[Closed] Driving: What is the tipping point?

Anyway. Its all because of women's liberation.

🙂

As the band slaves once said.

"You're not sat in traffic. You are traffic"

I personally found the problem with that is working on your own all day is depression-inducing levels of loneliness/boredom.

I've often thought  there will ultimately be a market for  local high street remote working offices. We need to use all those boarded up shops for something, right?

Places you can walk to from your house with desks and chairs and fast internet where  you can work remotely from your employer, close to home but still interact with other people, all doing the same thing, throughout the day.

The remote office provider  could provide a report to your employer of your attendance and timekeeping to keep them happy that you're not spending your day watching Homes under the Hammer or furiously masturbating.

part of the problem is all these unnecessary journeys, such as taking your kids to activities that require driving in rush hour....(I have 2 young ones, I'll probably end up being the same)

Big culture shift needed:
Bring in charge per mile
Bring in offpeak / peak costs
Enforce staggered starts/ends across cities for schools / councils etc where possible
Give employees the right to vary start and end times where possible
Incentivise companies to reduce miles travelled by employees (home working etc..)
Decentralise London / other big cities, starting with civil service
Big incentives like super cheap business rates for dispersed employers
invest in better cycling / scootering infrastructure
subsidise season tickets for buses and trains

They were planning on a commuter zone type thing for my city, Southampton, which I was really looking forward to - mainly aimed at diesals, so we bought a cheap petrol (see behaviour change...due to cost). But then they have shelved it for some rubbish reason. I'm sure it would have had an impact in improving the cities air pollution. (though the big issue is still the cruise ships not having onshore power..)

The whole country has been designed around car ownership and use, and *most* people will always take the easiest option.

It'll take a generation to change, and very strong leadership, or some kind of oil/energy crisis.

to keep them happy that you’re not spending your day watching Homes under the Hammer or furiously masturbating

I'm hoping they'd be OK with cheerfully masturbating.

I’m hoping they’d be OK with cheerfully masturbating.

...well, i suppose you are getting paid for it.

We need to use all those boarded up shops for something, right?

more housing?
good idea by the way, though not just the high street, any commercial site that needs redeveloping - all the disappearing local corner shops / pubs etc... could be used. Mix with some sort of youth club and your tackling a couple of social problems with one stone

here is not too many cars on the road at all
I’ve read some stupid words on here in my time.. but lordy (!), that is a classic. 😆

Nice one. Take part of what I said and ridicule it. Nice way to conduct a sensible constructive discussion. My actual point which you've not picked up on, was that the problem was not necessarily the quantity of cars on the road but the concentration. You have miles of tailbacks on some roads, but empty roads just a stones throw away. If the traffic was shared more equally on the existing infrastructure (let alone building more) then the congestion could easily be eased in many parts of the country. Ovviously not London. London is screwed but there is hope elsewhere in the country.

And despite your ignorant dismissal the fact remains There IS plenty of space on the road network...just not linking where people are and where they need to get to. There are many ways to tackle this before you get to the draconian suggestion of banning cars which truly is stupid.

Cars are brilliant things, they give people freedom, convenience and enable them to be more productive in their lives which are things people will always value and place increasing value on going forward. We can look at our habits...there is no sensible reason in this day and age to concentrate people in large cities, living and working there causing these high population densities. Spread things out a bit. reduce the concentration. 93% of our land is untouched. We have 60 million people crammed into less than 7% of the land area. I think we can invest in a small amount of land which could make a huge difference. Small things like companies staggering their start and finish times can help to ease congestion in local areas at rush hours.

And a cracker is our local council seems to think that morning rush hour is the best time to send out their road gutter sweeping trucks to clear the gutters and drains causing miles of tailbacks in the morning rush hour. Not sure who's bright ideal in the local council offices that was.

I’ve often thought there will ultimately be a market for local high street remote working offices. We need to use all those boarded up shops for something, right?

