Public Transport -v- private car?

Witch

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Robyn
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The powers that be are very fond of telling us how keen they are to provide every incentive for people to where possible use public transport for their daily commute. If that is really the case, how is the following possible:

We live 19 miles (by road) from my OH's place of work. For the past 6 years he has left the house each morning on foot, walked to the local station (a littkle over 2 miles away - we have no direct bus) got on the train, got off the train and changed to the underground for two stops. He reverses the process in the evening. For this relatively short journey he has been parting with a total of £245 per month. A short time ago and as a pretty much direct result of the inconvenience caused by the last lot of rail strikes, we bought him a car. Nothing grand, just a Citroen C3 diesel, 1.4 engine, hence cheap tax and insurance. 65 miles per gallon. We have carefully worked out the comparative costs, and we astonished to discover that evening including al the depreciation on the car, plus diesel, we are likely to be saving well in excess of £120 per month! :eek: Now I ask you - is there REALLY any incentive for people to get out of their cars? Or have the ever increasing fuel taxes now put driving a car into roughly the same area as smoking - that the government has to be seen to be making a fuss about it, but on the quiet they really want as many people as possible to take it up as the income from it is tremendous?!
 
Me too - although the downside from my side of things is I can't really get from home to work using public transport! If my car dies on me I just can't get in....!
 
My mate's daughter got her first job in the civil service a while back, trouble is they put her in an office 50 miles away, with no direct bus route. She was faced with getting up at 4am to get to work and getting back at 10pm. As the family didn't have a car she was forced to get taxis at both ends of the bus journey and on some days her dad had to hire a car to ensure she either got to work or got home.

Her total travelling expenses were £700 a month, before I pointed out they'd either be better buying her a flat near her work or buying a car - they bought a nearly new car and saved something like £400 a month :cuckoo:
 
I prefer my own private space - period. Last time I took public transport (rail/road) was about 7+ years ago. I'm pretty anti social to begin with so some drunk trying to start a conversation would probably result in a raised eyebrow and a resigned look and then it would go downhill from there. :D

I suspect the government know this hence the reason why they keep squeezing the cash cow even further. It just boils down to the fact people just dont want to sit with other people.
 
we moved to be closer to my wifes work. the rent here is £150 more than where we lived, but the travel expenses for her would have been £300 more. She can walk to work here.

I work all over the place. Sometimes I take the train, sometimes i take the bus, sometimes i fly, sometimes i drive.. depends on mood really.
Often its pot luck which gets me there faster. Last bank holiday friday the car got me 15 miles in 3 hours. the road was queued from my door to the m11. The tube would have got me there in 40 mins.

i quite like going on public transport. sometimes its nice to talk to other people.
lot less idiots hogging the middle lane on the train.
and there is no better feeling than doing 180mph on the TGV whilst drinking a Duvel and watching cars on the adjacent road look like they are standing still (quite often they are)
 
razor777 said:
I prefer my own private space - period. Last time I took public transport (rail/road) was about 7+ years ago. I'm pretty anti social to begin with so some drunk trying to start a conversation would probably result in a raised eyebrow and a resigned look and then it would go downhill from there. :D

I suspect the government know this hence the reason why they keep squeezing the cash cow even further. It just boils down to the fact people just dont want to sit with other people.
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Last time I went on a bus someone shot the the window out....
 
I used to use car and public transport to get to work. Car to the station (£2.50 a day to park) then underground to the office (£5.60 a day). If there was a problem on my line then it would cost more as I would have to use an assortment of tube, train and bus to get there.
Taking the car was not an option as I worked the opposite side of London to where I lived and both tht traffic getting there and back and parking closeby work (£25-£30 a day) would have made using a car very impractical and expensive for me.
I hated the journey though :( rush hour both ways crammed in like sardines, incredibly hot in summer, and certainly not warm in the mornings in winter. It got to the point that I hated stepping onto the train, I just wanted to turn round and go home and it was a huge relief when I left and knowing that I would not have to do that again.
 
There is no incentive at all to use public transport. It's unreliable and expensive (imo).
 
The car for me. Every time.

My workplace takes me right out into the middle of the Kent countryside where the nearest bus stop is 2.5 miles away from my greenhouse workplace. I usually wake up at 4 am and start work at 5.15 am most mornings during the summer, a time when all public transport is virtually non-existent. I start work later in the winter due to the darker mornings but I still don't fancy trudging along country lanes in pitch blackness at 7 am.
Plus I like the privacy and personal space the car offers me, the last time I was in a bus which was something like 15 years ago, a small child projectile vomited all over the seat he was sat on. That put me right off using buses and actually have a phobia of them.
Don't mind trains as I'm a bit of an armchair trainspotter but am in this fortunate position of never needing to rely on them. Besides, the nearest station to my workplace is 8 miles anyway. :lol: (Although the Cheriton terminus is about 3 miles away). :eek:
 
I guess it depends on where you work. Up until August, I've worked in London ever since I left school all those years ago. I've used a combination of busses, tubes, trains, and foot ever since, with the only time I've driven in being the Strike days or weekends.

Can't say I ever enjoyed the commute, it was just a means to an end.

