Commuting

[RedVenom]

Public transport sucks, a car is the only way to get about. The few times I have used a bus were rubbish, they dont stop unless its their 'designated stop' so they drove past where I would have liked to have got off and carried on driving for 2 miles meaning I HAD to walk back 2 miles from where the bus had just been!

 

[dave]

Have to give the thumbs up to public transport here in manchester.

Arrive at the bus stop to be greeted by 3 or 4 buses each from a different company so plenty of choice. Hop on the bus for £4 a week (as much use as the bus as I want) along with the other 50-60 or so students. The bus fills up in a matter of 3 or 4 minutes then races down the road towards uni. The buses are normally always full (in the morning) and very efficient.

I think the fact that about 3 out of 5 people say thanks or cheers to the bus driver on the way out shows I'm not the only one who thinks this.

 

[Gumbo]

Public Transport here in Rural Norfolk is pants.

I have one bus out at 8:00 which would get me to work an hour late and one that gets back here for 17:30 which is 30 minutes before I get off work, not a lot of use then.

Without my car I would face a 20 mile round trip cycle ride that I don't fancy in February. However come the summer I may well bike in occasionally as I have done in the past.

Free Park and Cycle parking on the outskirts, with secure bike parking for overnights, so I don't need to load up the car every day, would definatly be a good thing. As it is, the park and rides are expensive and more of a pain in the arse than I can be bothered with.

 

[Tom]

One thing people always harp on about is 'how things was better in't ol' days'. They forget that in't ol' days, they lived about 2-3 miles from their place of work, and not 10 miles which seems to be the norm these days.

I know people who commute daily, over 20-30 miles. Some, even more than that.

Its not so simple for me, I work just about all over the country, but I still use my legs to get to the shops. I even use stairs instead of lifts/escalators, basically because I believe that every bit helps.


PS Gumbo - 'Back of the Net' for your custom title

 

[TdC]

hmm. more long term stuff:

• get the public trans up to a high standard and keep it there.
  (by standard I mean clean, safe, and on-bloody-time)
• cap "short" pubtrans trips to a reasonable price that everyone can pay
  
• get bike lanes. maintain them properly. make people aware of them.
  (I've heard stories of bikeing in the UK, I've done it in Ireland. I would *not* like to do it in say....London, the very place where it can be such a benifit)
  

I'd have more but I'm a bit asleep this morning

 

[]SK[]

Were having trams installed atm. Im hoping that this might ease some traffic round here but im not too sure it will. Makes it easier though if you drive to the outskirts, park up and hop on the tram to the centre, there isnt no info about parking charges yet though.
You need to remember though that alot of jobs involve the car. I cant use a bike/bus/train/tram to carry computer equipment between cities/towns etc. By increasing tax the government is just making more money.

 

[MYstIC G]

No monetary means will reduce traffic substantially, especially with the number of uninsured, untaxed & unlicensed drivers on the increase. I simply think that people who break the road traffic laws should have their cars impounded and if they can't prove there innosence within say 6 months the car should be crushed/sold/etc.

I think though a more workable solution would be a one car per household law, especially with the DVLA harping on about there spinky new computer.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

It would help if public transport was kept in line with inflation and economy.

Buses went up from 70p to a pound over here in the new year, raising the prices of transport by a third. But, there have been NO improvements in the last 5 years, NO new buses, a further LACK of buses and drivers on the road. And then they up the price, continuously, massively above the rate of inflation? (Who here got a raise at the start of the year of nearly 30%?)

And don't even get me started on the train service here... it's a fucking joke. It will regularly take over 3 hours to travel 15 miles here by trains. Why do roads get blocked up? Because the public transport system is totally crippled, and run by morons without a clue.

 

[Will]

One suggestion I heard (on another forum) was to raise fuel tax, by £3 or £4. However, the extra money would go towards public transport, and every driver on the road would have 3rd party insurance paid for with the extra revenue.

