What's going to get us to leave the car.

[williamalex1]

Car sharing might help a bit, I use to see the lack of it every morning, grid locked peak time motorway traffic and the majority of cars with only the driver, most were heading to the city centre.
There should be some sort of safe sharing system available

 

[Deleted member 21784]

Car sharing might help a bit, I use to see the lack of it every morning, grid locked peak time motorway traffic and the majority of cars with only the driver, most were heading to the city centre.
There should be some sort of safe sharing system available

Yes this is a very good point. If my mate and I are on shift together we car share . He only lives 10 mins away

Think our record for car share is 3 of us at once. Makes it bit awkward in morning though when you get 2 good reliefs and one poor one. 2 people hanging about waiting for 3rd person to be taken off

People would need to work near to where they live, and not commute. Kids would need to go to their local nearest school.
Food can be delivered.

Kids nearest schools is achievable but working close to home would need the house marking to drop .. if I lived near work I'd need about 200k more for a house of the same size

 

[Deleted member 15717]

If public transport was more affordable, more reliable and more comfortable, I would use it for work.

alas, it’s not....so I drive!

 

[pendodave]

We will leave it like Thelma and Louise, unfortunately...
There is a possibility that technology will make it just about carbon neutral enough to carry on as we are, but I doubt it.
Nothing on God's no longer green earth will ever put the genie back in the bottle. You couldn't make petrol expensive enough to stop the 4x4s driving 1/2 mile to school 4 times a day.

 

[fundy]

Surely, at least initially, it should be about how the car isnt used for the easier local journeys (popping to the shops, dropping the kids at school etc) rather than being an all or nothing situation.

Planning, especially highways dept, town centre redevelopments, new build housing estates, infrastructure etc need to be part of a long term plan, whereas currently theyre more of an anything goes as the priority is building all the new houses we continually need and not worrying about the quality of developments or the problems were storing up with how bad a lot of recent new developments are (especially from community, infrastructure and transport perspectives)

A coherent long term plan is needed, sadly we live in a cycle of governments trying to stay/win power each 4/5 years rather than doing whats best for the country and people over a longer term. Certain things (environment, housing, infrastructure, travel, planning etc) really need to be taken outside the political agenda and agreed to by all parties for a protected period of at least a generation.

If anything were going in the opposite direction with more short termism and sadly things are likely to get worse before they get better

 

[Wolf]

The dropping of cars is a long way off for us unfortunately. Where we live the nearest train station is 6 miles away but doesn't run early enough for either myself or Mrs Wolf's early shifts where we start at 530. Bus is a no go as well as earliest bus is after 7am but then the buses coming back don't come back late enough.

Transport links need to massively improve and be within affordable scope for people.

In a non delivery are for food as well, we have no choice but to have 2 cars. Only way that would change is moving closer to city centre but that's more expensive housing costs and public transport would still be dearer daily than our fuel.

 

[SocketRocket]

How much oil is there left. When I consider the number of cars in the world all running around with fuel in their tanks it boggles my mind when I consider the quantities. If we dont reduce our consumption then at some time in the not so far future we will be forced to accept the consequences, its all good saying its expensive or time consuming to use alternatives to the car but we need to be planning and embracing the changes that will become necessary.

Would it not be better to start by reducing the need for cars in the inner cities and towns. Park and ride, better facilities for cycling, walking, public transport, drive to an out of town carpark and get on a tram/bus/hire bike for your final journey. How many meetings away from our workplace necessitate us to travel, surely modern communications make this less important. OK there would need to be other considerations for goods deliveries but with consideration, planning and better infrastructure we could make a big difference. Or we could stick our heads in the sand and say its all to difficult and let our children/grand children live with the consequences of our inaction.

 

[BubbaP]

I'd leave the car when I can use a hover/flying/drone thingy ??

 

[bobmac]

Or we could stick our heads in the sand and say its all to difficult and let our children/grand children live with the consequences of our inaction.

''Offshore Wind
The UK is the world leader in offshore wind, with more installed capacity than any other country. Already, offshore wind powers the equivalent of 4.5 million homes annually and will generate over 10% of UK electricity by 2020.

