To think that no-one will choose to swap cars for public transport when it's still easier / cheaper / faster to drive?

[BogstandardBelle]

Since starting a new job 18 months ago I have used public transport to get there and back 3 days a week. I leave my house, walk 10 minutes to the metro, spend around 20 minutes on the metro with one change in between, then walk around 15 minutes at the other end to arrive at work. I always assumed that (living in a big busy city) it was cheaper and easier to travel this way and never really considered driving.

This morning I needed to take some heavy bags into work, so I decided to drive. I left around 15 minutes later than usual and still arrived at the same time! And I didn't need to walk anywhere or share my space with hundreds of coughing / sneezing / inconsiderate / odd people en route. The cost was negligible compared to the 64 euros I spend each month on a metro ticket.

I'm really disappointed! I know that the exercise is good for me, and god knows the air pollution problem in my city doesn't need yet another single occupancy, short distance car journey being added to it. But it was so much easier / more pleasant than using public transport... and now I know how easy it was, there's going to be a little voice saying "just take the car...".

So it is unreasonable to expect people to give up their cars when public transport is actually more expensive, less convenient and overall harder work than driving? I used to think that all the motorists clogging up the roads / causing the pollution were BU, but now I'm not so sure.

My husband and son drive to work/school in the morning despite having a bus service at the end of the road that could take them there.

DD rides to school with a mate whose mother takes him in on her way to work for this reason. She's on the way so just waits outside and I give the mum a fiver a week. The bus costs £1.40 each way and will increase to £1.60 on 1 April (they've kindly announced the fare rise in advance).

Piebald there's too many rural roads here to ride, it's just not safe. Even when my dh dons his twatish cycling gear and goes I can't help but worry.

Along with taking an hour and a quarter (75 minutes) by public transport to work (compared to 15 minutes in the car, or 25 minutes by bike,) I also had a similar issue with my daughter.

Her college was 5 miles away, and took 10-15 minutes to drive to, but took almost TWO HOURS by bus. There was a 12-13 minute walk to the bus stop, then a 30 minute trip to the town centre, (including a 5 minute wait coz it was no good her getting there the second that the bus was due,) then a 20 minute wait for the bus to the edge of town where the college was, then a 35 minute trip on that bus to the college because of the bus going all through the suburbs and villages, and finally a 10 minute walk to the college from the bus stop.

When I lived with my parents (1980's,) I worked in the town centre, (3 miles away,) and the bus went past our house 3 times an hour. So I would wait in the kitchen, and wait to see the 8.30am bus at the top of the hill (we lived halfway down it,) and then I would grab my stuff and run to the bus stop as soon as it moved, because i knew it would be there in 2 minutes. It got me to town within 20 minutes. A drive would be 10. I was fine with that; a 20 minutes bus trip instead of 10 is fine. But one and a half hours to 2 hours instead? No. Fook off!

Like a few others have said, the train services used to be much better too, and used to call round all the rural places. Now they are very poor.

Piebaldhamster- that’s great to car share, three people in on car is far better for the environment. Than one car per person per trip

I live in central London and do not have a car. I am sick of people from the suburbs bleating about how they need to drive here. You pollute my environment.

If you want to do that then you should pay heavily for it and then maybe you won't. I don't see why my lungs and heart have subsidise your selfishness

Another joy of rural public transport is Sunday! We have 2 buses an hour (better than some areas) they go to the same place with one visiting a village the other doesn't, and go within 7 minutes of each other......
They also finish at 7.30pm on Sundays.
I wonder if the whole point is to make them so useless they can pull them by saying they're not getting used!

The other thing I see is that a lot of bus drivers have a really bad attitude. I don't get busses much these days but I remember they seemed to love flooring it past people before they even had a chance to stick their arm out. I still see it when I'm walking

I'm late to driving and spent 20 years at the mercy of dreadful public transport.
Left abandoned by non existent buses.... trains delayed, cancelled Etc.

I'm a driver now. drive nearly everywhere

More expensive and you have to work around their timetable.. Im off out in a little while at a time that suits me into my warm car. Overall i probably will only save 50p so negligable but convenience is a factor that always wins me over.

"More expensive and you have to work around their timetable."

Yes, but drivers have to work around the timetable of the carpark. You hear things like 'I have to go now because I only put two hours on the parking'. My train might only be once or twice an hour, but I don't have to decide in advance which one I'm taking (unless I have an advance ticket).

Cars are necessary for going to the countryside and awkward places. For going into cities or from one city to another, not so much.

I also remember being offered lifts by people whose cars were parked half a mile away in the middle of winter. Standing in the bus stop is just as good as that.

I am perhaps lucky that the majority of car parks i use are the day after ones.

