Sri Lanka out of petrol

[Ming the Merciless]

They've been saying that for most of the last 50 years.

That’s due to the time dilation when they turn the fusion reactors on.

 

[C R]

That’s due to the time dilation when they turn the fusion reactors on.

Have they moved to gravitational confinement?

 

[Tom B]

I was in Sri lanka two years back, I think that bicycles just about outnumbered the Tuctucs.
The trouble is that Sri lanka depends mostly on tourism for its money. Tourists are now being warned against going there. Other than tea exports there is not a lot of alternatives.

I'm doing my bit to support Sri Lanka via tea.
I've even bought a stove top kettle to brew up using gas and warm the house at the same time.

I think I calculated it was cheaper than the electric kettle assuming the right amount of water was boiled.

The price of fuel hasn't stopped the woman round the corner firing up her big Range Rover to take her kids 400 yards to school!

No I was at the supermarket earlier and passed 3 people sat in their SUVs engines idling AC on chatting on the phone. I do think the roads are a bit quieter. I cycled the 8miles home last Thursday at 11.30pm and only saw 3 other cars. Very quiet off peak.

 

[C R]

I'm doing my bit to support Sri Lanka via tea.
I've even bought a stove top kettle to brew up using gas and warm the house at the same time.

I think I calculated it was cheaper than the electric kettle assuming the right amount of water was boiled.



No I was at the supermarket earlier and passed 3 people sat in their SUVs engines idling AC on chatting on the phone. I do think the roads are a bit quieter. I cycled the 8miles home last Thursday at 11.30pm and only saw 3 other cars. Very quiet off peak.

This thing of keeping the engine on to run the air conditioning really drives me nuts. Is it a new thing? I have only noticed it recently.

 

[Brandane]

This thing of keeping the engine on to run the air conditioning really drives me nuts. Is it a new thing? I have only noticed it recently.

Doesn't happen around here. Idling engines are still used to keep the HEATER working, during our latest non existent "summer".
Bikes replacing motorised transport as a mainstream alternative? Seriously cannot see it EVER happening around here. Not a chance. Weather isn't anywhere near good enough and too many hills. People will sit and fester in their houses until hell freezes over before they would get on a bike.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Doesn't happen around here. Idling engines are still used to keep the HEATER working, during our latest non existent "summer".
Bikes replacing motorised transport as a mainstream alternative? Seriously cannot see it EVER happening around here. Not a chance. Weather isn't anywhere near good enough and too many hills. People will sit and fester in their houses until hell freezes over before they would get on a bike.

Its like that for most places.

 

[fossyant]

Just put £20 in the Aygo. Person before me had put in £99.99 as the pump only pre authorises £100.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Just put £20 in the Aygo. Person before me had put in £99.99 as the pump only pre authorises £100.

That reminds me, I must check and see if my little Suzuki needs fuel.

 

[Tom B]

Doesn't happen around here. Idling engines are still used to keep the HEATER working, during our latest non existent "summer".
Bikes replacing motorised transport as a mainstream alternative? Seriously cannot see it EVER happening around here. Not a chance. Weather isn't anywhere near good enough and too many hills. People will sit and fester in their houses until hell freezes over before they would get on a bike.

I think it's just automatic get in the car and turn the engine on. I see them sitting windows.open chatting, doors open just hours and hours of idling.

Are the hills and weather new?

There are so many more cars on the road than there used to be. My aunt lives on the local council estate where for one reason and another people are on low incomes and benefits. We had some photos out a few weeks ago from about 1990. Of the 6 houses on her part of the cul-de-sac there was one house who had a car. At the bottom end there are 14 houses and three cars. Now at the top end there are 6 cars for the 4 houses at the top. And easily 20 at the bottom, the housing have dug up the grass and paved it to make a parking area.

Strangely in 1990 people still survived, they walked to the shops, they got the bus, the local Tesco and the out of town retail park used to run a free bus on a Thursday.

This is what frustrates me about these low-income types who can't afford to live but can afford to keep an SUV. The local food bank (don't get me started) is based on a out of town industrial park but ask people to drive to them to collect a food parcel and gas and electric vouchers FFS. I once tried to get an elderly lady who only had a mouldy cake last her a few days a food parcel and they insisted she came to collect it... The following Thursday. (Luckily the local co-op stepped in)


Will we see the return of these "shopper" services? The huge out of town retail park isn't served by a bus I think because the council's say to the multimillion pound businesses "took pay if you want it" and the god awful road design means diverting an existing service adds too long to the point to point times.