Places you can walk to from your house with desks and chairs and fast internet where you can work remotely from your employer, close to home but still interact with other people, all doing the same thing, throughout the day.

This will only work if people can drive close to it and park easily. After all, town and city centres are not exactly renowned for being places that people walk to and from are they (see the traffic in any city at a weekend!)

So, this looks like a problem for a person living in a major city, going along a main commuter route, almost thinking that everyone else is insane for doing what they themselves are also doing. If only the others weren't, surely there would be less cars to get in the way of theirs....
My commute was lovely. From the car parked on my drive, beautiful sunshine and fairly empty roads, listening to the Infinite monkey cage pod cast about dinosaurs as I drove down the Cheddar Gorge and then into my parking place at work. Completely stress free. I suspect I'd feel differently if I lived in a city again, but then I didn't bother having a car when I last did live in a city... It's also be a little difficult to have all my staff working remotely as there is a factory full of expensive machinery that sort of has to stay in the same place!

Hello SaxonRider, no, you're not wrong and yes, it is insane.

Got rid of my car nearly twenty years ago and haven't looked back. I have to rent or borrow a couple of times a year at most, and I HATE it. Around 50% of urban space is dedicated to cars, and that seems to be invisible to most people. If it's not frustrated people crawling around in bumper-to-bumper single occupancy boxes, it's idiots distracted by their phones. From the the roads to the facebook comments, there's something about driving that fundamentally seems to break people's brains.

Its all total bollocks. I worry about cycling with my children to school, there are cars everywhere, the narrow path between two fields gets blocked by people walking or cycling and gets overgrown with nettles, the council only have the funding to cut it once a year (yes I do log it with them that it needs a cut) but the grass verges along the side of the road get cut all the time. The design / funding for everything is all just wrong for alternatives to driving so it just encourages car use. I work a few miles from home (in an NHS acute hospital) cycling is is viewed as a very very strange thing to do, car parking on site is a huge revenue earner and everyone just sucks up the cost and hassle of parking as there aren't enough spaces. On the way in its often bedlam at some places as I pass two primary and two high schools, cars, trucks and buses blocking each others path buses and school kids trying to cross the roads anywhere possible. The school doesn't help as you often have to carry a homemade cardboard castle, a PE kit, lunch, school bag and a trumpet in with you.

I hate driving these days, it’s just tiresome and avoid it as much as possible, and the less you drive, the more you hate it when you do have to.

This. Ignoring trips up north to see relatives and friends, my mileage has dropped from 7000 miles per year to around 1000. I use the bike for almost everything. It now feels shameful to sue the car for short trips or even to commute.

I haven't read it all, I'll catch up later in my break.

But I "had" to drop my car off at the garage this morning, they wanted it for 9am. And the traffic was terrible! I'm lucky that most of commuting is outside rush hour, I couldn't sit in that every day.

I am however guilty of using the car a lot for convenience, it's a 40ish minute walk in to town and I do find I often just jump in the car to make a quick and easy trip. Luckily where I live isn't congested badly - yet.

I really should make more of an effort to walk and jump on the bike instead.

Public transport to work is do able but not easy, I can't get there in time for a lot of my shifts and what take under 45 minutes in the car becomes at least 1hr15 by train & walking.

I did choose to move 30 miles from work though so.... I guess I I'm part of the problem. And I can't work from home as I need to look out the window.

My actual point which you’ve not picked up on, was that the problem was not necessarily the quantity of cars on the road but the concentration.

Oh, I picked up on it. Just thought it was ridiculous. Doesn't matter [i]where[/i] the hell all these cars are, there are too many of them. Polluting cities, killing and injuring people, stopping other forms of transport from being feasible... etc etc. Too many cars. FUll ****ing stop.

Why, oh why can’t we just look at places with good transport infrastructure and imitate them?

Because we've built a world where people believe that owning personal motorised transport is a right and, at the same time, built our lifestyles and infrastructure around it.

