[Travel] Cars and congestion

[Mr deez]

Genuinely interested, what do you do when you want to go visit friends/family or do something a long way (say 100+) miles away ? Public transport ? Hire a car ?

Yeah public transport. Planning things and a Railcard. Theres definitely occasions when driving would be handy but it's bloody expensive for the odd handy outing.

 

[dsr-burnley]

My band mate and his Mrs moved back to London 5 years ago and gave up the car . . . Just hire one when they need, maybe 2 times a year. PT and bicycles most of the time.

we've gone from 3 vehicles to one in the last 3 years, no motorhome, no second car, they're not being used . . . I sold a classic as well as I never drove it . . . . The roads aren't good enough To enjoy it. . . . We keep 1 car at present because we need one once or twice a week maybe . . .
Mrs Zef shops online, I want to look at the food I'm buying, but I'll use a scooter, quicker, and far more enjoyable.

town and city centres need to make car life hell . . .there's no need to drive in or through them. Walk Or cycle, you fat lazy selfish ****s!

buses need cleaning up too. Most of them are over sized diesel belching behemoths with 4 or 5 people on board, squeezing through roads built for a horse and cart.

Do I pull my mother's wheelchair behind the bicycle, or do I sit her in the basket?

There are more prosaic reasons to need a car as well.
1. I can't get to Ripon races (or many other places I want to go) for an evening meeting by public transport.
2. To go to work by bus, even Colne to Burnley (6 miles), would take an extra hour a day. Largely because buses keep stopping to pick other people up.
3. Using a car means I am guaranteed my own seat.
4. Using a car means I am guaranteed not to have several dozen schoolchildren (or other undesirables) sharing my vehicle.
5. Using a car means I can keep a coat, umbrella, etc. in the boot and not have to decide in advance whether I want it. Same advantage when I'm going to two places with different luggage requirements.
6. Carrying shopping on a bus is awkward. In a car it's a doddle.
7. Cars go door to door and you never have to change vehicles half way through the journey.
8. I don't need to get wet on a rainy day.
9. The car sets off when I want it to, not when the bus driver wants it to.

I'm sure there are advantages to the bus as well, but they aren't enough to stop me wanting to drive a car. I can afford it, and (like so many other things in life, different things for all of us) if something makes my life better or easier, I'm willing to pay.

 

[worthingseagull123]

Who the hell is having 4/5 days holiday a year at the moment!!!! Sometimes feel I'm living in a parralell universe! Maybe some really well off but they can afford the new parking charges anyway.

I am. Amazing that not commuting by train to work is saving me £3,500 a year. Hybrid working and driving once a week to south London is a massive finanical saving.

As for parking charges, I am lucky to have off road parking in central Worthing. But a parking permit here is around £50 a year. Not sure why it is such a rip off in Brighton.

 

[Gwylan]

I've not really kept up with this thread but we are a no car family in Brighton and it's a doddle.

Unfortunately most are so attached to their cars I can't see much changing for a while, though the next generation might be priced out of driving as I'm glad to not have that expense to worry about.

Yeah, we're a no car family too, brought up two kids without a car and it's been fine. I was brought up mainly in a car-free home (my dad got a car when I was 15) and that was fine too.

Brighton is pretty good for living without a car, buses are regular, reasonably cheap and its small enough to be able to walk across town easily

 

[BadFish]

What does a tram offer that busses can't?

I am much much more likely to use a tram than I am a bus. Spent a day in
Melbourne yesterday and hopped on and off teams like a good un. I don't do this with busses.

Them being free was certainly a help. They are also easy to access and because they have their own tracks that cars are not allowed to drive on they don't get stuck in traffic. Is it that the city of
Melbourne gives trams priority over other traffic.

+1 for trams here. Trams are good.

 

[BadFish]

Cheap and reliable public transport. It's not rocket science.

It would be quicker if it was.

 

[worthingseagull123]

I am much much more likely to use a tram than I am a bus. Spent a day in
Melbourne yesterday and hopped on and off teams like a good un. I don't do this with busses.

Them being free was certainly a help. They are also easy to access and because they have their own tracks that cars are not allowed to drive on they don't get stuck in traffic. Is it that the city of
Melbourne gives trams priority over other traffic.

+1 for trams here. Trams are good.

Trams are fast, smooth, more comfortable (how many buses have air conditionining).

