Why do you not use public transport?

[LissyGlitter]

I use the bus and Metro a lot, and meet all sorts of interesting people. My dd absolutely loves it, there is no messing about with car seats, finding parking, getting lost, filling up with petrol, etc. I really fail to see why people don't use public transport for nearly every journey (obviously except for disabled people, delivering large items, people who live miles from a bus stop etc) I just pay £15 a week for my bus ticket and I can spend all day wandering about showing dd the local area. I feel so sorry for kids that are bundled up in cars all the time, watching the world go by. Surely this trend towards isolating yourself is no good for society?

Does not go where i want, when i want. Too expensive, takes too long and fed up of hearing swearing passengers!
Total freedom when i finaly got a car!
The only time i would use public transport would be to go and collect my car from the garage or if i needed to go into a city center as the fare would be cheaper than parking.

We had a good bus route through the village when we moved in, the bus was every 20 minutes and took 45 minutes to go the 7 miles into town because of the route it takes and twice an hour there was a fast bus that takes 20 minutes.

They have cut that service now to twice an hour for the slow bus and once an hour for the fast bus, and there are no fast busses coming out in this direction after 7pm

Abetadad, some of us have jobs that require us to be in locations where the public transport system is pants, and where the houses within walking distance of work are too expensive.

Honestly, me (and the OP?) are not having a go at people who use cars.

I agree there are people who need cars.

However, I do know people who live on really good bus routes who still use the car even though the fuel + parking costs more.

Fair enough. Its their choice to sit in traffic jams while I blaze down the bus lane.

God I hate poncey threads like this, there seems to be loads of them on here today.

I dont catch the bus because I have to be at work for 8am, and would require me leaving the house about 5am to get ds to the CM (2 buses) then to work (2 buses).
I work full time so what little time I have with the children is precious and I dont want to be waiting for buses/trains that never come, sweating in the heat, when the selfish fuckers on there listening to their mobiles playing music so everyone else can hear wont get up to offer a seat despite you having a toddler and being pregnant and its too expensive!

You either live in Balamory or the 1950's but Im assuming from the 'metro' you might live in Newcastle which is the best public transport ever and I never used a car when I lived in newcastle but then I didnt have kids or a job either.

Oh and I live in a big city, where the public transport is still shit

We have no car but I completely understand why other people wouldn't want to use public transport.

Buses around here are very expensive and run so infrequently that they are overcrowded. I only use them now if I am travelling alone and don't have time to walk. I'd rather pay an extra pound and get a taxi so I can at least sit down and get to where I need to go in a reasonable time. In fact, if there are more than two of us going somewhere, a taxi is actually cheaper.

My MIL lives only a few miles away and they have only one bus a week.

Time and money

I do se public transport occasionally, but it is very occassionally.

It is simply quicker to go by car and cheaper for parking than for the bus tickets. Many of the places I need to go would involve more than one bus trip, going into town and then back out again in another direction.

It is also, IMO, more pleasant being in the comfort of my own air conditioned and/or heated car listening to music and chatting than on a hot bus.

In this weather I would definitely feel more sorry for a child being stuck on a hot and crowded bus than my DD sat comfortably in her car seat with the air con on, whilst she is singling along to her songs.

And evebn if I did have all day to wander around, etc. I'd still rather spend it wandering about outside than stuck on 2 or more buses trying to get somewhere.

Before I had children I used public transport to get to work, and it was great. I enjoyed it and would get a lot of reading done.

But around 10% of the time, say one day a fortnight, there would be a signal failure or a train broken down somewhere or the wrong kind of snow or an inconsiderate leaf on the line and I'd be an hour or two late home.

Before I had children, this was OK. Now I have them as a commitment. I need to be able to pick them up on time. So I drive. I have all the possible permutations of routes in my head so that I can adjust quickly if the traffic is looking particularly bad along one route. Sometimes the traffic gets too bad and I am late, but this is once or twice a year rather than once every couple of weeks.

Same as everyone else. Costs far too much, is unreliable and takes too long.

We went to London as a family one Xmas. The way there was great but the train on the way back was absolutely crowded. The only seats available were by a gang of (as it turned out) Millwall supporters who shouted and swore and worse until they got off. Nobody official came to sort them out and basically it was everyone for themselves.