It's so heavily entrenched that instead of looking at alternatives to cars full stop, we're simply switching technologies. So we'll have roads clogged with electric cars still producing tyre rubber debris and brake dust and complete with sustainability issues all of their own - how many batteries? How many charging stations? How many acres of charging points per motorway service area? How much additional load on the National Grid?

It won't stop until we both change our life expectations and behaviour - no, you don't have to drive to the Lake District to go for a bike ride and you're entitled to do it either. And we provide efficient public transport and infrastructure that makes cycling and walking attractive for short journeys.

The omly way that's going to happen is from the top as an uncompromising, committed government policy. Don't hold your breath. First past the post means the Greens have minimal influence over national policy and for other parties, it's all just peripheral.

Tipping point? Probably somewhere down the line when we've actually made the planet uninhabitable so we can have more phones, more concrete, more plastic etc. Oh, and more cars obviously. And bigger roads to drive them on.

The shockingly inadequate state of public transport is to blame for a lot of road congestion. Gti Junior is working in that London for his 3rd year and is really impressed with the transport in the south-east although even that gets shaky from time to time when trains or buses don't turn up. By comparison rail services in the north are a disaster.

Many formerly small villages that were cut off by Beeching now have enough estate dwellers that the lines could be reopened and run as commuter lines with fast, light, modern rail vehicles.

The London commuters who have found alternative ways to travel :

http://<a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/futurelondon/cleanair/the-london-commuters-who-have-found-alternative-ways-to-travel-a4237826.html

Many formerly small villages that were cut off by Beeching now have enough estate dwellers that the lines could be reopened and run as commuter lines with fast, light, modern rail vehicles.

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/reopening-bere-alston-tavistock-railway-3311504

£93,000,000 apparently to reinstate ~5 miles of track

Many formerly small villages that were cut off by Beeching now have enough estate dwellers that the lines could be reopened and run as commuter lines with fast, light, modern rail vehicles.

£93,000,000 apparently to reinstate ~5 miles of track

Thats because someone has to pay for the committees to scrutinize the committees to scrutinize the committees ...

Instead of just getting on with the projects. Its the same fate that befalls any infrastructure project in this country.

Cars are fine. People are the problem. Reduce the population by half and we’re good.

As long as that reduction is all the Brexiters and Tories then yes we certainly would be good.

Given the average ages of Tory / Leave voters that's what's happening.

It was said that if the vote had happened a few months later then Remain would have won simply becase of Leave voters dying, or being too infirm to vote and more Reamin voters being old enough to vote.

I personally found the problem with that is working on your own all day is depression-inducing levels of loneliness/boredom. One or two days a week might work.

Yep, as Perchy says, what we need to do is build alternative frameworks that get around those issues in different ways - local communal offices, social groups etc.

I listened to an interesting podcast a while back where they spoke to the mayor of a Spanish city that had successfully banned cars. One of the most telling bits was when they asked him if this wasn't unpopular. His response was that yes, initially it was, but if you provide viable alternatives, people forget about that, use those alternatives and appreciate how much more pleasant it is living in a car-free space.

I live in a town which was semi-shut down to cars by the recent Whaley Bridge dam thing and, in all honesty, it made the whole place feel so much nicer. People were walking to the shops and work rather than driving because they had to and there was an indefinable calmness about it all. Folk actually talked to each other and interacted rather than competing for road space.

I think the bigger issue is that the whole 'cars are freedom' culture is part of a huge ecological crisis. It's goes far beyond congestion and pollution - traffic particles in unborn babies, is that the acceptable price to pay for individual freedom to drive to the shops etc?

Given the average ages of Tory / Leave voters that’s what’s happening.

It was said that if the vote had happened a few months later then Remain would have won simply becase of Leave voters dying, or being too infirm to vote and more Reamin voters being old enough to vote.

I love how everything, eventually, leads to Brexit.

Local councils need to make cycling infrastructure MUCH MUCH better and safer, and actually plan it out logically. Yeah it’s been said a thousand times already. But it’s true. And not happening!

