A proper ding dong in my local rag

[PBancroft]

Drivers are always banging on about the cost of fuel and the cost of motoring but isn't it the case that most journeys are are only about 2 miles in distance? Remember reading that but cannot remember the source.

Not quite.

 

[summerdays]

Not quite.

Interesting graphs - I guess if you are getting in your car - you don't think I will go to the local shops ... instead I will go to the ones with the best parking/better shops etc. In education I have definitely seen that people seem to travel reasonable distances to get their kids into schools -even at primary school level and know of plenty of cases where the kids are transported past multiple schools to get to their one (in several cases half way across the city!!).

We see it as our choice to be able to choose to not go to the nearest/local schools/shops etc but don't then recognise the outcome of our choice is congestion.

 

[akaAndrew]

As to this clutch of people who seem to make a career out of indiscriminately slanging off cyclists on the 'comments' columns - are they a threat: do they cause damage? I suppose it depends how much words translate into actions, or whether words alone are harmful. "Stick and stones...." - or is it?

I'd say there is a 'drip drip drip' kind of damage. The continual condoning of such attitudes, either by reinforcing others or saying it to yourself over and over, I reckon could lead to action on the road. My guess is it's happening too. Mr Angry Driver feels justified in deliberately overtaking too closely, or cutting up, to redress the balance because his feelings of being treated unequally are endorsed by the similar attitudes of others.

 

[661-Pete]

Not quite.

I wonder if the trends are now (i.e. in the years since 2002) moving downwards, seeing as we now have a recession?

Only one of the bars in that set of graphs nudges above ten miles. Is this a round trip (there-and-back) distance or point-to-point, I wonder. For even the least energetic of our cyclists, a ten-mile round trip would hardly be overly taxing. So all those 'average' journeys are within the cyclists's compass, even if they are over two miles.

Mr Angry Driver feels justified in deliberately overtaking too closely, or cutting up, to redress the balance because his feelings of being treated unequally are endorsed by the similar attitudes of others.

This is what I feared. Though I don't see any evidence of it happening round my way - yet. There are plenty of DM and redtop readers in my area (judging by the queue in WH Smiths) - perhaps none of them gets beyond Page 3 (or whatever passes for correspondingly juicy bits in the DM) before turning at once to the sports. Serious stuff like cycling-related articles in an inside page, probably get passed over, along with the comments...

 

[PBancroft]

I wonder if the trends are now (i.e. in the years since 2002) moving downwards, seeing as we now have a recession?

I have no evidence, but I doubt it. This is entirely subjective, but I think that people will still go shopping out of town - I wouldn't be surprised to find they travelled further to get to ASDA or Morrisons to save a few pennies over Waitrose or Sainsbury's.

Those still with a job (which is the majority of people, last time I checked) will still be working at the same place they probably did before the recession, and their kids will still be going to the same school.

Leisure is a slightly different beast, but even that I wouldn't be shocked to find people are driving further to enjoy the countryside for their "stay at home" breaks.

Only one of the bars in that set of graphs nudges above ten miles. Is this a round trip (there-and-back) distance or point-to-point, I wonder. For even the least energetic of our cyclists, a ten-mile round trip would hardly be overly taxing. So all those 'average' journeys are within the cyclists's compass, even if they are over two miles.

I've lost track of the number of people who have stood mouth wide open when I tell them my commute is 10 miles. The stock response is the self detrimental "I couldn't even do one mile on a bike anymore." Despite how many times I tell them otherwise, very few people let that sink in.

A ten mile journey might not be overly taxing, but it doesn't mean that people don't imagine it that way. For some people, a long way is from the car park to their desk.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Interesting graphs - I guess if you are getting in your car - you don't think I will go to the local shops ... instead I will go to the ones with the best parking/better shops etc. In education I have definitely seen that people seem to travel reasonable distances to get their kids into schools -even at primary school level and know of plenty of cases where the kids are transported past multiple schools to get to their one (in several cases half way across the city!!).

We see it as our choice to be able to choose to not go to the nearest/local schools/shops etc but don't then recognise the outcome of our choice is congestion.

Probably the best example of that was a letter from somone to the local rag down here in deepest darkest Kent, who'd recently moved into the area and was complaining about the congestion / lack of parking and so forth.

And then went on to say that the situation was so bad that they did their shopping back in Reading where they'd moved from, and still worked.

(Fair enough, people can live / work wherever they wish, but it seems a bit off to move into a densely populated area, moan about how busy it is and then make the situation worse by commuting 80+ miles each way every day on a notoriously busy road!!)

And kaipath is also speaking truth: for many, it IS a long way from the car park to their desk. One of my colleagues will quite happily drive 2 miles to / from work each day (it would be 1 mile if he walked - shorter route round some lakes) and then moan about the traffic.