Out Of Car - Into Public Transport

halevan · 18-02-2003, 19:47

How many member's would be prepared to give up their car's and use the public transport system? would you get up earlier? wait in the cold morning air? and walk to and from the bus stop's as john prescot prefer's you to. And what about the money you have paid out? to buy the car, tax and insurance, tyres, serviceing,then to add insult to injury they charge you to travel on the bus! "Two jag's" and his wife ride when they have only yard's to travel, remember when the wind was blowing and she had just had her hair done? I wouldn't give my car up until all these people at the top gave their's up. comment's please!

richard · 18-02-2003, 20:45

For me I think the increase in traffic is down to the increase in average distances between home and work, and as a result of wanting to live cheaply and car-less I now live 15 minutes walk from my work. I benefit from this all the time.

Michael_W · 18-02-2003, 23:41

I think richard's point about average journey times to work is the key. I know for a fact that more and more people have to travel further to their workplaces these day's. Most people now own cars and understandably use them in preference to using the bus for reasons halevan mentions. Owning a car has become essential for people and many current job vacancies are targeted at people with a full driving license/car. I currently walk to work and have done so for 25 of my 26 working years, however the companies I have worked for are now gone, current one excepted, and even they are considering relocating, so my walking days may soon be over !

lily · 19-02-2003, 13:48

i'm a great believer in public transport and i don't own a car, but the transport system frequently leaves me with nothing to believe in! the trains at the moment are appalling, with the (you would think simple) journey between york and sheffield, which i've been making a lot recently, driving me insane. packed carriages, trains over an hour late or cancelled, and long queues to get tickets.

i think that sheffield's quite lucky with its city public transport though, but that could just be because i don't have to use it all the time (i walk). what's it like for people who live further from the centre?

RPG · 19-02-2003, 14:24

I like the tram, but id much rather go in the car purely due to tramstop placement and cost

Lickszz · 20-02-2003, 14:07

Quote:

Originally posted by "halevan"

How many member's would be prepared to give up their car's and use the public transport system? would you get up earlier? wait in the cold morning air? and walk to and from the bus stop's as john prescot prefer's you to. And what about the money you have paid out? to buy the car, tax and insurance, tyres, serviceing,then to add insult to injury they charge you to travel on the bus! "Two jag's" and his wife ride when they have only yard's to travel, remember when the wind was blowing and she had just had her hair done? I wouldn't give my car up until all these people at the top gave their's up. comment's please!

I would dread to give up my car for public transport. As much as I hate been stuck in traffic and dislike driving, I dislike public transport even more. I don't like the idea of sharing my space with a stranger and been squashed up on a filthy bus. From my experience buses are unreliable, unpredictable and very frustrating. I don't like the idea of setting off for work 2 hours before I have to be there to make sure I am on time. There is no incentive to use buses, the fares are just as expensive as fuel costs for a car.

Strix · 19-02-2005, 22:16

I actually prefer to take the train into town, but that's because I like to come back to a car with windows in it

I suspect the impossibility of navigating around Sheffield, the difficulty of finding our car parks and the extortionate parking charges are the biggest turn off for anybody thinking of shopping here from out of town. No wonder the only people who shop here are those who have bus passes and think TJ Hughes is reet gud.

Now compare this to Meadowhell...

t020 · 19-02-2005, 23:07

You and your old threads.

No, I would never consider ditching my car in favour of public transport - EVER.

vidster · 19-02-2005, 23:18

I've not had a car for 10 years+ but i only work 3 miles away from home and i cycle to work so it isn't a big thing for me.

If i need to go to town or Meadowhall etc.. i just jump on the tram (which is only a 2 min walk away).
There are times when i miss having a car, such as when i need to buy a sack of dog food but the cost of running a car rules out having one for me.

viking · 20-02-2005, 07:55

How could I use public transport ?
Buses to Meadowhall, Sheffield and Rotherham are 1 every hour from where i live.

I do however drive to meadowhall each day, and catch the Super slug up to the univercity. There is a tram every 10 minutes.

foxy27 · 20-02-2005, 09:33

Sod giving up my car!! Its my own bit of freedom and space.
And besides I'm not getting up early to get from Parson Cross to Maltby for 4.30am and then hang about waiting for a bus to fetch me back at 6 every night.

viking · 20-02-2005, 09:38

Quote:

Originally posted by foxy27
Sod giving up my car!! Its my own bit of freedom and space.
And besides I'm not getting up early to get from Parson Cross to Maltby for 4.30am and then hang about waiting for a bus to fetch me back at 6 every night.

Too right, you would not get public transport to Maltby at that time in a morning anyway

Sam Miguel · 20-02-2005, 13:00

If the public transport system was good enough, yes I would consider giving up my car.

I only bought a car in the first place after deregulation of the buses made it almost impossible to get to work by public transport.

This is what escalated the usage of cars in the late eighties and has little to do with travelling greater distances to work.

I hate driving locally. There is no pleasure in it at all for me within the Sheffield boundaries. It is just bloody chaos.

The only time I actually enjoy driving is when I go out into the peaceful Peak Distict or other surrounding countryside.

dinp · 20-02-2005, 17:00

I could easily live without a car in Sheffield, I live just outside the city centre and work in Meadowhall, so I can get a bus, train or tram there and back. If I wanted to go home, i can get a train to kettering and a rail-bus to Corby.

But I don't want to.

I like having my own space and my car lets me have this. I can do things in my own time, and can put things in the boot that otherwise I wouldnt be able to take on a bus, train or tram for fear of being tutted at for taking up too much space.

There's a lot of weirdos on buses.

There's also a lot of weirdos on the road, but I dont have to share my airspace with them.

The car stays.

NicoleM · 20-02-2005, 17:38

I could never give up my car. At the moment I walk to work as I live in the city centre and still have my car. After having a car for so long it would be very difficult to let it go. It comes in very useful at times though as a couple of months ago my father was very ill and if I hadn't have had my car it would have taken me god knows how long to get to Chesterfield Hospital. Public transport would have taken forever and day to get me there.

Rich · 20-02-2005, 17:39

It's all very well for people and the Government to bleat on about people ditching the car in favour of the bus but IMO services need to DRAMATICALLY improve in order to persuade people to do so, especially in Sheffield as IMO we have one of the WORST bus services outside London

Mo · 20-02-2005, 18:21

No way would I give up my car. I love my car. It makes me feel safe, gives me independence and gives me a flexibility that public transport never could. Besides which I can't imagine being able to carry home 8 or 9 carrier bags full of grocery shopping on the bus.

Strix · 20-02-2005, 19:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
I only bought a car in the first place after deregulation of the buses made it almost impossible to get to work by public transport.

I did wonder whether this had played a part in Sheffield's sudden embracing of car culture. When I last lived here there was a very good, cheap, integrated transport system supported by easily accessed info about routes, stops and timetables. Now it's expensive chaos. I've tried to extract bus info a couple of times since moving here, but failed and took the car

noseyrosie · 20-02-2005, 22:23

Quote:

Originally posted by Rich
It's all very well for people and the Government to bleat on about people ditching the car in favour of the bus but IMO services need to DRAMATICALLY improve in order to persuade people to do so, especially in Sheffield as IMO we have one of the WORST bus services outside London

To be honest though, London public transport services are actually fantastic. Their buses go from everywhere to everywhere else, and if they don't, they've got tubes running every 3 minutes throughout the day (minimum) on all lines, further out there are local trains (mainly in the south), and 'british rail' trains running to eberywhere else in the country. There are problems, obviously, but Londoners just don't realise how sh*t it is in the rest of the country. They're spoilt rotten frankly.