To say I love cycling is an understatement. I do think about bikes most of the time. But I do hate cycling my bike to work now. I’ve been commuting by bike for 8 years, and am truly sick of it. As a very experienced and capable cyclist, I am nearly squished too often. But I let it go and get on with my day. You are never going to convince someone who is normally 99% inactive, and unfit and not cycled for years, to go and play with the traffic like we do.

There’s often bad accidents involving squished cyclists on the same route I use. You see it shared on social media. And you also see the responses from the general public. That response in the comments section is more terrifying. Really! You’ve got zero chance of convincing anyone out of their cars when they see all this lot.

It’s not a major city, it’s just a seaside town - Bournemouth. But it’s utter gridlock carnage in rush-hour traffic, and the cycling infrastructure is terrible and dangerously (un)planned.

If we’re to have any chance of encouraging people to cycle short journeys. They HAVE to build proper, segregated/separated cycle lanes. Lanes that don’t just stop randomly 20ft from the horrendous roundabout where all the poor cyclists are getting squished and reported in the local press. I often wonder, do the idiots who plan these partial lanes ever ride a bike, or give a #### at all.

I’m on the verge of embarking in bangernomics, and getting myself a little crap car to commute in I'm that sick of it. Trying to resist it. But if nobody else cares….

people drive because of the status symbol of the car. Look at all the VW vans on here as an example.

The secondary issue is public transport and the councils encouraging this to businesses. Its cheaper for me to tax (550 quid) insure and run (at 10mpg) a car than it is for me to use a bus for the year! thats not right. The answer isnt to price people out of cars with tax but to make transport cheaper and better. Thats the only way youll get people out of cars.

The question is – who are all those other drivers and where have they driven from. For you the journey is congested from home to destination – thats why you regularly make the decision to travel by other means. But for the majority of other people in that queue will have travelled from further afield because cities by their nature draw in large numbers of people from their hinterland everyday- they live or work further from their destination than you do. They’re the cause of the congestion – but for them the congestion is only a blip in a longer trouble free journey. They see the city as the cause of the congestion and it reinforces their idea that their life in the suburbs and satellite towns is more convenient even though they can only make it work if they drive- they don’t dwell on the incovenience of travelling in a city being something they’ve brought with them.

^^This^^ x1000000000000!

Urban/Suburban/Rural dwelling, car ownership and public transport access/use are seldom raised as a point for consideration in all of this. That is probably because everyone is looking for a single local, magic bullet to sort the issue. Spending on public transport and cycle/ped routes within a large town or city centre won't change the fact that a significant amount of the congestion is caused by people traveling in from outer suburbs or further outlying towns/villages where linking bus services are minimal/sporadic and of course probably funded/operated by a different organisation and so those people will default to using a car...

The other thing is the way we have incorporated the car into our culture it's not just the "freedom" side of things, not being a car driver can be quite socially excluding when all of your peers simply assume you'll be able to magically appear for an event 5/10/20 miles away. And of course the car has become as much a statement of personal success and status you couldn't possibly let the neighbours think you 'only' have one or drive an old one.... No wonder they're heavily marketed and subsidised, our culture is built around car ownership and use; you need to break that part of the culture as much as sorting the logistics moving your workforce about and eliminating unnecessary journeys...

people drive because of the status symbol of the car. Look at all the VW vans on here as an example.

I'm not sure they do. They might choose their car based on some desire show their status, but I'd imagine it's mostly convenience. Some people (myself included) even enjoy driving.

It’s more like “Man in car complains traffic makes it difficult to drive his multiple children to discretionary activities in 3 different locations”

Oh, I fully recognise the sad irony of what I was posting. To be clear, though: I was not furiously judging others for being in my way; I was despairing over the fact that I was one in a (seeming) million of vehicles all trying to desperately get to their all-important destination.

I, and my lifestyle unquestionably contribute to the problem; I just try to minimise what I contribute to an absolute minimum level.