We had to do a lot of long-distance uni visits and before each one I checked the trains. Each time it was cheaper and hours quicker to go by car. In my car I don't have to stand for hours, or listen to other people's headphones.

use the park and ride a lot.. as it is cheaper than parking in town.. £1 all day. also there are toilets at the park and ride station which is good for DD who always needs a wee at incovenient moments.

don't use the bus as too complicated for work and pre school and school pick ups and i enjoy the convenience of the car

last time i tried to get teh train, it was being diverted to another station, which would have meant too much faffing

i have a terror of being stuck on a train with the DCs and no way out

DCs have plenty of contact with the outside world and society.. via the park, supermarket, school, footie, tennis clubs etc etc etc

BTW, used public transport for years as a student ,but with teh DCs i am grateful i don;t have to rely on it

'Live in a convenient place.'

Cool, ABeta, are you going to help me pay the rent?

Because in a 'convenient' place, it was over £250/month a dearer for a two-bed flat.

And my council tax was an extra £30/month.

Anyone who cares to make up the difference - we need 3 beds now and a ground floor flat or house, so adjust costs accordingly, is welcome to fund out move back to the city.

Oh, the schools are better out here, too, so we'll be looking to rent in a catchment area with a school that's performing as well.

Abetadad, I am amazed you don't see this as pompous.

"I can spend all day wandering about showing dd the local area. I feel so sorry for kids that are bundled up in cars all the time, watching the world go by. Surely this trend towards isolating yourself is no good for society?"

Am also surprised that you think everyone should base their housing around acessability to public transport. Stuff what other requirements your homes location should have to fit in with your life, just make sure you have a bus stop close to hand!

You know what. This thread is not actually about trasnport. It is about housing costs, the way we work, and the awful schooling system that forces kids to commute miles to a decent school.

The reality is that as a society we have conned ourselves into believing the transport system and more specifically the car can take the strain of all those bits of our modern way of life that are just not joined up.

Imagine we had a good school in every community, houses were 3 x average salary like they used to be and we had fanatastic braodband everywhere that could deliver video conferencing and on top of that we had a decent 24/7 public transport system in and out of all villages/towns with more than 5000 people.

The need for the car would collapse. The reasons stated here by so many peope (all perfectly valid) are about the inconvenience and horrendous expense of living a half decent life in the UK.

THat I totally agree with Abetadad!

but we have a great school within walking distance, that both dd (did) and ds attend. The fact remains that not all of us are SAHM who can take our children to school every day. Even those parents who work part time still dont always have childcare close by.
I still have to be at work for 8am despite how close the school is

Umm, because I'd have to walk 2 miles to the next village where there's a bus stop which takes buses once every two hours to the next big town where I'd get 3 trains to get me to work 3.5 hours after I set off.

good post abetadad

for me - its because i have a nice car.

But a BetaDad, I and thousands of other people don't want to live in towns or cities and would rather put up with the lack of public transport than sacrifice all the pluses of living in the country.

at Custy. Wotchoo got then?

Spot on, ABeta. That's pretty much the size of it.

It's very inconvenient in many ways to live out here. We have only a small Co-op, accessing healthcare on certain levels is a real palaver and transport's an issue.

But we literally could not afford to live in the city anymore. The school where we wanted to send DD1 (she has learning difficulties) was over-subcribed and the alternative was beyond dire.

Both of us were working, we're low-wage earners, swapping out shifts to avoid childcare costs, and we were way, way in the red every month because it cost so much to live there (rents, council tax, utility). Way more so than the cost of our running our car, which is called Peanut. Because it's reliable (a P-reg Vauxhall Astra with 93,000 miles on it) and costs peanuts to run (it's a diesel).

mumblechum - I live in the country just like you. We have fields all around our house. It is on the edge of a village about 5 miles from the nearest city. We specifically chose to live there because it had public transport, we get all our shopping delivered. The local bus is really popular with working people, school kids and the elderly.

Everywhere could be like where we live except really remote places. I know farmers and so on need vehicles and everyone who likes a car for convenience but imagine you could leave it at home most of the time. That is the solution I am talking about. I think it is feasible.

I do not advocate banning cars but just giving people opportunities, incentives and informed choices about public transport. I am not an environmentalist either and used to work in the oil industry so have no axe to grind.

We came here because we were up to our eyes in debt and our friends had this house and were going abroad and offered to rent it to us.

We were able to scrape together a deposit, first month's rent and moving costs/fees for another private let after they get back.

We'd not have been able to do that in the city.

I only passed my driving test recently but already my life has become unbelievably easier. Despite living on the outskirts of a largish city public transport is not great and at weekends it is diabolical. We are talking buses only every 1/2 an hour on a Sunday and you always have to change in the city centre to get anywhere, so a 10 minute car trip can easily become a 1 1/2 hour nightmare. Also a family ticket costs £6, which can work out more expensive than running a car if you use the buses often. I will add I always walk the children to school unless its pouring with rain as I think not to, unless you have somewhere to be straight after or live miles away is just bone idle.