To think car ownership is out of control in the UK

I mean couldn’t more people have I’m going there… mopeds.

Does every single trip require a 5 seater car.

I am in NE Scotland. Buses are few and far between; don’t run after 7pm or on Sundays. Won’t get you to work on time as they don’t start early enough. There is no rail network covering my routes.

So at no point will I be taking public transport, in the vain hope that my doing so will make it improve.

But why? You want working families' lives to be harder just so that you don't have to squeeze your car down someone else's street the odd time you travel past the Watford Gap? Get on your bike (both literally and figuratively)

Our road has gotten quite bad over the last few years, cars double parked, parked on corners etc. You have to be really careful not to scratch anything getting in and out of the road, having to go around corners on the wrong side of the road etc. There’s often children playing as well and it’s just a nightmare for visibility, it’s really dangerous tbh.

What annoys me is that the vast majority of the properties are privately owned and all have space for a two car drive but lots just have grass and park in the road. We have a drive fortunately but if we didn’t I would certainly make it a priority. I’m admit I’m probably unreasonable about that though!

I drive an SUV so can’t comment on the size of cars but I see dreadful driving from those driving small cars as well to be honest.

Why is that ridiculous?

For example, Mum and Dad working full time in different locations, plus their 3 late teens/young adult children sharing a car to get to their part time work, college etc.

My 18 year old has been looking for summer work, she does not drive. A pub about 6 miles away was looking for staff, it takes 15 min to drive there, if she got public transport, it would take 1 hr 30.
She's recently had some temporary work, the journey took 1 hr in the car, or 2 hours by various public transport. On some days we gave her a lift other days she used public transport, but that was bearable because it was short term

Children living at home longer due to high housing costs means more cars per property,
People living further away from towns/cities due to housing costs and cars being more reliable (and often cheaper/more flexible) than public transport,
Even new build estates often have very little parking allocated, small driveways, winding roads so parking becomes an issue,
Cars are now bigger, garages are often too small to accommodate modern cars,
Scrappage schemes took a lot of cars off the road so it has driven prices up of second hand cars, I think we can all understand why people might then pay 'a bit more a month' on a new car rather than buy a proportionately more expensive older car
There's lots of factors. And of course older roads/infrastructure, especially in towns and cities was not built to accommodate more vehicles.
I have a trusty 11-plate Fiesta that's cheap to run and I park on my drive at night. I can also reverse (as can most people...men AND women!) hope that's ok.

I live with my adult children who all have cars as they need them for work. The other families on my street with young adult children do the same. It’s cost a lot of money to get them on the road (do you know how much new driver insurance is?) but they need them for work.

It’s not the Victorian age where miners can live in miners cottages that are affordable and presumably in a location where it’s easy to get to work.

We don’t live in a city like London either and one of them works at weekends when the timetable is massively reduced)

Not being able to drive is a career limiting move for many people and is much cheaper than using taxis.

But public transport provision would improve if more people used it instead of using a car to get everywhere.

you can't use what isn't there though. So they'd have to put on the provision for people to use, and make it affordable and reliable, before people would be tempted to give up their cars.

A lot of car owners moan at me about how car parking costs are going up, grumble about ULEZ, etc. I nod politely. I would like to hear about road parking charges increasing to minimum £2000 per year, zero diesel or petrol cars within London boundary, ban on jeeps in the city, more parking wardens with higher fines, more traffic police with much higher fines, and self driving cars should be brought in asap because it's lower risk than humans. Revenue can be put into new expanded tram and train systems. Sometimes I'm tempted to say so, but drivers tend to get ever so emotional.

No, but most of those are big cities with lots of public transport options!

Like me. I have to drop and get to work. I could walk the 20 minutes each way if i didnt have a job.

But you can't use something that doesn't exist. Public transport needs to improve first!

Wohld yoh be willing to give up your car or sign over some of your driveway for public parking usage?
If no then you can't really moan abouy othet people who need to get about having a car themselves.

The parents probably have to get to work and don't have the time to walk back from school again once they've dropped off their little darling(s). Especially if their work is miles away from home/school.

But public transport provision would improve if more people used it instead of using a car to get everywhere.

It's the same here, people have to take their child to secondary school because there is no school bus anymore and the timing and reliability of the regular bus (and the kids have to get the first one of the day or they'll be late so no chance of just going earlier) can be extremely hit or miss.

No I don't agree. When I was a kid in the 90s we lived rurally and every single family we knew had 2 cars, one for Mum and another for Dad. Nobody worked from home, and very few people were walking distance to kids schools , shops and train stations. Online shopping didn't exist. As soon as kids turned 17 they got a car and learned to drive.

Now I'm mid 30s and we do live in a more connected area but i can count on one hand the number of families and people my age I know with 2 cars. Lots more people we know don't own a car at all, they use public transport, cycle or walk. Or they share 1 car between the whole family.

Funnily enough my parents, in laws and friends' parents are the only people I know who still stubbornly own a car each! Despite all being retired..

Car sizes are if we were all honest with ourselves, far larger than they need to be in most cases. But then again, us humans are much larger than we were even as recent as the 1980's.

Regarding ownership, Unfortunately outside of major cities, the public transport service is woeful. I recently undertook a journey of 80 miles, all within the same area and between two largish towns. It took me two buses, a train and a taxi to return home. With a time of five hours. It's just not practical.

Agreed that the school run is madness these days - it genuinely baffles me why so many people need to turn out in their massive SUVs for a journey of usually less than 10 minutes, rather than walking.

Is it thought that the little darlings will spontaneously explode if they are forced to walk more than five minutes by themselves, or something?