Bikeabilty lot who you have to justify driving in to........" Had to drive in, I'm at my other job at 11 and I didn't have time to cycle" 😀

Spend a lot of times on the roads as part of my job, quote often able to sit there (going nowhere on the m25 normally) and and muse objectively at the sheer madness of it all.

How bad does it have to get before there is a real change?

I think excessive use of car has gone hand-in-hand with excessive consumerism and debt - and the tide is turning on both these things- we're looking at secular stagnation - static/falling real incomes and living standards. This will help people reconsider how much they can afford to drive everywhere, all the time.

Thats true. But the problem is that public transport in this country isn't really 'public' at all. Its a collection of private monopolies, who can charge what the hell they like for operating a frankly appalling service, and just carry on milking taxpayer subsidies to pay large dividends to their shareholders. This represents their sole priority, and the actual providing a service bit is neither here nor there. Richard Branson (off the record of course) referred to the West Coast Mainline as 'a licence to print money'. No wonder he wants more rail franchises. Its handing people a private monopoly with a guarantee of no competition. What do they think will happen?

Look at the price of walking into Manchester Piccadilly and booking a return train ticket to London, or somewhere really inaccessible, like Bristol, then ask yourself why most people just drive instead. The price of fuel could triple and it'd still be way cheaper than getting the train.

Its no wonder that even the majority of affluent Tory voters in the South East (the ones who actually receive the most public transport investment, by a country mile) want the railways re-nationalised. The whole system is a complete dogs dinner. The 'service' is generally appalling, and the costs are enormous. But, hey... the shareholders are making money, so its all ok, right?

Its a joke! Except it isn't very funny. Unless you're...

[img] [/img]

I've said before, when I am declared Grand Emperor of the World one of my greatest acts will be to make all public transport state-owned and completely free at the point of use.

Unfortunately I'm unlikely to get the job, as I don't fancy being noshed off by a dead pig.

Last night I stuck on R4 and there was a programme discussing car ownership and had some from Helsinki talking about a system where you pay a monthly fee (300 euros?) and basically could use a car, bus, bike, train, etc., any time you liked. The jist of it was that a car spends the majority of the time sat static taking up space. If people 'hired' only when they needed to it would utilise the vehicle properly and just as importantly wouldn't require that wasteful space for parking. Imagine how much space an existing city would gain if there was practically zero parking required.

I thought it made sense (although I was only half listening...).

here it is:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069x6fv

If you just want a quick flash, this might be of interest:

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jul/10/helsinki-shared-public-transport-plan-car-ownership-pointless

Long distance buses here have bike racks on them.

Pretty much every non-urban line bus I've seen in Switzerland and Liechtenstein too have bike racks on them, although I imagine that could vary across specific locations. Here bikes are free on bus, tram and local trains, but wheelchairs take priority, but tbh, one may as well ride anyway.

The carriage jammed with bikes in the pic up there looks interesting.

small amount of rain...

"You rode today? through all this rain??" er yeah it's only spitting but the smallest amount of rain and you put your wipers on cos you have to, ergo it rains a lot in this country (it doesn't)

same for the cold days - it's not that cold

What I don't understand is that a car containing one person has priority over a group of people trying to cross the road!?

Look at the price of walking into Manchester Piccadilly and booking a return train ticket to London, or somewhere really inaccessible, like Bristol, then ask yourself why most people just drive instead.

Binners, it's like that because the trains (at peak times) are full. Make it cheaper, and you woudn't get any more tickets sold.

small amount of rain...

"You rode today? through all this rain??" er yeah it's only spitting but the smallest amount of rain and you put your wipers on cos you have to, ergo it rains a lot in this country (it doesn't)

I had that last Friday.
"you didn't ride in did you? You're either brave or stupid in this weather"

It's just rain. I don't mind getting a bit wet on the way in (as long as I'm not soaked through) and couldn't care less if it tips it down on the way home. It's only 12 miles.

What I don't understand is that a car containing one person has priority over a group of people trying to cross the road!?

Road tax mentality innit. Highway entitlement is 9/10ths of The Perceived Law

The carriage jammed with bikes in the pic up there looks interesting.

That's [url= http://www.caltrain.com ]Caltrain[/url] in the States. They have two "Bike Cars" on their trains and carry up to 80 bikes.

They even have a system of "Destinations Tags" so other cyclists know where you are getting off.

That Caltrain system looks brilliant! Why the hell don't our British companies and governments look at some of the good things happening abroad and imitate them?!?

On a separate note, I am sure the video said that the bike cars are 'the second car behind the locomotive, and the [i]northenmost[/i] car'. How on earth can you tell that in an East-West oriented station?!?

Binners, it's like that because the trains (at peak times) are full. Make it cheaper, and you woudn't get any more tickets sold.

Molls. Thats because nobody is actually paying for their ticket on peak. Its all on corporate expense accounts. But this is the point. Virgin rail exists to milk this market. It doesn't give a monkeys about the rest.

The off-peaks aren't full. Far from it. And is it any bloody wonder why? I've just looked and if I want to travel off-peak to the Smoke tomorrow, the cheapest ticket is £80.50. Single 😯 So an off-peak return ticket is going to cost me, at the very least 160 quid! How doe this fit with an 'integrated public transport' narrative? Its laughable! I could take one of his competitors more reasonably priced trains I suppose. Oh wait... hang on a minute.....

Oh... and an on peak single is over double that, at 167 quid, each way. Do you think I should drive instead Richard...? Do you think the petrol and parking, and even the extravagance of the M6 toll, would come to more than 335 quid?

[img] [/img]

What I don't understand is that a car containing one person has priority over a group of people trying to cross the road!?

Or why anyone in a powered metal box with seats and a heater gets priority over someone moving around using their own muscle power

Obviously I get that roads need a priority system or else there would be (even more) carnage, but currently its far to heavily in favour of motorised transport.

Presumed liabilty would be a good place to start

Apart from treating public transport as a cash cow, we're also crap at urban planning. The model for development seems to be the Barratt estate with a couple of parking spaces outside each house. No public transport, no local jobs, and sprawling towns and cities.

What I don't understand is that a car containing one person has priority over a group of people trying to cross the road!?

One of my pet hates.

All the pedestrian crossings around my way are set entirely in favour of cars. If the sensor detects a car approaching from 300 yards away, the pedestrian has to wait, even if they got there first. They also have to wait through an entire light cycle for the junction regardless of when in the cycle they push the button, almost as if the software running it takes a look at its sensors after everyone else has gone and goes, "Oh, you're still there, are you? Most people would have legged it across by now."

Mums around my way have an effective solution which involves speed walking up to the junction and thrusting the stroller out into oncoming traffic.

[url= http://road.cc/content/news/165253-road-safety-debate-grave-sense-injustice-sentencing-dangerous-driving ]Parliamentary debate on dangerous driving sentencing[/url]

The debate is finally beginning to be heard - albeit we're making very slow progress. Sometimes it does feel like the whole system in the UK is anti-cycling... but this is beginning to change at last...