Ultimately, though, when I ask about the "tipping point", I am really just wondering aloud if all the others on the road don't also despair... I mean, who could possibly not want to pull a Michael Douglas in Falling Down, when having to do that every single day?!? Or if not a Michael Douglas, then at least try to be part of a solution?

As for boarding schools, I would think that we could save SO MUCH on traffic if we had something akin to the North American school bus system. There, every School Board (overseeing multiple schools) has a fleet of school buses used to transport any children more than a certain distance away. Everyone else is encouraged to walk or take a bicycle.

Can you imagine? 40-50 children in each bus? That's a lot fewer cars on the road. Plus, you get to get driven to school by this guy.

I mean, who could possibly not want to pull a Michael Douglas

A bold statement to make for an older North American such as yourself driving round a town full of young Welsh ladies....

Ultimately, though, when I ask about the “tipping point”, I am really just wondering aloud if all the others on the road don’t also despair

Ultimately, though, when I ask about the “tipping point”, I am really just wondering aloud if all the others on the road don’t also despair… I mean, who could possibly not want to pull a Michael Douglas in Falling Down, when having to do that every single day?!? Or if not a Michael Douglas, then at least try to be part of a solution?

What would a 'tipping point' look like to you? I mean what would happen then? I'm sure there's some statistical model that shows when speeds slow to a certain level people are less likely to drive, but presumably things would hover somewhere around that point unless there's some sort of government intervention aimed at changing behaviour?

What does seem clear is that simply building more and more roads achieves nothing except to draw more people onto them.

Call that a traffic jam?!?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_National_Highway_110_traffic_jam

I commute to Glasgow via public transport every working day. I leave my house at 6.30am and get into my lab around 8am – 8.15am. I travel into the city on the local bus service. It’s slow, expensive and oh my, you do encounter some characters on it. Once I’m in the city, I travel from the centre out to the west end either by the subway if it’s pishing down or on a Nextbike. Return journey is much the same, although the ‘character encounters’ are more frequent.

What I see every morning, is traffic snarling up and coming to an almost standstill on the motorway about 3 miles from the city centre. In the winter, this can extend out to about 7 miles. In the mornings, when I look up from the book I’m reading or amazon prime episode I’m watching, while sitting on my nearly empty bus, I can look into the cars and without exaggeration, I’d say that less than 1 in 20 have more than one person in them.

People think my commute is a horror show, (which it actually kind of is as I’m currently watching downloaded episodes of Preacher in the mornings on my Amazon Fire), but I would go mad if I was sitting on my trying to drive a car through that nightmare.

I always make a point of thanking the bus driver every time I get off. I can’t see why anyone would want to drive into or around a city.

I probably do a similar route, but usually take the bike, which is 1hr each way ish including getting a shower/changed. When I broke my wrist I tried public transport and found thusly:

-the train station is so far away it takes an age to get to, and even if I could get a lift or drive there, there were works at Queen St and big issues (delays >1hr for a normally 12 minute journey) both days I tried it.

-There's a bus stop at the end of my road. It was literally more expensive than I could imagine for a return fare, so I only had money for a single. It should have taken about 1h if the bus ran on time, but it took me 1.5hrs as the traffic was bad/timetable was hopelessly optimistic.

I drove. It was more than taking the train, but less than taking the bus (bearing in mind I already have the car, and pay tax etc on it anyway, I'm only counting parking and petrol here, but even the total cost would've been similar and cheaper parking options were available). It never took me more than 35 minutes, I got to see my kids more etc. - and that's despite the horrendous traffic on the motorway.

So whilst I can see the attraction of public transport if you're happy to watch telly or read a book, I had my (to me good) reasons to get home quicker, couldn't take the bike, and public transport just wasn't up to the job.

If I do anything that hinders my driving and cycling, I'll just work from home or take a lot of time off sick.

