To say car ownership shouldn't be seen as the default

[Sidslaw]

several posts on here about financial problems, all claiming the car is "needed" and not up for discussion

People tend to set up their lives with the assumption that they will drive - surely with the climate in the stat it is in it should now be the other way around? People to set up their lives with the assumption that they will not drive, as the default.

I don't drive, I am dyspraxic, so can't and always knew I wouldn't, and it has never been an issue, as I have chosen the places I live and the jobs I do on that basis. I use public transport, walking, cycling, taxis. I have raised my family as a single mother like this, and my children ( not dyspraxic) have grown up to set up their lives the same.

There is always going to be people who rightly or wrongly think they are an exception, but surely the default should be, don't own a car, don't drive?

You have absolutely no clue OP.

My job requires that I travel to various parts of the UK.

I live in a part of the UK where the public transport is diabolical. Taxis are non-existent before 7.30am and even then, are few and far between.

Tomorrow I have to be at a location a 2hr 15min drive from my house. Using public transport takes over 4 hours and it doesn't run early enough to get me there for 9am, so I would have to travel today and stay overnight..... away from my family. Tomorrow night I wouldn't get home until 10pm.

Next week I have to be at the office 12 miles from my house so will most likely cycle there and back.

Which of these locations do you suggest I "choose" to live in?

Either one makes my life more difficult and stressful that in needs to be.

The fact you are bleating about people killing the planet with cars yet you CHOSE to have multiple children is laughable. Each of your children causes my pollution in their lifetime that my car useage.

As others have said you have reproduced I assume through choice. If you were that worried about the environment you would not have had children. You can argue all you like but you know you can't really say anything about car ownership when you have done one of the worst things for he environment. Your just as bad as everyone else love nothing special.

You can use a taxi on those days, - using a taxi for appointments is cheaper

Nope.

My local hospital would cost £20 each way in a taxi. Costs me a fiver in the car plus £1 for parking.

Op's gone.

Gone to test drive a car.

To be honest @Sidslaw I don't really care what you think. I love driving, absolutely love my new car and will be using it no matter what people like you think.

I also love walking so only use it for long distances but don't really feel like justifying any more than that! 🚙 🚘 🚗

I agree with you but I feel infrastructure needs improving especially in rural areas do everyone can realistically, reliably and affordably agree too

I agree with the message here

Were they using horses 🐴 and carts? You come from some weird family of multi-generational non-drivers, but most people use anf have used cars since they were first invented

I had a seizure and am unable to drive for 6 months. It has been horrendous. My husband has had to change jobs. My DC had to stop lots of their activities as I can not get them there. I have ADHD and I am rubbish at being organised so the inability to nip down to the shops or chemist when something runs out is causing me so much stress. Not being able to drive is hell.

My life has become both much smaller and yet more complicated at the same time.

Makes community midwifery and district nursing a bit of a pain though. Saying that you'd probably want us to have the bicycles with a basket on the front. Not sure where the scales would go though

TrixieFatell just coming on to say the same thing, I can cover 40 miles in my patch daily easily with all the kit etc in the car. Lives and jobs roles have changed considerably since we were a car free society, it is not some utopia for all and there will be more poverty and isolation for those who can not access public transport.

@Sidslaw Come on OP you keep claiming you lived in Yorkshire, its a massive place where?

I have lived in Yorkshire all my life and live in the Pennines and you certainly cannot get around easily with out a car where I live. Without a car, you are limited to what jobs you can take, due to limited transport links with public transport. It does keep a lot of people in poverty as they are geographically trapped by the poor infrastructure due to the landscape and topography.

Or are you saying we should build new roads and tunnels and rail links across the Pennines and Peak District destroying all the invaluable unique habitats and species, such as raised peat bogs and some of our most important natural carbon sinks? or should all the local communities abandon all the areas, their families and jobs that support and maintain these value ecosystems, so they can live in dense towns and cities with poor air quality and increase urban sprawl to accommodate them just to save on cars?

When you take your simplistic view and actually look at all the nuances and intrinsic complex affects of what you suggest you realise its pie in the sky thinking.

Please stay in your built up areas with your buses and taxis and keep out of our countryside thanks 😁

PS petrol cars will still be sold after 2030, as petrol hybrids like mine will still be for sale.

If you can tell me a better way of travelling 30 miles before 8:30 am with no direct train line or direct bus route in rural Lincolnshire I'll listen.

Bloody hell, the defensiveness on this thread. People do seem to take the whole thing so very, very personally 🙄

I am one of these mythical rural dwellers. A bus every 2 hours, none in the evenings or on Sunday. So I have a car, but I don't have to drive it every day. DS2 goes to a school round the corner, DS1 has a school bus. I'm lucky enough to have my workplace 10 minutes walk away. We used the car to drive to the beach and pop into Sainsbury's today, but neither was strictly necessary (got stuck in a traffic jam between the 2 due to roadworks, and were overtaken by several people walking 🙄).

Two things: Just because you use your car sometimes doesn't mean you have to use it all the time. Life is full of choices, take driving less into consideration when making them;

Government policy responds to public opinion and demand. We could have a much better public transport infrastructure in this country if there was evidence that people were demanding it, rather than being so fucking vocal over things like fuel prices, LTNs and bloody potholes 🙄.

What should tradesman and delivery drivers do?

I can't work out from your posts OP if you're genuine or not.

