Petrol prices..

[potsy]

i don't mind paying the extra tax if only i could see some benefits somewhere. where do they spend the VED & Fuel duty tax?

Pothole fixing? Cycle lanes?

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

 

[4F]

mainly on cycle lanes for people to ride outside of

chortle

 

[Trumpettom001]

Me personally would like fuel to go up - It'll push companies to develop more renewable cars..

And I could not give a sod if they "only" go 70 mph and the 0-60 on them is pathetic... (also that aside - a tesla roadster will pull away faster than a similarly sized lotus elise) (in the same way that an electric rc car is now faster than a nitrous rc car... the energy density of batteries is lower, (hance lower range) but the ability to convert energy at a given rate for a battery is much higher now..)

 

[Plax]

It's £1.18 here already (Ok, 117.9p). I've managed to get my petrol consumption down from circa £80 per month to circa £40 per month by cycling. £1.20 isn't going to encourage the average motorist to give up the car, and I daresay the vast majority of people will still drive less than a mile. Quite a lot of people at work do that, they live in the village and drive. According to google, from the farthest point in the village you're looking about 1.2 miles, less if you live in the middle somewhere (which is about 0.9 miles). I'd never even think about taking a car for that distance, not even when I didn't cycle.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i wonder how much it would need to go up to to make local shops viable once again, i.e., we grow local produce and perhaps manufacture things again

 

[shippers]

Higher petrol prices can't be good. It adds to inflation generally, demand for bikes go up and they become more expensive... but I've just bought a new one so I don't care!

Seriously, most people won't cut down that much on their driving- could you imagine paying over £5 for 20 cigarettes 10 years ago? (No, I don't smoke either.) Or thinking a £2 pint of beer was reasonable? People will adjust their lives to suit.

Local shops will simply have to bare the cost of the more expensive good while we still load the car up with the weekly out-of-town-Tesco-athon. There are too many people without gardens and not enough alottments around to grow your own.

 

[Davidc]

Most private drivers could compensate for a big rise by improving their driving technique and slowing down. Its commercial drivers who can't do much to mitigate the effects, especially HGVs.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Higher petrol prices can't be good. It adds to inflation generally, demand for bikes go up and they become more expensive... but I've just bought a new one so I don't care!

Seriously, most people won't cut down that much on their driving- could you imagine paying over £5 for 20 cigarettes 10 years ago? (No, I don't smoke either.) Or thinking a £2 pint of beer was reasonable? People will adjust their lives to suit.

Local shops will simply have to bare the cost of the more expensive good while we still load the car up with the weekly out-of-town-Tesco-athon. There are too many people without gardens and not enough alottments around to grow your own.

off topic but i saw a program with todmorden of all places leading the way in 'gorilla gardening'. it was people with the councils blessing can grow veg in public spaces, quite interesting.

 

[gbb]

Most private drivers could compensate for a big rise by improving their driving technique and slowing down. Its commercial drivers who can't do much to mitigate the effects, especially HGVs.

Funny, i always thought the opposite.
My mileage is down to about 6000 PA, i use the car less and less. When i drive i've always got one eye on the computer to see whats the best speed for economy. Ironically my cars more economical at 65 than it is at 50mph.

But...i see all the usual reps and company cars hammering along just like they always used to...they havnt got to worry about the cost, they're not paying for the fuel. They cant be doing 30mpg .
I think its the private motorist that feels it most and dumps the car more often (there's a good few new cyclists at work since the recession).

HGVs, true enough.

 

[Tynan]

far too many use cars for journeys that could be done on a bike but cars have their place, with a family with kids there's an awful lot of things done that 'need' a car

the people that drive a mile are hardly going to be bothered by petrol prices are they

came within a gnats or running ino t the bacl of someone that pulled out on me tonight as I came down a hill, sure nuff they turned off again 200m later, they were good enough to flash their hazards, they must have finally noticed me as braked hard and still ran up their driver side, the bad pull outs are always very local traffic in my experience

 

[Vikeonabike]

Mrs Vike has suddenly realised that fuel is now too expensive to do the little hops too the shops etc, she has now got her bike out of the garage and used it twice, twice I tell you, yesterday..

 

[Cab]

Local shops will simply have to bare the cost of the more expensive good while we still load the car up with the weekly out-of-town-Tesco-athon. There are too many people without gardens and not enough alottments around to grow your own.

Two allotments became free on our site last year. That meant that of the more than 100 people on the waiting list, there were two lucky people. So in principle thats more than a 50 year waiting list.

And as fuel and food prices rise, the demand for allotments will increase.

Its not just fuel prices of course, but thats a factor.

 

[Lizban]

Part of me is happy at fuel prices creeping up for all the reasons listed above, and if it reduces car use and increases cycling - happy days.

The other part of me knows that if it keeps going my disposal income will dwindle and no matter how much I try and see the 'bigger picture' it still makes me grumpy!

 

[darthpaul]

The problem with fuel prices rising is the impact it has on everything else, the price of food and goods will rise as companies pass on the costs to the consumer because the haulage industry cannot absorb the cost.

Having done some calculations based on the MPG of my small 16 year old Nissan Micra that I use when I do commute to work I reckon that everyday I cycle I currently save £1.50 in fuel. So for me thats £7.50 a week, which equates to £360 a year!