Almost everything that can be said about cars in one easy GIF

bails – Member
….. you’re part of the problem…… wasting your time and money commuting……if you lived nearby and walked or cycled to work……not sustainable.

way to go pulling out all the context 🙄

I work in the “country”, my wife works in the city.

Fine, i’m not picking on you, everyone has to do what they have to do, do you want me to be more specific, if you’re single, or if you both live in the country and work in the city, etc, etc, blah, blah

This is all getting pretty silly.

Its not an either or argument.

No one is suggesting banning cars.

Have 2 kids to drop off at school / nursery on you way to work 10 miles away?
Take the car.

Have heavy equipment you need for your job?
That’s what vans are for.

Live in a rural area and travel fairly long distances?
Take the car.

Live less than 5 miles from work
Maybe think about cycling, even just on nicer days

1 mile trip to the shops for a pint of milk
Maybe think about walking.

Going out for a bite to eat in town at the weekend?
Could you take a bus or train?

Currently around 2% of journeys are carried out by bike. No one is seriously suggesting that we get to Dutch levels overnight but each extra journey is a step in the right direction.

I totally understand it’s not practical for a lot of people but it is possible for a lot of others. We just need to find ways to encourage them to start cycling, better infrastructure would be a good place to start.

Have 2 kids to drop off at school / nursery on you way to work 10 miles away?
Take the car.

Have heavy equipment you need for you job?
That’s what vans are for.

Live in a rural area and travel fairly long distances?
Take the car.

Live less than 5 miles from work
Maybe think about cycling, even just on nicer days

1 mile trip to the shops for a pint of milk
Maybe think about walking.

Going out for a bite to eat in town at the weekend?
Could you take a bus or train?

The voice of reason.

To be honest the pious and high-horse brigade boasting about how they revel in the crappy weather to cycle for an hour to work each day are as off putting to leisure cyclists like me as Clarkson is for serious petrolheads….both are extreme ends of the argument and neither one is helpful.

The post i quoted however is pretty much where i’d like to get to at some point with my car/bike use.

To be honest the pious and high-horse brigade boasting about how they revel in the crappy weather to cycle for an hour to work each day are as off putting to leisure cyclists like me as Clarkson is for serious petrolheads….both are extreme ends of the argument and neither one is helpful.

It’s a big mistake to think we have to start by boiling the ocean.

Encourage cycling for the journeys where its most practical. Spend money on sensible local infrastructure rather then expensive headline projects. Maybe spend a little bit of money educating the public that cycling is a good thing and people on bikes could do with a bit more room on the road.

Obviously i reserve the right to be smug and pious when it suits me though!

But the way people go on that’s not enough.

I think there are folk that just pathologically hate cars as a symptom of a larger problem rather than the problem itself. Maybe because in order to solve the problem people know their horses aren’t as high as they would like them to be.

If I could get to work conveniently on public transport I would but it’s too much of an arse ache to bother with especially when I have to travel 35 miles to get to work for 7:30am. So car for me. Plus public transport stinks as a general rule.

Are you going to name them?

I own a car.

I hate the cult of the car – where despite planning supposedly having to encourage the use of other modes of transport, in reality anything which delays cars can’t be done. It’s interesting to see some housing developments go through the planning process here – apparently it is enough that there is a nearby bus stop, even if the reality is that hardly anybody buying those houses will use the bus (because it’s not fit for standard), everybody will use their cars. Distinctly sub-standard cycling facilities tick that box and we have environmentally sustainable new housing 🙄

@sbob – I meant education.
Nothing is going to change dramatically in the very near future, but as parents, educators etc., we have a duty to influence, show reasoning to the problems that we have, and work towards solutions.

I’ve just gone a year without a car…
Hired when I needed a weekend away, work is either from home or a plane ride away so no real need. It’s different when you don’t have the option of a carcar, got one again and now I nip to the shops in it rather than ordering online.

When I’ve been commuting the things that kept me off the bike were simple. No storage or showers, keeping sweaty kit under my desk doesn’t appeal and not showering after 20 miles is not nice.
In other places either no linked up routes or madness like no joined up public transport.
Now my commute will be 10 kins downhill so bike time!