Perfect example of car-dependence
- Thread starter Shut Up Legs
- Start date
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stowie
Legendary Member
Why? It is a classic case of using a transport option unwisely if the gym is within a couple of miles.
Tin Pot
Guru
Because people have plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons for driving to the gym. Isn't that obvious?
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
TP, it does seem sensible to take exercise to get to and from a gym when it's within easy walking/ running/ cycling distance especially if the roads are constantly blocked with traffic when you have the time to go there, as in the OP's illustration.
Mind you I don't understand why people take their dogs in cars to go for a walk or why people put bikes on the back of their cars to go for a bike ride, so I'm not really able to appreciate the reasoning.
Mind you I don't understand why people take their dogs in cars to go for a walk or why people put bikes on the back of their cars to go for a bike ride, so I'm not really able to appreciate the reasoning.
I do that. I live in London and its 10 miles unitl it gets nice. I could use up 20 miles of my cycling getting through the urban sprawl but sometimes I drive out and go for a longer ride in the counrty lanes.
snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
Re the OP.
What happened to the popular image of a land peopled by Crocodile Dundee type characters?
What happened to the popular image of a land peopled by Crocodile Dundee type characters?
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
They're still out in the bush somewhere, trying to get back.
stowie
Legendary Member
Clearly not. I occasionally drive my wife and daughter to the gym if it is raining. I don't class this a "legitimate" reason, it is a choice. I don't think my choice should be catered for over other people making other choices - indeed my choice generates externalities which are not present in other choices, so I would accept if my choice had this cost factored in. I suspect that in cities where driving short distances isn't the norm there aren't desolate gyms devoid of customers because they cannot get to a gym without a using a car.
GrasB
Veteran
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
That theory works right up until you realise EVERY way you get to the gym has external consequences which need to be factored as additional costs of getting there. In fact requiring a gym to go to has a huge external cost factor... there is also external costs involved with having your own equipment or even doing non-equipment based exercise.
stowie
Legendary Member
Well, I am assuming the gym is already there, and the externalities of the gym don't change due to the patrons' choice of transport. If one just looks at transport then the external costs of private car use is considerable against many of the alternatives. Add this up with all the local trips that involve other places than the gym and the whole thing adds up considerably.
Tin Pot
Guru
Usually it's time.
For example, a woman might drop the kids off at school 09:00 and need to get to the gym fast to join a 9:30 class. Maybe she has a hair appointment at 11:00 and wants to be well dressed when she gets there.
Maybe she isn't runner, or cyclist but likes Body Pump class with her friends?
Extra points for first the person to argue with my choice of example, rather than the point it makes.
I train between four and (albeit rarely) eleven hours a week, the one hour that is at the gym is after work, and I always drive for the convenience. I can see why it would be a huge hassle for others.
deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
If you click this link, you'll see that they all swam into the Venomous Bight.
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
Only flaw in your example is that the traffic-choked streets [to which your person contributes] prevents your person getting to any of their appointments on time... whereas if they walked they could: spend time with their children on the walk to school, walk to the hairdressers and to the gym without all the stress of being held up in queues.... if they all did that it's a plan without fault!
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
Your poor transport choices help kill 29000 people a year. Well done.
Tin Pot
Guru
No traffic choked streets preventing me getting to the gym luckily - my example was to support why not everyone should be told to stop driving to the gym, and I think my example still stands
