NHS Trust to charge staff £220 to park cars at work, forget about job cuts this is even worse.

[Nigeyy]

Taking your last point simplistically there will be two reasons why people cannot cycle to work. 1) They have chosen to live too far away for their capabilities and 2) they are disabled in some way.

The former can be resolved by individuals considering where they work and live and here the latter is often resolved with disabled parking facilities.

With the greatest of respect, if you believe people drive to work for those 2 reasons alone, that is being extremely simplistic -and very naive. Do you have a family? Do you need to travel for your job? Do you need other bulky equipment for your job? What about your dress code? Do you have shower facilities at your work? If you can't cycle is your local public transportation schedule workable? Have you been transferred to a different branch temporarily?

I do cycle to work (well, actually mostly half-cycle commute because of other scheduling issues) but I do appreciate some people just cannot do this for various reasons or find it extremely impractical (granted, many more people could).

 

[Jaded]

you may not have noticed that I put 'simplistically' at the top of my comment. No need for you to repeat...

Now, if you calm down a bit and actually think about what I said, you might post a little less stridently.

 

[Jaded]

What I'm serious about is that once they charge for cars, your bike and bike space will be next....... And don't believe it won't be so.

That's a problem?

We are used to benefits in kind taxation here.

 

[Nigeyy]

I was merely outlining the flaws in your simplistic assertion.

Wow, I'm strident now! I feel like throwing a few pistol hand actions like Arthur Scargill......

you may not have noticed that I put 'simplistically' at the top of my comment. No need for you to repeat...

Now, if you calm down a bit and actually think about what I said, you might post a little less stridently.

 

[marinyork]

Nigeyy, with respect the thread is actually about NHS trusts. Whilst trust can mean many outbuildings dispersed over a wide area with hospital trusts there's normally a main building where most of the people work. There are cycle lockers and even showers in many of them, so the whole point is that it's a lot more practicable than for most other places of work...

 

[PatrickPending]

tis £300 per year to park at the hospital where I work, doesn't affect me as I cycle to work. There are still loads of people driving the relatively short journey of a couple of miles to get to work, and the place does resemble a giant car park. Also as mentioned earlier I think that by the trust charging a monthly fee it discourages people from trying out other means of transport. Still more money to the PFI company in charge..........

 

[HJ]

My local NHS Trust looks like they are going to start charging staff to park their cars at work. At the moment it looks like it will be a charge of £220 per year.

Can see anything wrong with that, more employers should do it...

Good to see the NHS doing something to encourage health promotion for a change...

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Just to clarify a very important point above - if you car share once a fortnight then you cut your car commute by 5%, not by 10%. B)

Get on yer bikes FGS.

I work in a large NHS premesis and, as previously stated, parking is free here but is a problem due to demand outstripping supply. Whilst all of Nigeyy's potential reasons for not cycling are valid, I'd estimate that upwards of 80% of employees here don't cycle because they can't be arsed (thanks to our car culture etc). That's based on a sample from the dept I work in, people who I know none of the above apply to. No kids (I do), live within 6 miles (I don't), no medical impediments to cycling, good facilities here, no need to bring equipment to work or travel during the day (sometimes I do) and so on.

There is another side to this though. On a selfish note, I'm happy with a space in the bike rack every day and happy to get a shower when I want it. It would take a bigger man than me to campaign for worsening of those conditions for the greater good!

 

[Jaded]

20 journeys. There and back each day.

Take two away on one day.

10% gone.

The other driver was already going there, else you wouldn't have been able to car share.

(I did say 'your commuting', not 'commuting')

 

[Tetedelacourse]

20 journeys. There and back each day.

Take two away on one day.

10% gone.

The other driver was already going there, else you wouldn't have been able to car share.

(I did say 'your commuting', not 'commuting')

A proper carshare (according to me ) means you take a turn doing the driving, unless you're a leech. So you take everyone along once in a while.

In the example of every 20 journeys you carshare twice, 10% is correct. In the next 20 journeys though, your colleague gets the benefit when you allow the cretin into your car. So over 40 journeys, net cut is 5%, to you.

Pleased to see that this thread at least is staying on topic

 

[Jaded]

Pleased to see that this thread at least is staying on topic

There was too much consensus!

 

[Tetedelacourse]

There was too much consensus!

 

[bryce]

Sounds like the charge is making people think about not driving to work, which is the point.

The bank I used to work at charged £2,200 pa for car parking - and surprise surprise it was half empty bar a few Porsches.

 

[ufkacbln]

Now to go off topic.....................

Pfizer is a large drugs company in Kent.

They built cycle paths, arranged minibuses from the local station and ensured that there were local buses that went to the site at the right times. They instituted a carshare where if it failed due to company problems then they covered a taxi fare.

Once all this was in place they PAID the workforce a transport allowance!

Now for the catch....... Every time you placed the ID card in the car park slot you were charged.

It became economical to carshare, catch the bus or train, and uneconomical to drive.

Lo and behold driving to the site plummeted, car share increased as did use of cycling and public transport.

It can be done all it needs is the will!

 

[simoncc]

£220 a year is very cheap. Who is subsidisiing this and why should they pay and not the drivers of the cars themselves? Subsidised car parking only encourages car use and traffic jams.