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

Bring back the Sinclair C5 I say, sure you get to where you need to be very late but it's green transport and still cool in a nerdy sort of way. Just need a rack for the golf clubs.
 
It's unfortunately impossible to get Americans to give up there cars.
We had decent public transportation one hundred years ago.
Now we probably have the least public rail transportation of any developed country.
I'm ashamed of that.

I wouldn't want us to give up cars, but they should only be for pleasure use and running errands.
We shouldn't need them to commute to work or school or for long holiday trips. One can always rent a car at one's destination if required.

I wouldn't rent a car in the UK, however, because I'm afraid of the opposite side protocol.
I am terrified just riding in a taxi cab.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
I'm going off a farmer we know nearby. Her son was driving a tractor at 16 on the A1. His test was judged by someone else within the farming community who knew him and his family well, he was never going to fail. His mother was appalled. Maybe things have moved on, the bloke is in his mid 30's now.

Saying that, why 16 and not 17 as with other 4 wheeled vehicles?
Click to expand...
must be a farmer thing, went to school with a kid who's father had a very large farm that had its own roads. He had a Morris Minor his father had given him and he just drove it about the estate, we all had a go on a reg basis, i was quite a competent driver by the time i took my test
 
patricks148 said:
must be a farmer thing, went to school with a kid who's father had a very large farm that had its own roads. He had a Morris Minor his father had given him and he just drove it about the estate, we all had a go on a reg basis, i was quite a competent driver by the time i took my test
Click to expand...
I had farming friends at school who drove all over their farms pre 17. No problem with that, it is private land. It just seems odd that they can drive tractors not just on the farm but on open roads. I would have expected the age for driving any 4 wheeled vehicle on a public road to be the same.

Must have been a blast driving on private land pre 17, a bit like under age drinking.
 
Back in the day, you could drive a three wheeled car on a motorbike licence when you were 16. This covered things like bubble cars and laterly the Bond Bug. Now to drive a three wheeler you need to be 21!
 
CliveW said:
Back in the day, you could drive a three wheeled car on a motorbike licence when you were 16. This covered things like bubble cars and laterly the Bond Bug. Now to drive a three wheeler you need to be 21!
Click to expand...

The driving age where I live is still sixteen. One need only be older, usually 18, for commercial or industrial vehicles which require a different class of license.
Due to insurance costs, however, one still needs to be 25 to rent a car.
 
I used to go round a friends farm and drive round the fields in a mark 10 jag. It had been gate posted, so one side was mangled beyond repair. Fun to scoot about in though.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
I had farming friends at school who drove all over their farms pre 17. No problem with that, it is private land. It just seems odd that they can drive tractors not just on the farm but on open roads. I would have expected the age for driving any 4 wheeled vehicle on a public road to be the same.

Must have been a blast driving on private land pre 17, a bit like under age drinking.
Click to expand...
a simpler happer time... for both
 
If there was a limit on the size of vehicles people drive there would be less pollution and more room on the road.
I find it astonishing that given the state of the roads - traffic jams, potholes, air pollution - people are still switching to bigger vehicles which exacerbate these problems.
Guess we need something like what happened in 1970's - a petrol crisis where the price of fuel rockets.
 
stefanovic said:
If there was a limit on the size of vehicles people drive there would be less pollution and more room on the road.
I find it astonishing that given the state of the roads - traffic jams, potholes, air pollution - people are still switching to bigger vehicles which exacerbate these problems.
Guess we need something like what happened in 1970's - a petrol crisis where the price of fuel rockets.
Click to expand...
Well there is this recently - and if it were adopted (i am not arguing the right or wrong of the study) in any city that would be a bit of an encouragement for many in that city to downsize

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/mo...ouncil-wants-to-ban-suvs-from-built-up-areas/
 
stefanovic said:
If there was a limit on the size of vehicles people drive there would be less pollution and more room on the road.
I find it astonishing that given the state of the roads - traffic jams, potholes, air pollution - people are still switching to bigger vehicles which exacerbate these problems.
Guess we need something like what happened in 1970's - a petrol crisis where the price of fuel rockets.
Click to expand...

