Entirely unashamed anti car propaganda, and the more the better.

[Saul Goodman]

Yes, we all know you live in a field and were driving tractors at six or whatever but in the large urban centres where most people live, commuting by car is expensive and indicates a reasonably well paid job. Buses exist in the first place for a reason.

Typical reply I'd expect from a Londoner. They're so self-absorbed that they can't even imagine life from the perspective of someone who doesn't want to live in a stinking shithole.
What's really funny, though, is living in a stinking shithole and complaining that it stinks. It's like sticking your hand in the fire and complaining when you start melting. Nobody is forcing you to live there. If you don't want to be breathing the exhaust fumes from millions of cars, and you don't want to be mowed down by a selfish London driver, there is a fairly simple solution. But no doubt if you moved to the countryside you'd be trying to get farms shut down because the sheep are too loud.
And you say car drivers have a sense of entitlement

 

[platinumsage]

You'd probably be better off looking for work in Darlington (or en route to Darlington) which you'll be able to reach in 45 minutes on the new express bus than a randomly chosen town that isn't even particularly well-served by roads. Or consider moving to Barnard Castle. What's the job? How much does it pay?

If you banned cars and limited recruitment and employment opportunities to public transport routes this would have a devastating effect on pretty much everything from the total number of jobs available through to housing surpluses and shortages in different areas. People in towns don't all work in the factory at the end of their road any more. Having the ability to change jobs to anywhere within a drivable radius of where you live is of huge benefit to society.

 

[klang]

Speed isn't a priority for everyone when selecting their preferred transport method for a particular journey.

that's right, people tend to drive because it's slower

 

[maomao]

Having the ability to change jobs to anywhere within a drivable radius of where you live is of huge benefit to society.

Only to the boss class who want a casualised mobile workforce. The kind of mobility you're talking about wasn't available half a century ago before the the casualisation of labour. Housing's only an issue because that's been left to the private sector too.

 

[platinumsage]

Only to the boss class who want a casualised mobile workforce. The kind of mobility you're talking about wasn't available half a century ago before the the casualisation of labour. Housing's only an issue because that's been left to the private sector too.

Again, not everyone works in the factory at the end of the road. Not everyone wants to either. I'm sure these car drivers in towns outside London we are talking about would absolutely love it if, after telling them they must cycle or use rural buses even if it means changing jobs and homes, that you then tell them they must then remain in whatever job they have found for the rest of their working lives.

 

[maomao]

Again, not everyone works in the factory at the end of the road. Not everyone wants to either. I'm sure these car drivers in towns outside London we are talking about would absolutely love it if, after telling them they must cycle or use rural buses even if it means changing jobs and homes, that you then tell them they must then remain in whatever job they have found for the rest of their working lives.

Because no-one values job security? Work, housing and travel is terribly organised in the UK as a whole. In London the tubes are full of people crossing London at their own (party subsidised) expense to do shit and mostly unnecessary minimum wage jobs often 10-15 miles from where they live. It sounds like your hypothetical Wolsingham resident is doing 200+ miles a week at their own expense just to help the Tim Martins of this world keep wages down.

Incidentally the population of Wolsingham is already aging because people of working age don't want to be driving, and paying to drive, 20 miles to work in
Wetherspoons at Barnard Castle; they want to be close to work. The only thing that will revitalise towns like Wolsingham is local opportunities to work, not minimum wage jobs in Barnard Castle.

 

[maomao]

Overworked rural working class man kills man and leaves family heartbroken while on way home from work in a car barely fit to be on the road:

Driver who hadn't slept for THREE DAYS jailed for causing fatal head-on collision

A DRIVER who hadn’t slept for three days has left a family heartbroken after he killed a ‘loving’ husband in a horrific head-on crash.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

 

[platinumsage]

What happens when Mrs Wolsingham calls her employer, the Boss of Wolsingham Ltd, a cunt and gets sacked for gross misconduct. There are no other employers offering that role in Wolsingham for which she is trained, and she can’t commute to a slightly better paid job at Barnard Castle because she doesn’t have time to cycle there and back every day and also look after her kids. Contrary to what some communists may think, job flexibility is actually a valuable thing for most people, or at least the potential for it is.

