My wife’s family never had a car. They relied on public transport and cadging lifts off car owners. she relates how it was a total pain in the ‘whatever’ not having a car. Holidays to, for example, Scarborough involved a whole days travel on various trains and buses. Essentially they never really went anywhere because it was so much work. They also did lots of walking and trudging with bags of shopping. They also relied a lot of other people giving them lifts be that simply to the shops or for days out.
In fact I’ve noticed this a lot with people that don’t have a car… they’re VERY willing to take your offer of a lift in your car.
Me too, bought it from my own money, which actually felt like a great personal accomplishment at the time!
I think i would have been too proud to let my parents buy one for me, even though i think it’s great when (other) parents do help their kids out with their first car.
We have ONE bus a day. It’s about 9:30 and it gets to the local town about 10:15 (I’d have to ask SWMBO, or Google, for the exact timetable). Then it comes back from town about mid-day, so you have an hour and half there. I’ve been on it a couple of times when I was recovering from the heart surgery. There were 5 people on it (that includes myself and wife) and we were the only people actually paying for the journey. It’s some time ago but ISTR it was something like two quid each, each way; so make that £8 there and back for a trip which, by car, is 15 mins down the road!
btw this is one of the reasons why using public transport to get too work is out and cycling would take a couple of hours each way and that’s down some roads that I’m not brave enough to cycle on! I could cycle to town and then train and then cycle to work at the other end. I did look at that but it would mean a half hour cycle ride at each end.
Basically, where we live, if you don’t drive then you’re stuffed!
Great thread as I am facing a similar issue with my 16yr old daughter who will need a lift to the station every morning/evening to get to college (difficult as wife and I both work and I work shifts). So I plan to get her into a car asap. I love the Fiat 500 for its funky retro 60’s looks but she isn’t keen, the mini sounds expensive to run. I think we will have to visit a car supermarket to see all the options side by side. Current shortlist includes Toyota Yaris, VW Polo, Fiat 500, Renault Clio etc
One thing to bear in mind, especially for those with girls is to find a car that fits.
This may sound odd but the vast majority of cars are designed for men. As such you can find that women have to sit too close to the steering wheel due to the location of the pedal box etc. We’ve all seen women who are sat right up to the wheel bit this is really dangerous.
It’s a bit tricky in the current climate but is worth spending time on getting something suitable.
What we’re saying is people that didn’t (and currently) don’t have cars simply don’t go anywhere! Hence, in answer to the proposition, how did people cope before personal transportation: Well they never went anywhere!
One of the problems is the drive towards safety has raised the shutter (metal) line of the cars so the window area is now much smaller (thinner) than it was, for example, 20 years ago. Just look at the size of the windscreen in a 20 year car to what you get in a modern car. This is why the dash is so high in a modern car and why you often see people (normally women I agree) squinting between the top of the steering wheel and the top of the dash! It’s not so much that they are designed from the ground up for men it’s just that the safety regs. have compromised usability and leant towards taller people.
If, like my daughter, you’ve done the research, you’ll find this is sadly the case and why some companies like Volvo are devoting a lot of time and effort to develop cars that suit both sexes.
Google EVA and you’ll get an idea of the work that’s being done, not just by Volvo but other manufacturers.
Although what you’ve described is a roundabout way of actually saying that cars are generally designed for men.
If women are having to sit in dangerous positions then it’s down to the manufacturer to offer sufficient manoeuvrability of the seat/wheel to accommodate the average sized woman.
My parents took three boys on a summer holiday every year, not just The obligatory South Coast seaside resorts, a different one each year (this was late 50s through to late 60s) 1960s), but Dartmoor, Cornwall, Snowdonia and Scotland. And we had day trips out by train I guess at least half a dozen times a year. All with no car, just bus and train. But as I noted in a previous post, on the edge of London meant good public transport - and in those days far fewer people had cars than not.
Yes but invariably the pedals are fixed so raising the seat often doesn’t work and the shorter driver often ends up bolt upright sitting really close to the wheel so they can see over the high dash.
Come on, Don. You’re smarter than that. It is perfectly acceptable and appropriate to advocate for improvement and change to system without divesting entirely from it.
I won’t argue that a car doesn’t give “freedom” but our car-dependent systems are far from perfect. They are destructive and discriminatory. They render vast tracts of our public spaces in cities so dangerous that to dwell there for any length of time outside of a car will likely result in being killed by a driver. Cars are the number one killer of young people by way of traffic violence alone, never mind the effects of the car-caused pollution on health and life-expectancy. Add-in the climate issues, and the system becomes indefensible. But not easily charged. Car-dependency is so pervasive that it is actually not practical for most of those who wish to see change to fully divest from it. That doesn’t invalidate their advocacy for change.
We’ve had this discussion before, and I don’t expect for a minute that you’ll change change your “drive-everywhere-for-everything” attitude. I also expect that you will continue view those that advocate for change with scorn and contempt.
Winky, what hyperbole! If serious, you would not drive your Tesla into the city as the lack of noise factor would endanger the lives of pedestrians. Or perhaps that’s offset by the lack of carbon omissions. It is 21st century here in Canada though, and we now champion hypocrisy instead or eradicating it.
