Cycling Costs versus car ?

[mcshroom]

Just as an aside to this. Do remember how much anything costs to replace on a car. I have put the best part of £1k into fixing my car over the last 18 months, and it's just had to go back into the garage again (more £££)

OK my car is old and high mileage, but the cost of repairing cars (even just things like exhausts) rack up bit by bit

 

[mgarl10024]

Just as an aside to this. Do remember how much anything costs to replace on a car. I have put the best part of £1k into fixing my car over the last 18 months, and it's just had to go back into the garage again (more £££)

OK my car is old and high mileage, but the cost of repairing cars (even just things like exhausts) rack up bit by bit

You're absolutely right here. Recently I bought a new bits for the bike and it cost £50, and I thought "hm... that's a fair bit", then thought that I'd be unlikely to get a section of the exhaust fitted on the car for anywhere near that!
I often find it beneficial/reassuring the compare the costs of something I'm buying on the bike for something similar on the car (e.g. tyres).

 

[GrasB]

I've just worked out the cost per mile of me driving into work... I'd save 50p a day! Yeah I'd spend LESS on fuel & car maintenance if I drove my self & my wife into work every day. It's a bit of a specific & peculiar situation though, my wife & I work on the same site so the Alfa already travels to the right car park every day but I'm kinder on the car than my wife so by my best estimates I'd save about 50p a day in consumables.

 

[mickle]

I read somewhere recently that car ownership costs the average British motorist 17% of their income. That's slogging almost all of Friday every week just to pay for the car to get them to work. Is crazy.

 

[StuartG]

Took 5 people to West Wales for the weekend. £80 worth of diesel & £5.70 for the bridge. That's a lot of dosh and why I now always go by public transport when travelling alone. Same trip £13.90 by train/railcard or £2 by coach plus £6 for a local bus. Advance purchase of course but for savings like that its worth it. Oh and I can do some work or read a book on the way.

The problem of car ownership is one uses it without thinking where there are cheaper, even faster, ways to get there.

 

[dondare]

http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008-02-04

 

[dand_uk]

I read somewhere recently that car ownership costs the average British motorist 17% of their income. That's slogging almost all of Friday every week just to pay for the car to get them to work. Is crazy.

http://www.roadtestr...oring-revealed/

“Car ownership is not an indulgence. It is a necessity. And the government must recognize this. For most people, most of the time, the car is the true form of public transport.”

 

[subaqua]

Although we are talking about car usage here, not the whole road network.

I doubt his bike got from the factory to the shop in a car.

agreed his bike didn't get from factory to shop in a car.

the motorways were built not with the car owner in mind , but as a freight transport system. they would have been built regardless of car ownership as trucks/lorries/wagons etc were deemed to be the best method of transporting goods.

a far better system was rail and local distribution but the unions screwwd that up

 

[subaqua]

Took 5 people to West Wales for the weekend. £80 worth of diesel & £5.70 for the bridge. That's a lot of dosh and why I now always go by public transport when travelling alone. Same trip £13.90 by train/railcard or £2 by coach plus £6 for a local bus. Advance purchase of course but for savings like that its worth it. Oh and I can do some work or read a book on the way.

The problem of car ownership is one uses it without thinking where there are cheaper, even faster, ways to get there.

so thats 13.90 each at 5 of you thats £70 not much of a saving really.
for me and family to go to visit family in Wales from London on a planned journey way in advance can be done for £80. but that means booking way way in advance and we can only take what we can carrywhich with a 3yr old and a 9yr old isn't easy.

to go in the car , in comfort, at a time better suited to all of us it costs just over £100 , and if he drives i can read or do work while the kids watch a DVD .

now local journeys in London then cycling or public transport will win hands down.

build a better national public transport network thats cost effective , value for money and fit for purpose and i will abandon the car full stop. until that point its not practical .

if i get a late train to chester then getting from chester into the hills of N Wales is impossible without using a car. i was amazed that buses just stopped running just before midnight going out of Chester. the whole psyche of the country needs to be changed into devolping public transport

 

[mcshroom]

i was amazed that buses just stopped running just before midnight going out of Chester.

Sorry that just made me laugh. Many places round here don't see more than two busses a week!

It is simply unrealistic to have extensive and affordable public transport outside of urban areas. The area I live in has an area of more than the total of all 32 London Boroughs but a population equivalent to about two of those boroughs. To have a system of busses as frequent and running as late as the buses I used to enjoy in London, then we would have to pay 16 times as much (approximately) per person to do so as there would only be 16th of the number of people using the service.

 

[subaqua]

Sorry that just made me laugh. Many places round here don't see more than two busses a week!

It is simply unrealistic to have extensive and affordable public transport outside of urban areas. The area I live in has an area of more than the total of all 32 London Boroughs but a population equivalent to about two of those boroughs. To have a system of busses as frequent and running as late as the buses I used to enjoy in London, then we would have to pay 16 times as much (approximately) per person to do so as there would only be 16th of the number of people using the service.