A bit radical, maybe, but it has its plus points. And public transport would have to be a lot better on the day the scheme was introduced, and no government would ever have the bottle to introduce it.

 

[Ch3tan]

Actually there are more routes here and more buses. Better timetabling and avialbaility at all hours, and newer buses. Oyster card should help things as well.

Train travel on the other hand is still shocking.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Ahh Oyster card, the wonderful secret location tracker.

 

[Ch3tan]

Heh its quick, saves you a little cash if your a regular traveller. They worked fantasticly on HK and Singapore hopefully it will cath on in a big way over here as well.

 

[]SK[]

Gosh I used to pay 17p bus fair.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

And hey, donates lots of nice market research and personal info at the same time, just to give you that real sense of freedom.

 

[Tom]

It would help if public transport was kept in line with inflation and economy.

Buses went up from 70p to a pound over here in the new year, raising the prices of transport by a third. But, there have been NO improvements in the last 5 years, NO new buses, a further LACK of buses and drivers on the road. And then they up the price, continuously, massively above the rate of inflation? (Who here got a raise at the start of the year of nearly 30%?)

This is the result of years and years of under-investment, and with hindsight, silly decisions in the past. I also blame having a fuckoff massive navy to patrol the scraps of an empire.

 

[xane]

The people who should be paying for public transport are companies. They are the direct beneficiaries of mass transport systems moving both workers and customers to their stores/offices, and as such should not only pay rental but also transportation infrastructure tax, this applies to both private and public.

I'm not a great supporter of taxation, but I do think in this case many companies are getting something for nothing. I don't believe in high taxation but I do believe in fair taxation, already most of the (foreign-owned) large companies in the UK get away with puny rates of corporate tax by massaging the accounts.

In the end, the worker or the customer gets taxed for all of it out of their personal earnings, as well as having to pay rising fares and road/petrol taxes. You can blame the government all you want, but there is no reason _they_ need to pay to build a road to connect an industrial estate or to the nearest motorway, put the cost on the people who benefit.

 

[xane]

This is the result of years and years of under-investment, and with hindsight, silly decisions in the past. I also blame having a fuckoff massive navy to patrol the scraps of an empire.

I blame the fact that a transport ministers only stay in the job for a few years, particularly when Mrs Thatcher would conduct her famous "reshuffles", yet transport projects take many years to complete, often beyond the lifetime of the government.

Why should a minister have to justify a vast expendature when the results of it would only benefit someone else, or even, another political party ?

Set up a "transport supremo", rather like the Governer of the Bank of England, or the DG of the BBC, someone who will stick around, make out the cheques and take the crap and get sacked by the current government.

 

[Will]

But we can't threaten business...they would all up and leave over-seas.

Can you tell that that sort of statement annoys me?

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Still confused as to why having a navy directly effects the transport issue?

And before you start harping about more cash for transport less for navy, that's useless. If we lessen the navy for example, all the money 'saved' won't be chucked into other areas. It will simply go back into the armed forces......

So yeah! lets scrap all the navy and then the trains will work... or something.

 

[Tom]

Draw a parallel with France and Germany. Both countries utterly devastated by the second world war (and England almost bankrupted), yet which has the better transport system? If the French need a new railway viaduct, theres no looking around for the cash, they just build it. If taxes need to rise to pay for it, then taxes rise.

You can't deny that for too many years we have had too large a military presence, the result of clinging onto the last dregs of an Empire that was no longer relevant, and politicians too afraid of public opinion to do the right thing. The military isn't cheap.

 

[MYstIC G]

May not be cheap but it is effective...

 

[Cotsan]

mmmmmm, NO. Millions for a war that didn't concern us and for no discernable outcome except bodybags for the UK. . . .
I live in the same shitehole as you Mystic G - I pay too much for a train that is late every day and only because it's preferable to being threatened on a filthy bus. Again . . .. No amount of travel cards of whatever type will cover the fact that the rail infrastrucutre is knackered and that giving private enterprise the reins has not solved a single problem .