On the rare occasions I use public transport I remember why I usually don't

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Packed to the gills despite it being very late at night, drunks, no working toilets, filthy, seats too small, migraine inducing lights. Still got half hour to go.

Vive la car

How is some one going to be persuade me my car is not as good an option?

Cars are an inherently selfish option. They might be more convenient for you, but they make life miserable for everyone outside. Noise, fumes, particulates, having to wait five minutes to cross the street, loss of public amenity... Kids used to be able to play in the street, but now they're stuck indoors because cars are more numerous and dangerous than ever.

@DdraigGochPeople don’t use public transport to be community minded, they use it because it’s either their best option or their only option. Get in the real world.

Well if that is the persuasion, that is not persuading me.

If they banned chavs from using trains and buses, and actually enforced rules of behaviour etc, I'm sure a lot more people would be willing to use them.

I remember guards on the underground.
They used to be in the last carriage and controlled the doors.
This added to safety and security.
Lone women and children children could seek out the last carriage.
And of course the loss of bus conductors coincides with galloping anti social behaviour.
There used to be a kind of communally enforced order and courtesy that one was inducted into from travelling on buses at a young age.

So you know why everyone uses public transport do you?

I use buses alot, never get ill

It's long been known that motorists won't leave their cars willingly, they'd sooner clog up entire cities than get out of their air-conditioned boxes (moaning about "traffic" while failing to accept that they are traffic). As I said, they're a selfish bunch who make life miserable for everyone else.

That's why cities like Paris are reclaiming the streets for people the hard way, removing 10,000 parking spaces and replacing them with trees and play equipment; while New York has finally implemented congestion pricing.

Well I dont live in a city but my parents live on the outskirts of a city and I need to drive to get to them and they also need to drive. My dad waited 3 hours once to come home from hospital as no cabs but he wasnt able to get public transport due to the location, not entitled to hospital transport either.

He didnt have his car with him obviously but if he had, he would have driven.

I was late to start driving so spent all my time life until 35 using buses and trains

I'll never give up my car, the amount of times I was stuck in a train with no windows open, no air con, loo out of order, no one telling us what's going on etc.. Platform changes with elderly relatives at last minute and no working lifts. Dragging push chairs around with no working lifts.
Busses cancelled etc.
The new favourite is removing most platform seating the last time I went to get the train I saw elderly and disabled and mum carrying baby trying to perch on a high thin bench slating forwards..

It's absolutely appalling and the most disgusting part is getting charged a fortune for it.

Car car car for me.

Instead of sneering at motorist it would be fair better to thoroughly understand why people are happy to drive in terrible traffic and then work backwards from that.

For me the issue is that too many Londoners are selfish, inconsiderate pricks and it only takes one to make a whole carriage miserable.

So unless we make like Japan and start to shame people for their anti-social behaviour, where and when I can I’m in my car. Which has very low emissions and I don’t have to pay tax on.

Yep same here, total car convert, born and bred in London, used (terrible) public transport, only buses in the 70s and 80/90s where I was, late driver because we moved out of London. I too used to give it all the bunny about how awful drivers were. How little I knew about life outside of London!!

You will never get me out of that car now.

I'm the opposite! I normally take the train into work (not London) and whenever I take the car instead I remember why I don't. I much prefer the walk/train/walk combination to sitting in the car. I get to engage with the world, particularly on the walk, but also in the train. I can read, or sometimes just daydream out of the window. I just feel better about myself for not creating more congestion or using up more energy, and in some weird undefined way for participating in public life. I find driving simultaneously stressful and boring and just wrong, when it's not strictly necessary. I can live with the odd delay on the train.

Having said that, when I go into London by train I usually think "why don't I do this more often" then on the way back in the evening I often think "oh yes, that's why!!!". I prefer a daytrip or matinee! I'd never drive into London though.

Just wish it was cheaper to use the train. There are some longer trips where we drive just because the train is SO much more expensive, especially for multiple people.

I live in a semi rural area in the North about 15 miles from a small city. We keep losing bus services because they are classed as unprofitable. This is mainly due to the fact that services only start after 9 am so that's no use to people who work. Also there are no buses back after 3 pm so again working people would be stuck. There is no public transport link to the local station 5 miles away either so again no way to move workers in and out of the city. The city centre and nearby small towns are dying due to lack of footfall. Maybe this should also be considered in the argument as well as the obvious green credentials of using less cars.
Contrast with my son's home time in Newcastle. Metro every 10 mins or so at peak times and a really comprehensive network. Good bus links too. Loads of people using it to commute and at off peak times too. Newcastle centre seems to be much more vibrant than other northern towns and cities.
Saw a similar situation in Manchester recently with the trams.
Looks like some councils give public transport higher priority than others.
Worth remembering that with an aging population and more medical tests planned for renewing driving licences, even the sneering car driving snobs that have commented here on MN might be forced to rely on public transport at some point in their later lives. Let's hope for their sakes that some enlightened transport minister has had the foresight to improve public transport by then.

I don’t blame you, I live in London but a part that isn’t well served by the underground so mainly rely on buses to get around as I don’t drive but they are awful, buses seem to attract the absolute worse type of people.

I decided to get the train yesterday instead of driving and god did I regret it. Yobbo teenagers eating and throwing their wrappers on the floor, spilling a can of Red Bull all over the floor and laughing. Then another group of teenagers got on, stepped all in the Red Bull, and put their feet up on the seats. I was sat next to a man who was well behaved but stank.

The station I got on at had no lift and I was in agony climbing up the stairs (disability). Destination station did have a lift right at the end of the platform around a labyrinth of turns. Agony again.

So glad to get back in my car this morning.

Just wow. Such a snob.

I say that and I have a car and rarely use public transport.

No air con!! Vive la car!

The problems we have with public transport isn't the other passengers, just there isn't enough of it.

We have had no trains for two days because a broken down train has damaged a set of points. It is single track so trains can't get past. The rail replacement buses are inadequate and loads of college students haven't been able to get to and from the 6th form college in the next town (no direct bus route either). Thank goodness this didn't happen during the exams.

I am a commited public transport user, and live in London, so I can be! But yes, so often it's unpleasant and a bit more thought could make it better. Obviously it'll always be busy at rush hour.

For example I got two buses home last night. First one was relatively new but still horribly hot. Second one was cool but brighter than the sun with horrible white lights. Who wants that at 11pm when you are winding down for bed?

Then you've got southeastern not bothering with toilets on some new trains (see also Elizabeth line) and all the train companies making increasingly uncomfortable seats and it's just so depressing when it doesn't have to be so bad. Oh, and yes, there's demand for more than twi weekend train an hour. That's why there are all these people on this train!

I commute through central London via tube several days a week. And commuter trains from Paddington to South West and back. Today it's been lovely, clean, relatively quiet, air con, on time, relaxing, I enjoy it. Currently waiting for train to pull out of Paddington and I will have a nice snooze and scroll on my phone before arriving home.

No tube lines have loos so the Elizabeth line (which is just fab, I love it) isn’t unusual in that.

Bus = peasant wagon. Never ever ever get it

People who call buses peasant wagons are no better than the passengers that they claim are peasants.

Some of you must live in really rough areas to have to travel with the dregs of society. Round here is is the young and the old that mainly use buses.

You sound lovely!