 

[MickiQ]

Not all of us outside London do unnecessary minimum wage jobs you know, many of us have well paid very necessary jobs that need doing. Mudslinging aside for the moment, I understand you (maomao) are or are training to be a teacher?
What do you do with all the stuff that this involves? My wife is a secondary teacher and she seems to have loads of stuff that needs to be logged back and forth between the school on a regular basis. She has a Micra and especially around the year end, I've seen her with a full boot I suspect it would be a lot more impractical for her to take it on the bus with her, what do you do? Wheel it back and forth to school in a wheelbarrow?

 

[Saul Goodman]

Overworked rural working class man kills man and leaves family heartbroken while on way home from work in a car barely fit to be on the road:

Driver who hadn't slept for THREE DAYS jailed for causing fatal head-on collision

A DRIVER who hadn’t slept for three days has left a family heartbroken after he killed a ‘loving’ husband in a horrific head-on crash.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

I'm guessing you have a point. Care to share it?

 

[maomao]

Not all of us outside London do unnecessary minimum wage jobs you know, many of us have well paid very necessary jobs that need doing. Mudslinging aside for the moment, I understand you (maomao) are or are training to be a teacher?
What do you do with all the stuff that this involves? My wife is a secondary teacher and she seems to have loads of stuff that needs to be logged back and forth between the school on a regular basis. She has a Micra and especially around the year end, I've seen her with a full boot I suspect it would be a lot more impractical for her to take it on the bus with her, what do you do? Wheel it back and forth to school in a wheelbarrow?

I walk with a backpack; at my previous school I took a train with a backpack. It easily holds a class worth of exercise books, textbooks, lunch etc. Sometimes I do the shopping on the way home too. One backback and one carrier bag; if it's raining I get a bus most of the way. Plenty of teachers don't drive. My mentor is five foot nothing and doesn't drive but somehow she manages.

 

[maomao]

job flexibility is actually a valuable thing for most people, or at least the potential for it is.

Somewhere between communist China assigning you to a work unit at birth and not having your dole cut off for turning down a job within an hour's drive would be nice wouldn't it? Again, flexibility is a bigger advantage if you do a well-paid job in the first place. You're very black and white in your thinking.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Overworked rural working class man kills man and leaves family heartbroken while on way home from work in a car barely fit to be on the road:

Driver who hadn't slept for THREE DAYS jailed for causing fatal head-on collision

A DRIVER who hadn’t slept for three days has left a family heartbroken after he killed a ‘loving’ husband in a horrific head-on crash.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

Somebody died doing something. Somebody got jail.

Prison sentence after scaffolder dies from 30ft fall

A scaffolding and roofing company boss has been jailed after a scaffolder fell 30ft to his death while dismantling a temporary roof in Kensington.

scaffmag.com

 

[klang]

I'm guessing you have a point.

.

 

[maomao]

Somebody died doing something. Somebody got jail.

Prison sentence after scaffolder dies from 30ft fall

A scaffolding and roofing company boss has been jailed after a scaffolder fell 30ft to his death while dismantling a temporary roof in Kensington.

scaffmag.com

Thanks. That article proves my point perfectly. In your example the employer was correctly prosecuted for causing a death in the workplace. In my example the boss got off scot free despite contributing to the conditions of the accident and benefiting from a system whereby the rural poor are expected to pay for and take liability for travel to and from workplaces that would have been considered laughably far from home just a few decades ago.

Cheers for that.

 

[MickiQ]

There's absolutely no evidence that all that Barker's job or employer had anything to do with the crash, it just says that he was on his way home from work. Nor does it mention how far away he lived from work. The accident was clearly Barkers fault and he was punished for it though (like you I suspect) I think he deserved a stiffer sentence.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Thanks. That article proves my point perfectly. In your example the employer was correctly prosecuted for causing a death in the workplace. In my example the boss got off scot free despite contributing to the conditions of the accident and benefiting from a system whereby the rural poor are expected to pay for and take liability for travel to and from workplaces that would have been considered laughably far from home just a few decades ago.

