What do we do if cars become environmentally friendly?

[Bad Company]

When petrol is £5.00 or £50.00 a litre you'll find one.

Yes but surely for rural communities surely that can only be a car fueled by something other than petrol?

Busses are too expensive and inefficient in the countryside. The odd one I see in the country lanes are invariably empty or carrying 1 or 2 passengers.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Yes but surely for rural communities surely that can only be a car fueled by something other than petrol?

Busses are too expensive and inefficient in the countryside. The odd one I see in the country lanes are invariably empty or carrying 1 or 2 passengers.

yet oddly in the 20's, 30's and 40's rural buses, and railways, were the lifeblood of their communities. I wonder what happened. Oh yes; the countryside got all gentrified and everyone bought a car.

 

[subaqua]

That is how things are but it doesn't mean that that have to remain that way.

remote scottish communities have/had the "postbus" .

larger size buses are not the answer to the probl;em. smaller minibus types are. public/community transport systems rather than the me me me attitude that has developed in the UK.

even in a largish town (taunton) the bus service on a saturday is terrible.

I recently came back from a trip to Newquay( hills are great there) i drove down there and used public transport or my bike as much as possible. sunday and saturday services are dire and lots needs to be done to encourage people out of cars onto better public transport. Sadly the current ( and previous for that matter) incumbents have done little to encourage better and more integrated public transport.

 

[Bad Company]

I recently came back from a trip to Newquay( hills are great there) i drove down there

Why?

 

[Bad Company]

That is how things are but it doesn't mean that that have to remain that way.

It does until somebody comes up with a viable alternative. I am not holding my breath.

 

[subaqua]

yet oddly in the 20's, 30's and 40's rural buses, and railways, were the lifeblood of their communities. I wonder what happened. Oh yes; the countryside got all gentrified and everyone bought a car.

Richard fecking Beeching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Beeching,_Baron_Beeching is what happened.

wierdly , some of the most remote lines are enjoying a revival the truro - falmouth and the looe valley lines are busier each year.

the west somerset railway ( a heritage line) now carries more passengers than it did at its peak as a branch line!! sadly the 2 buses an hour linking into the main town are dire and the last few times have been heavily oversubscribed as it is on the holiday route to minehead from taunton station.

 

[Bad Company]

Richard fecking Beeching http://en.wikipedia...._Baron_Beeching is what happened.

Well at least we can agree on that one. We had a fantastic rail network until Dr Beeching thought tearing it all up would be a good idea.

I wonder if it would be viable to reinstate more of the old branch lines? Expensive but it could be a good long term plan.

 

[Richard Mann]

yet oddly in the 20's, 30's and 40's rural buses, and railways, were the lifeblood of their communities. I wonder what happened. Oh yes; the countryside got all gentrified and everyone bought a car.

Nah. Farm mechanisation and rural depopulation came first.

 

[dellzeqq]

Swindon council tried that and reversed it very quickly, turns out people just drive to the out of town shopping centres or other towns/cities meaning local traders, business rates payers, suffered.

you're talking about two different things - the parking in out-of-town stores (granted planning permission by Swindon, in the style of a man cutting his own throat) didn't get taxed. Put a £1000 a space annual tax on all car spaces and you'd make a bit of a difference to our shopping and commuting patterns

 

[dellzeqq]

And the alternative is ?????

I've lived eight miles from the nearest town and never felt the need of a car. And, lets not forget, over 20% of rural households have no access to cars

 

[Bad Company]

I've lived eight miles from the nearest town and never felt the need of a car. And, lets not forget, over 20% of rural households have no access to cars

Dell you are hardly typical are you. Most rural families need at least 1 car.

Where did you get the info about

20% of rural households have no access to cars

? I'm not disputing it but I am surprised.

 

[subaqua]

Well at least we can agree on that one. We had a fantastic rail network until Dr Beeching thought tearing it all up would be a good idea.

I wonder if it would be viable to reinstate more of the old branch lines? Expensive but it could be a good long term plan.

too many have been built over or turned over to walking/cycling trails. the camel; trail in cornwall is one. the old sunshine coast line from newquay through Goonhavern to chacewater etc has been built over at Goonhavern. the line to lappa valley has dissapeared as i was going to ride it with the kids , still shown on OS maps as disused railway line but its through fields.

Beeching was a carcentric and thankfully the Govt saw sense before part 2 was implemented. Secret life of the motorway was a rather good telly programme.

not all of beechings cuts were bad , some of them were needed but lots that shouldn't have been cut was.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

This may also be of interest to those discussing the extraction of Hydrogen from Sea Water

This one looks promising: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110830151229.htm

 

[Bad Company]

It's a shame that the range is still such an issue with electric cars, the manufacturers don't seem to be able to get it beyond 100 miles.

I can't understand why battery life has been improved in mobile phones, torches & watches etc., but not cars.

 

[twobiker]

It's a shame that the range is still such an issue with electric cars, the manufacturers don't seem to be able to get it beyond 100 miles.

I can't understand why battery life has been improved in mobile phones, torches & watches etc., but not cars.

It is not in the manufacturers interest to bring in electric cars yet, that is why, they are to much into the oil, 30yrs ago you could buy cars that were as good on fuel as some of todays cars, by now cars should all exceed 80mls per gallon, but they just get bigger and more complicated.