to wonder where people get this expectation that they are entitled to drive round in cars, polluting the planet.

[totallybewildered]

How did it become an automatic right to drive round everywhere. Do people do it just because they can afford it? Does anyone avoid it for he sake of the human race, and the planet? I know some people have little choice, but many people who do have a choice, drive anyway.

I don't enjoy driving. It stresses me out actually. I have a car because I have to have one in order to do my job. My job which involves supporting very vulnerable children and their families. Is that OK with you OP?
I find the choice of words in your OP bizarre. People are entitled to drive a car actually. If they have passed their driving test and have a valid licence then according to the law they have a right to drive. Do you think that this right should be taken away from people? How would that work exactly and who would decide who was deserving of the right to drive and who was not. You, presumably.

Having my own car is on the person spec for my job.

Other than car driving I have a very Eco friendly lifestyle. i'll bet my carbon footprint is lower than yours

OP, where do you get this expectation that you're entitled to eat meat to the detriment of the planet?

I only got my first car in my mid twenties, which is pretty late I think.

I have limited mobility meaning it is necessary sadly.

If you mainly do short journeys and are looking to replace your car, have a think about an electric car or even a hybrid.

We have been driving a Renault Zoe (fully electric) since about March. We have a petrol car but simply haven't used it in this time and are about to sell it. We have just returned from a week in Holland (travelled from South Yorkshire via Hull to Rotterdam ferry). We stayed at a holiday park about 40 mins from Rotterdam and even had a trip into Amsterdam via the park and ride tram. In Holland we charged at the FastNed stations which use solar power to generate electricity.

It really is doable. We got a nearly new car for a lot under the new sticker price. For those needing a 4x4 or doing longer journeys there are lots of new 4x4 hybrids coming on the market.

It's not for everyone but there really is an alternative to petrol car versus public transport.

Maybe as there isn't a bus route so I have hired one for my 3 week stay in the UK.
At home there are NO cars so Op come and live with me but sorry no space to grow your own veg etc . We do have a car parked a while away which has a very low milage and we use it to go on hols.

People don't wake up one day and think oh I'll buy a car and pollute the planet.

Find me an eco friendly car for less than £500!

Cars kill tens of thousands each year with air pollution.

Fuck me, car drivers are murderers too now?

Because last year we idiotically thought a holiday may be a good idea. So, a five hour train journey with two people who use wheelchairs and a large chap who has full body tics. Great it was. People were rude, unhelpful and the train folk were disorganised. Add to this Bishops point that pushing two people in wheelchairs at the same time is nigh on impossible, so the chap with the full body tics is pushing his dad, dd is pushing herself for some of the time and I'm dashing between the two whenever ds hits the pavement.
Fuck it, the car wins. Ds has stitches often enough as it is and dd and dh are safer too.

Because walking 25 miles down the motorway is dangerous. HTH.

Tell us about your life then OP? Ever been on holiday on a plane? Do you grow all your food, make all your clothes?

shrug I gave up my car years ago and haven't driven since - but then I live and work in central London. If I lived somewhere else, I'm sure it'd be a different story (I grew up somewhere rural and well remember the hourly buses!)

Hourly buses? Try once a week

It was fun trying to explain that to the job centre last year.

Because it's easy and people are lazy. The 'I need a car' brigade, no a car has just enabled the lifestyle you choose. I say all this as somebody who lives rurally, drives everywhere and drives between appointments all day for my job.

I didn't "choose" to live in a village - I got allocated a house.

If you live in a big city, there is usually good public transport available.

For the rest of us mortals, driving is pretty much essential because the public transport is simply uneconomical or too long a journey or has restricted hours in comparison with the cost and freedom of driving.

As a previous poster said - accurately - over-population is actually a much more serious issue than pollution from cars. Yet we don't seem to be doing much about the former, or encouraging people not to have children.

If you actually asked most of us if we NEED a car, most of us would answer YES, we couldn't function without it. But how much of us NEED a child and couldn't function without one?

I'm talking individually here, not society as a whole. And even then, it's doubtful bearing in mind how the population has gone mad in the last 150 years compared with the previous 1500.

Luis I was about to say the same, hourly buses would be an absolute luxury! We have 2 a day to the nearest town. When DH got the bus to work and back he finished at 5 and had to wait until 8 for the bus home!

I can kind of see what the op is saying. I certainly use my car for short journeys that I don't need to when I'm feeling lazy. And I grew up in the London suburbs where the public transport was good but there definitely was a kind of Thatcherite snobbery about using it, I knew a fair few people who wouldn't have been seen dead using the bus.

Planes & cows are much worse than cars!

What about water?

I take it you have a weekly bath filled to the 6inch line?

i can't run over the proles nearly as effectively on a bike