'Road rage' van driver [Adrian Burrows] punched cyclist in the face for not using a bike path

[Binky]

Regarding cycle lanes, I use them sometimes depending upon situation and condition of said lanes. Some are excellent, debris free and by far best option if next to a busy main road. Because of area where I live there aren't many anyway. As for car use, where I live which is in a quiet rural coastal area so without a car I'd be severely limited. Bus service between local villages is OK but anywhere else no so a car for my needs is pretty much essential. I ride my bike for fun and exercise but for general transport it's the car. I would guess similar to a lot of people.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Where we live there are a few buses but the ones within walking distance for my wife are about one every 2 hours
and only go into town or to a local housing estate
to get into another town or to the train station we would have to do into town and then get another bus
we have never bothered - we use the car because of it

We may start using buses a bit more next year when we get a bus pass
partly the change is because I don;t even have a clue how to pay for a bus - apparently it changes depending on the company as the local bus company folded well before 2020
if you use them all teh time you pay for a "thing" and just use it
but for a one off trip - when I have looked it up I have just got confused

getting the train is bad enough

the days when you could just turn up and get on and lob some coins at someone seem to have gone!

 

[Fastpedaller]

Where we live there are a few buses but the ones within walking distance for my wife are about one every 2 hours
and only go into town or to a local housing estate
to get into another town or to the train station we would have to do into town and then get another bus
we have never bothered - we use the car because of it

We may start using buses a bit more next year when we get a bus pass
partly the change is because I don;t even have a clue how to pay for a bus - apparently it changes depending on the company as the local bus company folded well before 2020
if you use them all teh time you pay for a "thing" and just use it
but for a one off trip - when I have looked it up I have just got confused

getting the train is bad enough

the days when you could just turn up and get on and lob some coins at someone seem to have gone!

I can get to our town 2.5 miles away on a Tuesday on the bus ..... and then return on Thursday . My Wife tells me I should apply for my free bus pass, but I'm not sure it would be worthwhile. Fortunately we have the disused railway path which I cycle or walk to get to town. To walk along the roads to Town would be very hazardous

 

[mjr]

As for car use, where I live which is in a quiet rural coastal area so without a car I'd be severely limited. Bus service between local villages is OK but anywhere else no so a car for my needs is pretty much essential.

We shouldn't compare today's car use to today's post-Beeching train services and post-privatisation Thatcher-deregulated mess of bus routes, which consist of commercial routes cherry-picking the most profitable areas, distorted by trying to hoover up bus pass users and "front-running" competitors, and subsidised routes decided by a council cabinet member, usually from elsewhere in the county, on the advice of an understaffed council "department" (often just part of one officer).

What we need to try to imagine is how today's car use compares to the public transport service we would have if so many people weren't conned into doing extra unpaid driving work every day. I was in outer London this week (travelled there by train) and I looked up how to get from my hotel in one suburban centre to a venue a few miles away and the app (Öffi, which works in many countries but strangely not reliably in West Norfolk) said there were buses about every 7 or 8 minutes. Then I noticed I hadn't set the departure time and that was at 11.30pm! In the morning peak, I wouldn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for the next bus and most often about 3... as it happened, a bus left the stop as I walked out of the nearby shopping centre, but the next suitable one arrived as I reached the stop. That is how buses should work. Not the irregular-spaced 8am-5.30pm hourly-ish same-number-but-varying-route rubbish we suffer in the regions.

We can get some idea by looking at a fair country that uses a mix of buses, trams and trains to give most people reasonable options for most journeys, whether or not they can drive. Something a bit like London but even better. Like certain European areas, mostly centred on cities.

Then maybe courts would more often disqualify road ragers like the one in the opening post, judges would not let so many drivers get away with pleadng "exceptional hardship" when they accumulate 12 penalty points, and government wouldn't be driving so many healthcare staff into their graves by providing no useful public transport at most shift changes at most NHS sites!

 

[Binky]

You seem to be on some sort of political rant there but all I will say is whilst of course better public transport be great, I chose to live where I do so I'm not blaming anyone for not providing a bus that runs outside my front door to every location I might want to go to. There are somewhat limited options for me and I can get to towns etc should I want to but it's how long that might take.
Case in point, last week I drove to train station to pick up daughter. Took me 20-25 mins to drive there. By bus be one hour 50mins due to circular coast route the bus service takes. Then of course similar back.

On the rare occasion I go to London I'm actually impressed with transport options to get around be it tube or bus or even trains.

Anyway, think we've veered off original point of this thread.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Cost is another problem
WHen we have considered going places some distance away we have sometimes looked at using the train

but when you add up the cost of two tickets and compare it to the cost of petrol and parking
then the car comes out cheaper - often by quite a lot

if we are going somewhere for a few days and have to factor in a hotel - then the ability to drive out of the central area makes the difference even greater

 

[BoldonLad]

Where we live there are a few buses but the ones within walking distance for my wife are about one every 2 hours
and only go into town or to a local housing estate
to get into another town or to the train station we would have to do into town and then get another bus
we have never bothered - we use the car because of it

We may start using buses a bit more next year when we get a bus pass
partly the change is because I don;t even have a clue how to pay for a bus - apparently it changes depending on the company as the local bus company folded well before 2020
if you use them all teh time you pay for a "thing" and just use it
but for a one off trip - when I have looked it up I have just got confused

getting the train is bad enough

the days when you could just turn up and get on and lob some coins at someone seem to have gone!

Locally, you can pay your bus fare with your phone (applepay, googlepay, etc).

As for the train, I sometimes travel with a pal, who claims to be “clued up”, there have been a couple of disasters. I have steered clear of making a fool myself. 😂