Now, I could use public transport for the 2 days a week I need to be in the office, but it's in Watford and would cost a small fortune (let alone take hours) so I drive. I could have also used public transport when I visited clients in Swindon, but it's so much nicer to drive (even with the traffic).
Off to Liverpool next month (again to see customers), and will probably take a train instead of driving.

I even hired a car the other week when mine was broken down, rather than use public transport - 3 days car hire was cheaper than 2 days rail fares. :shrug:

Car wins hands down - I can listen to my music as loud as I want, fart and smoke at will, I get to see different people every day (without the need to acknowledge them in any way) and if something catches my eye, I can pull over and take a photo. The other upside is that it's indirectly saving me around £50 week as I can't go to the pub every lunchtime now either !!!!!
 
I've tried it both ways - even if it worked out more expensive to drive, I still would...

I still have 'fond' memories of my weekly commute - lugging all my gear to the train station on a Sunday night, struggling to get it all through the door of the train - trying to find enough luggage space to put it in and a seat near enough to keep an eye on it (but more often having to stand in a grotty luggage van), then change trains half-way as there was no direct line to where I wanted to go - then do the reverse at the other end...and then try and find a taxi at 23.00 that would take me to the barracks 10 miles away...usually a 40-minute wait...or longer...
And then do it all over again the following friday...

Brighton to Tidworth - 1hr 45 mins by car on a bad day... 4 hours by train on a good day, making all the connections with no delays...I once spent 6 and a half hours doing that journey...
In a car - my own space; air-con in the Summer; heating in the Winter; music of my choice; carry all my kit safely door-to-door without getting a hernia and being soaked in sweat and most importantly, travel when I like rather than be hostage to the vagaries of timetables that exist purely for the comedy value...

And as to travelling with a bicycle on a train...:cuckoo:
 
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I live approx 4.5 miles from work, and drive to and from daily. Why? I drive because it takes less than 10 minutes. If I take the bus, it takes over an hour unless I change buses. The buses are filthy, cold in winter, sweat boxes in summer, and either filled with equally dirty peasants coughing and sneezing all over the place or noisy cheeky school-kids spitting at each other or throwing stuff around.
No thanks.

Also all this guff about taking the "total cost of ownership" into the equation doesn't hold any water. I would still own my car for leisure anyway, and t'missus can't manage without her car because she is disabled.
 
Cornwall's public transport network is useless, trains that don't stop at stations, busses are late or don't turn up, busses break down etc.

Our park and ride however is useful especially in summer and at Christmas, I do use that but don't class it as public transport as you still need your car to get there. It's privately funded. ;)

I've been driving now for 2 1/2 years and in that time have caught a public bus twice- both on Saturday nights when I couldn't get a lift into town for a night on the lash :D
 
Tazmaniandevil said:
I live approx 4.5 miles from work.....
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That's walking distance!

I live nine miles from work and sometimes it's by car, sometimes by bus. Doesn't bother me either way. For me, if I bought a monthly ticket, the cost would be about the same.

Our bus service on the Isle of Wight improved beyond recognition a few years ago when 'Go Ahead' bought our bus company. Most of the buses are now new air conditioned Mercedes and the main routes have between four and six buses per hour.

I would like to cycle to work (which I have done a few times) but some of the hills are a bit too steep. I suppose if I did it every day I would get fit enough not to notice the hills.


Steve.
 
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My wife and I work for the same company on shifts. If we are both on the same shift pattern we use the car, if the pattern changes I cycle and she has to get 2 buses and its only about 5 miles. The buses aren't too bad but bloody expensive for such a short distance.
 
Steve Smith said:
That's walking distance!
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Oh yes, but at an average walking speed that would hoover 2 hours of my day. 2 hours I would much rather spend with my family. It is also 2 hours I would be spending breathing in the fumes of all the other road users - normally in stinking weather, dodging half-wit cyclists who appear to believe they have the right to cycle on pavements, not to mention the dog *****.

I think not. Private car FTW!
 
I scooter across central London every day 12 miles each way. I've used train and tube for years before and I'd never return to public transport again. If it snows, I'll drive my car. But my scooter is my favourite in all weathers, rain and hail included. It's cheap (£120 for insurance, £15 road tax and £10 petrol per week).
 
I think Westminster must be in a quandry. Motorists are cash cows, and it's so easy to increase revenue by tweaking the various charges and taxes, or inventing new ones like congestion charges, and, I dare say, taxes for having parking priveleges at work, toll roads and mileage charges in the future. You can even discourage them from switching to public transport by ensuring that those costs are kept high, but........

Surely the state's ultimate goal is to abolish the private car? After all, its gives people freedom, and the right to make their own decisions, both of which are anathema to government. Should be easy enough to justify, on the grounds of health and safety, or some edict from the Dept of Fear & Paranoia.
 
i live ten miles from where i work. work on average , a twelve hour day.
plus 50 mins or so driving the round trip.
i would have to get three busses to work, and take around an hour and a quarter each way.
oh and , and i would have to get a taxi to work if i started the earlier 6AM.
so public transport to work isnt an option.
i do grab a bus when me and my mate go into nottingham for a night out.
but thats a mile and a half, from his flat (where i drive to) into the city.
if its a nice evening we walk.
my mrs occasionaly gets the train into nottingham in the daytime. but has to drive the three or four miles to our nearest station.
 
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