To think car ownership is out of control in the UK

[JacquesHarlow]

I fully expect to get a vast majority of "YABU" comments, but here goes:

Firstly, before I get flamed - I am a woman, a car owner, and yes I have a driveway now (though didn't before). I am a car enthusiast in terms of the enjoyment I've got from driving and I don't have an issue with "cars" per se.

What I have an issue with is how ridiculous Britain's councils and governments are on car ownership. How cheap car ownership is. How anyone can distort the living environment around them with their choices.

Have you driven down a suburban street lately, or even an urban one?

Small and narrow Victorian streets with lines of cars packed on either side, and only room for one vehicle to drive down it. Why so many cars? The houses have been there for 150 years. Why now?

And because so many people (often fellow women, annoyingly) don't ever like reversing, you find yourself caught in the middle, having to reverse right back to the end of the street to start again.

School runs are chaos - so many cars, parking up in illegal or careless ways, purely to save a short distance walking.

And the size of cars! Absurdly large vehicles which then take up more road space on the kerbside. Yeah it is "legal" but in a decade where theoretically we want to get better as a country environmentally, most people do not give two fucks as long as their precious DCs are "safe" (you're just as safe in a NCAP 5* rated Yaris as you are in a Merc GLS, but try telling that to people where I live).

So this is the madness of today:

Cars are SO much bigger. And thanks to PCP they're cheaper - and this is why I see so many cars where I live ,and up north when I visit, and everywhere else. The PCP monthlies thing keys right into the British obsession of wanting to look and feel wealthy. Years ago a Golf or an Audi A3 would be considered posh for a family. But why would I buy a Golf when my monthly payments could get me into something BIGGER!

The one thing that isn't bigger, is the United Kingdom. I've seen councils in London paint "parking lines" half on the pavement so that people can park up on either side to let cars past. I've seen people in these Discoveries and Defenders mount kerbs at drop off time without a thought or care for who might be behind them or even aware of this being an issue.

And you can have 1 household in a street of 20 houses own 5 cars. You do the maths as to how much of the available parking is then taken away.

Why are people so aggressive and discourteous in their car ownership? What are we going to do about this?

Some of us remember 20 or 30 years ago when you could drive to another street and not have to face a x5 barrelling towards you, parked cars either side? With a tiny woman peering over the steering wheel refusing to reverse back into the space immediately behind her? But powering through so that you, in your little hatchback, have to reverse 10 car lengths to accommodate her ego and lack of driving skill?

Our city and town streets are not made for X5s, Discoveries, Range Rover Sports, and god knows what else, to be parked along the kerbside blocking out the light into tiny terraced houses.

How do we put a stop to this? I love the Japanese principle in certain cities where you have to name a parking space you own or have access to before you buy a car. Could this work here?

AIBU? How will we ever wean ourselves off this 'bigger is better, and every member of my family must have a car' mentality?

See, I just don't get this. Driving is stressful, you're always "on", it's often mega crowded and you're sitting in traffic, and then there's the stress of finding somewhere to park when you get there.

If the journey can be done by public transport I find it a massive relief. Time to go on my phone, read, watch the world go by...and when you get there you just walk off.

Christ on a bike. Or in a car.

Driving has become more accessible. It’s not the Victorian times when all streets and houses were built for the life they were living, and cars were for the bourgeoisie. Society has moved on and even women (omg) can drive.

What we can’t do is dig up all of Britain and rebuild it. So we can only adapt it with these small changes you’re referencing. And aside from banning SUV+, what do you propose exactly? A banding system where you’re only allowed a car if you reeeeeeally need it?

Btw I have a small SUV and live in a part of England that is majorly new built and the roads are glorious. Modern roundabouts, plenty of space for parking and cars to fit through. Very nice traffic calming measures. I invite you to move here so you can drive and park your car in peace from all these horrible city people in their horrible cars.

Thanks @TY78910 for the typical snarky comment trying to discredit my experience because you, dear reader, happen to experience something else.

I don’t want to move to where you are. I doubt there’s a Third Space or a Megan’s there. I’m ok thanks.

Well yes one of the issues is that people use cars for short journeys that could often be down by other means. Habit, no safe alternatives etc. Myriad of reasons. But obviously cars spend most of their time parked taking up space and cluttering streets which is such a waste of urban space, especially. If there were fewer cars and they were used more - by multiple people even it would be more efficient. Dunno how it would work but there must be a technological solution and then you just need the political will to make it happen.

