To not understand why the fuel situation is so bad in the SE when they have better public transport than the rest of the country and shorter distances

[3dame]

Where we live public transport is woefully bad, non existent in many places and expensive.Bigger county too than most SE counties.

The SE isn't all one big city you know

because my sobs school is 15 miles away down a single track road for 5 miles of it and there isnt a bus or train to be seen.

Odd post.
Higher population density.

Large parts of the south easy are very rural. There is a lot of traffic in and out of the country via Kent. Lots of ppl in the south commute to London etc

@SouthOfFrance

The SE isn't all one big city you know

No it's not, but there are better commuter links there than say North East Wales.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there are any/many refineries in the SE. So it has further to travel to get there probably?

There is also a larger percentage of the population in the SE too. So higher demand.

Fully aware but being from the SE initially and having lived in several SE counties well aware how much better public transport is in the SE area as a whole from rural to cities/ towns which other areas have too.

Because they build all the industrial estates off the public transport routes. A lot of warehouses and warehouse workers by me. Can think of only one that has a bus service and that bus service on that one only runs twice a day 8am and 4:30pm.

My dh drivers over 15 miles each way to work, some coke in from over 30miles. Only three at his work place live within walking distance of each other to lift share and that’s if they was willing to anyway since they all work slightly different hours.

What do you think the problem is then @3dame

Same as any other area which often don’t have the excellent public transport links the SE enjoys linking rural/ city/town.

No idea. It’s really odd.

The public transport is actually more rubbish than you think. Lots of the buses that do run start too late and finish too early to be of any use to commuters for example.

But other areas have this in spades and SE public transport is a world away from other areas.

I don’t know then op. Maybe we are all just lazy arse gas guzzling idiots 🤷🏻‍♀️ Not me personally as no licence 😅

The SE is a big area and public transport options often are not that great (especially if you are going between suburbs / villages rather than into a town centre). Some jobs mean people need to drive e.g. delivery drivers; builders etc. The high density of people and low numbers of petrol stations means that it doesn't take a lot to cause an issue with supply.

Greedy Selfish Southern Bastards

Seriously, it's probably just that there's more people, more cars and less space. Not a whiff of fuel for miles around where I am (SE), but a TON of cars on the road.

There are masses of people crammed in down here. We have a good motorway/ dual carriageway links hence people can live in hugely expensive villages and market towns but need well paying jobs elsewhere - so need fuel.

We have good train links to London. The rest of public transport is shit. Fine if you live in a city and want to stay in it. Hopeless if you want to get outside.
There’s no rural public transport to speak of! Where did you get that idea ?

There’s no train station where I live in the SE and we have an hourly bus that takes 1.5hrs to get you to the nearest city.

What is it that makes you believe that there is better public transport in the rural SE than anywhere else?

Because you're labouring under a misapprehension I'm afraid.

@3dame

Same as any other area which often don’t have the excellent public transport links the SE enjoys linking rural/ city/town.

Hahahahahahaha.

No.

By the SE, where do you mean, exactly?

On average people in London and the South East probably don't drive as much as people in, say, Cumbria. But the fuel infrastructure is set up to allow for that. If demand trebles then the system can't cope. It's irrelevant that that demand is only half as much per head of population. The fact that there's an additional few million non-drivers like me in addition to all the drivers is neither here nor there.

I also suspect that with fewer average miles per vehicle in the South East the fuel crunch has hit a bit later down here. It's taken longer for people to really need to fill up, but it was bound to happen eventually.

People are talking about London and public transport - but within cities, th population density is so much higher, and even if a large percentage can use public transport or WFH, a sizeable number still can't, from nurses doing night shift to tradespeople off to jobs, or teachers who have to combine a school run in one direction with their own school workplace that could take over an hour to get to due to awkward bus routes.

I live 15 miles away from where my mum lived when I was caring for her so having to go in 2/3 times a day , 20 minutes by car , 40 by bus ( and then a walk to the actual house ) and 1hr 20 by train ( no direct line ) . This is in the SE so not hard to understand why people use cars rather than public transport without even looking at the cost aspect .

The public transport is rammed and so are the roads. Could it be that there are a lot of people?

But other areas have this in spades and SE public transport is a world away from other areas

Some routes in the SE have good public transport, some don’t, just like everywhere else.

Public transport is generally useful for people who need to travel on well-used routes in and out of towns and cities, but not for everyone else.

Caroline Criado Perez has an interesting chapter on this in The Invisible Woman.