Public transport is ridiculus

redddraggon

I normally cycle to work 6 miles each way average 30mins. This means 60mins on the bike each day. I had an interaction with a car on Tuesday which means I've been on the bus yesterday and today.

The bus service is awful. To travel my six miles it takes two different services and companies meaning that the journey is probably far more than the six miles, totaling £3 a journey and taking me 50mins, this works out to £120 a month. My return journey could take even longer if I miss the second bus of commute.

Is it me, or do they not encourage people to use public transport with the high price and slow journeys?

(I'm currently spending a year out of university(Manchester) doing research, but in university the buses are far better, £5 a week pass, Didsbury all the way to city centre (if not further).

plusgourmande

Maybe you should get a car?

redddraggon

plusgourmande wrote:

Maybe you should get a car?

Well as the cost of a car would be even more than the bus costs I think that would be a rather foolish idea. Why get a car for a six mile commute that I can do in 25mins on a bike, that would probably take similar time in a car?

Eat My Dust

redddraggon wrote:

plusgourmande wrote:

Maybe you should get a car?

Well as the cost of a car would be even more than the bus costs I think that would be a rather foolish idea. Why get a car for a six mile commute that I can do in 25mins on a bike, that would probably take similar time in a car?

I think he may have been kidding!

Your experience on the bus is the very reason so many people rely on/have cars. Keeping in mind that most people would think you were mad to suggest cycling 6 miles, they don't see an alternative. There are 4 people at my work who all live within 3 miles of the office, they all drive in (and this is London traffic) why? because the bus service (no tube station close) is so bad. I convinced one of them to give cycling a go, he even sold his Range Rover, only to buy a big Jag when it got cold and dark!!

Parkey

Unfortunately we have a government that just doesn't get transport at all.

The only places where I have ever found it to be any good is where local authorities have gotten it right on their own. That's central London, Nottingham, and Oxford to some extent.

The thing that drives me up the wall is way government doesn't realise that people use their cars because they have no other choice. Stamp duty contributes to making it very costly for people to move closer to where they work if they changes jobs, so they prefer to commute further instead. In most places public transport is unregulated and uncoordinated with no decent interchanges or timetable synchronisation, and of course most people aren't blessed with a direct route serving their journey. So the car is the only sensible option for most people.

Into this environment they want to introduce road pricing as a kind of miracle cure. It makes my blood boil, and I'm not a motorhead. In fact I hate driving.

mea00csf

I don't think it's stamp duty that makes it difficult to move to near where you work. Just the price of housing is enough for me!

Mark Alexander

I don't have a choice but to use busses when off the bike. Here in Cardiff, it's not too bad travelling into and out of the city but as soon as you want to go across it, the system falls down This is the same as you leave the big smoke and head into the countryside.

ndodd

i agree public transport is a joke got rid of my car 5 years ago bought a 125cc scooter for longer trips and use my hybrid bike rest of the time must have saved £££ not running a car

BigWomble

Parkey wrote:

Unfortunately we have a government that just doesn't get transport at all.

The only places where I have ever found it to be any good is where local authorities have gotten it right on their own. That's central London, Nottingham, and Oxford to some extent.

The thing that drives me up the wall is way government doesn't realise that people use their cars because they have no other choice. Stamp duty contributes to making it very costly for people to move closer to where they work if they changes jobs, so they prefer to commute further instead. In most places public transport is unregulated and uncoordinated with no decent interchanges or timetable synchronisation, and of course most people aren't blessed with a direct route serving their journey. So the car is the only sensible option for most people.

Into this environment they want to introduce road pricing as a kind of miracle cure. It makes my blood boil, and I'm not a motorhead. In fact I hate driving.

The problem is that trams are in the gift of central government. So they can go large with our money. Belatedly, they have discovered that most trams offer very poor value-for-money, so they've stopped doing this.

The buses belong to local bus companies, who have to minimise prices in order to avoid being undercut by other bus companies. It is a glorious dash for the basement. That's why so many places don't have real-time bus information, bus prioirty, and all the rest. The government isn't paying for it, and the bus companies won't.

If ever the government got serious with public transport - and franchised bus routes - then we could have a proper service:

Real time bus information - so you know when the next bus is coming
Bus priority - so the buses can move quickly, even when there is congestion
Cashless ticketing - so the bus isn't stopped, while people fiddle about with money
Quality buses - because we're worth it (TM)

This is what we need:

http://www.tbus.org.uk/home.htm

I have similar views on the paranoid motorbike licensing in this country, which stops car drivers converting to the safer full-sized machines - even if the horsepower has to be pruned a lot.

I agree that congestion charging is entirely premature. Even though much of the opposition is due to petrolhead types, you won't hear me, as a transport planner, complaining. Hopefully, the petrolheads will do my job for me.

The place where I would disagree is the cost of housing. Increasing numbers of people, it seems, are moving out of the larger cities in order to find cheaper housing - but then need to car in order to get about, and the cost of running that car completely outweighs any cost savings that they have made with the cheaper house. I currently live in Bath - I thought about living further out, in Chippenham or a village around abouts, but decided against it on the grounds that any savings would have to be blown on a car.

According to the RAC the average cost of running a car is £5,500 per year. Elsewhere, What Car? put the cost of a 3yr old Ford Focus (which would be my choice) at the same amount per year, so it stacks up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/oct/20/motoring

That cost appears to be after Income Tax & NI. This would make the total salary cost closer to £9000 per year - if most people got a pay rise this big, they'd make babies with their manager. Or looking at it another way, this is £450/month takehome pay. What is the difference in mortgage costs between a property in an expensive town or city, and the equivalent property in an neighbouring area?

ndodd

the gov will keep making havin a car and useing it more and more expensive because there is no other way for most people to travel around can you imagine the chaos if everyone said this week i'll leave the car at home and use the bus country would be at a standstill. instead they will keep taxing you higher and higher claiming they are green taxes

Jon G

Parkey wrote:

The thing that drives me up the wall is way government doesn't realise that people use their cars because they have no other choice.

Sometimes, but there are a lot of needless journeys. I know lots of people who claim they 'have' to use a car for journeys which I make perfectly well without one. Several work colleagues who live a lot closer to work than me, and some who live a few mins walk from stations with trains going to the station 3 mins walk from work, claim they cannot use cycling or rail instead of their car.

Jon

rossbarney2003

OMG I hate the bus service here in Aberdeen. I used to have to catch the bus everyday and I cringed having to pay the fares. Whats even worse is the fact that they keep putting the fares up! And for what? because the busses still don't arrive on time, and if you even dare ask them why they are late you are always given the "Sorry no English" excuse.....I'm so glad my friend has a car that happily drives me when i'm not cycling lol.