The significantly reduced size of all sedans that cost less than a Mercedes S Class is exactly what's driving people to drive bigger utility vehicles instead.

I used to drive Cadillacs or Lincolns, even though they were really too much car for my income levels, because they were comfortable and performed well.
Now they're little pregnant roller skates like all of the other sedans--do you call them saloons?-- so my last three cars have been Jeep Grand Cherokee utility vehicles in which I can still feel comfortable. You're probably familiar with them as they're sold in the UK.

If there were a limit on the size of vehicles, the legislators who passed that law would be looking for new jobs, and the next group would repeal the legislation forthwith.

Brits pay the same for fuel on the world market as Americans do.
You pay as much for a liter as we pay for a whole gallon because your government prefers to tax fuel at a much higher level.
I'm not saying that this is bad if the revenues are put to good public use. It isn't, and I'm not a cretinous Trumpanzee.
I'm just saying that I'm not comfortable in pregnant roller skates. I didn't grow up riding in them.
 
oxymoron said:
Its not denial i think it is a fact of modern life, we now work and live in a 24 hour , 7 day a week society and round where i live public transport stops around 23:00 only to restart at about 05:00
so it is pretty much useless to quite a few workers.And do not forget the society we live in was created by us , our desire to have everything on tap 24 hours a day from supermarkets to pubs .
We need a complete rethink on public transport , it needs to fit with the areas and public in those areas ,however this is never going to fly because the companies need to make a profit to keep going
and are not going to put a bus out at ,say 03:00 for just one person it is just not feasible .
Then again our power infrastructure is probably not up to a sudden take up of electric cars at the moment.

I am not making excuses its just how i see things .
And i would love to be able to have an electric vehicle but we have a terraced house but that is another topic for another day i suppose.
Click to expand...

"Modern life" needs to take a long hard look at itself... Believe a lot of re-evaluation is required along with wholesale changes... The world still went round and business functioned, with profits, long before car ownership/use became the norm... Let alone two/three car households...
 
MegaSteve said:
"Modern life" needs to take a long hard look at itself... Believe a lot of re-evaluation is required along with wholesale changes... The world still went round and business functioned, with profits, long before car ownership/use became the norm... Let alone two/three car households...
Click to expand...
The "old ways" will never return. People have been encouraged that mobility is good. Kids are dispatched all around the country because university life is "essential". Local factories and manufacturing has all gone, and those that do exist aren't employing locals becasue the jobs are beneath them. We therefore travel distances to work, wives work because they need to now so cars are essential to travel those miles to get to and from work.
There is no utopia we will find, and returning to a life of the 50's or 60's won't happen.
 
Bunkermagnet said:
The "old ways" will never return. People have been encouraged that mobility is good. Kids are dispatched all around the country because university life is "essential". Local factories and manufacturing has all gone, and those that do exist aren't employing locals becasue the jobs are beneath them. We therefore travel distances to work, wives work because they need to now so cars are essential to travel those miles to get to and from work.
There is no utopia we will find, and returning to a life of the 50's or 60's won't happen.
Click to expand...
I think that you're right, but the sad thing is, most things would function perfectly well, just like they always did.
It's the utter pointlessness of the waste and destruction of our lifestyle that's so depressing.
 
Bunkermagnet said:
The "old ways" will never return. People have been encouraged that mobility is good. Kids are dispatched all around the country because university life is "essential". Local factories and manufacturing has all gone, and those that do exist aren't employing locals becasue the jobs are beneath them. We therefore travel distances to work, wives work because they need to now so cars are essential to travel those miles to get to and from work.
There is no utopia we will find, and returning to a life of the 50's or 60's won't happen.
Click to expand...
It will return to 1066 when the oil runs out
 
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