What do you want in the place of cars?

[Andy in Germany]

We need to de normalise the car being the default choice for journeys less than 5 miles.

Someone thought up a way to achieve this in our village, which has a minor but heavily used road through the middle and several parallel residential streets. They figured that if the residential streets were made into one way systems it would force traffic onto the main road; in the short term this would cause congestion but due to the law of induced demand this would in theory lead to through traffic avoiding the village.

At the same time, drivers who wanted to "Just go to the shops" would find themselves driving a much longer sircular route, where walking or cycling they'd be able to cut straight through to where they needed to go.

Because of local industry and schools the system was designed so fire trucks going to the school and industrial area would be following the one way system via the shortest route.

Unfortunately our local authority at the time thought it was the 1970's; we knew it wasn't going to happen when the "town planner" turned up in a very large US pickup truck...

 

[boydj]

First on your list would useful.

I don't want cars replaced - what I do want is to see smaller, less performance orientated cars eg, little 1-2 person runabouts and small family cars being the norm. So, no huge SUV's non-working pickups and high performance cars.

In the early 70's oil prices shot up and the response was for sales of smaller cars to shoot up amd mor emphasis put on fuel efficient engines and driving. More recently, cars have got bigger and bigger, SUVs form the majority of car sales and the benefits of efficiency improvements in engines and aerodynamics have been lost to the increases in the weight of cars and the faster driving that seems to be prevalent these days. And the overall miles driven has increased considerably.

What we really need is a large increase in the price of fuel to drive efficiency improvements as happened in the 70's, and encourage people to look at alternatives to driving.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

4miles. 10minute drive or 45-65minutes by public transport and bloody expensive.

Or 15-20 mins by bike and bloody cheap

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Someone thought up a way to achieve this in our village, which has a minor but heavily used road through the middle and several parallel residential streets. They figured that if the residential streets were made into one way systems it would force traffic onto the main road; in the short term this would cause congestion but due to the law of induced demand this would in theory lead to through traffic avoiding the village.

At the same time, drivers who wanted to "Just go to the shops" would find themselves driving a much longer sircular route, where walking or cycling they'd be able to cut straight through to where they needed to go.

Because of local industry and schools the system was designed so fire trucks going to the school and industrial area would be following the one way system via the shortest route.

Unfortunately our local authority at the time thought it was the 1970's; we knew it wasn't going to happen when the "town planner" turned up in a very large US pickup truck...

It’s weird how the school run is a thing now. When I went to school we didn’t know anyone who got driven to school. You walked, cycled or got the bus to school. Maybe private school pupils were driven, but not at the primary or comprehensive schools I went to. Now it’s manic round schools with bad parking and driving in large numbers.

 

[classic33]

That's similar to how access in areas that have brought in school streets work only ones who need access have it. Big issue is too often the anti lot win or councils bottle it and do let's try it and then make out it never worked. In our case they do them as a one off for one day but set up to fail. The day they did do it around our street it was bliss.

The local council are spending £195,000 closing two roads off near a school. As part of a "School Street" project. They've not tried any temporary(Only certain hours on school days) measures, deciding instead to go for the full block from the start.
Same council, same school, put the crossing in the wrong place. It was supposed to outside the school gate, the contractors put it at the wrong side of a junction, along with the speed cushion.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Trains that work.

Ive no issue with the strike action, but due to works Sunday's near me for at least the last 6 months have meant no trains run at all and are rail replacement busses. Late night mid week trains are also busses.

The one bright light on that is I'll just catch a proper bus instead, it takes a long time but at £2 a go is significantly cheaper.

I can certainly understand the desire to drive instead of bother with that.

 

[Jameshow]

Nothing there is a place for cycling and a place for cars. I enjoy doing both!

I walk run cycle and drive each in its time and place.

Saying we must all cycle is crazy carrying goods or tools or in the wrist of British weather isn't going to happen!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Nothing there is a place for cycling and a place for cars. I enjoy doing both!

I walk run cycle and drive each in its time and place.

Saying we must all cycle is crazy carrying goods or tools or in the wrist of British weather isn't going to happen!

I agree.

Obviously a bike forum is going to be bike-centric as far as options go but for a lot of people bike only and no car is not a viable option.

For sure, some people will argue to the death that it is.

But, cars are now intrinsically part of many people's lives - work, social and sheer convenience.

The solution lies in better public transport facilities for sure plus ending the production and usage of massively over-specified vehicles imo.

 

[steveindenmark]

I live 3 miles from the nearest shop and we get 2 or 3 buses a day through the village. But to take the bus to the nearest shop I would need to take a round trip of about 40km and hours travelling. So why would I want to get rid of my car. It is better for me and better for the enviroment than local transport. Yes. I mostly use the bike. But there are times it is not practical or convenient.

 

[Daninplymouth]

Or 15-20 mins by bike and bloody cheap

Yes as I said if E-bikes were allowed to go around 25mph I’d have one of these. Although cycling it is easy it’s not that practical as I’m on a very busy 40mph road and if you get a bit of wind it’s a struggle to hold about 18mph so your a sitting duck plus then I’d arrive at work hot and sweaty with no showers or change of clothes

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes as I said if E-bikes were allowed to go around 25mph I’d have one of these. Although cycling it is easy it’s not that practical as I’m on a very busy 40mph road and if you get a bit of wind it’s a struggle to hold about 18mph so your a sitting duck plus then I’d arrive at work hot and sweaty with no showers or change of clothes

At 18 mph you be even quicker at a little over 13 mins. Just slow your pace down to avoid being a sweaty mess. Plus it’s often the case that for the cost of a couple extra miles you can take quieter routes.

 

[Daninplymouth]

At 18 mph you be even quicker at a little over 13 mins. Just slow your pace down to avoid being a sweaty mess. Plus it’s often the case that for the cost of a couple extra miles you can take quieter routes.

I’m not happy when I’m doing 18mph on the main road as this is a 2 lane 40mph busy road if I was to take it easy you’d be doing 12-14mph depending on the wind and that just wouldn’t feel safe. If I take the quieter route it’s a lot more hills but a standard e-bike might do for this. Although if the e-bikes do 20-25mph then I’d imagine most cars wouldn’t bother trying to overtake

 

[TheDoctor]

if the e-bikes do 20-25mph then I’d imagine most cars wouldn’t bother trying to overtake

If a bike was doing 35 mph in a 30 limit drivers would overtake. Got to get past the bike!

 

[Andy in Germany]

If a bike was doing 35 mph in a 30 limit drivers would overtake. Got to get past the bike!

While texting to the Daily Mail about Scofflaw cyclists, no doubt...

 

[Time Waster]

I moved to a small village with a train station in it. I have my solution which means 20k car miles a year is less than 6.5k a year. Plus we sold the car leaving only the campervan as our only vehicle. Overall more polluting but being used less than a third of the old mileage that's a drop in pollution overall and use of train is mostly less stressful. Fewer idiots driving motorised vehicles or riding bikes. I just have to cope with the UK train network and train companies. Poor management and unions are really a big issue on my route. Plus a worryingly too frequent occurrence of death on the line this past year. A terrible thing indeed!

Buses? £2 a single is cheaper. Just means a 20 minute ride on my Brompton to catch it at about 530am when there's idiot commuters in big cars that don't expect to see anyone on the road making it dangerous to be on a bike!