The cost of new offshore wind has fallen by 50% since 2015 and it is now one of the lowest cost options for new power in the UK – cheaper than new gas and nuclear power.

Between 2016 and 2021 nearly £19bn is being invested in offshore wind in the UK. This investment supports thousands of jobs across the UK in manufacturing, project development, construction and operations.''

There is massive investment going on all over the world in renewable energy so while oil and gas become more hard to find and therefore more expensive, renewable is growing every year therefor become cheaper and cleaner.
I think one area where people are sticking there heads in the sand is the rise in population.
Less people, less cars

 

[SocketRocket]

''Offshore Wind
The UK is the world leader in offshore wind, with more installed capacity than any other country. Already, offshore wind powers the equivalent of 4.5 million homes annually and will generate over 10% of UK electricity by 2020.

The cost of new offshore wind has fallen by 50% since 2015 and it is now one of the lowest cost options for new power in the UK – cheaper than new gas and nuclear power.

Between 2016 and 2021 nearly £19bn is being invested in offshore wind in the UK. This investment supports thousands of jobs across the UK in manufacturing, project development, construction and operations.''

There is massive investment going on all over the world in renewable energy so while oil and gas become more hard to find and therefore more expensive, renewable is growing every year therefor become cheaper and cleaner.
I think one area where people are sticking there heads in the sand is the rise in population.
Less people, less cars

Thats a relevant point Bob but its not enough, wind power is good but I dont think its going to be enough, if everyone had an electric car the demand would be way more than capacity. Population is a concern though, I would suggest more renewables along with less car use.

 

[bobmac]

Thats a relevant point Bob but its not enough, wind power is good but I dont think its going to be enough, if everyone had an electric car the demand would be way more than capacity. Population is a concern though, I would suggest more renewables along with less car use.

But it's not just wind power, there's solar, geothermal, tidal and nuclear.
As for not having enough for the demand............
Not everyone has an electric car so the demand isn't there yet.
But when more people buy electric cars, they will be charging them at night when demand on the grid is almost non existent and not everyone will charge every night.
I agree we're not there yet for everyone to have an electric car, there are still issues with range, cost and charging but oil and gas is running out so what's the alternative? Dirty, expensive, polluting, high maintenance petrol and diesel cars or cheap to run, clean and fun electric cars?
Plus, the improvements in battery technology will filter through into more common uses......Your iphone battery will last a week not a day. And your ipad and laptop, remote controls, tools, anything that has a battery will benefit.
It will take time I know which is why I said it's the future but how far in the future, sooner than a lot think.
Very exciting times.

 

[Hobbit]

Will we ever stop using a car? The fuels will change but there'll still be a need to travel. The personal part of that journey might just be to a travel hub, along the lines of a park and ride. For those living in less densely populated areas would state owned taxis to the hub really work? They might wait an hour for that taxi... waiting times/journey times/convenience...

I drove up to the airport last year(1.5hrs), leaving the house at 8:30am, the majority of the journey being on a toll motorway. I saw 6 cars. Congestion and pollution aren't issue here.

 

[GB72]

As I live in a rural community, the car is the only option. There are no shops etc within walking distance and very little employment in the village itself. Busses are a couple of times a day and that is it. If you wanted me to stop using the car, I would need a bus into town and out again pretty much every hour as well as services that start early and finish late. That would just be the local runs. Would also need to be able to get to more major conurbations as well. That is never going to happen as the routes are just not economically viable and the bus companies have pretty much shut down all services except those that they have to provide to cater for the school runs.

As for trains, just ridiculously expensive for even the shortest journey.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

This only random possible thought. Change the age from which you can drive a car from 17 to 25 - unless you in a special class where driving is essential for your work and perhaps restricted to certain public services.

In this way many more young folk have to get used to using public transport or taxis - and hence the demand for public transport increases and it becomes more available and market forces being equal - cheaper. And if that age group get usefd to using public transport their need to own and use a car when they reach 25 reduces? Maybe...

Got to change the culture and expectations around driving - very difficult to change people already driving. Too many 16yr olds sit with their provisional licencing in expectation of being able to have a car when they are 17. And once they get used to having that car from 17 a mindset is established that is very difficult to change.

