That everywhere has got busier?!

[JudesBiggestFan]

I can't decide if it's because I'm older and less patient or whether everywhere is just busier? I find myself frustrated so often...sitting in traffic on the way to work, on the way back, on the school run. Queuing for hours in the barbers to have my sons' haircuts no matter when I go, never being able to find a parking space when I go to to the supermarket/cinema, shops just mad all the time! I live in a decent sized town near Birmingham but then I've always lived here...it just seems so busy! Is there anywhere in the Uk that feels more peaceful that's still hear a big town for work etc?! I feel I would be so much calmer if I was t always in a bloody queue!

Mustfly I suppose an unintended consequence of high levels of home ownership is that people are completely emotionally invested in their properties, even when something smaller would be much more suitable and free up housing stock for those more in need of it.

People who own their own homes are very unlikely to see their house as 'housing stock'. Many older people do downsize but not to 'free up...for those more in need of it'.

When your 3 children have moved out will you sell up straight away or will you keep hold of your family home for as long as you can so that children/grandchildren have a place to stay when they visit and gather together?

I don't understand the not enough kids thing. Our local schools are so crowded that the new schools they built to accommodate the growing population were inadequate by the time the building work was signed off.

Take kids anywhere designed for kids and you enter the seventh circle of hell. Kids and babies everywhere, with so many of the mums apparently expecting more.

I force myself through it for my kids benefit but 'family Britain' is a ghastly, overcrowded hellspace where everything is over priced and peace cannot be found.

I don't understand the not enough kids thing. Our local schools are so crowded that the new schools they built to accommodate the growing population were inadequate by the time the building work was signed off
It’s not that there’s not enough kids around, it’s that there’s not enough kids to replace and pay for the elderly.
Think of the population like an upside down triangle, the wide base is the eldest in society and the pointed end of the triangle is the youngest. The issue is that it’s completely disproportionate with the number of people in each generation getting smaller.

Know it’s an unpopular view but it’s utterly unjustifiable to have more than 2 kids. It is “my business” too because your choices will impact negatively on everyone else including my own two girls. Don’t expect gushing congratulations when you announce that third pregnancy times have changed.

I left the UK in 1998 .When I go back , it still takes me by surprise how crowded I feel. And I have lived in NY! No matter what airport I fly to, the journey out on motorways , is always so slow paced .

And no matter where you go , there are always people also going. Qued 20 minutes to get to the tip one Saturday. And any social gathering is so off putting. I feel particularly sorry for families with young children. These kids seem to be constantly sitting in car seats for large portions of their day.

Don't know why anyone thinks Brexit will solve any of these issues.

Poise that may have been true but there is finite space. Other ways will have to be found to pay and care for the elderly an ever increasing population cannot work

I agree with the poster who said when she did go shopping, she was apologising for parking her trolley and trying to get past 12 people!

I hate it, the monotony of it all.
My 2 nieces with babies of their own are out every day either swimming, or Tower of London, or zoo....

I'm happy to stay at home and have barely left the house since Boxing Day.

I know not what the answer is. But I know what we've currently got is pretty miserable.

Don’t expect gushing congratulations when you announce that third pregnancy times have changed
Proof that some people on MN really are living in a sanctimonious, nonsensical bubble entirely unreflective of society. Times haven’t changed- the problem is our replacement rate is not high enough. How the hell will the younger generation afford to pay for the elderly?!

We live in a medium size town on the South Coast .Always busy now ,when we moved here 20 odd years ago,. lots more room .Try to go out early and come back early (not always possible) Almost impossible to travel to next town around 7 miles without huge traffic jams .Taxi Driver told me more people working part time so never a "quiet time" any more .Not sure if this is true or not.

