To think car ownership is out of control in the UK

Hahaha, you have never lived in a village in the UK the OP. Most places near me you wouldn't be able to get to work without a car due to the poor public transport. You'd think it would be better in town but DD has to either walk some distance or get two different buses to college taking over an hour. For a trip in a car that would take less then 15 minutes.

The public transport is a joke here, oh and if you want a train almost anywhere even only an hour away it's at lest one change. To get across country to my Dad's it's 3 train changes minimum. And if you miss one of those you can be stuck for hours, once took me over 8 hours due to delays and I still hadn't reached my destination, at which point I rang OH and said please come get me. I couldn't stand to wait another hour for another delayed train.

I would be interested to hear from city dwelling people who drive the huge cars about why they do it. It will be hard to change behaviour without understanding this.

I remember thinking when that tragic incident in the school in Wimbledon happened that if that woman had been driving a normal car then those children probably wouldn't have died. 😥 Driving a 2 tonne vehicle around tiny streets by a school should not happen.

Cars have definitely got bigger though. My Polo GTI in 2016 was bigger than the first Golfs. And of course we have this hybrid suv trend atm.

Yes I agree, it is out of control. That being said alot of places have literally no public transport so people don’t have a choice.

Something does need to be done about it though. Some of the huge vehicles we have available now should only be allowed for business use in my opinion, and to tax and insure one you have to have a vat registered manual labour business that requires the use of a car that size to store tools/equipment etc. Range Rovers are a example, they should be limited to farm/off road use only, there’s no need for a car of that size to be on the road for domestic purposes, particularly considering most of the people driving them are incapable of doing so properly. Same as Nissan Nirvaras (think it’s what they are called), they are huge pick up type trucks, made for American size roads and you just have people going to Tesco overhanging the spaces because it’s too big to fit. Completely unnecessary.

I also think the government need a complete overhaul of the road tax and insurance systems. Every house should get a 2 car allowance and any further vehicles registered to an address after that your tax and insurance increases. It would make people think twice about owning 6 cars but a house with no where to park them!

My sister has one! A bloody great big Discovery. And she can't reverse it to save her life! Before this she had a saloon with a button you could press to make the car parallel park itself.

She does live in the country but she never drives off road so it's completely unnecessary. There's loads of tight roads around there where you're almost in the hedge when trying to pass a other vehicle so it just doesn't make sense. I'm convinced the local farmers probably all hate her as there's no way she's reversing up for a tractor. 🤣

I think you must be quite young or have a very bad memory. I've been driving for 40 years and people making very similar complains about parking since long before I passed my tests. It's over 20 years since I did school runs and the Chelsea Tractor mums were a a menace back then.

And I don't think cars are cheap. They are expensive to run and to maintain.

Correct in saying many streets are littered with vehicles, but take a walk down a majority of those streets in my local town and you'll soon discover that these vehicles are unregistered, few months left of or untaxed and uninsured due to car traders using not only these streets, but private parking areas as their own personal 'garage forecourts'.

Once in a blue moon the DVLA will do a sweep and have the untaxed one's towed, police will stick a "police aware" notice on the uninsured but still they sit there, but fear not the trader will have another car to slot into the empty space when the DVLA have moved on.

So yes in this instance car ownership is cheap.

Those on the other hand that pay Vehicle Excise Duty, Insurance costs and MOT may have differing opinions to car ownership being cheap.

I agree with every sentiment you have, I'm surprised that its running at almost 50/50 on the poll as I expected it to be 90% against what you have said.

Car finances is a trick to keep the new car industry going - its clever

I think an effective ban rather than tax, if you tax them they will be even more of a status symbol and a lot of the people who can afford them can also afford the tax

This could be achieved by only allowing parking permits up to a certain size of car.

4x4s on city roads are a bit of a menance. They are unnecessary and need to be taxed off the road.

An interesting point about a lot of women not liking reversing. I was actually thinking about this the other day. I'm working on a job where I sometimes have to drive large vehicles to another closeby site. There's a tiny little bridge on the way and if I try and cross at the same time as a car it literally leaves inches either side which is pretty stressful when the sun's in your eyes.

