Boycott the pumps

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by Sparky


The labour party has long campaigned for traffic reduction and alternative transport policies, but their schemes never work. As long as an individual has to give up the freedom to sit alone in traffic and pick his nose in peace, public transport as a viable alternative will fail.

Actually it fails because it doesn't take you where you want to be. I can't get from my house to Luton Airport (a distance of about twenty miles) at 4.00 am on a Monday unless I drive. A taxi costs twice as much as a week's parking.

Buses don't run to the airport and nor do trains. The same with Heathrow. If I want to get a plane at six am I have to get a train at 22.30 the night before!

In Holland I get off the plane and walk down the stairs to the train platforms. I travel to Den Haag change trains and travel to Zoetermeer where my office is five minutes walk from the station.

I can travel this journey at virtually any time of the day or night. If I need to travel around the city I have a choice of buses, trams or taxis. All available for most of the night.

In country areas in Holland there are buses but cars are given as much right on the road as public transport.

In short any policy which expects people to give up their car on the basis of cost and environment rather than value and convenience is doomed to failure. However value and convenience doesn't win the green vote so ignorant politicians will always fail in the eyes of the motorist.

[yorkie]

One of the biggest problems with British transport policy is the fact that public transport is being pushed as an alternative to private transport and not as an integration with private transport. For many public transport is not possible because of timings or journey times.

An example, for me to get to work - about 10 miles from home, takes me 30 minutes in the car at rush hour. I can set off from home at 8:15 and be sat at my desk at 8:45. If I was to use public transport the journey would consist of 3 buses and a journey time of over an hour and a half. My mother works only 3 miles from home and can be at work for a starting time of 9:00 by setting off at 8:50. To use public transport she would have to set off at 8:10.

If public transport were to be properly integrated you would be looking at park and ride schemes, large cheap parking areas at train stations etc. but as Peter said things like this don't get the green vote so are unpopular with politicians.

[SNH]

Where I live 20 miles from Birmingham, there are 2 buses into the village & 2 out, they run between 9.30am & 4.00pm. So getting anywhere by 9 in the morning would mean an avernight stay!