monkjack Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 We could of course stop ripping off the motorist, and making him pay for services unrelated to transport. Then more people could afford a car, which lets be honest is the only real method of transport. Or should I commute 20 miles to Sheffield on a bus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Four lane motorways just mean that you have dawdlers in lanes two AND three instead of just lane two. I quite often use the M60 around Manchester and people motor along at 60 and 70 mph in the third lane when the other two are empty. I think if we educated drivers into moving back into the inside lanes when they have overtaken or there is no traffic would reduce the amount of queues and delays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halevan Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 I agree that it should be an offence for drivers on the motorway to sit in the middle lane, when it is quite possible for them to return to the left hand lane after overtaking. This selfish act prevents others from proceeding at a legal speed and causes frustration, resulting in a driver overtaking in the left lane. Multiply this a number of times and you have a recipe for chaos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenger Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 The easiest solution would be to allow overtaking in any lane, as they do in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigD Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Great A discussion between public and private transport. Problem is not necessarily one of cost. On the one hand we have what we would hope is a cheap, frequent, clean and 24/7 public transport system. On the other, we have a private car, which may be more expensive, but will leave home when we want it to, not force us to walk miles to catch it, and can be as clean, and operate 24/7 as we like. Governments in ALL countries can, and should, legislate to control fuel prices, and this would go a long way to lessen the burden of both public and private transport. Have you noticed how often fuel prices at the pump rise at the same time that oil prices at the well are falling? Oil companies are in it for the money, and nothing else. Governments are in it to ...... bloody hell, what are they in it for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 How about nationalising cars? I'm conscious that on some days I use my car to commute to work only. That's 23 hours out of 24 it's either sat on my drive or in the car park at work. If all cars were publically owned then anyone could use any car which wasn't being used at the time. Of course, we would no longer have different cars unless we had some form of charging system. Each car would have something like a taxi meter and each user would have a smart card which would be used to pay for the vehicles use. The longer the journey or more costly the car the more the driver would be charged. Dream on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t020 Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 That would NEVER work. The only way to reduce congestion is to widen roads and build more of them. Two roads running parallel would halve the traffic on the 1 road that was on its own previously. Also, lose the bus lanes, the cycle lanes, the speed bumps, the chicanes, etc. Phase out petrol engines in favour of hydrogen powered cars, or at least LPG until the technology is ready and the infrastructure is in place. That would vastly reduce pollution caused by cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funke88 Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 It's supposed to be illegal to do that in the US according to the Highway code, but everybody does it. So it has become acceptable and the police don't pull you over. You have to watch out for people coming at you from both sides. There are no fast or slow lanes. People don't wait for you to pull over, they just pass where ever they can. As Halevan calls it "a recipe for chaos" Believe me, we have it here. American drivers are terrible and the driving test is a complete joke. American drivers are one of my pet peaves, so don't get me started. As far as how to fix the problems in the UK, sorry can't help you there. I drove the M1 from London to Sheffield once a month for 2 years and I hated that too. There are bad drivers everywhere, so you just have to be patient. Easy right?? Ha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funke88 Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 Originally posted by Ravenger The easiest solution would be to allow overtaking in any lane, as they do in the US. My previous post above was in response to this quote. Confused? sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mawgan Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 Originally posted by maxt The longer the journey or more costly the car the more the driver would be charged. [/b] That happens already, its the tax on petrol.. Widening the motorway migh help to increase traffic flow, though I can't see how they could do it given the location. Its going to be absolute chaos I fear while they do this though.. The problem in this country is that there is no coherent integrated transport policy. Depending on where I am working I can spend anything up to 3 hours a day driving to and from the office and its a pain to be honest. I'll freely admit to loving driving and cars, but I hate having to use it every day to get to work because the public transport system is so appalling in this country. My journey time to the office in Leeds would be double if I didn't drive, and at least that when I head west over the peaks. I do use the train occaisionally, but its rare that I can get on with any work on the trains, almost impossible to ensure I arrive on time and a pain at either end to get to where I actually need to be. Compare that to Switzerland where I honestly never needed a car for 12 months, trains, trams and buses etc were clean and on time and linked so that you get off one and there would be another taking you where you needed to be along shortly after. We are better off in Sheffield than a lot of places I've lived in the UK, but I can't understand how we get it so wrong in the UK when others seem to have worked it out.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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