 

[pool888]

I think the cost of public transport in this country is a big problem, who wants to use a service that's going to take longer and cost more. Whenever we're on holiday it always impresses us how quick and cheap the transport is compared to the UK. I remember coming into Gatwick few years ago and looking at the shock on foreign people's faces when they see the price of the Gatwick Express. Even as a solo traveler it's expensive, the cost for a family is out of the question, no wonder people find it cheaper and more convenient to have cars.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

This only random possible thought. Change the age from which you can drive a car from 17 to 25 - unless you in a special class where driving is essential for your work and perhaps restricted to certain public services.

In this way many more young folk have to get used to using public transport or taxis - and hence the demand for public transport increases and it becomes more available and market forces being equal - cheaper. And if that age group get usefd to using public transport their need to own and use a car when they reach 25 reduces? Maybe...

Got to change the culture and expectations around driving - very difficult to change people already driving.

So with it already being hard enough for young people to find a career we would then limit them to where they could work and prob put their cost of living up? (With min wage being lower for under 25s)

Maybe look at the other end.. retirements.. you have all day to get somewhere get the bus...

 

[Wolf]

So with it already being hard enough for young people to find a career we would then limit them to where they could work and prob put their cost of living up? (With min wage being lower for under 25s)

Maybe look at the other end.. retirements.. you have all day to get somewhere get the bus...

Can you imagine all the retired golfers trying to lug their trolley bags, powerkaddys and shoes onto a bus?

If we had no use of cars for under 25s where i live the unemployment rate would go through the roof. We have next to non existent transport links as its not cost effective for bus services, we have no train station and no local trade. So under that idea nobody under 25 would be able to work and would be a drain on the welfare system.

 

[need_my_wedge]

One thing I saw on my round the world travels was electric scooters. They look fantastic. Environmentally friendly. A mile or two to work, what’s not to like. But I went to Hawaii, San Fran, Sydney, Brisbane and Singapore. The weather was nice. But would you want one here. Downside is they drive like bloody idiots both on the rd and pavements. They think they have the best of both worlds. Ironically I saw a news report the other day that they are illegal in the UK. Yet the government is looking at how to instigate them within the UK. From what I have seen it will take the carnage off the roads onto the pavement.

I'd totally go for one of these

 

[SocketRocket]

What we have available today is not the point, its more to do with where we need to get to and how we can do it. Its obvious that public transport isnt good enough to allow us to rely on it today but how about in 10, 20, 30 years. Surely we can't use arguements about how difficult it would be to play golf or how few busses there are in rural areas now.

We can either start changing infrastructure and systems progressively or what? Do nothing, is that really an option. I understand that to introduce the changes necessary for us to live without the reliance on fossil fuel will not be easy and many obstacles would need to be overcome, people will need to live and work differently but many solutions are there already, the biggest job is changing minds.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

Can you imagine all the retired golfers trying to lug their trolley bags, powerkaddys and shoes onto a bus?

If we had no use of cars for under 25s where i live the unemployment rate would go through the roof. We have next to non existent transport links as its not cost effective for bus services, we have no train station and no local trade. So under that idea nobody under 25 would be able to work and would be a drain on the welfare system.

It's just always the way tho. Just come up with an idea that really doesn't affect the generation of the person coming up with it and trying to force it onto another generation who have their own issues.

Yes we need to change but technology will help and innovation will come.

For example how long before a person buys an electric car.. gets solar panels for their house then gets some old electric car Batteries on the side of their house (this is what nissan are working towards)

Solar charges the batteries up during the day then at night the batteries charge up the car

That person's travel would become cost neutral as would their carbon footprint for that car ..

I want to get onto stage one which is lease myself a leaf.. not committing to the buy yet as the tech isn't fully proven

I do 50 miles a day round trip so 2 days before a charge

Use that for work would make me much better

I can work on the wife with the solar panels as she doesn't want them

Little changes like that from everyone can add up

If you don't drive many miles per year and don't use more than 100 miles in a go you should look at an electric car. That would help for sure .

For example another thing we are doing is cutting down on meat slightly. Not a lot.. every other day is veggie for dinner.. helps slightly

Everyone can do little bits and it makes change

Rather than right your under 25 you shouldn't drive

Your over 65 you should get a bus