Hooray somebody gets what i was saying


this is where the argument about a car not being a neccesity and being a luxury falls down. but there are too many blinkered people to realise this.

 

[400bhp]

Sorry that just made me laugh. Many places round here don't see more than two busses a week!

It is simply unrealistic to have extensive and affordable public transport outside of urban areas. The area I live in has an area of more than the total of all 32 London Boroughs but a population equivalent to about two of those boroughs. To have a system of busses as frequent and running as late as the buses I used to enjoy in London, then we would have to pay 16 times as much (approximately) per person to do so as there would only be 16th of the number of people using the service.

It's only unrealistic in the current economic scenario we live in.

If the buses were brought back into public ownership then there could be proper cross subsidisation across the UK, meaning that the more rural areas could run more frequent services.

It's a self fulfilling prophecy under the current system. Fewer buses => rely on car more => use bus less => reduce bus services

 

[mgarl10024]

The whole psyche of the country needs to be changed into devolping public transport

I agree, though I'm not sure I know the answer. State ownership rather than private companies feels better, but then it didn't work so well before.

http://www.roadtestr...oring-revealed/

“Car ownership is not an indulgence. It is a necessity. And the government must recognize this. For most people, most of the time, the car is the true form of public transport.”

this is where the argument about a car not being a neccesity and being a luxury falls down. but there are too many blinkered people to realise this.

I disagree I'm afraid!
Car ownership is a choice and a luxury. I own a car, and thanks to cycling it's not doing very many miles. This makes it expensive per mile to keep, but I do so because it is convenient. If it came down to me paying for the car or making my mortgage payment, the car would go.

Go back 50 years (I know the world has moved on, but stick with me) and very few people owned cars. Kids walked to school or got the bus, and having a ride in a car was a luxury.
Putting my green hat on, on a global scale, if everyone on the planet had the same standard of living as us (where car ownership is seen as a necessity, there wouldn't be enough resources to keep us all going - this situation needs changing which is why public transport needs sorting.

Finally, and probably my most contentious point is that people often choose to live in the places they do. I live in a city which is served by a fairly extensive public transport network, so many elderly residents near me (who have not owned cars for many years) are able to get by pretty well. I would quite like to have rolling hills and a rural outlook, but I don't and that is the compromise I made living in the place that I do. I'd quite like to have a babbling brook at the end of my garden, but when I chose to live didn't come with that, so I don't get one.
If you have chosen to live in a rural area where public transport is poor, then you may feel that you need a car to access services. If you can't afford that car, then you may be better off considering a move to a place better served by the public transport. Or (bring it back to the thread title) you could cycle which is much cheaper than driving.

 

[MacB]

It's only unrealistic in the current economic scenario we live in.

If the buses were brought back into public ownership then there could be proper cross subsidisation across the UK, meaning that the more rural areas could run more frequent services.

It's a self fulfilling prophecy under the current system. Fewer buses => rely on car more => use bus less => reduce bus services

This is an excellent point, privatisation is always going to lead to reduced service for more sparsely populated areas. We've seen similar with regard to the post office. Anything that is a benefit to the whole of society, water, energy, transport, health and security should be run on a nationalised basis.

 

[DrSquirrel]

I've just worked out the cost per mile of me driving into work... I'd save 50p a day! Yeah I'd spend LESS on fuel & car maintenance if I drove my self & my wife into work every day. It's a bit of a specific & peculiar situation though, my wife & I work on the same site so the Alfa already travels to the right car park every day but I'm kinder on the car than my wife so by my best estimates I'd save about 50p a day in consumables.

Your calcs are based on your wife and you cycling? As obviously any saving to cycling over driving is deminised. You are in a good situation it seems, if wifey worked where I did I would probably drive more often - though still try and get her to ride it, mainly in the summer (or even a tandem!).

http://www.roadtestr...oring-revealed/

“Car ownership is not an indulgence. It is a necessity. And the government must recognize this. For most people, most of the time, the car is the true form of public transport.”

It's probably a necessity for less people than acctually say it is. These same types of people probably "can't walk 4 miles".

A car is a necessity for me - I have tried to look at how I could ditch it but it just won't happen (specially with a kid). Although I don't use it all the time just because its a necessity overall and this is where part of the problem is - people sell the car to themselves, and then use it regardless for everything. Though for those that require the car because they have young kids and live in the sticks etc, the odd few miles here and there become a slightly cheaper prospect as the likes of insurance, taxes and such are already paid and don't scale up

This is an excellent point, privatisation is always going to lead to reduced service for more sparsely populated areas. We've seen similar with regard to the post office. Anything that is a benefit to the whole of society, water, energy, transport, health and security should be run on a nationalised basis.

+1

I have said this for some time now - water/power etc should not be privatised and a profit made from.