I think the solution is proper investment in active travel to make it more attractive and safer, and nationalisation of public transport (to prevent the ever increasing spiral of cost). Once you're there with the carrots, you can bring out the big sticks to beat motorists with. I can understand why people drive round here, but they should be heavily discouraged.

Well people look at me and go ..why dont you drive?...I answer..it takes me 25 mins to do my commute each way..I can get to shops and friends and anything else in a bout a 10 mile radius..why waste fuel or cause pollution when frankly I feel better when I cycle(helps with depression plus other behavioural issues) and I can usually get there about the same time as I can squeeze through gaps and filter ..so dont need to drive...most people dont..but they do anyway..

I say ...GET OFF YOUR F***G LAZY ASSES AND DO SOME EXCERSIZE YOU FAT FS..over dependency on cars is laziness..you will feel better and be healthier if you do journeys under 30 miles by bike or journeys under 10 miles by walking..then you will just do it that way..I dont have another means(DONT DRIVE-NO LISCENCE) and I'm still able to get around ..its a waste and I'm frankly ashamed when I meet those people who drive on a 5 minute walk..pathetic..try biking it for a few months all weathers then it's just normal..and Frankely EASY...security has to be covered but that's not too hard..

After this winter, and two near being squished moments I gave in and started commuting by car, now I ride in 1 or 2 days a week. It's only 3 miles or so, but through heavy traffic. On Friday on a back road I was using to try to avoid the main chaos I had an audi driver aim straight at me on the wrong side of the road (parked traffic on his lane). I had to jump on to the curb. I thought bet he isn't going to slow down....oh know he has actually put his foot down and aimed at me. It is frankly ****ing ridiculous that sort of thing is deemed ok now in the battle to get to work on time.

I actually actively discourage others from commuting by bike in my city unless they are really confident it is too dangerous.
In my 3.5miles I ride past where two pedestrians and one cyclist have been killed in the last 2 years.

How about making everywhere one massive one way system?!

The root of the problem is car ownership. If we get rid of that issue everything else is solvable. The problem is the big car manufacturers don’t want to lose sales.

Imagine a future with a Johnny Cab picking you up in the morning then picking up someone else going the same route. No more single occupancy vehicles. Also Mr Johnny Cab won’t drive deliberately at cyclists.

Who will vote for my political party “The Abolish Car Ownership Alliance”?

I live in North London, public transport is pretty good really, I can't complain too much

I mostly cycle to work in central London (21 mile round trip) although I live right by a tube station

I cycle locally and for my kids clubs I cycle a cargo bike. Pre cargo bike I was using a car. To be honest my area is quite hilly so it's a hard work but hopefully an electric conversion solves that.

I drive once a week to my kids' swimming lesson but only because it's too far to cycle and there's no safe route anyway. If I didn't have a car I could find a pool that was closer but they're getting on well so no desire to change this.

We do have regular buses around but I don't really use these

I can see the challenge of living somewhere without public transport. Our UK holidays highlight how difficult it would be without a car

I listened to an interesting podcast a while back where they spoke to the mayor of a Spanish city that had successfully banned cars. One of the most telling bits was when they asked him if this wasn’t unpopular. His response was that yes, initially it was, but if you provide viable alternatives, people forget about that, use those alternatives and appreciate how much more pleasant it is living in a car-free space.

Seville, I think? Their plan was to get all the infrastructure for cycling/walking built fast, in the year or two after election, so that the benefits would kick in before they were voted out.

Something similar happened in (I think) Utrecht - a socialist-green council got unexpectedly elected; thinking that they'd never get reelected anyway they just pushed through car bans and infrastructure building. It turned out to be so popular they got back in.

It's campaigning for stuff like this that made me stand for election - we were asking the wrong people to do the right thing.

Move to the sticks, there's fewer cars.

Obviously not the answer for everyone, but it worked for us.

We still drive a lot of places. My wife's work is too far to make biking realistic. Public transport is beyond comedy.

But.