Thats pay after.

I've seen a lot where you have to decide how long you're going to be there before you leave the carpark. Ruins a day out for me.

I've seen a lot where you have to decide how long you're going to be there before you leave the carpark. Ruins a day out for me.

Less and less common these days. A lot of what were pay and display are now pay by phone/app so you can extend your stay with your phone.

It’s not much of problem for me to catch the bus to work even though it involves changing buses - bus no 2 goes every 10 minutes from the same stop bus no 1 sets me down on. Takes 35-40 mins. But getting home is a different matter, as bus no 2 is a circular route and takes twice as long to get to the change point in the evenings and bus no 1 has become very unreliable by then.

So I drive.

When they closed our local hospital (serving 150,000 people) we were assured that there would 'always' be a direct bus service from outside the hospital site to the new hospital that was built 20+ miles away. 'Always' turned out to be just over two years... To travel now requires three buses (all starting after 9.30 and ending at 6pm - so handy for morning appointments and evening visiting) with two changes. The journey takes between 2-3 hours, as opposed to 30 minutes driving.
Then they express amazement that the parking situation is dire, with it regularly taking over 30 mins to find a space...!! 🙄

DP is in his mid twenties and has never driven before, insurance for him is so expensive. For us bus weekly ticket is cheaper.Our buses run well mostly though

Eldery relatives were coming to see DD in a show - they booked their tickets then looked at the trains London to Ipswich

3 changes and a bus replacement!!

I can't beleive it, I mean 2 changes and a bus would be bad enough but 3?

I live a 15 minute drive from town. The bus costs £8 return, takes twice as long, and is infrequent and unreliable. DH can't drive for medical reasons so he's stuck with it but if we're going in together we go in the car - because why on earth would we pay £16 to stand around in the wind and rain when we can just drive door to door for less than a fiver including parking.

I think that outside of major cities buses are set up for the convenience of retired people. This is because retired people make up the majority of rural/small town bus users. This is because the system is set up for the convenience of retired people so no one younger uses it if they have other options. And so on.

In the meantime rural poverty and isolation just keeps on keeping on, and it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone that affordable and reliable public transport to where the jobs are might help.

Another joy of rural public transport is Sunday!

And Winter schedule, which runs from November - April.

I agree, Quirty, people always say 'just cycle'. On bendy A roads with national speed limit in place? Nope.

I think that outside of major cities buses are set up for the convenience of retired people.

And they don't pay to ride, either.

One of the small towns near me has stopped all evening buses to the nearest town. It’s a town lots of people retire to.
It means they won’t go out at night. The theatre in the nearby town is suffering as their main clientele have stopped coming.
I spoke to a few who do not like getting taxis as they don’t feel safe in them. Obviously they have to pay as well.
Free bus passes are there to keep elderly people active and socialised, if there are no buses though....

• live in SE London on a line that goes to the South Coast & takes approx an hour 15 to get there (roughly the same as driving) during the day (after about 10am) these trains are pretty much empty. The price of an adult ticket to the coast is £27 per adult & about half for kids.*

I live near the coast and we often visit MIL, who lives a few miles from Croydon. I just checked the fare from our local station and it's £19.40 return off peak. I wonder if you pay more for leaving London during the day?

However, it's a good 30 minute walk to the station (no buses at weekends) and we'd have to get a tram and then have a 20 minute walk at the other end, or a bus. I have no idea how much the bus/tram would cost, but the total trip for 2 of us would cost over £40 and take around 2 hours each way.*

It's 38 miles by road, so costs about £10 in fuel and takes about an hour each way, so a quarter of the cost and probably less than half the time.

*Actually, it would take more than 2 hours, because they seem to be having engineering works most weekends atm. You pay for a train, and they make you get on a bloody bus! Wtf is that all about?

I don’t mind spending ages on buses so much these days now that I can piss about on my phone.
We manage well without a car - walk to school, cycle/run to work, online shopping. If somewhere is too difficult to get to then I will hire a car or go with Uber. Or I just won’t bother going.
I live in an area with good, cheap public transport but most people I know prefer their cars so they can pump out shit music and moan about parking.

Free bus passes are there to keep elderly people active and socialised, if there are no buses though....

Yes, but the elderly population has grown so much councils can no longer afford to keep subsidising these passes when they're given out at 60, an age when most people are still working. We have the same problem here. There's not enough money to subsidise all these passes, so they raise fares to fee-paying passengers. It gets too expensive, so more people buy cars, so they cut routes, so more people buy cars due to this, too.

It's utterly ridiculous to hand out these passes at such a young age and unaffordable.

I spoke to a few who do not like getting taxis as they don’t feel safe in them.

They don't want to pay for them.