Private transport = fat?

Yesterday I walked 5 mins to the train station, bought a ticket from a machine on the platform, and took a train two stops from Wessling to Hersching. It was on-time, clean, quicker than the car and a return cost 5 euro. I got drunk and took the train back too.

You just can’t do this in the UK.

EDIT: you can get drunk

Ever been to Edinburgh mike?

Not 20 minutes actually doing the parking manoeuvre, mind.
I mean 20 minutes crawling around looking for a free space within a mile of where you want to be.
Yes I just get the man to drop me where I want to go, if I want to feel morally superior or just look better for the plebs I get him to drop me round the corner and get the bike out for me.

I have seen the video of you trying to park Graham 😉

The private car is the safest, quickest, cheapest, easiest option for the vast majority of people on the vast majority of their journeys

is that really the case? Or is it just they already have the car (not sure I’d go car free TBH, maybe pre-kids but not now) so they’ll damn well use it.
easiest: possibly, think it’s more convenient than easy, door to door, bad weather doesn’t matter, carry loads etc, driving in traffic is a right pita tho
safest: hmmm
cheapest: on a one journey, fuel vs fare basis quite possibly but add it all up and I dunno.
quickest: hmmm

Klumpy – “Stuff like sensible times and a website that allows here -> there queries would get people on buses.”

This won;t help with the times, but it does with planning:

For Scotland: http://www.travelinescotland.com/welcome.do
For Elsewhere: http://www.traveline.info/index.html

or maps.google.co.uk
put in your route (directions button) and click the “Bus Shaped” icon and it will do similarly…

I mean 20 minutes crawling around looking for a free space within a mile of where you want to be.

When you say ‘free’, do you mean empty or no-cost?

When you say ‘free’, do you mean empty or no-cost?

You can struggle to find either in Edinburgh* city centre. 😀

(* other UK cities are available)

Sounds terrible.

Wasn’t saying its better or worse. A lot of us trade distance from work for space in and around the home. I’ve traded a one bedroom flat in Glasgow, within walking distance of many of the people, places and supplies that I use for a cheaper 3 bedroom A listed coach house, out buildings and pay the balance for that with a 70 mile round trip drive. Its affordable precisely because it has no viable public transport links. And is viable only because I drive.

But thats the difference – public transport wasn’t especially better back then. Beeching closed branch lines because they were under used, even though private transport was much less available or affordable. People’s first consideration then for choosing a place to live was proximity to the place they worked. And the point of social housing then was putting houses where workers needed to live.

Now people would rather see how far they can stretch the elastic from where they work, and greed for space locks them into car use.

Buzz-lightyear
Hersching… that’ll be a visit to Andechs then? Getting drunk is therefore an inevitable consequence.

oh yeah I know, thing is there are places that are useless for public transport, my sister lives in cornwall, she used to have something like a 50min walk to the nearest stop and pretty sure the bus timetables round there are printed on calendars, in large print.

On the other hand, people do like to move to the country, miles from the shops, school, work and the nearest public transport, then complain that they have no choice but to drive.

On the other hand, people do like to move toare born and work in the country, miles from the shops, school, work and the nearest public transport, then complain that they have no choice but to drive when people in cities complain about how crowded the tube is and that you might have to change busses once but decree cars are not really needed.

FIFY
Grew up 4 miles from a shop, 7 from a proper town because we lived on a farm not because we watched escape to the country

On the other hand, people do like to move to the country,

actually they moved from rented accom in bristol back into brother in laws parents to save for a house. They now live somewhere with slightly better transport. Yes their choice but plenty of people are born in the countryside and of course there are still jobs to be done there, it’s not all people who are getting away from the big cities. Not really a lucrative market for privatised public transport so lots of out of the way places suffer.

FIFY
Grew up 4 miles from a shop, 7 from a proper town because we lived on a farm not because we watched escape to the country

Sigh. It was pretty obvious from my post that I was referring to people who, through choices they’ve made, end up with poorer transport options.

I know quite a few people who work within an easy cycle, yet insist on driving there, and also pay for an expensive gym membership. Madness!

Maybe they don’t like turning up for work sweaty when it’s hot, freezing when it’s cold, and soaking when it’s raining? 🙂

Maybe they don’t like turning up for work sweaty when it’s hot, freezing when it’s cold, and soaking when it’s raining?

