Year's ago i used to love being the owner of a car. It gave me freedom and opportunity's to discover new places. They where simple to work on and where alot more stylish (in my old fashioned view) which gave any self conscious youngster the chance to show his stance in the world. For me it was the Ford Capri. It had the looks and was so easy and cheap to fix. I had the obligatory shelf speakers in the back and an audio line graphic equilizer badly wired into the rubbish radio cassette(it sounded dreadful but looked good lol) I could change the cam belt myself in 30 minutes and not worry about it snapping as the old pinto block was a non interference engine.I would spend many a Sunday morning adjusting the points, timing and tweeking the carburettor to get it running sweet. Sadly youngsters of today will never have that opportunity to be able to self teach them selves simple mechanics as modern car's are simply to complicated to work on.
20 years on i can honestly say i detest cars now. They are a complicated mass of electronics and inaccessible engine components. I can just about do the basics now, such as oil and brake servicing. Everything thing else is now trusted to the garage which cost an arm and a leg. Many modern cars of today find themselves in the scrap yard well before they should, purely because of the astromical labour costs of stripping the crammed engine bay of its components to get to a relatively cheap failed part which is such a waste.
Whilst out cycling today the traffic seemed to be very congested with multiple road works going on. It was school home time and I imagined that a large proportion of these cars where on the school run. All these cars where just sitting there, with their engines idling merrily away choking up the atmosphere with toxic gases.
And to add insult to injury to the motorist, 60% of their hard earned £1 that they pay in fuel goes straight into the pockets of the government. That's not even taking into consideration road fund licence, insurance and the depreciation of the cars.
Then of course we talking of the interest payments of a car and maintenance of it.
I can't imagine but this situation must be many many times worse in cities.
You can see why cycling has really taken off over the last few years. Its as cheap as you want it to be, with no dead end money to pay out, either in taxes or exorbitant maintenance costs.
No stress about parking or rapid deprecation costs. Its a complete no brainer why cycling has become so popular and will continue to be in the future. Car sales are once again down as people are turning there backs on them because of rising costs of long term ownership, whilst cycling becomes ever more popular.
I too have a car but nowadays i only ever use it as a last resort. My bike is always my first choice of transport. I really do loath car ownership nowadays.
Once out of the clogged town roads and into the countryside lanes of Wales today it was a different world. Many cyclists out there enjoying the warm sunshine. Bikes loaded up with camping equipment as there riders where enjoying touring around, to roadies and MTBers having a blast around. It felt like a million miles from the roads i left behind in town.
20 years on i can honestly say i detest cars now. They are a complicated mass of electronics and inaccessible engine components. I can just about do the basics now, such as oil and brake servicing. Everything thing else is now trusted to the garage which cost an arm and a leg. Many modern cars of today find themselves in the scrap yard well before they should, purely because of the astromical labour costs of stripping the crammed engine bay of its components to get to a relatively cheap failed part which is such a waste.
Whilst out cycling today the traffic seemed to be very congested with multiple road works going on. It was school home time and I imagined that a large proportion of these cars where on the school run. All these cars where just sitting there, with their engines idling merrily away choking up the atmosphere with toxic gases.
And to add insult to injury to the motorist, 60% of their hard earned £1 that they pay in fuel goes straight into the pockets of the government. That's not even taking into consideration road fund licence, insurance and the depreciation of the cars.
Then of course we talking of the interest payments of a car and maintenance of it.
I can't imagine but this situation must be many many times worse in cities.
You can see why cycling has really taken off over the last few years. Its as cheap as you want it to be, with no dead end money to pay out, either in taxes or exorbitant maintenance costs.
No stress about parking or rapid deprecation costs. Its a complete no brainer why cycling has become so popular and will continue to be in the future. Car sales are once again down as people are turning there backs on them because of rising costs of long term ownership, whilst cycling becomes ever more popular.
I too have a car but nowadays i only ever use it as a last resort. My bike is always my first choice of transport. I really do loath car ownership nowadays.
Once out of the clogged town roads and into the countryside lanes of Wales today it was a different world. Many cyclists out there enjoying the warm sunshine. Bikes loaded up with camping equipment as there riders where enjoying touring around, to roadies and MTBers having a blast around. It felt like a million miles from the roads i left behind in town.