There's a corner approaching the bridge from the other side so it's impossible to see what's coming. I just have to wait for a gap to appear and go for it. Most cars will wait ten seconds for me to cross but a few times in the last week I've had one carry on driving onto the bridge. Every single time it has been another woman and every single time they've just stopped in panic and made me do the manoeuvring. It's so annoying! And we can't usually back up at this point because of other cars behind us both. I honestly think they just aren't paying attention and then go "oh crap, a big truck I'll just stop".

It is more challenging in rural locations but there are likely to be more parking spaces rurally.

It is towns that are suffering from problem parking but there are train stations in towns, so no excuse!

TLDNR. But I agree re the stupid sizes!

I'd love to give up my car but public transport is woeful. In my city it's a complete joke. To get to my workplace for example:

15 mins walk to nearest bus stop
Bus may or may not turn up
Bus takes 45 minutes and takes convoluted route. There is rarely anywhere to sit and it's full of loud, smelly people.
From bus stop another 15 walk to work.
That's over an hour each way and no control over possible bus lateness or no shows
Expensive journey

Or

20 mins in comfortable car listening to my choice of music. Home much earlier for my family.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist OP. Public transport outside of the major cities is pathetic and mostly non existant. What we do have is over crowded and over priced.

Recommend you move to somewhere more rural…

Your comments relate to urban car use. there are real issues with rural isolation and lack of public transport that make urban and rural completely different. we have NO buses. the last one that went anywhere near where we live has just been cut. walking is not an option, we have no pavements, narrow roads with switch back bends. Only fit and healthy people can cycle. if you arent in this category then what are you supposed to do?

I choose to live where I do based on the fact that I need to have a car. when I am unable to drive I will either use taxis to get around or move into the nearest town.

Not having a car in a rural area is just not an option for most people most of the time.

I live in a non-London city and 99% of the time the public transport is great. There are a couple of places that are difficult to get to and we use a taxi for those. That's tricky when you have kids who need to be in car seats, absolutely, as it's impractical to use taxis in that circumstance, but honestly we rarely feel a car would be useful. We've looked into the costs and trains, buses and taxis work out cheaper.

So I do agree that a lot of people could happily do without cars, and it would be so much better for everyone if they did, but they're just too used to having one. I think once you have a car the idea of having to figure out bus schedules and so on, and journeys taking a bit longer, just feel like impossibly huge inconveniences. I'd love our town and city centres to be pedestrianised and walking or cycling to be more the norm for journeys under 3 miles or so (alongside decent public transport). I hate not being able to get a pram down the street because of all the parked cars on the pavements. I hate how huge and dangerous cars are nowadays - so many run the red light near our nursery. I hate that they've become the default for everything. And obviously the terrible environmental impact. My parents never drove and we cycled almost everywhere locally, and used trains or buses to go further afield. It was never a problem.

Having said that, when my husband and I lived in a smallish town it was hard. The bus service wasn't that reliable and we wouldn't have felt happy living there long term as a result. So I do also appreciate that in a lot of places a car is a necessity. Unfortunately it just feels like as the buses are used less and less, the services will continue getting worse. It's a vicious cycle.

Just to inform

This post seems likely to have originated from the office of Sadiq Khan, needs his funding.

more specifically, perchance?
https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-mayor-does/mayor-and-his-team/seb-dance

eta; and omg he's a northener, the shame 🙈

@JacquesHarlow when we lived in a Victorian house, semi with a narrow passageway between pairs of houses, the gap was originally to take the horse through to the stable at the back. The carriage was left at the front. In Fulham, I understand they used sometimes to take the horse through the house.

It would have been great if I'd been able to get my SMax down the passageway but sadly it wasn't quite wide enough.

So who in your view should go without car ownership?

The way you’ve written your thread sounds very much like “it’s ok for me to have a car because I have a drive” but everyone else who might need to park in the streets for various reasons shouldn’t have a car. If that’s what you’re saying then I’m afraid you’re extremely entitled.