You seem to bang on about the car pollution that children are dying from and the damage to the planet but then regularly suggest bus or taxi journeys as an alternative to owning a car which (even if a car is sat on a drive for 95% of the time as you also keep saying) will use the same emissions as if the person had took their own car. It's almost like you have secret car envy and want everyone to struggle with public transport as you have to (even though I know you'll say different)

Sorry, I'm just not getting it.

Also, I live rurally and when I do see a great chugging bus it's almost always empty or with one or two people on it. That bus has to be throwing some serious shit out.

Not quite.
i live in the westcountry, my dad is from a rural Cornish hamlet, and my mum whilst northern was orphaned and lived in a Cornish town -,They built lives and they moved to settle in their home area. Upping sticks wasn’t a big deal.
i am a millennial, I couldn’t afford to leave home until I had a job, I therefore had to get a job in the rural setting I grew up in. Living in my local area I met and married a local man. My career not strong enough for relocation, we bought our first home here on a keyworker scheme. Something not available in the city over an hour away with good public transport- then we had kids, they settled in the village school. We are stuck in our tiny house in poverty with no scope to move in COL.
however without two cars we have no school no work no food etc etc

A) OP isn’t saying it’s ok to use a car ‘sometimes’ though. He’s saying you shouldn’t own one at all. A lot of us do moatly use the car for shorter trips. I mostly wfh but i need the car for nursery pick up.

B) I don’t agree the government listens and acts to things like that. There is a great demand for the NHS but that’s crumbling.

I used to live somewhere where a car was pretty much essential, if you wanted to go anywhere other than the main town, or if you wanted to do anything after 5pm not in the village you lived.

I now live somewhere just outside a city and I don't have a car - I can get to pretty much anywhere I need to on a daily basis - but I've missed out on some things that I would want to do because the last bus home is at 10.45pm. I can't justify throwing an additional £30 on a night out. When I first moved here there was a bus an hour later - but during lockdown they stopped it, and it doesn't look like they have any intention of restarting it.

The other thing is, as others have said, it limits what jobs I can apply for - there have been a couple of jobs that I've been interested in but when I look at the hours, there will be some shifts that either start too early or finish too late for me to be able to get there/home.

There would need to be a massive investment in public transport for this to be achievable. Which honestly would be amazing, but with local councils going or close to bankruptcy, I'm not sure where that money would come from.

(not all local councils, before anyone jumps on me for not being specific enough)

When we bought our house, public transport was a top 3 criterion. It would be useful to have a car once a week - I wish we had a car sharing scheme locally.

I don’t get how people are agreeing with the Op when the Op has clearly stretched the truth. At least.

Their dyspraxia is so bad they knew they would never be able to drive. Driving was never an option. Says their judgement of speed and depth is so bad driving would never be a possibility, but also rides a bike. Which requires judging of speed and depth.

Doesn’t realise that people with dyspraxia can often drive. Thinks you can always pick your hospitals, for regular appointments. Thinks all kids are like her NT kids and if they aren’t they should be. Doesn’t get that autism, health issues, disabilities all impact how a lot of people live. While claiming they live the way they do because of their dyspraxia.

Claims to have lived all over in places with poor public transport and managed. But also claims they intentionally set their life up so they had access to good public transport.

Thinks that everyone can get a job or get their kids into a school where you have the time to walk to both and still arrive on time.

Says that any car use is wrong. But to Use taxis and suggests car clubs. Says no one has a right to create any pollution. Uses Buses And taxis.

Could a lot of use reduce car use? Yes, we probably can. That’s not what the Op is saying.

It comes across as though ‘I am angry I can’t drive so going to try and convince people it makes me morally superior’.

Lets be honest, if op is able to pick and choose her employer based on walking distance only, choose where she lives based on being able to walk to work and guarantee of getting kids in the local school and only in places with really good public transport (but also managed to live in loads of places with bad public transport), fund several moves all over the country even to places with poor public transport, afford taxis, not worry about public transport turning up and not being paid….chances are Op is has a high income or is wealthy.

Which is the original point. If you are able to set your life up exactly how you want it, with no compromise. Able to live exactly where you want with guarantee of a decent paying job and school in walking distance, the. You are in a privileged position. Which means you have very little clue about what it’s like not to be privileged.

What sort of job do you have? DH subject specialism in academia means there are under 20 places he could work, mine was far more widespread but to each get a job within any kind of geographical spread that meant we could even live together was hard. The compromise was him with a 25 and me with a 10 mile commute.

I bet that hair shirt is itchy op.

School runs are one of the obvious issues when it comes to short trips in cars. I was thinking about it yesterday while sat trying to get into Ds school.

with DS his disability means he can’t travel independently. If I didn’t take him he would be entitled to transport in a taxi anyway so it would make no difference either way.

but for his secondary school (mainstream, catchment about 5 miles) there are no public transport options nearby at all. The school buses cost £4 a day return so I can see why a lot of parents decide to drive especially if they have more than one child at the school, it gets very expensive otherwise!

if we want to reduce the amount of short trips then investing in a proper, fully funded school bus system - especially for secondary schools - would probably make a massive difference to the amount of short trips. It would also get young people used to using public transport more so may change a lot of mindsets moving forward.

Life is hard without a car. I find myself giving a lot of lifts to people who haven’t learnt to drive. Either they ask directly or hint, always going out of my way. So yes if you are happy to use public transport and not ask others for help then great don’t have a car. But for many people having a car is an essential item and like anything in life you can choose to have something as it makes your life easier. I could manage without a car now my kids are older and it can sit all week sometimes without me using it but I wouldn’t be without a car