[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?...

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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:

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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!

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^^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).