CycleChat Investigates - The future of tranport

[Electric_Andy]

People can only change in the Western world especially, if they are forced to. The tobacco example is a good one. But fewer lung cancers mean less stress on the NHS. Sadly fewer cars would mean more stress on the UK's wallet. Always about money. But if people were forced to give up cars, many people would have more money and probably become healthier. But as others have said, we are doomed. A small minority will or have already made changes but the majority never will. It has now become "an Englishman's car is his castle"

 

[swee'pea99]

People can only change in the Western world especially, if they are forced to. The tobacco example is a good one. But fewer lung cancers mean less stress on the NHS. Sadly fewer cars would mean more stress on the UK's wallet. Always about money. But if people were forced to give up cars, many people would have more money and probably become healthier. But as others have said, we are doomed. A small minority will or have already made changes but the majority never will. It has now become "an Englishman's car is his castle"

People change in the western world, as elsewhere, for various reasons. Tobacco is a good case in point, as you say. Another, I think, is drink-driving, which was regarded with a certain indulgence when I was young, but became Unacceptable sometime between then and now. Mindsets do change. And governments can help change them. Through targeted taxation, say. But as you say, it's electoral suicide, so no-one's going there.

And where it really matters - in China, and Brazil, and India, and Indonesia, and...well, politicians like to win elections in those places too.

 

[Blue Hills]

It has now become "an Englishman's car is his castle"

You'd be truly horrified by the Italian use of cars then.*
In my experience this country is pretty enlightened compared to Italy.

* an italian pal once told me that a typical italian would get in their car to cross the road for a packet of fags. I know from experience that this is only the slightest of exaggerations.

 

[Drago]

Ive stood and watched as a woman piled her kids into the car, and dorve them to the school at the end of the close in which she lived. If it was as much as 200 metres I'd be surprised.

 

[sheddy]

Crossing the road in suburban Italy is not for the faint hearted.
We would wait until a local pushing a pram appeared and bravely followed in her footsteps.

 

[Blue Hills]

Crossing the road in suburban Italy is not for the faint hearted.
We would wait until a local pushing a pram appeared and bravely followed in her footsteps.

Maybe the pram was empty?
I've seen mothers with babes in arms have to retreat from a zebra because drivers just refused to stop.
I don't have a pram but would tend to use a light small wheeled folder I would hold by the saddle and push ahead of me, ready to retract it if need be.
I got a fair few bad looks from drivers who clearly saw this as cheating -= trying to subvert the natural order - me king in car, you peasant on foot.

 

[Drago]

If anyone runs me over on a zebra crossing then for their own sake I hope they make a proper job of it.

Perhaps a pram full of housebricks? The drivers would get a shock if they tried to bully that.

 

[tyred]

It really does need a major mindset adjustment. So many people think they have the right to drive anywhere, park anywhere, believe they are more important than lesser road users and refuse to even consider looking at an alternative to driving.

I have been threatening to get rid of my own car as although I like to have it and in normal non-Covid times I do like to go for a drive to somewhere different for a hike or sometimes a bike ride I basically never use it locally as I walk or cycle and I look at my car every time I go outside and think about how much I pay in tax and insurance just to have it sitting there. Yet my Mum nearly goes nuts if I suggest getting rid of it - "how could you do anything without a car?"

I have an uncle who complained for ages about the new pedestrian crossing in the Main Street where he lives as it holds up traffic and it takes him far longer to go to the newsagent for fags! First world problems I think. You hear this all the time about things like traffic calming and urban speed limits holding people up. Do none of these people consider that pedestrians have places to go to and probably don't like having their journey impeded by having to wait whilst a train of diesel particle belching cars pass them by as they wait to cross the street?

