6p off diesel and petrol for next 3 months.....

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theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
You make it sound like some kind of class war.
Not by accident. Look around you. The entire character of the spaces we inhabit is defined by the insatiable demands of the car. It carves up public space, creates distances and wastes everyone's time just to rationalize and perpetuate its own existence. To choose to drive everywhere is to appropriate public space for private use, and to steal time from others. If it isn't a class issue, then nothing is.
 

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
I'm getting confused (and no one's even shown me a sign of a bike in a circle or mentioned a castle). If having a car isn't a choice but a necessity, how have I managed to get to the age of 44 without ever having owned one. I don't own one, my partner doesn't own one and my parents haven't owned one since 1964. I'm surprised I haven't topped myself out of longing for a motor vehicle.
 

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
You did have to move to swansea to get a job though. Certainly knocks up yhe miles to see the folks in reading.....

Are you constitutionally incapable of being right about anything? I didn't move to Swansea to get a job - I got a job in Swansea because I lived there. And my folks don't live in Reading. Next!
 

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
I'm getting confused (and no one's even shown me a sign of a bike in a circle or mentioned a castle). If having a car isn't a choice but a necessity, how have I managed to get to the age of 44 without ever having owned one. I don't own one, my partner doesn't own one and my parents haven't owned one since 1964. I'm surprised I haven't topped myself out of longing for a motor vehicle.

That is, indeed, amazing. But the apparently superhuman abilities we possess are part the reason Linford is obsessed with cyclists. It's an envy thing. After all, a large number of motorists appear to believe that cyclists can levitate and become invisible. We must seem like veritable gods to them.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
Nice little car? Why can't I have a wankpanzer with rhino bars and tinted windows and a massive bank of auxiliary headlamps. After all, I might want to become a serial killer or trash a bit of mountainside, or just drive around looking like a twat. Stop cramping my style.
You're a gurl. You're not allowed a proper car.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
I'm getting confused (and no one's even shown me a sign of a bike in a circle or mentioned a castle). If having a car isn't a choice but a necessity, how have I managed to get to the age of 44 without ever having owned one. I don't own one, my partner doesn't own one and my parents haven't owned one since 1964. I'm surprised I haven't topped myself out of longing for a motor vehicle.
It's probably something to do with genetics.
 

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
That is, indeed, amazing. But the apparently superhuman abilities we possess are part the reason Linford is obsessed with cyclists. It's an envy thing. After all, a large number of motorists appear to believe that cyclists can levitate and become invisible. We must seem like veritable gods to them.
To be honest I've only used a bike for transport in the last 20 years. Before that I walked. I used to work on the basis that if I could walk there in an hour, it was walkable. Even out in the country, the bus stop was only two miles away.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
Nice little car? Why can't I have a wankpanzer with rhino bars and tinted windows and a massive bank of auxiliary headlamps. After all, I might want to become a serial killer or trash a bit of mountainside, or just drive around looking like a twat. Stop cramping my style.
Did I tell you I had a meaningful and productive exchange of views with a leisure Landy driver and his partner last week in Wales. Passed them and had a chat as I climbed up past Claerwen off road, passed them again, several hours later, again off road as they were coming down the byway from the Lluest up above Llangurig. Both jaws dropped when they saw me the second time. He claimed he won't drive off road unless there is a stone surface and I saw no reason to disbelieve him. He gets his off roads kicks from petrol and I from flapjacks and waffles from Tregaron.

That said, the Monks Trod is farked, utterly and beyond repair, by 4x4's and the MotoX types. Completely unrideable without an engine.
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
Yebbut if they did live in Reading, which of your extensive collection of cars would you choose to help you knock up the miles to get there?
Yebbut if they did live in Reading anyone with any sense would leave the collection of cars in the garage and book advance tickets and train it from Swansea. Drinking is allowed on Welch trains. Hic!
 

GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
Round where I live, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has extinguished the rights of way for motorised traffic on many routes :wahhey:
They are to be applauded. Were there howls of anguish when they did so from the petrol heads?
I guess being in a National Park may have eased the way.
 

stowie

Legendary Member
At the risk of injecting some facts into this exciting debate, I would like to point towards the commuting to work and business travel survey by the Office of National Statistics.

Some interesting things arise from this small factsheet.

1) Average commuting distance is 8.6 miles to work in 2009. This is average, and makes me wonder how many car journeys are made which are less than 5 miles.

2) The higher your income the higher the commute distance

3) Around 40% of commutes under 2 miles are made in the car, around 75% under 5 miles are made in the car, as are 5-10 mile commutes. Long commutes over 50 miles have less proportion using the car as people start to use the trains instead and this becomes a significant modal share.

4) 85% of commutes in cars involve single occupancy.

Now just these smattering of facts seems to point to quite a lot of potential choices for a pretty significant number of commute journeys. It also indicates that those doing long commutes aren't normally the poorest in society - which is common sense when one thinks about it since, for the poorest, it is very unlikely that a long expensive commute by train is worth their while, or that they will have the funds to buy a car in the first place.

Many people have choices. Many people prefer the narrative that they don't have a choice in order to justify their choice.
 
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