The AA Complaining Again

[mcshroom]

At £1.40/l the tax take is approximately 60% of the total price
When it was £0.90/l then the tax take was approximately 80%[1]

The rise in the price of crude oil (which is exacerbated by the fall of the £ against the $) is a far bigger factor than the fuel tax.

[1]Source: Apologists for Bad Driving /Association of British Drivers - link

 

[Paul J]

Regarding horses, if fuel was so expensive why don't the owners keep their horses at home and ride to these centres instead of driving there?

Where I live I see many horses being ridden to the nearest village. What I do not see is a cyclist going to get the weekly shop for a family of 6. Cars are the norm these days not cycles especially out of concrete jungles. Anyone that thinks that fuel prices are ok and the fuel price increases are justified, either has to much money to care, or is not living in the real world.

 

[Brandane]

And they can't ride their bikes because?

Several possible reasons; but I will outline the ones that apply to me personally, referring to my last job (HGV driving)......

1. The commute was anywhere between 25 and 50 miles each way (agency work, so no fixed place of work).
2. Start time varied between 6am, and 8pm. Finishing time was anywhere between 8 and 15 hours after start time. You didn't know that at the start of your shift.
3. As I had no fixed place of work, I had to carry: Maps, satnav, lunch, hi-vis, safety hat, basic tools, paperwork.
4. The road out of my home town is a busy and narrow, single carriageway trunk road. You wouldn't want to cycle it in daylight, never mind winter mornings.
5. I live on the west coast of Scotland. It rains all winter, and a good proportion of the summer too.

I hope that justifies my car use to those of you who can't see through your rose tinted cycle glasses. I love my bikes and cycling; but the car is necessary if I am going to go to work.

 

[Fab Foodie]

And as for 'those fortunate enough to be able to cycle to work', it's a choice we make. Played for and got. I didn't just happen to live close to work, I live near a variety of employers and got a job at one of them. Fortune doesn't enter into it.
If someone chooses to live miles away from any possible employment, then that's their choice too, and they should learn to deal with it.

Assuming of course they don't relocate your job 90 miles away as in my case (10 minute bike ride to 1.5 hour drive), or if made redundant the nearest suitable job is outside bike commuting distance. Point being, even when you try to make the best decisions, life shoots on you some more.
However, there are other ways to reduce car usage.

 

[Fab Foodie]

We've spent the last 50 years designing our lives and our infrastructure around cars and lorries. This might have been a mistake. It's a painful road back.

^^^^^ This. Painful and necessary ... with a long journey ahead we might as well start now.

 

[mcshroom]

S
5. I live on the west coast of Scotland. It rains all winter, and a good proportion of the summer too.

You think it's always dry here? I live within 20 miles of the wettest inhabited place in the UK

 

[vernon]

I'm not slating cars, but people need to recognise that they sometimes have choices.

FTFY

 

[Fab Foodie]

You make people who have, for the main part, chosen to have children sound like victims.

We are ....

 

[subaqua]

Several possible reasons; but I will outline the ones that apply to me personally, referring to my last job (HGV driving)......

1. The commute was anywhere between 25 and 50 miles each way (agency work, so no fixed place of work).
2. Start time varied between 6am, and 8pm. Finishing time was anywhere between 8 and 15 hours after start time. You didn't know that at the start of your shift.
3. As I had no fixed place of work, I had to carry: Maps, satnav, lunch, hi-vis, safety hat, basic tools, paperwork.
4. The road out of my home town is a busy and narrow, single carriageway trunk road. You wouldn't want to cycle it in daylight, never mind winter mornings.
5. I live on the west coast of Scotland. It rains all winter, and a good proportion of the summer too.

I hope that justifies my car use to those of you who can't see through your rose tinted cycle glasses. I love my bikes and cycling; but the car is necessary if I am going to go to work.

i need those too in my new role . and a pair of safety boots. i manage OK riding across London. have been to Head office out in deepest Surrey a few times. amazing what you can do when you try.

i suppose growing up in rural Wales helped with the not using a car and taking Shanks or cycling . the bus service there when i go back is ten times better than it was and theres still more cars than there were back then.

 

[Brandane]

so if you work shifts you work on your own and nobody could car share at all . damn gonna have to sack all of shift except one person .

as far back as the 80s people in the same factories car shared, unless the 3 blokes who shared a car that lived on the same road as me as a kid were up to shenanigans . No 7 , No 2 and No 14 they lived at. and it wasn't a huge town either.

3 years ago I would have been in the I NEED a car camp. it can be done and cheaper than using a car. the car gives a huge convenience factor thats all. a little planning and it can be done

Rather than repeat it all; see post #71. In HGV driving land, hardly anyone starts and finishes a shift at the same time. Yes it would be nice if we all clocked in together, and 10 hours later we all clocked out again. Oh, and it would help if we all lived near each other too. But we don't.

 

[Brandane]

1 Your choice, there must be someone more local who can do the job.
2 Lights
3 So a pannier's worth of stuff.
4 I would if there were more cyclists and fewer motorists
5 Your choice

Going round in circles now, are we not?

 

[Fab Foodie]

You have all my spare, hitherto unallocated sympathy.

That won't be much then

 

[Paul J]

Shift work by definition says that a number of people are going to turn up at the same place at the same time and leave at the same time. A whole shift full in fact.

Fair point if they are not mostly East Europeans like where I worked. Most of the British workers either lived in Peterborough or very close to it. In the whole factory there where 3 British workers, one on each shift that lived anywhere near me. I suppose I could have ridden the 20+ miles each way to work starting shift at 6am or 10pm. Not everyone has the luxury of working locally, able to car share, or is 100% physically able to cycle 100% of the time.

 

[Paul J]

You think it's always dry here? I live within 20 miles of the wettest inhabited place in the UK

I know Cumbria is close to Scotland but....

Wettest Places UK

I lived in the Outer Hebrides where in the winter I would have loved to see a cyclist ride 20 miles against a wind you cannot stand up in and blows water back up a waterfall to get there food shopping. Me thinks not, me thinks not

 

[subaqua]

Rather than repeat it all; see post #71. In HGV driving land, hardly anyone starts and finishes a shift at the same time. Yes it would be nice if we all clocked in together, and 10 hours later we all clocked out again. Oh, and it would help if we all lived near each other too. But we don't.

wonder what my dad did then for all the years he did odd starts when he was driving HGVs . maybe he had a wormhole oh no he used his bike.