To think that everyone has to do their bit and reduce fuel consumption

[Noras]

Due to the situation in the Gulf it seems clear to me that there is an issue with fuel.

To me it seems obvious that we all have to try to slightly reduce our fuel consumption even by just a bit eg not having the heating on or turning the temperature down by a degree or so, or reducing the time that the temperature is on. Also, maybe thinking more before making a journey in the car or just driving slower to reduce fuel consumption.

Even if we all reduced our fuel consumption by 10% more that would make a huge difference I think.

So am I unreasonable to think like that?

This could have been worded more clearly.

Driving more slowly, your petrol car gets better mileage. I think the PP meant that people know this, so when prices at the pump go up, they drive more slowly.

Apologies if someone got there first.

I always wonder what the expectation is with drying washing - it rains half the year here I literally can't hang it out.

We don't drive - it limits where we live and add time to our daily activties. However older I get more I think I'd like to have a small electric car and drive - the cost of public transport on journeys can be off putting and waiting round in cold and damp never gets easier and frankly behavior on buses and trains get worse year on year.

We've spent last decade being strict with heating to think fuck it this last year and realise it wasn't costing us more - gas heating house and ambiently drying washing vs electric drying of clothes.

Read article by a green journlist just back of second plan hoilday justifying why with an adult son and a cat he couldn't do without a car in London - I was like fuck does he have any idea how bad public transport and how expensive is outside London and we've managed three kids from baby to adulthood and two cats.

A lot of the green lobby and media is just finger wagging by people who frankly could and should be doing more but have endless excuses why it doesn't apply to them and rest of population muddling through for their particular circustances as best they can and would like to do more if it was made easier.

I think I make pretty good choices but I also
look at the famous lot do whatever while lecturing the rest of us.

@Ponoka7 I dry outside in summer, dryer in the winter. Very soon I'll start drying outside again.
But it gets me when you go to places like Florida where washing hanging out is seen as being unsightly, lowering the tone of the neighbourhood. Yet they have perfect weather for drying stuff outside, so they add to the heat indoors with dryers and crank up the air con to combattheheat.

Or maybe the "strong men" could just stop having wars all over the place.

It's willy waving at its finest.

While I'm sure there are people who can do a bit more, this is an example of responsibility for the solution to a systemic problem being pushed onto individuals. If houses were well insulated, with modern heating and energy solutions, public transport was well funded and available and employers were flexible on remote working, we could make a huge difference. A lot of that is not controllable by individuals. We are lucky to live within walking/bus commute distance to schools, have solar power and an electric car and work from home a lot. We've done a lot of work on our house and it's very energy efficient. So not only do we contribute to a lower load on energy sources, we will also be insulated from prices rises for the next few months. But we could do that because we're well paid and could afford to set all that up and got lucky with our jobs. For most people it's going to be government intervention and support that makes that available to them.

Modern wind turbines pay back the energy that went into their manufacture in under eight months. As their life span is thought to be 20-25 years, that is very efficient.

I have my washing out today as it's sunny and will do again tomorrow as sun and wind forecast so doing my bit, heating is on though because it's a bit cold in the house.

Yes im sure they are ALL on their way to work at three thirty pm on a Friday when its absolutely rammed.

Independent academic scientists have a lot of respect for the National Grid, and mostly favour nuclear and/or renewables. Together with sensible conservation.

A few stupid rock stars and billionaires conspicuously consuming are gross, but relatively small scale. The habits adopted by millions of us do make a difference.

Again the 3.30 pickups (which i never do) I imagine they'll be a fair number of Grandparents and Childminders or a fair percentage of people who work early shifts to get finished for them.

Who could be arsed to drive to school, stress over where to park, end up down a side street outside a randoms house. If you don't actually need to.

I already don't have a car and live in a new build. Can't do more. Both great decisions.

I work 9- 2.45 because there is no wrap around care available for my disabled child. I drop them off at 8.35 then race down motorway for a 9 o clock start. Then leave work bang on 2.45 to get to the school gates for 3.15.

Only if people buy large, heavy electric SUVs - the Institute of Structural Engineers have said that smaller “city” electric cars will be fine.

