Another reason to avoid public transport

S

shnaek

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I live in Castletroy in Limerick. Last week I met a friend in town for lunch. I left my house at 12.40, met him from 1-2 and was home again at 2.30
This week I took the bus. I left my house at 12.20, walked 15 mins to the bus (supposed to arrive every 20 mins), waited until 1.05 for the bus to arrive in the rain and wind, met my friend at 1.20 until 2, waited until 2.35 for a bus back out and walked 20 mins back to my house arriving at 3.10

By car my meeting cost me 50 minuts travel time.
By bus my meeting cost me 2hrs 10, along with getting wet in the process.

There really is no competition here, I am sorry to say. And I don't know what the solution is either. The car is the only option. So I am just hoping for an increase in hybrid cars and more fuel efficient cars, because I can never see myself switching to public transport.
 
I quite agree, public transport will never be a viable alternative for most people in most situations. I can get to work in 25 minutes by car. The journey by bus takes nearly 2 hours.
 
shnaek said:
I left my house at 12.20, walked 15 mins to the bus

...

waited until 2.35 for a bus back out and walked 20 mins back to my house arriving at 3.10
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Just curious - why is the walk back to your house longer than the walk from it?
 
If it was down hill from the house to the bus stop then it could take longer to walk back up the same hill on the way home.
 
Well when he was going he had an incentive to walk faster (catch the bus) that he did'nt have on the way back.
 
I had to cross the dual carraigeway on the way back and it was quite busy. Also - the stop on the way back is a bit farther away.
 
Thanks - just curious (and had imagined stuff like hills, a big meal slowing you down etc.). :)
 
And there I was assuming that you'd taken the opportunity of being without your car to have a few swift ones.....
 
shnaek said:
I had to cross the dual carraigeway on the way back and it was quite busy. Also - the stop on the way back is a bit farther away.
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So why did the shnaek cross the road?
 
Intriguing! If it's a 15 minute bus-ride, 15 minutes walk to the bus, and all the rest of the time is waiting-time what would be the possibility of walking or cycling to your appointment instead in just a bit more time than it would take to get out the car, sit at lights etc.

Agree with you that public transport is frustrating (speaking from the experience of being committed to not owning or running a private vehicle). Where I live now the buses trundle up and down empty after 6.00pm in the evening. They run about every 45 minutes which is not acceptable regularity. It's a catch 22 situation; if more people used them, more frequent services would ensue.

The spurious argument used by private car-owners that they "need" their vehicles for shopping, picking stuff up from stores etc. doesn't hold water. I use taxis to airports etc., or when I need to carry anything heavy. I rent man-with-a-van services when I need to transport large stuff. Most supermarkets have a home delivery service now; large department stores deliver goods to your door (and most ethical ones will remove old fridges etc. for recycling at a cost of about £10).

As I get older and stiffer I'm thinking about those new bikes which are a combination of peddling like a normal bicycle with a rechargeable electric motor (I think the charge lasts for 25-30 miles). I've been trying to find the manufacturer if anyone can help?
 
So Marie, What about the people who have to drop kids off to minders and be in work on the other side of the city by 7.30, do we need cars?
And what about people in rural areas where there is no local public transport system, do they need cars?
 
Purple said:
So Marie, What about the people who have to drop kids off to minders and be in work on the other side of the city by 7.30, do we need cars?
And what about people in rural areas where there is no local public transport system, do they need cars?
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I fail to see how this connects with the original poster's comments on the appalling standard of public transport. That some people 'need' cars is not in dispute. However if there was a frequent, affordable public transport system in place many journeys now made by car would not be necessary or cost-effective. Such a public transport system is not in place because vested interests and state greed for taxes militates against it. What the decision does not factor in is (a) the destruction of the environment by motorways and pollution and (b) the frustration to individuals - because everyone else is out on the road, in a private vehicle, through exactly the same lack of public provision.

To say this does not in any way suggest that a farmer living in a remote location do without her car; or that a father 'have' to bundle four kids onto a series of buses to distribute them to creches and schools every morning.
 
The point is that no matter how good the public transport system becomes as long as we live in low density, low rise cities we will need cars to get around them and so will people in rural areas. Having a car is, and will always be, a necessity for most people. It is not a "life choice".
As for the idea that taxes are due to "state greed", I do not understand what this means. The state taxes and spends. The government and civil service do not keep the money in a cave or tower somewhere so that they can look at it and rub their hands together. They do waste loads of it doing things like putting down different coloured tarmac for cycle lanes instead of just painting lines on the road.
For the record I spent 8 years cycling to work and still cycle into Dublin city centre on the rare occasion that I am going there on my own. I would never, under any circumstances, us an urban bus.
I also do not accept that Motorways cause pollution. Congestion causes pollution. Stop start driving causes pollution. Good motorways reduce both.
We need more (and faster) intercity trains. We also need more good quality roads.
 
"as long as we live in low density, low rise cities we will need cars to get around them and so will people in rural areas. Having a car is, and will always be, a necessity for most people. It is not a "life choice"."

I agree; but having low density low rise cities is also a choice - albeit one exercised collectively\politically.

Moving out of a city or town into a "one-off" house in a rural area is most definitely a life choice.

I think that in future years, we will count up the true cost of so many people having made this choice and will find that the price is rather higher than we realised. I am not necessarily saying that we should restrict rural development (to be honest, I am forever in a state of two minds on this issue, but greatly exercised by it) but when your children have all grown up and moved away, and when you no longer like driving yourself around, and when the nearest doctor is 10 miles away, (and the nearest shop or petrol station is at a Tesco 20 miles away) the 2,500 sq. ft. ranch style dwelling in a rural setting may not seem quite so appealing.

I hope that changing demographics do not lessen the demand for this type of property, so that our graying population can sell to a new generation of rural commuters.

I live in a town where I am fortunate to be able to walk to work. I too harbour notions of moving a few miles out to a place in the country. So if it sounded like I am preaching, sorry. Guilty as anybody else.
 
I also looked at the idea of moving out to the country (where Mrs. Purple works) but schools, shops, parks, grandparents, friends etc, were factors against it. The 2500 sq ft house in the country is not much use when you can’t go for a walk on the roads around your house without getting knocked down.
Instead we bought a smaller house in the 'burbs for more money!

Dublin is not a large high-density city like New York or London and so we will never be able to sustain a public transport infrastructure (underground etc) like theirs without massive and crippling subsidies.
Dublin is also not like a new American mid-west city that has grown up since the car and is built to suit it.
Therefore we will never be completely clear of congestion and will never have the super duper public transport system that we would all like (well actually I don't care if we ever get it so long as their are less cars on the road :)
 
I agree with purple's thoughts on this. Dublin, due to it's nature, will never have a fantastic road system, or wonderful public transport...but at some stage we will have to address the situation in realistic terms. The city is only going to get bigger, both in terms of population and houses...therefore the number of cars on the road will grow as well.
Unless something radical is done to alleviate congestion and commute times we face gridlock of obscene proportions within the next ten years.

I love Dublin, but the people who build it are idiots. They always miss the point...whether it be adequate public transportation when building new housing estates or even adequate car parking spaces in new developments. How many new housing developments have enough car parking spaces? None that I've ever seen.
 
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