I ride to work some of the time. Driving is ok - I'm not in enough traffic for it to be a hassle.

Kids can be biked to some activities in the village.

Dunno what the answer for UK plc. is though. Running public transport as a public service, not as a profit making corporation would be a good start.

Well, we can all do our bit cycling when we can and reducing the congestion that would be there otherwise. But a lot of people will have to be made to do it, probably by hitting them financially which doesn't help the less well off.

Unless anyone wants to invest in my boutique pedal car business to tempt the bourgeoisie away from their German cars. Then others will aspire to these too...

People use their cars as a two-ton mobility scooter. Why walk to the corner store when it's easier to drive. Most folk at the place I work drive a mile or two in. I know someone who drove half a mile day in day out, complained about parking issues. One morning defrosting their car they realized it might be quicker to walk, simply hadn't occurred to them before.

Move to the sticks, there’s fewer cars.

Live where you want, work somewhere else, just join the two up by car. A lifestyle made possible by fossil fuels. I'm not sure that's the answer either, but probably the one I'd go for.

Haven't read the whole thread but

https://twitter.com/fietsprofessor/status/1170031474118221825?s=20

Something similar happened in (I think) Utrecht – a socialist-green council got unexpectedly elected; thinking that they’d never get reelected anyway they just pushed through car bans and infrastructure building. It turned out to be so popular they got back in.

It’s campaigning for stuff like this that made me stand for election – we were asking the wrong people to do the right thing.

I like! 🙂

I do yay mileage a year getting to work as I travel nationwide* - as it happens, the car cooked her alternator on Monday so I've had to commute from the hotel by bike this week (thank god it was in the back of the car!). It's been really interesting to be back on the roads for the first time in a couple of years, firstly because it reminds me that bikes are by a mile the best way to get around where distances are practicable, secondly because I've had to become reacquainted with just how shit car drivers can be and how much better the world will be when they're all f***ed off (me included). The win goes to the high-speed/close-range pass ****s, but a special mention for those who think that slow speed excuses a close pass, I'd forgotten about those mouth-breathers.

* Love my job, but seeking a change to a cycleable commute as I just don't think the carbon I pump out is morally justifiable.

you will feel better and be healthier if you do journeys under 30 miles by bike or journeys under 10 miles by walking.

You will also have far less time to do anything else. 10 miles works out to 3 hours walking, not accounting for hills. No ta.

Bit nuts, really - just realised, for a local (6.5 mile) job recently, it took me 75 minutes to drive to the train station, travel to the city centre, then walk to the client's office. If they'd had a washroom, I could have done it in half the time on the bike with zero carbon emissions other than my own wheezy lungs.

You can cycle 6.5 miles without needing a washroom surely?

For this Surrey job, the 6.5 miles in are almost entirely downhill, so it's just a fringe benefit that they have a room to freshen up with - if the journey were reversed, I wouldn't consider it viable without a shower.

Live where you want, work somewhere else, just join the two up by car.

The job was also close (well, close enough to cycle commute) to our house. If I'm honest we're not really out in the sticks by very much, but the house-job route doesn't go into the local city. All of which was (mostly) deliberate.

People are buying cars that are too big for our small country.
Yesterday it was obvious that for 4/5 of these suv/4x4 type things you can get at lease 5/6/7 small normal sized cars into that stretch of road.

There are more vans delivering stuff from places such as amazon. Buy locally, yes its dearer but you have to look at the bigger picture.

There will always be a need for cars. For example I take my elderly mother out on a Friday, she wants to get out of the house. Travelling by public transport or on my bike is just not an option.

I am hopeful that more people will cycle in the future. I'm seeing families around our area taking their children out for the day on bikes.

We had a talk last night at our WI from a professor. He was saying that there is a blanket over the earth that's slowly heating it up. It is now almost an emergency to change our bad habits and get off the roads, walk more, cycle more and take more public transport. His talk was sobering. However in our particular WI he was preaching mainly to the converted.