During last week, arch-communist & socialist dictator Ken Livingstone doubled the prices of tickets for buses, and increased Tube fares by £1 for everyone who doesnt have an Oyster card.
So if you are an occasional public transport user, you are going to pay the highest fares in the world for public transport.
Here is a comparison of prices between me taking a bus, or me driving a certain short journey.
Teddington to Barnes is around 4 miles, it requires two bus trips. A single bus trip of any distance is now £2.00.
Teddington to Barnes by bus = £4.00 single.
Teddington to Barnes by Mercedes Benz S500 = £2.00 at 12mpg.
It is therefore half the price to drive yourself in a luxury car than to sully your boots rubbing shoulders with the lower orders on public transport.
papa smurf, most people own cars & use the bus if they need to pop round the corner for shopping or to visit friends..
Therefore they would still be paying motor insurance and road tax..
Festa is right. The save-the-planet hype is a total nonsense, buses are about as polluting as vehicles get, and expensive too. The whole idea is to rip everyone off who dares step outside their front door. The socialist dictatorship sit in their offices each day working out which freedoms they can remove from the good people who pay their inflated salary & pension.
We all have no say in what goes on, its all dictated to us. Tax & Spend is the policy of the socialist dictatorship. But spend on what exactly?
They know most people will have an Oyster card so that they can be tracked, or will pay the exhorbitant fares because if they dont, they will be ripped off for congestion charge (soon to be £25) or parking (£4.00 per hour).
Time for radical reform.
Before any of the loony left come here lecturing me about the lack of parking space - dont.
There are unrestricted parking areas around here (3 miles from the West End) where no residents permits are required, and there is ALWAYS space to park.
I hardly ever use buses but if i do it's mainly to go into town which takes about 10 mins compared to half and hour when walking and i'm charged between £1 and £1.20.
Originally posted by Palmira: , buses are about as polluting as vehicles get,
I agree re the cost of tickets, but the above, Palmira, as well you know is complete and utter b*****ks!
It does depend on how many people are on the bus (or car, train, tram, trolleybus or whatever), but even a modern bus with only a third of the seats taken is less polluting than a car, especially an S500!
I don't mind your rants against Ken and the rest of the Gov, but at least try to get your facts right, if i wanted to hear c**p like that I'd tune into JC on TG!
More and more electric buses, like the ones i recently used in Newcastle are the way ahead. We can't go on ever increasing the number of cars on the roads in a tiny country, Palmy, let's be honest about that. Somehow we will have to reduce the number of cars on the road at some stage.
It is a FACT that the majority of vehicle-related pollution in London is from buses and black cabs.
You are INCORRECT about a 1/3 full bus being less polluting than any road car with a petrol engine.
Buses have commercial diesel engines and are a massive polluter.
Vehicle related pollution only accounts for between 10 and 15 percent of worldwide pollution, but i am telling you for a FACT that here in London the buses and black cabs account for the majority of vehicle related pollution.
Maybe you enjoy driving around in a cloud of carcinogenic smoke all day.
Cycling is a superb way of getting around. I was a time-trialist for 10 years, and used to road race with a sponsored team. Im not as fit as I was, but am now still a keen cyclist. Its a great way to get around too.
My girlfriend cycles a round trip of 15 miles each day - its 7 and a half miles each way from here to her work.
It is a FACT that the majority of vehicle-related pollution in London is from buses and black cabs.
You are INCORRECT about a 1/3 full bus being less polluting than any road car with a petrol engine.
Buses have commercial diesel engines and are a massive polluter.
Vehicle related pollution only accounts for between 10 and 15 percent of worldwide pollution, but i am telling you for a FACT that here in London the buses and black cabs account for the majority of vehicle related pollution.
Maybe you enjoy driving around in a cloud of carcinogenic smoke all day.
I certainly dont. Especially when I am cycling.
You did note that I said "modern" bus, Pally, not the old Routemasters or those things some of the more dubious bus companies run in the deregulated mess we now have???
