Trashy Transport Policy
Discussion
At work today having a talkie bit during our non fag break (why should smokers work a shorter day) we were discussing a news item on breakfast telly about increasing train fares for peak time commuters. None of us, although car drivers, cannot see any sense in this 'think tank' idea. They should be encouraging people to use public transport by giving tax relief on annual season tickets.
What is more irritating is that the Government is wasting all our money on these useless Quangos & Think tanks. Anyway, we decied to have a little go at the transport policy ourselves and came up with some of the following:
1. Tax parents who take their kids to school by car when they could use a school bus.
2. Caravans can only be allowed on the roads during the hours of darkness.
3. The Offside lane of a 3 lane motorway should be restricted to 100 mph vehicles only
Any more anyone?
What is more irritating is that the Government is wasting all our money on these useless Quangos & Think tanks. Anyway, we decied to have a little go at the transport policy ourselves and came up with some of the following:
1. Tax parents who take their kids to school by car when they could use a school bus.
2. Caravans can only be allowed on the roads during the hours of darkness.
3. The Offside lane of a 3 lane motorway should be restricted to 100 mph vehicles only
Any more anyone?
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1. Tax parents who take their kids to school by car when they could use a school bus.
Or tax office workers who drive to work when THEY could get the bus. Whats the difference?
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2. Caravans can only be allowed on the roads during the hours of darkness.
Or sports cars, since most of their journeys server no purpose other than fun?
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3. The Offside lane of a 3 lane motorway should be restricted to 100 mph vehicles only
Thats almost the case now - lorries over 7.5 tons and vehicles that are towing aren't allowed there now, and most other vehicles nowadays can hit 100 easily. One exception might be our little Seicento. :-( But then again, given a downhill run and a following wind....
it did strike me as totally absurd that they are encouraging us to use public transort on one hand, while simultaneously saying fares should be raised "to ease overcrowding on trains".
Surely the obvious thing is to put more carriages on trains.
I can't help but think that the transport system was better 100 years ago. In those days, a train from Bath to Bournemouth took 1 hour 40 mins. These days, you can't do it that fast in a car and if you try it in a train it takes about three hours.
What would be the economic implications of moving all long distance freight transport to the railways? It seems to me that the railways are only uneconomic because they don't have a monopoly any more. I'm not advancing this as "my solution" just floating the idea.
Also just read that there were no passenger deaths at all on the Great Western Rly for about 40 years up to the beginning of WW2. How many have there been on the same stretch of track in the last 5 years? Dozens.
Surely the obvious thing is to put more carriages on trains.
I can't help but think that the transport system was better 100 years ago. In those days, a train from Bath to Bournemouth took 1 hour 40 mins. These days, you can't do it that fast in a car and if you try it in a train it takes about three hours.
What would be the economic implications of moving all long distance freight transport to the railways? It seems to me that the railways are only uneconomic because they don't have a monopoly any more. I'm not advancing this as "my solution" just floating the idea.
Also just read that there were no passenger deaths at all on the Great Western Rly for about 40 years up to the beginning of WW2. How many have there been on the same stretch of track in the last 5 years? Dozens.
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1. Tax parents who take their kids to school by car when they could use a school bus.
Or tax office workers who drive to work when THEY could get the bus. Whats the difference?
Indeed. And that's the crux of any proposed transport policy to 'reduce congestion' - it relies on taking someone off the road - but to everyone, that 'someone' isn't them, its some other class of road user, who obviously does not need to use a car as much as them...
'Or tax office workers who drive to work when THEY could get the bus.'
I actually would agree. I did spend 2 years commuting by train to work until I changed my job - and that included the time when the Hatfield delays were in force. I changed my job 1 year ago and to get to work by public transport would involve 3 bus changes and would take about 2.5 hours to do a 30 minute journey by car. So perhaps we should say 'where ever practical' people should use public transport.
>> Edited by Big_M on Friday 19th July 14:09
I actually would agree. I did spend 2 years commuting by train to work until I changed my job - and that included the time when the Hatfield delays were in force. I changed my job 1 year ago and to get to work by public transport would involve 3 bus changes and would take about 2.5 hours to do a 30 minute journey by car. So perhaps we should say 'where ever practical' people should use public transport.
>> Edited by Big_M on Friday 19th July 14:09
What they have to do is provide an alternative to the car. It is two miles to my nearest bus route, and four miles to the nearest station. Do they actually think that I will walk for four miles a day then spend 4 hours, changing 3 times and spending £27 on fares, when the same journey costs me £4 and 30 minutes in the car?
On no analysis am I going to stop driving, even if I wanted to. I simply have no alternative.
On no analysis am I going to stop driving, even if I wanted to. I simply have no alternative.
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Indeed. And that's the crux of any proposed transport policy to 'reduce congestion' - it relies on taking someone off the road - but to everyone, that 'someone' isn't them, its some other class of road user, who obviously does not need to use a car as much as them...
Aaargh! Someone agreed with me!
That was supposed to me my Friday afternoon 'lets piss off the right wing PH lot' post'!!
I give up.
I'm going to the pub.
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2. Caravans can only be allowed on the roads during the hours of darkness.
Caravans should be allowed the freedom of the road.
Everyone else should be allowed the freedom of a rocket launcher. Caravans designated as permitted game.
Imagine the fun of going out hunting for caravans in packs of TVRs, and then rocketing them...
(No, this thread will not turn into another hunting debate thread. Please.)
It should be illegal for anything with less than 200bhp/tonne to overtake uphill when there is a crawler lane.
It's the most annoying thing in the world when you're stuck behind 2 trucks at 45mph for half an hour then see a crawler lane up ahead, only for the second f'king truck to pull out and take the whole 2 miles of crawlerlane bit overtaking the first truck which is going 0.112 mph slower !!!!!!
It's the most annoying thing in the world when you're stuck behind 2 trucks at 45mph for half an hour then see a crawler lane up ahead, only for the second f'king truck to pull out and take the whole 2 miles of crawlerlane bit overtaking the first truck which is going 0.112 mph slower !!!!!!
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It should be illegal for anything with less than 200bhp/tonne to overtake uphill when there is a crawler lane.
Make it 500bhp/ton, and there will only be powerful bikes, and no idiots to get in the way.
Impressive thread, I like the way you lot think, it's like coming home everytime I visit this site.
C
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quote:I believe you and I have been there and done that
Now's we're into Friday afternoon proper.
TVRs armed with rocket launchers hunting numpties in caravans. Can we have spikey bull bars on the front and napalm emitting exhaust too?
'ave some of this, numpty fools.
This is what it looks like from the outside (Yellow rapid response team, seen here, collecting latest anti-caravan weaponry)
Craig
>> Edited by craigalsop on Friday 19th July 16:21
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