to civilly ask you to use your cars less

[mosquitofeast]

My last thread was deleted because I was not being "civil" enough, I don't actually think it is a subject there is much room for civility in, but I will try!

My last post was to try and answer some questions about me. Here they are

I think I have answered these.

No I am not a strict vegetarian. I don't buy milk or dairy, but eat it in other peoples houses,

no I don't fly,

foodmiles, well, I take them into consideration, but they are not the only indicator of the environmental impact of food. Tomatoes grown in a heated greenhouse 2 miles away might have more environmental impact than tomatoes grown outside in Spain, and flown in.

I have 2 adopted children, 1 is an adult no longer living at home I currently have 3 foster children, but that is likely to change this week

Yes I have a pet, it came with one of the adopted children.

No I don't smoke

You said you aren’t going to post anymore so I doubt you will answer but I asked before how you wanted me to find the extra 50 minutes a day for me to walk rather than drive to work. You have already said time isn’t a good reason and that how busy you are illustrates that but it really doesn’t. Because things don’t add up and you can’t tell me what thing I shouldn’t do to make it work.

@ZeldalovesLink I know this isn’t at all relevant to the thread but my puppy is called Link

I think it's a discussion worth having, but we have to be considerate of everyone's circumstances. Living in an urban area I have cut down on how often I use my car but it's not possible for everyone.

Should've read through the thread first.. oh dear

But I thought as far as MNers are concerned, I'm a giant failure as an adult for not having a driving licence, so surely I'm supposed to learn to drive and buy a car? (Or what's the point of getting a licence?)

Honestly, it's hard to keep up sometimes.

Oh dear. How many times has the OP repeated 'You have got me confused with someone else' on this thread? Yup, of course, it's everyone else that's confused. Nonsense.

Liars are bloody irritating. Bad liars are just offensive. At least credit the people you're lying to with a bit of cop on, and make some effort to keep your story straight.

I live in a rural area where the nearest train station is 14 miles away only accessible by car. Nearest bus station is 5 miles away and only about 2 day!
How do you expect me to earn a living? My commute is 38 miles each way

I think you need to be realistic that not everyone lives in a city and cars are a necessity not a luxury.

Want to know how often the bus comes here?

Tuesdays. Twice. There and back.

Tuesdays. Twice. There and back

Similar. Mine goes into town. But town's not usually where I'm going so not much use.

Yes I’ll simply walk the 22 miles to work! Either that or get a train, three buses then walk 7 miles since it’s on an industrial estate with no public transport. Better set off now as I’m due back on 7th September!

Even in cities buses don't go door to door, take forever and are an expensive and inefficient way of getting about. I can well believe that most journeys are less than two miles but it's not like a person makes one two mile journey per day. So, for example, two miles to work, do a day's work, two miles to the supermarket after work, a further two miles to pick up from childcare, another two miles home, cook tea, another two miles to drop off at a club, another two miles home again afterwards, on a typical day. So I they're actually travelling twelve miles, on separate journeys and with time limits and deadlines and yes in theory you could get six different buses, or walk ... if you were prepared for your time out of the house to be approximately three hours longer and involve lots of waiting around in often poor weather, and lots of uncertainty, and if you were prepared to just not do certain things (eg the after tea activity) because there's no way you could walk two miles, cook a meal and walk another two miles to get to a place by, say, 7pm.

I like my car
It takes me near, it takes me far
On roads, streets and lanes
It takes me on a nice ta ta.

Or something.

Missed the other thread. Anyway I like my car. Freedom, independence on my own terms & not having to rely on eg a bus turning up on time. I'm an essential car user for my job. I use public transport probably once a year as frankly I can't abide it. I have a nice car that I work hard for & I take pride in it.

I recycle as much as possible, get lots from charity shops & buy second hand if I can. Buy food reduced that can be frozen. I would love an electric car but too expensive & I live on a terraced street so charging would be farcical. My current car is a diesel so in some peoples minds I should be burnt at the stake!

I know how to drive.
When I want, I'll take the car.
Other days I'll walk.

Why are these journeys 'not necessary'?And who has time to walk 2 miles (and back?) especially with littlies in tow?

@Linemanfort London buses are £1.50? And most come every 10 mins and you can plan your journey? Also even if you take two buses, its still £1.50

Never taken public transport outside London (other than an awful expensive journey from wycombe to beaconsfield). So is it more outside.

@mosquitofeast Actually OP, if you wanted to convince people of the evils of driiving, this man does it far more eloquently. He certainly convinced me! But then I live in London and already pay £150 for a season ticket for zone 1-3 which I have to pay for anyway (as I work in central London) and a mortgage for London flat so not really enthusiastic about incurring even more fixed costs. Dh also works in central london.

www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/

@Desiringonlychild lol.

Yeah it's different outside of London. Very different.

Lol. For me to get to my closest town on the bus is £4 each way. To get to the nearest city would be £20 return on the train in addition to that.

There’s two buses a day. On in the morning and one in the evening.

So yeah £65 a month for me, £44 for each child (children are only free until age 5), add on a few extra ad hoc fares for those times that you catch a bus that isn't the main provider and therefore outside of your monthly ticket but you're in a rush and the the one that's covered is late. Some services every 15 minutes timetabled, but they never actually run to time. Others technically every 30 minutes but really they just run to their own whim. Nothing after 9.30, very little in the evening before then and ofc it all grinds to a halt if there's roadworks/rain/the driver gets a funny feeling in her toe.

@Linemanfort this is why I can't live outside London. Still have no idea where op lives. I wouldn't be that impressed if it was london. I looked at the stats at 68% of families with 1 child in London have a car. Which means 32% of families manage without. And anecdotally, many of those families hardly use the car as the traffic is too bad and public transport is often easier.

Yeah that's what I found in London too. Having a car is more of a hindrance especially the further in you go with parking restrictions and you don't need one. Completely different story outside of it.

It's bullshit really because if you look at the continent public transport works really well and for most countries the geographical areas are much bigger. We don't have a lot of ground to cover here and our cities are fairly small, but using public transport is expensive, inconvenient and unreliable.

Sure I’ll use my car less instead of a 15 min commute twice a day I’ll take 6 buses and spend 4 hours a day commuting. Who needs a work life balance eh ?

Stop justifying your driving habits everyone! It's no-one's business but your own. The OP has invented a scenario which makes her look holier than thou ( massive fail IMO ) and she has been found out. It's pathetic but thoroughly entertaining but the responses from PPs are fabulous, thanks especially to Mr Snoopy

When public transport is cheaper (costs more than driving) and efficient (doesn't take twice as long) and reliable (bus failed to show when I had an interview, they are only every 2 hours) I will use it, I don't even like driving. Also masks are horrible, I've done 2 hours in one on trains