A modern Bus 1/3 full IS less poluting than a car, FACT.
Having said that there are plenty of old buses around which are poorly maintained and well past their sell by date, and I entirely argree with taxis - if you go outside London you'll find that the worst offenders are petrol minicabs, by the way!
Before we keep going back and forward - look at it this way - a bus will seat 60 people, so that equates to 20 passengers - that would need a minimum of 4 large cars (bit squashed!) - so what you are in effect saying is that 4 S500s are lesss poluting than one modern bus? Don't thinks so!
Originally posted by Palmira: Good choice Bamford.
My everyday bike is a Trek 1000SL road bike. What did you buy?
Trek 5.5 Carbon Palmy. It cost £2600 new but the born again cyclist couldn't ride more than 2 miles at a time and i got it for £1400. It's done about 300 miles all told. Incredibly lightweight, which makes a real difference uphill.
Take the same figures for your S500 and times by 4 (or 5?). Oh and bear in mind that a bus can carry three times as many people and often does (ok, and often doesn't!).
Sometimes I just wish you'd think before you write - I agree with a lot of what you say, but sometimes you take the michael!!
I agree with Palmy about many things but we are 180 degrees on pollution and smoking in public places. Which is fine, it would be a boring world if we agreed on everything. I want to see less cars in the UK ( and i am prepared to pay more for my motoring if necessary and as long as the money is used correctly). I don't start the car if the journey is under a mile. I walk. I am cyling now also. We all need to do our bit.
I do the same as you Bamford. It is good for your health!
Nice bike by the way! And what a good price! I saw a beautiful Bianchi road bike in Evans Cycles in Kingston the other day. I wish I had a bit more spare money, then I could buy it!
B308 youre wrong. Even the modern buses are extreme polluters, and theyre very often empty. There are thousands of them running around this area day & night. They also hold up traffic, which causes congestion, and of course more pollution.
Walking & cycling should be encouraged. I never drive anywhere unless I am working. In spare time I either walk, cycle or ride my motorbike.
However, the original point I made was that driving a 5 liter luxury car a short distance is cheaper than using a bus. And less polluting too.
I assume when you get to your destination you aren't going to turn round and come back again so parking fees need to be factored in. You conveniently say capital cost of the car should be ignored, but what about servicing costs, tyres, brakes etc etc?
On the subject of pedal bikes Palmy, i thought my Trek was something special, with a retail price of £2,600. But, in the Cairngorms this autumn we saw an off-road bicycle costing over £10,000! It had no rear gearchange mechanism whatsoever, instead all the gears were built into the bottom of the frame, out of sight and presumably out of getting damaged too. The whole bike virtually was carbon or titanium. In fact it would be totally wasted on me, these guys were just a tad fit! And about 19 years old too!
Originally posted by daveyjp: I assume when you get to your destination you aren't going to turn round and come back again so parking fees need to be factored in. You conveniently say capital cost of the car should be ignored, but what about servicing costs, tyres, brakes etc etc?
In fairness Palmy, depreciation is savage too, hundreds of pounds per week on a new luxury saloon/estate.
Originally posted by Palmira: IB308 youre wrong. Even the modern buses are extreme polluters, and theyre very often empty. There are thousands of them running around this area day & night. They also hold up traffic, which causes congestion, and of course more pollution. .
Just ignore the facts, eh, Palmy! Traffic causes congestion, and there are a lot more cars out there than busus, so the real reason there are jams is the number of cars, not buses.
Why don't you just admit that you tirade against buses is nothing to do with pollution, but for the following reasons:
1. You can't stand them, especially as most are diesel powered, and
2. You are using them as an excuse to have a go at the Gov and in particular, Ken.
One day you will finally arrive in the real world, until then............
palmy bro, you should change your user name to ostrich you spend so much time with your head in the sand.....the ten hottest years in history ie since recording an average world temperature started...have occured since 1994.....global warming is however a fallacy??...