I live fairly central in a reasonably sized city, so of course it's busy here, but I don't find it unmanageable. Much of the overcrowding here is the result of tourism, but as soon as you're away from the touristy areas it's not too bad. The city continues to invest in public transport and cycling infrastructure, and while neither are perfect, they are well-used, and levels of car ownership here are lower than in comparable cities. There have been quite a few new flats built near where I live, but a new Lidl and small Sainsbury have also opened, so I never find the shops too busy. DH & I both commute to work, but because we travel in the opposite direction to most commuters the trains are rarely busy. I can imagine that some parts of the country are far busier, but I also think part of the problem is that people's lives are insufficiently flexible (work 9-5, do a Saturday shop) which creates pinch points and contribute to a sense of overcrowding.

It is busier. I live and grew up in a small town in the Norfolk coast. There used to be quiet times of the year, but now it’s packed all year round. Even the secret places are crowded, it’s like they listened to our secrets.
If I’m feeling generous I’m pleased that more people are enjoying being outside, and hope that it will increase awareness of our environment and how precious it is, but if I’m feeling grumpy I honestly just want them all to go home.

People should be funding their own old age, not living off the state and therefore younger people.

The ridiculous Ponzi scheme being promoted by a few people on this thread is a good way to justify having too many children, that's all. It's utter nonsense in terms of economic and social policy; it's no better than borrowing money to cover your daily living expenses.

Government policy needs to move further towards discouraging people from having more than 2 children, via whatever means are necessary.

I'm in my 60s, pop was 51 million when I was born, now it's 67million. That's 31% increase if my maths isn't wrong, nearly a third more.

@ragged where do you live? Journeys are certainly not quicker now. My DH drives a lot for work and he is always getting stuck on traffic. The motorways often have crawling traffic and smaller roads are far too often at a standstill. He has taken to leaving for work an hour earlier than he should because it is almost certain he will be delayed.

It's not just during rush hour either that the roads are so bad as he doesn't work set hours. Also when we go out somewhere we almost always get stuck in traffic

Privatise the NHS that will ensure a swift population cull across all ages , particularly those you consider a drain on resources . Fun times.

Edinburgh is utterly rammed nowadays. A combination of increased population, fucking Air B n Bs, constant road works etc
I actually hate living here now.
My children were never in a class of less than 30, can never get a doctors appointment, standing room only on the bus. It’s grim.

Wikipedia says 8.3% Brit residents currently are foreign born. Migration watch says 25% of births are to foreign born mothers. My back of envelope calc says 25% of 720k means 180k/yr that are 2nd generation immigrants. If that's been going on for 40 yrs (no idea real numbers) that would mean 7.2 million people were 2nd gen immigrants, and 5.6 million were first gen. Question is... would most UK be like Japan or Korea without these younger people arriving, or more like Great Yarmouth?

Lynsey91, I live in East Anglia, in a county that doesn't have any motorways! Seriously, very many of our county driving routes are hugely faster now than they were 25 yrs ago.

We planned living near & using public transport. We try hard to walk & cycle a lot, too, so have a different view of the roads than people who always drive. The trains seem about as busy as 25 yrs ago. The bus services are definitely quieter than they used to be.

Millions more people without a corresponding growth in transport or public services.

More travel: Loss of local services. Less stable employment meaning people live further from work. People excpected to be able to travel around and not in one consistent base. Fewer one-car households, increasingly every adult has access to a car, often their own.
People busying around more, weekends going out to do things not pottering around the house/ shed/ garden.

Consolidation of services and businesses to fewer larger sites rather than smaller local services.

There are more of us, and we are out and about more.

So many problems identified but so few easy solutions! So much of it seems to have happened in the last generation too. When I think back to my own childhood we rarely went out at weekends, just for local walks and pottered round the house. We had one car and my mom was a SAHM who walked to the local shops with us and took us to local playground/playgroups rather than driving further afield. And all families we knew were similar. With working moms have have come higher incomes and higher expectations...it's a rare time we would stay in all day at a weekend now and I'd be bored if we did. We can't turn back the clock but somehow we need to create an infrastructure that supports modern lifestyles.

The roads are always busy around here now, it’s definitely got worse. The local council keep chucking up these huge housing estates, but they aren’t building any new GP surgeries, schools, shops or improving the road network and so everywhere is always so busy and crammed. The local A&E is at breaking point.

