Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
One place I did see kids on buses and trains was the Lakes. Packed them out which was great to see.
What do you want in the place of cars?
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Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
My wife's Micra does. Most of her journeys are to Cowbridge (about 4 miles to the centre) or to Talbot Green (about 5 miles), with occasional trips to Bridgend or Cardiff (each about 15 miles with a decent amount being open road with 60 limit), and she averages a little over 55 mpg.
Most of my journeys are indeed decent distance with a good amount of non-urban driving though, and you are probably right that I wouldn't get that much from mine if it were all short journeys.
Litres? Electricity doesn't come in litres!
Insurance is paid for by my company. Car tax is exempt. My round trip is about 3 miles (5 miles if I am dropping / collecting my wife). That's around 7p to 10p in electricity.
Yep - full marks
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Driving 1.5 miles 😳
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
A poxy four or five miles. I'd walk, and I'm old with a dodgy hip.
This casual acceptance and excuse making for using cars to travel short journeys is a large part of the problem, and is certainly nothing to feel smug or boast about simply because you can do it inexpensively.
This casual acceptance and excuse making for using cars to travel short journeys is a large part of the problem, and is certainly nothing to feel smug or boast about simply because you can do it inexpensively.
Then you would both be given a suspension and your parents would be given a talking to. I've already stated that students may not walk or cycle to my daughters school because of road safety concerns. The main road is narrow, busy and 40mph. Even seasoned cyclists avoid it. The turn off to the school is secluded woodland with no footpath.
Of course you would be walking with a rucksack full of folders and textbooks for your lesson as well, possibly a musical instrument or a hockey stick and a PE bag (and in my daughters case a large item of textiles or a tailors dummy on some occasions!) - so I hope you have a strong back.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
It may be exempt from car tax, but it isn't exempt from insurance or depreciation, or maintenance costs.
The marginal cost may be only 15p, but the true cost is very much more.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
I understand this, but IMO it is seriously wrong for them to keep schools in such situations open. They need to be either improving the access or closing the school and opening another with better access.
There is one primary school round here that I have no idea whether they allow walking to, but they shouldn't if they do, and I think that one should be closed too.
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.503...sofx7q1UjljsJmyA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
No, but I am. Someone else pays it. There are almost no maintenance costs on a BEV. Even if you factor in what I pay on salary sacrifice it works out £100 cheaper than the bus. And that's only a bus for one child. So £600 cheaper. Plus I can transport my family to the New Forest or Worcester to see their grandparents for very little compared to the train. Holidays in the UK are easier because I can load cases in the back and drive to my holiday hotel.
Just seeing the grandparents takes 3.5 hours by public transport plus lugging of cases and costs about £95 with bus and train fares. In the car it takes 2 hours, no lugging of cases and costs about £2.10 in electricity going and £4.48 coming back (in law's leccy costs more)
My daughters school offer access via driving or via bus / coach. The council did (about 2 years ago) state that they were going to put in cycling infrastructure so that there is a proper safe cycle link between Cobham and Walton. It has never turned up.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
I don't dispute that you are much better off using the car, particularly with multiple kids.
Just that saying it only costs 15p is rather disingenuous because it really isn't taking all the costs into account.
It is a mistake many people make, only looking at the marginal cost rather than apportioning other costs.
But even apportioning other costs, and using an ICE vehicle where you pay everything yourself, will always be cheaper than public transport if you have three or more of you , usually will with two.
And an EV will be cheaper again, although I wouldn't go so far as to say "almost no maintenance costs", given how much things like tyres cost. Certainly lower maintenance than an ICEV but not insignificant.
OP
OP
presta
Guru
And still you go back to focusing on the 16% who can't use a car as easily rather than the 84% who can.
Nothing, which is why I keep banging on about the people who find excuses not to use car alternatives rather than looking for the occasions when you can find an alternative.
Which is why subsidies for cars need to stop, and why public transport needs to be made as cheap as it takes to persuade people to use it.
Motorists only pay for 50% of the costs they impose on society in the UK, and 37% in Germany. Only Denmark recovers all of the cost:
Which is why I said:
at the top of the thread.
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By the time my lease finishes I expect to have had to change the tyres once, probably the rears. So around £500. Double if the front need doing. About twice the price of the tyres on my scenic. Absolutely no other maintenance needed that isn't covered by the lease. Given that my fuel costs have dropped from around £2400 a year to around £300 a year, over 4 years I will have saved around £8,400 in fuel, so paying an extra £500 on tyres seems like a fair exchange.
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classic33
Leg End Member
For me, the methods given earlier aren't an alternative. There is no car to fall back on for convenience.
Which seems to be your main choice for method of travel though.