I don’t think everyone should use a car, if you can walk you should. However I’m not going to dictate who can and can’t own a car because I’m just not that much of an arse 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree there are too many cars but I can't see a solution really.
Both parents usually work these days, and in my case I start very early and wouldn't want to get two buses at that time. My DH works in a rural.place that he needs a car to get to. Both have physically tiring jobs, so it's nice to get in my car at the end of my shift, just me and my radio.

They probably do but you can't exactly choose a house based on a position you may or may not be in in 18/20/25 years if you end up with kids at home and also owning cars.

I haven’t read the whole thread so this has probably been mentioned, but most modern housing estates do not plan for the number of cars which need to be parked there. Often you will see 4 bed houses with a drive for one car. That’s not enough for most 4 bed homes. Sometimes they will have a garage and a driveway in front of it and declare that as 2 parking spaces - yet most of the time you can’t fit the car in the garage, or if you can there isn’t enough room to open the door to get out.

A lot of terraced houses were built before cars existed and/or before they were cheap enough to be owned by most people, not just the rich.

Some people need a 4x4. I am one of those. I have a large pick up truck that I love to bits. It’s the second one I have had. The first I bought to tow my horse. The horse has now gone but I have classic cars that need towing around hence the need for a decent tow car still. I also live in an area that floods. When it does flood it’s usually just me who can get out of the village on my road. I’m not just talking about a bit of flooding here either - mine can only get out because it has a snorkel and a breather kit. Before that was fitted I couldn’t get out when it flooded. My neighbour is disabled so last time it flooded I was able to go out and get groceries for her.

I am quite capable of reversing it though 😉 including with the trailer on the back.

Having said that, because I have a lot of cars each car purchase has revolved around them. When I went to view my current house the estate agent tried to show me around the house first and I said that I wanted to look at the garage first as if that wasn’t right there would be no point in looking around the house.

All my cars though are contained on my property (or stored elsewhere in locked storage) so not in anyone else’s way but my own. I also have one sat in my dining room…..

Lots of people simply can't afford to live in a place like that where there's a school within walking distance, workplaces within walking distances, on good bus routes etc. Such places are more expensive! With the way house prices are spiralling out of control, people have to live where they can afford to buy/rent a house, which often means few or no "walkable" amenities, poor public transport routes, no (or little) off street parking, etc.

OP, please don’t blame the car owners! Reductions in public transport over years led to a need for people to own cars as a safe way of getting to work. As a result, many people (myself included) simply can’t get to work without one. Earlier in my career, and when I worked closer to home (up to 15 miles away) I used to cycle to work (within the rules of the Highway Code!) It certainly kept me fit!

I HATE driving to and from work when there is only me in the car, and also hate that 95% of cars on my journey to work are in the same situation, but there isn’t anyone I can carpool with, so I’ve settled for only doing the journey twice a week…

The government hasn’t helped: by not improving the infrastructure and banning new modes of transport, either. If I were in charge, I would do the following in order…

1. Provide car parks at every motorway junction
2. Establish public transport links from and to every motorway junction on each motorway
3. Bring in small electric buses to get from each motorway junction to and from businesses that are out of town from each motorway junction
4. Ban the use of journeys by car if under 2 miles and car occupancy less than 75%, unless exempt by way of disability (temporary or permanent)
5. Implement a fee for driving on motorways with only one occupant of a car
6. Legalise electric stand up scooters, but license them, provide compulsory identification sashes readable by ANPR after a competency test is passed and establish scooter lanes
7. Resurrect the Cycling Proficiency scheme and stop allowing rogue road users to ride as if the law doesn’t apply to them
8. Reinvent the car to something smaller that can run on a restricted lane but is safer than a motorbike

I’m sure that there must be a solution out there somewhere, but while the government seem to think that simply charging people to use the roads is enough, I can’t see any evidence of those charges being used to improve the travel situation - instead it appears that the revenue collected from these schemes is just lining the pockets of those that run the schemes…