- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Problematic imo.
In the UK, 10.5 million people (around 20% of the total population) live in the countryside - many, probably the majority, need a car to live a reasonable life.
Car-free living
- Thread starter Boopop
- Start date
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Problematic imo.
In the UK, 10.5 million people (around 20% of the total population) live in the countryside - many, probably the majority, need a car to live a reasonable life.
All uphill
Still rolling along
- Location
- Somerset
Yes, I don't think there's going to be one simple solution for everyone.
Your figure does leave 80% of the population, many of whom would benefit from cleaner air and better health if they walked, took tram and bus and cycled some of their journeys.
Certainly my son and his friends in Central Manchester find the idea of having a car ridiculous.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
I have to confess that our trip to Manchester a couple of months back, was made much more pleasant by the virtual absence of traffic in the city centre.
As you say, there is no one size fits all solution.
Not wishing to stray OT but imo car ownership is absolutely essential for our life in the sticks and I don't decry anyone having a car. But...
... the absolute lunacy of the automotive industry not being incentivised, or having the legislative framework, to produce small/microcars in volume, confounds me.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Deansgate is much better as a pedestrian but the cycle lane is a complete mess and eyesore. There is no reason for cars in the centre - it's not very big anyway, and we used to park on the outskirts before a lot of it got closed off.
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
I can see the point, but that means if we can reduce car use in cities we can reduce car journeys by 80% of the population. As about half of those journeys are generally 3 kilometres, there's great potential without pressuring rural communities to go car free.
That said, a more rational distribution of services in the countryside, better public transport and cycleways would go a long way to making rural areas more liveable generally, and not just for car owners, while bringing a bit of life into villages and taking pressure off suburbs.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
I'll state we have too many cars at home, but most are old/not used. My car, had it 22 years, and will be sold for a van soon - van is a lifestyle thing and will be used for trips, not mid week. My car doesn't move much other than said trips as I commute. MrsF's car is used daily. The car's aren't big enough for our plans, so one will go.
Son has two cars, one he's turned into a track car (don't ask) and isn't used on road, and another car he now uses for work and towing the track car.
We also have the little Aygo, that was supposed to be for daughter to drive, and a bail out for when son didn't have a second car. She's passed her test but is terribly anxious about driving - learnt in a driver assist everything car. The Aygo is very basic, but light and silly easy to drive, but, not if you have only driven a modern 'full assist' car (hill start/ clutch assist and crap). She really hates driving.
Ideally we'd get rid of the Aygo as well, but as it's super frugal, it's the shopping car - I'd replace it with a leccy Dacia Spring, but insurance is silly money if I keep daughter on it.
Son has two cars, one he's turned into a track car (don't ask) and isn't used on road, and another car he now uses for work and towing the track car.
We also have the little Aygo, that was supposed to be for daughter to drive, and a bail out for when son didn't have a second car. She's passed her test but is terribly anxious about driving - learnt in a driver assist everything car. The Aygo is very basic, but light and silly easy to drive, but, not if you have only driven a modern 'full assist' car (hill start/ clutch assist and crap). She really hates driving.
Ideally we'd get rid of the Aygo as well, but as it's super frugal, it's the shopping car - I'd replace it with a leccy Dacia Spring, but insurance is silly money if I keep daughter on it.
All uphill
Still rolling along
- Location
- Somerset
No need to confess!
Celebrate and imagine what could be achieved in other towns and cities!
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Just heard that Tübingen is planning making the city centre, at least, car free by 2025. A lot of the infrastructure is already in place.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
I'm not sure it's "probably the majority". I'm pretty sure my village of about 3,000 counts is in that 20% but we're actually only 4.5 miles from town with a direct cycleway and 5 bus services (2 of which are hourly and I think 2 are 2-hourly). It really wouldn't take much to extend the bus service to be useful for work (it's currently basically 730-1730, so useless for most factory, shop or office workers), make the cycleway "express" and kickstart a car club to cover the occasional needs, but there's no interest in our "car county" council leadership to do such things.
The next village east is about 1,700 people no further from town, with 2 bus services (1 of which is half-hourly 0545-2115), but only an L-shaped cycle route to town. Again, it wouldn't take much to enable car-free living in that village, extending a couple more evening buses to it and putting a cycleway in a wide highway verge or one of two old rail corridors, but again no interest.
Small hamlets of half a dozen farm worker houses up a long gravel track exist, but must be a tiny fraction.
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mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Just to note, the edit by a moderator was to remove a paragraph of speculation why our council doesn't do these things to enable car-free living. That's political and I had forgotten this thread isn't in the Advocacy area. I don't want to discuss it, but I would like to avoid other people losing time writing stuff that's going to get removed.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
I think when SpokeyDokey said "probably the majority", they were talking about the situation as it si, rather than as it could be if things were improved.
Our village of 803 people could quite easily be reasonably accessible. Cowbridge is about 3 miles in one direction, and Pontyclun (which has a railway station with trains to Cardiff or Bridgend) about the same the other way. But it is an A road with no pavements, so walking not very safe (and a couple of sizeable hills), and there are 5 buses a day in one direction (from Cowbridge to Pontyclun), 4 the other way.
So while it *could* be made much better, as things stand, it is really not practical for most people in the village to manage without a car.
Though there are plans to turn the old railway line (that used to run between Pontyclun and Cowbridge) into a cycle path, which would avoid the main hills, and be traffic free, so making it much more reasonable. I'll believe that when I see it though.
I suspect they are right in suggesting that for the majority it is not reasonable as things stand.
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Electric_Andy
Heavy Metal Fan
- Location
- Plymouth
There are also many like us who, are not classed as rural, but we live 3 miles from the city centre. There is no cycling infrastructure apart from 20M of red tarmac that goes through pinch points. Our suburb is served by 1 bus only, which is unreliable. it's not unheard of for it to be 20 mins late or even not show up at all. We've also just received a letter to say it will not be running past 18:00 because not enough people are using it
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
But we weren't talking about reasonable. We were talking about need. Do you need an operation, if a small lifestyle change would make it unnecessary?
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