Most of these new homes are bought by those from out of the area who commute, locals can’t afford them.

Don’t get me started on all the money grabbing buy to let landlords, hoovering up all the traditional affordable starter homes and turning them into bedsits and HMOs!

There's also this expectation that you must go out and do stuff , have experiences,build memories ,get some fresh air. The amount of people that go for a walk for no particular reason,even if they or others in their parties don't enjoy it. The amount of people that advise to "just go down the shops" , "get some fresh air". And it never stops there, it just increases with more and more places to go and things to do , otherwise you are boring,anti social,lazy,depriving your kids or whatever.

There's no ability in grownups ,much less children to entertain themselves ,to enjoy doing nothing, to potter around the home or garden.

We need a change of mindset. I don't think people will use public transport until they have a change of mindset because the comfort of a warm/airconditioned car which goes where you want to go, compared to standing in freezing or wet conditions a good 10 minutes before bus is due (just in case) then sitting in a cold/too hot/steamed up/ or brilliantly lit (at night) bus so there is nothing to look at but the seat in front is not comparable.
Trains are rammed now so you have to accept the intrusions of other people's smells/noise etc.
On the radio the other day someone declared that only 10% of people will work in the future as the rest will be automated, and at the speed of change I don't imagine that is far off. So what are we all going to do. I would think education will be a time user, studying a language, writing a novel, philosophising , and we need to find enjoyment in the things near us, not the other side of the world. How do you get people into those choices rather than what we have now.

I agree-we are out and about more.

It does seem that we have lost the habit of sometimes just staying at home and amusing ourselves-we need to be in that car, bus, taxi..going somewhere to be amused and sadly, many count going shopping as being amused! I have seen whole families dragging around supermarkets...sad and impractical but everyone must be out!

If we stayed at home a bit more, read, played a game, crafted, did a jigsaw, listened to music- then it wouldn't solve the infrastructure and population crisis but it would at least mean that everywhere-including the roads weren't so miserably overcrowded.

My family can trace our family back to at least the 1100's in England. We were Knights, fought in all the wars. We defended our shores. Worked hard at everything we did - pulled our weight. I'd intended to retire in England....

England is not my country anymore.

Are the serfs getting a bit above themselves, your ladyship? Here’s a plan. Lobby Boris Johnson to reintroduce the feudal system. Then all those people selfishly clogging up the roads and shops etc. will have to move back to wattle and daub cottages in the grounds of your manor and work six days a week for their lord (you have pointed out your familial entitlements, so you’ll be sitting in the manor embroidering whilst they dig your fields).

Bonus: living on turnips in damp hovels, the death rate will increase, thus freeing up the country further for you and the other aristocrats. You’re welcome!

People are buying more and more cars, when we moved to our house 15 years ago there was one car per household on the whole,

On our road now we have 2 houses with no cars, 2 with 1 car and the rest all have 2 or 3 cars as children have grown up and learnt to drive. I think more young people are having cars rather than using public transport and as more houses have two adults working full time now than they did 15-20 years ago so more houses have two cars.

This. Cars are easier to get than ever on PCP schemes, even if your credit history is poor. The car manufacturers really push the schemes in order to maintain sales.

It has unintended consequences, though. If somebody is leasing a car that they couldn’t otherwise afford on one of those schemes, which means that a good proportion of their income is going towards the car, they want their money’s worth!

Example: I have colleagues who could easily take public transport to work. They won’t, though. No, they are paying for their car and want to use it as much as they can. No way will they also pay for a bus or train, when they are paying for a car. Even if driving to work takes half an hour longer and clogs up the roads. I think they are barmy, particularly when they arrive late whining about the traffic.

It doesn’t help that it’s hard to work locally. Many businesses have spent the last twenty years consolidating premises into city centres and those awful business parks that are difficult to get to via public transport (and where there are never enough parking spaces). All the people who would have worked in local bank branches now have to commute to hubs. Bring on remote working!