Does everyone own a car?

demoivre said:
I don't think you are making a realistic point here at all. Everyone won't end up in a tourareg or similar because many people out there simply can't afford them and that has always been the way and will always be the way.
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So rich people can insulate themselves from the effects of accidents by buying bigger and bigger vehicles at the expense of the safety of the poorer people who can only afford regular cars which come off the worst in the event they both come together in an accident?
 
demoivre said:
Yes - equally I think it's more likely that an irresponsibly driven c4 will knock down a child than a responsibly driven 4x4 - driver behaviour is a more pertinent point imo than nature of the vehicle being driven.
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Thats true but unless you are asserting that 4x4 drivers are more responsible than the c4 driver then on the basis that a roughly equal amount of drivers of each type of vehicle will be irresponsible then at least the irresponsible c4 driver does less damage to others than the 4X4 one.
 
Have a car for 4 years - accumulated mileage 10,500. Intend to keep it for at least another 6 years. Use my DART/Bus annual ticket for most daily journeys.

Have often thought of getting rid of it, but the convenience factor when I do need it is too much.

In various cities abroad, there are car-sharing co-ops - sort of "car timeshare". One of those would suit me perfectly here. However, I think the few attempts to get one off the ground in Ireland failed due to insurance considerations.
 
euroDilbert said:
In various cities abroad, there are car-sharing co-ops - sort of "car timeshare". One of those would suit me perfectly here. However, I think the few attempts to get one off the ground in Ireland failed due to insurance considerations.
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Thats what I use here in switzerland. The company is called www.mobility.ch and they have cars parked all around switzerland (in the major cities). You pay a deposit to join, thats returned to you when you leave, there are then various billing options but I use the simpliest one (basically by the hour and per mile). The beauty of it is, I dont even need to hire for the day, I can just hire for an hour in the evening, to take it out for an hour to run over to the garden centre for example costs about 5chf. The petrol is covered by the company and there is Texaco card in every car to charge the petrol to. I go through months where I dont need to hire one at all but every so now and then its very convient when I do a car. Every car has a GPS system and should you get caught in traffic you can ring to extend your time.

I know theyve sold the system to Germany and it would be marvellous in Dublin. There would be no incentive to steal the cars (GPS system, the company just find them again), they might have to remove the petrol card though to prevent abuse.
 
dam099 said:
So rich people can insulate themselves from the effects of accidents by buying bigger and bigger vehicles at the expense of the safety of the poorer people who can only afford regular cars which come off the worst in the event they both come together in an accident?
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Should I give up my tourareg because others can't afford one?
 
dam099 said:
Thats true but unless you are asserting that 4x4 drivers are more responsible than the c4 driver.
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Anecdotal evidence would suggest to me that suv drivers are more responsible than regular car drivers.
 
Anecdotal evidence would suggest to me that suv drivers are more responsible than regular car drivers.
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My experience on the road is the opposite. I find many SUV drivers to be very aggressive and drive well over the speed limit.
 
Have a car; would prefer not to but cannot survive in rural Ireland without one. Cycle everywhere that I can and have a cycle trailer for shopping etc. Geegee juniors cycle to school but are the only ones - nobody cycles from A to B where I live apart from Eastern Europeans. I think cars still have a novelty value to the rural Irish and they just can't see the point of walking / cycling when they have a "cyar".
 
Geegee said:
Have a car; would prefer not to but cannot survive in rural Ireland without one.

...

nobody cycles from A to B where I live apart from Eastern Europeans. I think cars still have a novelty value to the rural Irish and they just can't see the point of walking / cycling when they have a "cyar".
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So how do they manage it when you and other locals can't/won't?
 
demoivre said:
Anecdotal evidence would suggest to me that suv drivers are more responsible than regular car drivers.
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I disagree. And my own eyes suggest to me that SUV drivers tend to be worse at parking than most. Today I saw two vehicles parked at an angle, each taking up two parking spaces. Both SUV's.
 
two kids, two cars, one for me for work and one for her for taxi'ing to pre-school, shops
we had to add a second car because I need a car to get to work and we ended up getting kids out of bed to get them into the car to get me to work, then the better half would use the car to drop off to pre-school/shops etc, then all back into the car to pick me up from work, madness
also I just couldnt survive without a car, what do you do when public transport is not existant! taxis, no way
a car gives independence and that's its greatest asset for both of us
 
It seems that the vast majority of people do not consider the "greater good" when making decisions; they are only concerned with their own personal circumstances and are not prepared to make sacrifices / hard decisions for the sake of altruism.
 
Geegee said:
It seems that the vast majority of people do not consider the "greater good" when making decisions; they are only concerned with their own personal circumstances and are not prepared to make sacrifices / hard decisions for the sake of altruism.
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Before I go off on one about what I interpret this to mean, can you please clarify what you intend to convey by this very general and very wet statement. What decisions are you talking about, what are the sacrifices/hard decisions that we should all make and to what end (rather than vaguely writing altruism).
 
icantbelieve said:
.. please clarify what you intend to convey by this very general and very wet statement. ..
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I took a very specific meaning - not general & not wet.
In the context of car ownership, our second car makes my commute to work somewhat easier.

I could get a bus. I could make less of a contribution to noxious emissions. I could make a notional improvement in rush hour gridlock. But I choose (& pay to choose) not to because 'car makes my commute to work somewhat easier'.
 
Well if it specifically refers to those who use a second car when they could use alternate transport only because it makes their commute somewhat easier then fair enough but say so.
However, read the post, its not specific, it does generalise and is very wet in its "if only people were better then the world would be perfect".
Apart from yours there have been very few posts by people who use their car(s) when there is a viable alternative.
So it seems especially weird for a post to appear out of nowhere criticising everyone for selfish decisions that endanger altruism (whatever that is). There's always been fatuous references to using a bike/walking that coming from people who actually live in this country is incredible. Is it only where I live, that it rains most of the time, that motor traffic is a hazard to cyclists, that the roads are poor or that have children that need transporting to school etc.
Compared to aircraft cars account for a very small amount of polution and even in California (where else) the local government identified cows as a greater pollutant than cars.
 
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