More car share hire schemes like electric bike hire schemes would be a good start.

And free public transport like in Luxembourg

Tbh yes it was snarky, but perhaps it’s because of the countless replies you have posted to others on this thread who have told you why they may need a bigger car and you tell them they’re wrong. You can be annoyed at the lack of parking space and congestion - that’s fine, that’s your experience. But to go around telling everyone that they don’t need big cars is absurd. How many large families are there? People who live with their elderly parents, multiple children? How many disabled that need space for wheelchairs. I don’t think you can easily pass the judgement of ‘they bought the car because the PCP was cheap’ by driving past a parked car.

Car ownership isn't the problem, lack of functional roads and parking is a problem.

The government could easily afford to fix it, but they won't.

YABVVVU OP.

Or they could just build more roads and more parking spaces.

Less than 2% of all land in the UK has any building or infrastructure on it. We have the space and the money to do it.

Your thinking is so regressive.

That's what they said in LA. Never any traffic jams there now is there🙄 Induced demand is real.

Increased capacity leads to increased traffic and exacerbates the problem, that is regressive thinking

I have to have a car I live in rural Somerset. Public transport is non existent here. I don't drive a .massive 4x4 though. I have a very small Peugeot. I also need it for my job as i do medical home visits. No choice sadly.

Free public transport would not get that many people out of cars. Frequency for starters, and then you have to acknowledge enough people are offended by others, for example if they stink, or men who stare or make women uncomfortable in some way.

Oh yeah forgot, thats a huge problem on public transport, the pervs

The question to be asked is why anrent there extensive, reliable, cheap public transport routes? Moved back to the UK recently and now with children, to nearby a smallish city but still a city and tried to get around without a car. Into the city - no problem. But an evening activity not very far away? 17 minutes by car but 1.5hrs by bus as no direct transport route. Want to go to the countryside or a stately home in the area? A complicated route involving two forms of public transport and then a 20 minute walk, 2.5hrs - 30 minutes by car. Vicious circle of transport not being invested in, people choose car instead and then the tipping point where there aren’t enough passengers to fund routes. Routes must be subsidised and cost and convenience has to at least come close to being as good as going by car.

The issues in cities are caused by:

• older housing stock built before there was a need for driveways
• older housing stock on narrow plots with minimal street frontage per property
• former family homes split into 3 flats, often the flats are occupied by young adult sharers, so a building that might previously have housed a couple plus four children plus perhaps a grandparent, with one or two cars at most, now might have 6 cars.
• lack of subsidies of public transport as are common in europe, meaning that for many journeys, its cheaper to travel by car.

Outside cities public transport is horrendously slow, infrequent & expensive. I live in the home counties, and if i wanted to use our local bus for something simple like a trip to the supermarket 4 miles away, it would take all morning due to the slow speed & the long wait for the return journey. Using my car i can be there and back in 45 minutes.

DH and I both keep our cars around 10 years (18 months old ish onwards). When we came to change DHs car earlier this year we were both shocked at how much prices for similar cars have sky rocketed in the last 10 years.

I do agree that there are plenty of cars that are unnecessarily big. House builders also don't always take into consideration the fact that families often have 2 + cars, or at least have visitors. Some of the worst estates here for being able to park / drive round are more recent builds rather than established terraces.

A key factor is adult children not being able to leave home due to cost of living, so it is more common to have more cars. If you live in an area with limited public transport (as well have here) you really limit work and leisure opportunities.

There is one blindingly simple, totally obvious solution to the problem.

I wonder what it is.

Pleeeeeease someone tell me it’s not ‘stop the boats’ 🤣🤣🤣

There might be plenty of public transport available where you are, but that is not the case in many parts of the country.

I’ve noticed how much worse drivers are in the last couple of years. I go walking regularly and the cars just drive at me without slowing down or moving out at all. It’s bloody frightening. They almost brush past me they are that close. Rainy days are awful, I’ve had every single oncoming car speeding through huge puddles and soaking me. It’s like something in a cartoon 😳

If it’s that blindingly obvious, surely you know.

Care to share?

Public transport is non-existent or as good as in large swathes of the country. Nada. Nichts.

No it doesn't.

I'm going to link this thread next time someone says disabled people need to be more resilient and shouldnt get benefits.

It's bloody hilarious.