"Motorists have ruined England"

"Motorists have ruined England"

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sherbertdip

Original Poster:

1,097 posts

118 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
I searched but couldn't find this article referenced on PH, so here it is;

I actually agree, but the clocks can't be turned back.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/110644...

MrBarry123

6,025 posts

120 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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The level of car ownership within a nation has historically, and continues to be, an indicator of a nation's wealth. An increase in the number of cars suggests we've become richer as a nation, which in turn has benefitted all of us to some degree - probably more so than the increase in the number of cars has affected us detrimentally.

Not sure what point I'm making however though I'd post anyway.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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He says 80% of the population lives in 'urban areas' and therefore has no real need for a car.

Well I'm one of the 20% who doesn't live in an 'urban area', so he can stick his ideas to price everyone off the road up his arse.
Just this evening I drove 11 miles to a friends house. A door-to-door journey that took me a mere 10 minutes in my car following some serious yet enjoyable speeding.

How the hell else does he suggest I get there?

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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NinjaPower said:
How the hell else does he suggest I get there?
Cycle, walk or run.

Oakey

27,523 posts

215 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Right, because he really wants to be Sweaty McSweatballs when he arrives at his destination

Some Gump

12,671 posts

185 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Bellend writing for the telegraph writes bellend article claiming in it's first paragraph that it'll cause every bellend to call him a bellend in the comments - as if that makes them all bellends and therefore his bellendery is okay.

Anyway, journo talking from extremely narrow perspective has a point, within that very narrow perspective. Naturally, in the bigger picture, he's talking our of his arse. The bellend.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Oakey said:
Right, because he really wants to be Sweaty McSweatballs when he arrives at his destination
Yeah right, I want to spend an hour just getting to a friends house... and then an hour to get home. And as said above, maybe I don't want to arrive sweaty and probably soaked with rain.

otolith

55,899 posts

203 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Can we not just ban cars from London so they can stop trying to impose solutions for their local problem on the rest of the country?

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Oakey said:
Right, because he really wants to be Sweaty McSweatballs when he arrives at his destination
You could cycle slowly? Not every bike journey results in you being sweaty, unless you are really fat and unfit.

Pit Pony

8,265 posts

120 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
NinjaPower said:
He says 80% of the population lives in 'urban areas' and therefore has no real need for a car.

Well I'm one of the 20% who doesn't live in an 'urban area', so he can stick his ideas to price everyone off the road up his arse.
Just this evening I drove 11 miles to a friends house. A door-to-door journey that took me a mere 10 minutes in my car following some serious yet enjoyable speeding.

How the hell else does he suggest I get there?
My son has just started renting a flat in NW7 not far from Mill Hill Broadway, the M1, and the A41.

I rent a room, midweek (4 nights a week) in Hemel Hempstead, some 20 miles away.

The other week, I came down with him from home (Merseyside) to share the driving (as he's not much motorway experience) and stayed the night with him, before getting PUBIC transport to the place I'm contracting at in Hemel.

So I left his flat at 7:15 am, and got to work at 9 am, (taking a train, and a bus, and a bit of a walk, at a total cost of about £11.40

Later that day, he came in his car to go climbing at a climbing wall. He texted me at 5pm to say he was on his way and arrived at 5:30 despite having got a 'bit lost' when he ignored the sat nav. Cost? I'm guessing £3 of fuel.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
NinjaPower said:
Yeah right, I want to spend an hour just getting to a friends house... and then an hour to get home. And as said above, maybe I don't want to arrive sweaty and probably soaked with rain.

The point is, there are other methods for you to get to you friends house, just that you can't be arsed using them.

Moonhawk

10,730 posts

218 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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NinjaPower said:
He says 80% of the population lives in 'urban areas' and therefore has no real need for a car.
Hmm - i'm guessing this guy lives and works in London (looks at his wiki page - yep thought so)

He may have a point about how many people live in urban areas - but unless they also work in the same urban area and their family also live in the same urban area - the point is pretty moot. Public transport within a certain urban area may be usable - but getting between them or to places that lie outside of them can be more problematic.

Public transport is all well and good in theory and can even compete with car ownership in terms of cost - right up until you start to factor things like the following:

1. Multiple occupancy
2. Transporting Stuff (shopping, luggage etc)
3. Pets
4. Getting places at unsociable hours
5. Getting to and from lower population areas

The fact is - we don't live in a world where people work a short distance from where they live any more. Local amenities have been being cut back and centralised for years.

Successive governments have overseen planning huge out of town housing developments with few local amenities and few public transport links. Similarly with the planning and building of large out of town shopping and leisure complexes.

The local rail network has been systematically reduced - whilst the cost of public transport in most places has rocketed (most of us aren't lucky enough to still have access to a nationalised public transport system with daily spending caps). Privatised bus services only run on routes and at times when they are likely to make a profit.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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I live in SW London and public transport is probably only useful for 1% of my annual journeys. Cycling - well, it's too dangerous and/or difficult with the stuff I need for my business (idea someone could drive ahead and drop my stuff at my destination then pick it up and drive back when I've finished).

One problem is that there's probably a marketing manager/teacher/plumber who lives in Kingston and travels to Wimbledon everyday. And there's probably an equally qualified/experienced marketing manager/teacher/plumber who lives in Wimbledon and travels to Kingston everyday. biggrin

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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otolith said:
Can we not just ban cars from London so they can stop trying to impose solutions for their local problem on the rest of the country?
Bing!!!! Post of the year!