For about eighteen months my work was based in a temporary office premises in the town centre and we were all issued with a pass card for a nearby pay and display car park so we could have free parking. All my colleagues endlessly moaned about the car park being too far away and the difficulty finding parking spaces and some came in way earlier than necessary to park outside the office door in the street and people took it in turns to watch out the windows to check for traffic wardens and run out and switch their cars around so they didn't over-stay the permitted time. Others endlessly generated complaints by blocking access to the adjacent apartment block and one colleague who has a Suzuki Jimny used to park it in "his" parking spot which was on top of a heap of rubble beside the office where a building had been demolished. All because they were too lazy to walk from the car park provided. I checked it out one evening and it was 327 steps from the office to the car park (but it was uphill - you'd be knackered before you even got to work apparently). I walked up that hill every day on my way to work and never felt tired. I never once used my parking permit and actually had difficulty finding it when we were asked to give them back.

 

[Oldhippy]

The whole driving thing needs a sea change in general society. Bike Nation by Peter Walker an excellent read on this subject. Not ranty but very well researched and written.

 

[Archie_tect]

....It [hydrogen] is essentially free as a by product of petrochemical refining - that'll never go away as long as plastics and fertilisers are being made. ...

There's the big fly in the ointment D... oil is finite... it's the 20th C solution to energy supply like coal was the 19th C's. The world needs to move on and innovate- batteries are inefficient now as is solar power distribution, but when we are dead and gone it won't be, providing oil is phased out as soon as technology allows.

 

[tyred]

I'm just out test driving my new ecologically friendly transport. The tailpipe emissions are very good for my rhubarb.

 

[Drago]

There's the big fly in the ointment D... oil is finite... it's the 20th C solution to energy supply like coal was the 19th C's. The world needs to move on and innovate- batteries are inefficient now as is solar power distribution, but when we are dead and gone it won't be, providing oil is phased out as soon as technology allows.

Thats a fair point.

But when the oil runs dry there will be no more of the necessary raw materials to make plastics and polymers to manufacture solar cells and batteries, and the structures that house them and insulate their wires?

Indeed, when the oil runs out there will be no more nitrate fertilisers and that will likely be the end of civilisatuon as we know it.

The biggest problem with oil is that we've been burning it. Once we stop doing that there are millennia of supplies left for the other useful things its used for, by which time there is a genuine likelihood of unforseen new energy generation and sorage technologies. Whether mankind has the nouse to actually apply themselves to doing so is another matter, but when one looks back at the advances in energy production storage and transmission over the last 1000 years there is no reason to believe that similar astonishing advances can't be made over the next 1000.

 

[Archie_tect]

I'm just out test driving my new ecologically friendly transport. The tailpipe emissions are very good for my rhubarb.
View attachment 569745

1 horse power: doesn't corner well, grip is useless in the wet and needs recharging overnight- expensive to run and needs regular maintenance.

 

[Archie_tect]

Thats a fair point.

But when the oil runs dry there will be no more of the necessary raw materials to make plastics and polymers to manufacture solar cells and batteries, and the structures that house them and insulate their wires?

Indeed, when the oil runs out there will be no more nitrate fertilisers and that will likely be the end of civilisatuon as we know it.

The biggest problem with oil is that we've been burning it. Once we stop doing that there are millennia of supplies left for the other useful things its used for, by which time there is a genuine likelihood of unforseen new energy generation and sorage technologies. Whether mankind has the nouse to actually apply themselves to doing so is another matter, but when one looks back at the advances in energy production storage and transmission over the last 1000 years there is no reason to believe that similar astonishing advances can't be made over the next 1000.

'Plastics' can more easily be made from plant based cellulose polymers which can be recycled and biodegrade.
Natural fertilisers are better for the environment and water supplies.

 

[Accy cyclist]

If anyone runs me over on a zebra crossing then for their own sake I hope they make a proper job of it.

Perhaps a pram full of housebricks? The drivers would get a shock if they tried to bully that.

Talking of prams. Since i got a 'doggie stroller' for my lazy mutt i've had quite a lot of motorists slow down to let me cross the road. They don't know if there's a dog in there or not and even if some knew they'd still show such courtesy....i'd like to think. The other day a police car slowed down to let me cross. I quite like this showing of motoring politeness. After 30 or so years of being threatened and verbally abused as a roadie cyclist it certainly is a novelty!