Would you give up your car for a day?

[frankiemum]

another interesting programme on tonight involving ethical and environmental issues.
'Woman who stops traffic' it is in 3 parts and involves Kris Murran visiting 3 of Englands most congested towns to try and get people out of their cars for a day..I personally would love to have the nerve to challenge some people round here who drive their children 5 mins down the road to school.

Have a friend who lives in Brussels they do this every year for a day. No cars allowed in the city. If you were to try you'd be escorted away with escorts and flashing lights. Everyone loves it as "a day". You see amazing things, like people board-sailing down the equivalent of Oxford Street. Also they pay people to cycle to work something like 20c per kilometre. It's fantastic.

I've always hated driving, I haven't driven for around 10 yrs. In England we lived in a small "city", nr the centre and I didn't need one. Now we are back to Milan and we are doing all we can not to drive, at least during the day.

Yes. I don't use it every day anyway. Only really for journeys that are too far to walk. I don't use the car for journeys that are within walking distance. Personally I don't see the point.

Franca, they do car sharing in Milan. Or at least they had started a scheme when we still lived there. It hasn't spread to our parts unfortunately, probably because the locals like their bif f-off Dodge trucks too much.

Brangelina, I know, my friends did it for a few yrs, as they live in the centre and very close to a garage. We do have one car, which we use usually only to go away for the weekend or if we go out at night, which never really happens

i'd give mine up for a month.

dh cant though, he still needs to drive places as his fitness levels not upto scratch.

but i live close to shops, town centre and mainline trainstation which can get into london kings x if ineeded within 25mins.

Franca - so does it work then? I just saw when they first advertised the scheme, but never knew anyone who used it.

oo yes, very easily. In fact there are whole weeks when I don't use the car at all. But I'm lucky that I am near lots of good shops and have excellent public transport links.

I think if I were asked to give it up for a month or more I would find it a hardship, as there are things I'd start to miss (like visiting relatives and supermarket shopping) but other than that, would be fine.

yes - ours stays on the drive for the best part of the week anyway. dd's school is walking distance, dh takes the train to work and I cycle. Have to use a car to get to my dad's though or it would take half the day!

I would on a weekend but need the car for school/mursery runs during the week. Dss and I like getting the bus to and from school/nursery but there have been so many times that the driver has shut the door on us or not stopped at our stop that I don't want to use them unless I have no choice.

I don't have a car [smug]. But I live in the town centre and cycle the 6 miles to work. Would be far harder if I lived in a rural area.

DS could walk 3 miles twice a day.

They have just launched a car-sharing scheme here, where you can use a car for a day, with pick-up and drop-off points dotted around the city. WIll be interesting to see if it takes off, am myself as most people just cycle anyway.

I deliberately left mine at home today. People think i'm mad, I was offered no end of lifts from friends who saw me walking or heard i'd been on a bus. DS thought the bus ride was great. I think there are far more possibilities for leaving the car at home than people are prepared to admit. But there are problems, I feel bad that DS (3) ends up walking twice as far as his brother and sister as he has to walk home from school when we drop them off. For this reason I generally use the car in the afternoon.

NO CHANCE - I live in the middle of nowhere and although there is a bus stop nearby- there are so few buses I would be trapped. You only get to go to one town in either direction on the bus and neither of them is where I work. I would have to make several changes and it would take me hours....and that's not to mention trying to get the kids to and from school 7 miles away along a fast A road.

Funnily enough I have to go THROUGH Marlow (one of the three towns that that woman tried to get to go car free) on my way to work. I have worked in the same place for nearly 13 years. The Marlow route is a new thing..last year or so only. I always used to go through Henley-on-Thames until the road works to IMPROVE the traffic there got so bad that it is now virtually impassable at certain times of day! They never mentioned the overflow of Henley's traffic problem into Marlow in that program!!

Yes, easily. The preschool run is only half a mile each way, and there are enough shops in the village to cater for most things, plus I get a Sainsburys delivery every couple of weeks.

DH cycles into the middle of Manchester every day (7.5miles each way) - v busy traffic, but it's nearly always possible to work out a quieter back route.

I've bought a bike trailer and intend to use it to get DD to school from September (about 3.5 miles by car, much faster by bike)

I am however lusting after a Triobike so I can transport the kids everywhere

I live in the town that was featured in last night's programme... both dh and I drive as the public transport is absolutely shocking. We live a three quarters of a mile from a bus stop and a mile and a half from the bus station. We both work out of town off bus routes. We don't want to run two cars but we have to. I would gladly get the bus to work if I could.

yes - never owned a car, and DH has an old 1.2 litre one. We use it for visiting family/friends in inaccessible places about once a month or for occasional weekends away.

Very little excuse for people in big cities not to try to cut down on car use.

I found that by doing the supermarket shopping on-line, I cut out my only reason for using the car locally.