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
el stovey said:
NinjaPower said:
Yeah right, I want to spend an hour just getting to a friends house... and then an hour to get home. And as said above, maybe I don't want to arrive sweaty and probably soaked with rain.

The point is, there are other methods for you to get to you friends house, just that you can't be arsed using them.
There is virtually no public transport that runs from where I live to where he lives, except for very few busses which only run a few times during the day. not evenings or weekends.

My only other option, as has been pointed out, is cycling, which frankly I'm not going to do as I don't have the time to spend 2 hours of my evening in just travelling time. That is ridiculous.

The other example is that my parents live exactly 40 miles away, a journey which on a slow day can take about 40-45 minutes if everyone sits at the regulation 60mph, or about 35 minutes if the roads are deserted in the evenings and I open the taps a bit.

I do this journey at least once or twice a week as I work on business projects with my dad.

My only other alternative if I had no car, would be to walk to the train station (20 minutes), get the train which incredibly takes over 1 hour and 15 minutes to do the 40 miles and a few stops, then at the other end I would still be around 5 miles away, meaning I would need a taxi as my parents live in the middle of nowhere and there is no bus route. Overall the 'public transport' route would take me around 1 Hour 45 minutes.

All those hours add up, and all I can think of is 'what a waste of my life'.

The poster above said this is yet again a 'London problem' being thrust upon the rest if the UK, and he is correct.

Dog Star

16,079 posts

167 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Jesus! What a crock of st that article is! London London LONDON!!!! fk OFFFFFFFFFF! I don't live in London!

Cyclists "make no imposition" on other road users?!? What the actual fk?!? Apart from having acres of road space turned over to their self righteous selves, holding up traffic endlessly and then pushing back in front again at every set of lights and holding everyone up again - fk OFFFFFFF!

PanzerCommander

5,026 posts

217 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
NinjaPower said:
There is virtually no public transport that runs from where I live to where he lives, except for very few busses which only run a few times during the day. not evenings or weekends.

My only other option, as has been pointed out, is cycling, which frankly I'm not going to do as I don't have the time to spend 2 hours of my evening in just travelling time. That is ridiculous.

The other example is that my parents live exactly 40 miles away, a journey which on a slow day can take about 40-45 minutes if everyone sits at the regulation 60mph, or about 35 minutes if the roads are deserted in the evenings and I open the taps a bit.

I do this journey at least once or twice a week as I work on business projects with my dad.

My only other alternative if I had no car, would be to walk to the train station (20 minutes), get the train which incredibly takes over 1 hour and 15 minutes to do the 40 miles and a few stops, then at the other end I would still be around 5 miles away, meaning I would need a taxi as my parents live in the middle of nowhere and there is no bus route. Overall the 'public transport' route would take me around 1 Hour 45 minutes.

All those hours add up, and all I can think of is 'what a waste of my life'.

The poster above said this is yet again a 'London problem' being thrust upon the rest if the UK, and he is correct.
Yep.

I drive to work 80% of the time, it takes around 20 minutes. Once a week (Friday) I cycle in, it takes 40 minutes (2 miles shorter) plus getting a shower when I get to work (add another 15 minutes). I cycle because I enjoy it, if I didn't I wouldn't do it. I can't cycle slowly anywhere and avoid the shower on the other end because I find cycling slowly as infuriating as being stuck behind somebody doing 40mph in a 60mph zone for no discernible reason.

Public transport takes longer than cycling because I have no direct route, I have to take 1 bus (or cycle - if they let me on with the push bike) and two trains (may as well be two as it comes into the station and sits there for 10 minutes) or 1 bus and one train.

Public transport makes me have to wait around - which is actually the annoying part, sat waiting. I am the kind of person that would take a 40 mile detour just so I didn't have to sit in traffic even if it cost more and took longer.

AlexRS2782

8,023 posts

212 months

Monday 1st September 2014
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Pit Pony said:
...........

The other week, I came down with him from home (Merseyside) to share the driving (as he's not much motorway experience) and stayed the night with him, before getting PUBIC transport to the place I'm contracting at in Hemel.

...........
Having travelled on quite a few trains / buses over the last 20 odd years that made me chuckle, given that you could probably find remnants of pubes, amongst other things, on a fair number of trains / buses in the London / South East hehe

In relation to the question of public transport vs using my car, on average I can drive from J4 of the M3 to St Albans in about 50 minutes in good / normal traffic.

Doing the same journey there using public transport takes me about 3 & 1/2 hours utilising South West Trains, Southern & First Capital Connect with at least 4 changes inbetween, plus the waiting for a connection and the use of 1 bus & walking thrown in as well, or the Underground if a connecting train has problems. And that doesn't account for the prerequisite delays, cancellations, etc (although SWT & FCC are normally not too bad)

I cant wait to do the same trip later this year once London Bridge is closed again (more permanently) as that will mean at least an extra 30-45 minutes to account for, having to take a different route.

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Monday 1st September 22:48

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
sherbertdip said:
I searched but couldn't find this article referenced on PH, so here it is;

I actually agree, but the clocks can't be turned back.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/110644...
Alex Proud? It's just click bait. He's like the male equivalent of Samantha Brick.

basherX

2,464 posts

160 months

Monday 1st September 2014
quotequote all
In fairness to the author he's proposing variable road pricing not an outright ban. I'd agree with him that this *might* be one part of a solution to easing congestion and the related externalities but what he's proposing is, in effect, a regressive form of road taxation (I know current fuel taxation is also) and as such I can't see it being politically supportable. Of course, one could devise a (fiendishly complicated) more progressive system but since that would affect me dispropotionately I'd like to say that I'll be having none of that in my backyard thank you very much.