And some other countries are sensible in recognising public transport as being part of national infrastructure, not commercial enterprise to make profit. If paid for by the taxpayer and providing a cheap and efficient network to go where and when people want, of course kept clean and comfortable, then people are happy to, and do, use it. As an aside, with very good public transport is would seem not unreasonable to tax car use much more heavily (ideally through fuel which will be directly proportional to use) to discourage that as a means of personal transport.
The difficulty of course is that once people have been weaned off public transport and discovered the relative freedom of private car transport it is very much more difficult to get them back to public transport.
In my day there were only 2 reasons for wanting a car. Women and beer.
The car allowed you to get to both quicker. Public transport , especially in rural Somerset did not help with either.
Saying that I held off buying my first car until got a job after uni. Using my dad’s mk3 Cortina for the 2 reasons stated above.
But first car was a 1983 ( 6 years old by time I bought it) Black Mk1 Golf Gti 1.8.
I didn’t get a car till I was 22 and moving to a house 10+ miles from work with no public transport. Before that I managed to find women (well, one, but thar was sufficient!) and beer within walking distance from home, and music (the other reason for transport) bu public transport. But I did live in outer London, with the nearest tube station only 1/4 mile away.
Lol, I can’t say a car ever helped with women but having one definitely helped to visit a wider range of places together and make life more interesting. The personal freedom aspects are great so would always encourage my daughter’s to get on the road. Somehow I think the independence for women is more important.
Stuff public transport, especially in the UK. If it were better I’d maybe encourage it but till then a car is definitely the preferred option.
Boring? I would have given my right arm for a Toyota Yaris as my first car. I recall my first car selection being dictated by “what isn’t about to collapse in a pile of rust” tried a couple of terrible popular cars of the day but settled on a 1973 1300cc VW beetle and even that was beginning to perforate due to rust. In those days it was not the cult car that it is today, classed as a ‘runner’ low insurance and terrible fuel consumption although it was designed to run on the cheapest petrol, 2 star anyone?!
Being in the motor trade I’d agree with that list apart from the KA which is just a rebadged Fiat 500.
Avoid mini absolutely the worst car to repair ever.
The post retirement spike is possibly due to people retiring for health reasons. Stands to reason that a percentage of those reasons are serious, and ultimately fatal.
I suspect for some it is also the loss of adequate stimulation after retirement, where people lived for their work and had little or nothing by way of non-work life, hobbies etc
Today, yes, I couldn’t agree more unless you live in one if the cities with good public transport, though it costs an arm and a leg in those places. My point is that needs rectifying, taking a leaf out of other countries’ books, and regarding public transport as essential national infrastructure. But then in recent decades, short-sightedly, and stupid to my mind, Britain seems to have viewed essential infrastructure as a marketable commodity.
Definitely. I’ve often considered public transport but you need money and commitment to use it.
For example, we often trip to Brighton for the day and as they don’t like cars down there, look at train tickets. However, it costs a fortune for a family and that doesn’t even include the buses when you get there. On a weekend you’re looking at over £250 for 4 adults. The i3 will do the entire return journey for £20. That leaves £230 for a nice meal and change.
The train would be great as you’d just chill but my pockets aren’t that deep.
I’ll also add, that having a car gives people freedom.
And before anybody whinges at that concept, just confirm that you have already relinquished all of your cars, electric, diesel, petrol whatever.
Today, myself and my wife spent the morning working on our garden, then this afternoon went on a wonderful walk in our beautiful countryside. We often just walk to the end of our Avenue, cross the A4 and into a field, followed by country paths. But today we drove about 4 miles out to Bucklebury, parked the X3 in a very quiet, empty public carpark on the edge of some heathland and took a wonderful 10k walk over open hillside with beautiful views towards Watership Down.
Public transport ? you must be joking ? There might be a bus once a week, but I somehow doubt it !!
As I indicated, once people have got used to personal transport it will take more than just the availability of good public transport to get them to switch. I struggle to imagine doing what my parents did with us as kids, taking us on holiday to all sorts of places all by public transport, from South Coast seaside resorts to Snowdonia to a tour of the Scottish highlands. Or even simply visiting relatives with babies and associated paraphernalia. And normally we only do major food shopping about once every 2-3 weeks - that would be unmanageable by bus.
The nearest I get to abandoning car use personally is to use it probably an average of once a week or so. My wife hasn’t done likewise, driving instead, as the 15 mikes to work with lots of hills and high proportion of wet and/or very windy weather is too much to cycle morning and evening, while bus to work for her would take at best an hour and a half, more often 2 hours or more with hanging around at a bus stop for half an hour for the connection. That’s what zi meant about buses going where you want when you want!
But the reality is there really needs to be a reduction in personal transport, although more effective would be a reduction in population… However I think this is going beyond the thread subjest!
Assuming you don’t mind getting oily and bloody knuckles