Dora wrote:
<But I thought that in England taking a train was routine.>
It is routine for people who commute from home to work. It's usual for
people, for example, to live in Brighton on the south coast and work in
London. It would be madness for them to attempt to drive to London. The
train travels in an almost straight line and doesn't get held up by other
traffic, roadworks, accidents, etc. There's also a charge for travelling
into central London by car. Cameras photograph number plates and the
ownership of the vehicle is checked with the licensing authorities. If you
don't already have a paid-for permit, you'll be sent a bill for it and end
up in court if you don't pay.
If I travelled by train between Poole and Bournemouth (which is possible
even though it's only two stops) I'd firstly have to get to Poole Station by
bus, taxi or car, and then get from Bournemouth station to the lace class.
That would take a couple of hours. I could go by bus all the way - one bus
into Poole and another out to the lace class. Travel time about an hour and
a half. Having mobility problems, I couldn't walk from the bus stop I got
off in Bournemouth to the hall where the class is held. The cost would be
free, because being over 60 I have a free bus pass.
Everyone over 60 can have a bus pass which entitles them to free travel on
any local bus service. That means in theory that I could get to the boundary
of our Poole local services, and then get on a local service in the next
area. Also in theory it means I could travel from Poole to Cornwall
completely free, but it would take a couple of days. Unfortunately the bus
companies say they are losing money, even though they are often carrying
non-paying over-60s as extras and get between 30 and 50% of the adult fare
from the local authority for each one they carry. So routes are being axed
almost daily.
So it's still quicker and easier by car door-to-door.
<England and Scotland together are 370 miles long and 200 miles wide, and it
would fit in the state of Texas twice. London is closer to Yorkshire than
Austin is to Dallas.>
You can't work out journey times on distance. Road systems in the UK are
totally different to those in the US. The only roads which are reasonably
straight are motorways and you can't guarantee being able to travel between
towns by motorway.
In the seven miles between my home and the lace group in Bournemouth, I
encounter 5 sets of traffic lights, 7 sets of pedestrian lights, 8
roundabouts, 9 road junctions without roundabouts or lights (2 I go straight
across, of the others 4 right turns and 3 left turns) and currently 2 sets
of road works controlled by traffic lights, at all of which I can be in a
queue of traffic which is why it can take up to 45 minutes. It also means
that I need a car capable of high mileage per litre, because every old-up
means more petrol used, and so does not getting out of 2nd gear on the last
long road before the class because of parked cars and pedestrians crossing
where they will.
We already pay car tax according to the CO2 emissions of our cars, and from
April next year the bands get smaller. The lower emission cars will pay
nothing, but gas-guzzling four-by-fours (nick-named Chelsea Tractors) and
the like will pay over GBP400 a year (but goes up every year) just to put
the vehicle on the road before compulsory insurance and fuel.
Originally designed for off-road, 4 x 4s have become a status symbol. I
remember one woman interviewed said "It looks good, it's comfortable and I
might want to go to the country." I have a Ford Fusion (just a jacked-up
Fiesta, because I can't get in or out of a low car easily) and I say "It
looks good, it's comfortable and I did live in the country." Don't know what
she expected to find in the country - obviously not roads.
Just hear a chap on local radio saying he needed fuel for his diesel car
while in the north of England over the weekend and it was GBP1.80 per litre.
So he went into the local supermarket and bought cooking oil for 60p a litre
and used that.
Would that work????? Don't think I'd like to try.
Point is - nothing is as simple as it looks on paper, you can't judge what
goes on in another country by what happens in your own.
Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK
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