Cheers for that.

You're very welcome, I do try to help whenever possible. But what does this have to do with cars? All this proves is that the system is badly broken.

 

[maomao]

There's absolutely no evidence that all that Barker's job or employer had anything to do with the crash, it just says that he was on his way home from work. Nor does it mention how far away he lived from work. The accident was clearly Barkers fault and he was punished for it though (like you I suspect) I think he deserved a stiffer sentence.

You've managed to contradict yourself in the space of your first sentence there. The accident happened because he was tired on the way home from work. Unless he worked as a mattress tester in a bed factory I think we can assume his work contributed to his tiredness.

 

[MickiQ]

You've managed to contradict yourself in the space of your first sentence there. The accident happened because he was tired on the way home from work. Unless he worked as a mattress tester in a bed factory I think we can assume his work contributed to his tiredness.

How about the fact that he hadn't slept for three days? are you suggested he spent all of those three days at work? Was he a junior doctor then? A group that whilst often overworked aren't really poor.

 

[maomao]

How about the fact that he hadn't slept for three days? are you suggested he spent all of those three days at work? Was he a junior doctor then? A group that whilst often overworked aren't really poor.

We don't know why he was awake for so long we only know that there appears to be no drink or drugs involved (or it would surely have been mentioned) and that he'd been working in the hours directly preceding the crash when he should probably have been sleeping.

And given the state of his car he's unlikely to have been in a well-paid job.

 

[maomao]

Rural transport problem - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The rural transport problem refers to difficulties experienced in providing transport links to rural communities. Low rural population density makes viable public transport difficult, though people in rural areas usually have a greater need for transport than urban dwellers. High levels of car ownership can diminish the problem, but certain rural groups (the young, old or poor) always require public transport. Increasing car ownership may put pressure on existing rural public transport, prompting a diminished service, which in turn encourages even higher car ownership, creating a vicious circle of public transport decline.

Private cars just aren't the solution to the problem.

 

[platinumsage]

Rural transport problem - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Private cars just aren't the solution to the problem.

They are, because public transport can never function efficiently in rural areas.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Rural transport problem - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Private cars just aren't the solution to the problem.

If private cars aren't the answer, what is? Private cars are the only answer we have at present, and nobody is going to ditch them in the hope that something might replace them at some time in the future. The only way to replace them is to put a system in place that effectively replaces them. I won't hold my breath on that happening any time soon.

 

[maomao]

They are, because public transport can never function efficiently in rural areas.

How do they solve the problem for people who can't drive? They just remove people with money and the physical ability to drive from the community making public transport provision worse.

 

[platinumsage]

How do they solve the problem for people who can't drive? They just remove people with money and the physical ability to drive from the community making public transport provision worse.

Subsidised taxis for non-drivers. Should be cheaper than HS2 per passenger. And a million times better for everyone than buses or bikes.

 

[Saul Goodman]

How do they solve the problem for people who can't drive? They just remove people with money and the physical ability to drive from the community making public transport provision worse.

Where I live, people without cars get a lift from someone with a car. We're nice like that, us car drivers, who don't live in London.

 

[platinumsage]

How can anyone think that buses and bikes can solve any transport needs outside cities?

 

[maomao]

Where I live, people without cars get a lift from someone with a car. We're nice like that, us car drivers, who don't live in London.

Well you're properly rural and probably have very few neighbours. You get some sort of exemption to use it in certain places. We're talking about people who are classified as 'rural' but live in settlements of several thousand people.

 

[maomao]

How can anyone think that buses and bikes can solve any transport needs outside cities?

Anyone who can see that private cars clearly haven't solved transport needs outside cities.

 

[platinumsage]

Anyone who can see that private cars clearly haven't solved transport needs outside cities.

They obviously have, the only problem being people who don't own a car or can't drive. Perhaps we need to offer free cars and driving lessons to people who need them and slash petrol prices. Free taxis for blind and drunk people etc. Funded by scrapping all buses and not having done Crossrail/HS2.