Easy cycle = not sweaty.
Appropriate clothing = not cold or wet.

Hersching… that’ll be a visit to Andechs then? Getting drunk is therefore an inevitable consequence

Aye aye!

And, if I’d had it with me, I could have taken by bike in the carriage on the train without booking or telling anyone in advance.

Maybe they don’t like turning up for work sweaty when it’s hot, freezing when it’s cold, and soaking when it’s raining?

That’s the kind of attitude we need to fight, tbh.

If it wasn’t for the car I can’t see how the mountainbike wouldn’t have been invented.

You are joking, surely?

If it wasn’t for the car I can’t see how the mountainbike wouldn’t have been invented.

Error: There are too many negative clauses in this sentence for me to correctly parse it.

If the obesity crisis was the fault of ‘the system’ then we’d have 100% obesity, surely?…
Obesity and people being overweight, combined with the ageing population are going to ruin the country…the increased costs for running the NHS + reduced productivity will overshadow any economic growth we can muster…
It’s about time someone put some figures to it and spelled it out to Joe Public. After all, it’s perfectly possible to live healthily if you make good choices…

Taxing unhealthy food doesn’t appear to work when it’s been tried but maybe people who eat badly and don’t do any exercise should pay a % of any resulting medical treatment? Politically unpopular maybe, but I’m not too happy that a chunk of my taxes go towards paying for healthcare which wouldn’t have been needed if the individuals had put a bit of effort into looking after themselves…

For Scotland: http://www.travelinescotland.com/welcome.do
For Elsewhere: http://www.traveline.info/index.html

or maps.google.co.uk
put in your route (directions button) and click the “Bus Shaped” icon and it will do similarly…
That travelline actually seems to work.

Google maps has never offered me anything other than an apology or a real good larrf when in public transport mode though.

You just can’t do this in the UK.

On Saturday I caught the train from 5 minutes from my house, traveled tho that there london where I proceded to get mashed off my tiny little tits then got on an underground train to Arsenal, got more sozzled and watched Muse, then got the train home again.

You just can’t get mashed, sozzled or off your tits abroad, although I’m sure they have comparable verbs.

Easy cycle = not sweaty.
Appropriate clothing = not cold or wet.

Short of a drysuit and portable AC nothing would have been ‘appropriate’ yesterday! The usual stream crossing that barely warrents a mention was 3ft deep and the other 6 miles of usualy quiet farm track was transformed to a scale model of the Somme.

I can’t be arsed reading what other people wrote but I reckon cars make you lazy.

If you have a car you’ll just drive round the corner to the shops rather than walking it.

Also, bike thieves mean I’m far less likely to cycle there.

Short of a drysuit and portable AC nothing would have been ‘appropriate’ yesterday!

By contrast, on my commute, my socks and shirt cuffs got a bit damp. My daughter was completely dry in her trailer.

If it wasn’t for the car I can’t see how the mountainbike wouldn’t have been invented.

Mountain bikes as they were when they were invented and widely adopted- no. Mountain bikes as they are now, long travel and slack angles. Those are driver’s bikes. (For most)

There’s a klaxon in Stw towers that sounds whenever there isn’t a what car/what van/what second car for the bikes thread on the first page. It doesn’t sound very often otherwise they’d have taken the batteries out by now.

Mountain bikes as they were when they were invented and widely adopted- no. Mountain bikes as they are now, long travel and slack angles. Those are driver’s bikes. (For most)

+1

The USA might be the birthplace of rad-core-max repack-downhilling on clunkers. But in the UK the scot’s were using tough bikes to make remote hillwalking more accessible. Hence their access laws clasify them as “a natural accompliment to walking” or somesuch.

maccruiskeen – Member
The problem is – gyms, exercise DVDs, personal trainers and zumba classes have marketing budgets. ‘Walking’ doesn’t.

In the light of new evidence I’d like to retract my previous statement

😆

😆 😯

Wow! I initially dismissed that as a parody – but she does appear to have a Prancercise website[/url] and a book!

😯

the art of physical excellence? some of us don’t need a book, it just comes naturally 😉

I like how she casually compares herself to Ghandi[/url]