Buses stop every 300 yards to pick up and drop off.

I wont ever use a bus, but I’ll use a tram.

 

[keaton]

Yeah, we're a no car family too, brought up two kids without a car and it's been fine. I was brought up mainly in a car-free home (my dad got a car when I was 15) and that was fine too.

Brighton is pretty good for living without a car, buses are regular, reasonably cheap and its small enough to be able to walk across town easily

As someone who's contemplating learning to drive if my child gets into sport and things how did you manage to get your son to all his cricket stuff without a car?

 

[schmunk]

Do I pull my mother's wheelchair behind the bicycle, or do I sit her in the basket?

 

[dsr-burnley]

Lovely.

What are the brakes like? I live on a 1 in 7 hill.

 

[schmunk]

Lovely.

What are the brakes like? I live on a 1 in 7 hill.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

What does a tram offer that busses can't?

When one breaks down the entire city is gridlocked.


... But they are quite a lot smoother in the most part.

 

[beorhthelm]

Trams are fast, smooth, more comfortable (how many buses have air conditionining).

Buses stop every 300 yards to pick up and drop off.

I wont ever use a bus, but I’ll use a tram.

so you're asking for buses with air con, fewer stops. and to another comment, gets priority over other traffic.

i think its just sniffy attitude to buses, trams seem a bit more like a train and held in higher esteem.

 

[Oh_aye]

This. Bus congestion is a bit daft in central Brighton, sometimes up to half a dozen buses queueing to use a single stop. Still far better than allowing private cars free rein in and around the town centre tho. They need booting out completely, or a swingeing congestion charge imposed.

Part of the beauty of the rebirth of trams is that imaginative new routes to, say, the Marina and the Uni/Amex could be introduced, maybe also a route linking the north of the town to the station. Ah well, we can but dream, eh?

I tell you what would improve public transport for me. Anyone listenening to something being on their phones without headphones being immediately electrocuted into a fried stump on the spot.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

so you're asking for buses with air con, fewer stops. and to another comment, gets priority over other traffic.

i think its just sniffy attitude to buses, trams seem a bit more like a train and held in higher esteem.

There are definitely situations where trams/light rail are more efficient than buses - basically if you have lots of people to get from point A to point B in a relatively short period of time.
If you've got the money and space to segregate them from traffic then it's great, it's basically like an underground system at that point.
On the other hand, for the construction costs you could double the number of buses and run a few of them as limited stop for the people in a hurry, and do that within a year or two instead of about 30years by the time you finish building a tram network.

 

[Gwylan]

As someone who's contemplating learning to drive if my child gets into sport and things how did you manage to get your son to all his cricket stuff without a car?

Son and daughter. There's a bus from the bottom of our estate to Lewes - that took them to training and home games. For away games, we generally got a lift.

Rugby was worse: they played for different clubs so Mrs G had to take one of them. There was one day where I took my son to Lewes and watched his game until Mrs G came and then raced to Hove to watch my daughter play - it was mad. Again, for some games, we got lifts but rugby is a lot easier to get to by public transport and there's not so much gear to transport.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

There are definitely situations where trams/light rail are more efficient than buses - basically if you have lots of people to get from point A to point B in a relatively short period of time.
If you've got the money and space to segregate them from traffic then it's great, it's basically like an underground system at that point.
On the other hand, for the construction costs you could double the number of buses and run a few of them as limited stop for the people in a hurry, and do that within a year or two instead of about 30years by the time you finish building a tram network.

The magnificent Tramlink that serves Croydon and South London took just over 3 years to build and has 39 stations. It has absolutely transformed transport in the area to an extent that Brighton can only dream of

 

[Stat Brother]

This is turning into:-

'but how do you cope without any arms and legs'

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

The magnificent Tramlink that serves Croydon and South London took just over 3 years to build and has 39 stations. It has absolutely transformed transport in the area to an extent that Brighton can only dream of

That's the construction time alone, including planning it took over ten years.
It also has the advantage of using sections of existing railways and railway corridors.
All that said, it's still remarkably quick by the standards of major infrastructure projects.

 

[worthingseagull123]

so you're asking for buses with air con, fewer stops. and to another comment, gets priority over other traffic.

i think its just sniffy attitude to buses, trams seem a bit more like a train and held in higher esteem.

It is just my preference.

There is a reason why so many of us wont use buses.