Where I live there are 12 houses. One house doesn't have a car and there is me that uses the car once a week. The lady without a car manages just fine. I occasionally give her a lift to town if I'm going but the most help she needs is putting her bins out in the snow.

My local shops are about a mile and a half round trip which my four year old manages twice daily. If I need to go to big town, I get the bus, it's £5 day ticket on "any bus" buses run at a 20min intervals parking would cost me at least half that. Its a no brainer no faff.
The problem is to hop on the bus a mile down the road to take the lad to school (say on a crappy weather day) would be about a tenner due to peak ticket prices. (But then public transport group prices are another argument and thread)

I think people are coming around to it, slowly.

My neighbours now take the bus regularly. Another family have wises up that it's actually quicker to take their kids the half mile to school by walking.

My lad has been brought up walking to the shops and getting the bus. We recently set off to Cornwall in the car and mentioned we're going to Aldi first. He immediately walked down the street and questioned why we was going in the car. Conversely I was looking after the niece and nephews I took them to Aldi and they immediately lined up at the car and were horrified we was walking, and even more horrified when I tossed them bag.

 

[gavroche]

With Mrs G not allowed to drive for at least 2 weeks after her op, I have only used my car once this week. Lidl is only 200 metres from us so I walk there .

 

[Chislenko]

With Mrs G not allowed to drive for at least 2 weeks after her op, I have only used my car once this week. Lidl is only 200 metres from us so I walk there .

Going off tangent a bit but I wonder how many people consider availability of services when choosing their retirement place to live.

Reading an article recently about a very picturesque village locally where people flock to live but there are no services, no shops, pub nothing. It was taken off the bus route about ten years ago and there is a revolving door of house owners whereby people who can no longer drive sell up and move and get replaced by the next generation of 50 somethings for whom the same fate will await when they can no longer drive.

I must admit we are quite rural (not as bad as the example above) but I do worry about bringing a load of 18 packs back from the supermarket without a car.

 

[MichaelW2]

Going off tangent a bit but I wonder how many people consider availability of services when choosing their retirement place to live.

Reading an article recently about a very picturesque village locally where people flock to live but there are no services, no shops, pub nothing. It was taken off the bus route about ten years ago and there is a revolving door of house owners whereby people who can no longer drive sell up and move and get replaced by the next generation of 50 somethings for whom the same fate will await when they can no longer drive.

I must admit we are quite rural (not as bad as the example above) but I do worry about bringing a load of 18 packs back from the supermarket without a car.

My parents retired from farming and moved to a Fine City with a library, hospital and university all within easy reach by walking, bicycle or bus.

 

[chris667]

My dad has just had a fall, and I have to drive 150 miles to go and check he's alright. I have been wondering what would happen when this came up.

I have been hoping he'd move closer for years now. But not too close.

 

[Andy in Germany]

My lad has been brought up walking to the shops and getting the bus. We recently set off to Cornwall in the car and mentioned we're going to Aldi first. He immediately walked down the street and questioned why we was going in the car. Conversely I was looking after the niece and nephews I took them to Aldi and they immediately lined up at the car and were horrified we was walking, and even more horrified when I tossed them bag.

Our kids grew up the same. They've actually become more independent, not less because when they want to go somewhere they just go. Of course having a free all pass for all local public transport helps.

This is what frustrates me about these low-income types who can't afford to live but can afford to keep an SUV.

I have yet to meet any such people: my place of work is located near a railway station quite deliberately because our clients can't afford cars.

The local food bank (don't get me started) is based on a out of town industrial park but ask people to drive to them to collect a food parcel and gas and electric vouchers FFS.

Lack of thought there, possibly because the people running food banks tend to have cars...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Not unless you fancy having a third world standard of living it isn't. Bikes certainly have their uses, but being a large scale motor vehicle alternative isn't one of them.

I'm not sure how "Lack of cars" = "Third world living standards" Apart from anything else, the third world countries I've visited have a lot of cars.

I don't think there is an "alternative" to large scale use of motor vehicles, although that won't stop governments, car companies, and con artists wasting a lot of time and money trying to develop one making exciting computer animations of impractical high tech solutions.

We will simply have to live differently without cars, using those boringly well proven ideas like bicycles, busses, trams and railways; we will still be mobile. What we will lose is hypermobility, the ability to just cross hundreds of kilometres spontaneously as if it isn't there, and 50-100km commutes are probably going to become less common as well. We'll adjust, as humans do. Of course this will be a lot easier for the people who adjust soon, instead of waiting until the last minutes and queuing to buy petrol to get to work...