Nor is it certain that car parks will be rebuilt - the reports on this also suggested a cheaper option as car park owners might prefer to ban larger SUVs rather than rebuild the whole car park.

Yeah, I don’t think my little electric Nissan Leaf is too much of an issue, weight wise.

Bombing oil refineries should put presidents in prison.

Afternoons IME seem to be slightly less busy than start to school days - more so if there is wrap around care on site.

Dmum used to pick neice up and have her for a few hours - no public transport from village to that school and several miles plus Mum had to get back quickly to Dad who wan't well.

Other parents it was them coming directly from work or picking up in car to get to swimming/club/appointment/relatives childcare before shifts started - sometime it's becuase there a medical condition in child or parent that walking route they have makes worse.

Parking often pain in the arse so most do have a reason - we walked and mornings were always much worse for traffic.

That doesn’t even make sense because no, they’re not going to be picking their child up at 3.30 on a Friday and taking them to work with them, are they? They’re far more likely to be on their way home from work.
You don’t seem to grasp that parents often have to have jobs that fit around school hours for various reasons, and so it’s quite hard to cram it all in between the hours of 8.45am and 3.15am. It would be nice if everyone had time to walk their kids to school and home, but they often don’t.

Individuals can have quite a negative influence on transport though. Where I live we have a lot of trouble with dangerous driving (speeding, issues around schools etc.) & we’ve had some road safety schemes watered down or scrapped due to loud protests from some drivers mainly because they don’t like cyclists.

A lot of the objections to the schemes are bogus eg it’s dangerous for the emergency services (incorrect as the emergency services are statutory consulted); no-one cycles (again incorrect); the Council only thinks of cyclists (again incorrect- we don’t have a network of Dutch style cycle routes (sadly) & in some cases where cyclists have benefited the main reason for the change was to stop dangerous driving); a focus on dangerous cycling (causes very few if any collisions - most are due to drivers); don’t like LTNs (said at times by people who clearly do like the LTN they live in - but don’t want others created by blocking through traffic to stop dangerous driving). However, the noise created by this type of spurious complaint scares people & deters my council from acting unless there is someone very determined in charge of transport.

Unfortunately, I’ve been at the sharp end of the poor driving particularly when my children were in primary, so I tend to find that sort of stirring (as opposed to genuine objections) fairly unforgivable.

In hindsight those objectors have done my local community a real disservice by blocking schemes that would make it nicer & safer to walk & cycle. The increase in cycling was really noticeable in the credit crunch (despite the lack of routes) & if petrol goes up, more people will likely be looking to save money by using their car less. It’s just a bit harder to switch to cycling (which can be very useful for shortish journeys that are too far to walk) if you are a new cyclist or are cycling with children when there are no safe routes so the only options are the pavement* or to mix it with traffic.

*Re pavement cycling - yes cyclists should be on the roads, but the police have discretion not to prosecute if the road is too dangerous for cycling.

That's it exactly parking at schools is a PITA, most are not designed with cars in mind (or at least not in the UK) so nobody is driving if they can avoid it.

No, because it won't make a discernible difference, and life is hard enough without depriving myself of heat and transport.
Enjoy your life OP and stop worrying about putting the heating on.
Until the major World players decide to change things there is absolutely nothing you or I can do that will help.

OK, It uses electricity, but the best way to dry washing indoors - if you have no alternative and don’t have/don’t want a tumble drier - is with a dehumidifier.

I'll let it cross my mind when the elites do. I'm not someone's 'subject' or inferior to anyone else so if a lifestyle of jetting around is OK for them, then it is OK to everyone else. If you want to doff your cap to people that are of equal importance to you, go ahead, but I'm not going to do that.

We've dried our clothes for years indoors without a dryer. Zero damp problems. and no extra cost.

I've done my bit, we have a EV that is powered by the sun increasingly from March - October, a small engine low consumption petrol car that doesn't do many miles as it's mostly for DD who is learning. We go to work on the train and two days a week no commute at all. We are going long haul on holiday this year but it's by far the furthest we've ever flown as a family and DDs are 20 and 17. Last year we had a UK only holiday, the year before we drove in the EV to France, and the year before that we went on a coach holiday.