Britain is built for cars

[User76022]

Too many people are car bound.
Bring this up on any other non cycling forum and it soon descends into the usual abuse of cycling/ cyclists, even if you don't mention them.

But that's the point isn't it. Too many people are 'car bound' at least partly because Britain is designed for cars.

If we had laws that were stronger and more favourable to cycling for example, and a better infrastructure to support cycling, then perhaps fewer people would be 'car bound'.

 

[NorthernDave]

The government (whoever is in charge) make too much money from the motor car to ever seriously consider reducing reliance on them.

As @Moodyman mentions upthread, we've had the hideously expensive Cycle Super Highway (CSH) put in, and if I wanted to I could virtually cycle from my door into Leeds and then on to Bradford on it. I won't though as huge sections of it are either shared path and too narrow, or frankly crap and should never have been signed off.
Sections where you're forced into the door gap against parked cars, road intersections which are crossed with several toucan crossings, none of which link up so you have to stop at all of them. Bits where it simply doesn't fit so they've painted a narrow cycle lane on the side of a 40 mph dual carriageway to link other bits together. Add in the fact that it's not even the most direct route and you start to see the problem.
Get to the centre of Leeds and it just stops - no signs, nothing. They are now working on putting provision in place, but guess what - more toucan crossings and work proceeds at a glacial place. The city centre section wasn't included in the original back of a fag packet plan, apparently.

If I want to use public transport (and provision, on paper at least, is fairly good around here) then buses and trains don't tie up - First runs the buses, Arriva the local trains and the PTA are unable to get any sort of joined up service or ticketing plan in place. And as @classic33 has mentioned, the railway seem determined to make taking a bike on the train as difficult as possible.

Using the car to work takes 45 minutes, public transport (on the occasions it works) takes double that.

 

[Globalti]

The description above sounds terrible but if you've ever attended a county council or even parish council meeting and witnessed the arse-covering, the dithering, misinterpretation and obfuscation that goes on you'll understand why it takes years to get stuff changed.

I once attended a meeting of my local parish council and suggested they set up a website, which all the councillors thought a splendid suggestion. They've just opened it, about five years later.

 

[classic33]

When it's actually quicker by bike than either public transport or private vehicle, to and from the same points, you see the advantage.

The advantage is one thing. Getting more people to actually cycle is harder.

Cars are seen as just as essential to modern travel as central hearing is in the modern household. Anything else is outdated and too much hardship for most.

 

[Drago]

No public tranport to my village any more. The local government stopped subsidising it to save money, while the national government pays extra for increased pollution, roadbuilding and maintenance. Duh.

 

[screenman]

Motability leases around 700,000 cars to disabled people, it would be sad if they come off the road.

 

[Drago]

I always make exception for disabled motorists who genuinely have little alternative when I'm off ranting about motorists, pollution, and general 4 wheels bone idle laziness.

 

[Milzy]

I’m not cycling 10 miles there & 10 back everyday. It would become junk miles & after a hard days slog just awful. Also it’s quite dangerous in the winter.
I’m driving a 1.2 petrol so I’m not going to feel too guilty.
I like to cycle my own routes my own way, if I cycled to work I’d not want to go out in the evening or bother with Zwift. I have 3 car spaces at my house & it’s a cheap car to run.
I often think a KTM Duke 125 motorcycle would be a lot of fun though.

 

[Milzy]

I always make exception for disabled motorists who genuinely have little alternative when I'm off ranting about motorists, pollution, and general 4 wheels bone idle laziness.

Like fat Jim who lives near me, drives 60 metres to the shop for a case of Carling the lazy slob. His car is a Range Rover which makes it even worse.

 

[JtB]

Basingstoke near where I live is like any other ghastly new town; business parks for earning, retail parks for spending, swing/leisure parks for playing and housing estates for sleeping, all interconnected by dual carriageways for driving. It may look a dream on an architect or town planner’s drawing board but the reality is that it’s a soulless nightmare of a place to live and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Basingstoke’s only redeeming feature is the surrounding countryside for cycling.

 

[Drago]

I’m not cycling 10 miles there & 10 back everyday. It would become junk miles & after a hard days slog just awful. Also it’s quite dangerous in the winter.
I’m driving a 1.2 petrol so I’m not going to feel too guilty.
I like to cycle my own routes my own way, if I cycled to work I’d not want to go out in the evening or bother with Zwift. I have 3 car spaces at my house & it’s a cheap car to run.
I often think a KTM Duke 125 motorcycle would be a lot of fun though.

I used to cycle commute (between 8 and 18 miles each way, depending on where I was stationed) and rarely felt like passing on an evening ride or a weekend trip out on the bike. I was just a normal Joe in his 30s and 40s, didn't feel the need to make cycle commuting or cycling pleasure exclusive of one another.

 

[Johnno260]

I frequently do a partial cycle commute, the fast dangerous roads I use the car, I stop in a village close to the main town where I work take the bike out the boot and cycle in.

On a major plus what takes me 25-30mins due to traffic takes me sometimes 10mins by bike.

I know I’m still using a car, but the traffics choked high pollution roads I’m not contributing.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Motability leases around 700,000 cars to disabled people, it would be sad if they come off the road.

Who will make less than 0.1% of all journeys

 

[screenman]

Who will make less than 0.1% of all journeys

Maybe but that 0.1% can be very important.

 

[Drago]

By and large britain is actually very badly designed for cars, and the roads in much of the south are over capacity. It's just the lazy arriss majority that make the car the default transport option, and that's despite our road network, not because of it.