You don't have to live in the deepest countryside to need a car!

brighthair

My job requires me to have a car. I finish at odd hours, sometimes 3am. Also despite living 4 miles ish from work, there is no bus route that goes past. I would have to get a bus the opposite direction 10 mins into town, and then 15 mins back out again. I do use our bus service when my car is in the garage - I have a bus stop pretty much outside my house, and when I had a different job I used it to get to work. Again supermarket - no direct bus route, would take 25 mins approx to get there

onlyroz

brighthair wrote: »

Also despite living 4 miles ish from work, there is no bus route that goes past.

4 miles is easily cycle-able.

Mrs_Ryan

onlyroz wrote: »

4 miles is easily cycle-able.

It is if 1) you have a bike or can afford one. (I work 5 miles from where I live and this would be my answer to anyone who said I didnt need taking to work in OH's car I dont have one and neither can I afford one :mad:)

2) Assuming you can ride a bike (I can't)

3) And assuming there is an alternative route than a main road (I really, really wouldnt fancy riding a bike up the A50 :eek:)

HappyMJ

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

We live somewhere with no public transport (nearest bus stop is 7.5 miles away and train station is 20 miles away). We have a car each as we both need them for work, buying food, getting to the doctors etc. It would not be possible to live where we do without a car as there are no local facilities or local shops (unless you count the postbox as a facility). Taxis are also expensive. I recently had to go to my doctors and then the hospital. As I was ill I could not drive. It cost me £22.00 to get to and from the docs and £70.00 to get to and from the hospital (yeap £70.00).

£70 for a taxi is a ripoff. I can get from my home in the midlands and travel for 75 miles taking over 90 minutes to Manchester airport for £75. You need to shop around. Virtually any journey I take it's around £1 per mile. Nottingham will cost me £35 each way and that's about 33 miles away taking 45 minutes. I thought virtually everyone in the UK (except scottish highlands) lived within half an hour from a hospital or is that by ambulance only?

Me personally I'd love a car but I simply cannot afford it so I am reliant on buses, taxis and walking. Yes I live in a village with council subsidized buses half hourly from 7am till 6pm. Then another 1 at 7pm and then only at 9pm and 11pm.

HappyMJ

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

It is if 1) you have a bike or can afford one. (I work 5 miles from where I live and this would be my answer to anyone who said I didnt need taking to work in OH's car I dont have one and neither can I afford one :mad:)

2) Assuming you can ride a bike (I can't)

3) And assuming there is an alternative route than a main road (I really, really wouldnt fancy riding a bike up the A50 :eek:)

Point 1 - Does not make sense you can afford a car but can't afford a cheap bike...

Point 2 - Learn...

Point 3 - Taken. Neither would I.

suki1964

HappyMJ wrote: »

£70 for a taxi is a ripoff. I can get from my home in the midlands and travel for 75 miles taking over 90 minutes to Manchester airport for £75. You need to shop around. Virtually any journey I take it's around £1 per mile. Nottingham will cost me £35 each way and that's about 33 miles away taking 45 minutes. I thought virtually everyone in the UK (except scottish highlands) lived within half an hour from a hospital or is that by ambulance only?

Me personally I'd love a car but I simply cannot afford it so I am reliant on buses, taxis and walking. Yes I live in a village with council subsidized buses half hourly from 7am till 6pm. Then another 1 at 7pm and then only at 9pm and 11pm.

erm, shop around if there is any competitive competition. here there isnt - you pay the rate or get an unlicensed cab

Live 30 miles from your nearest hospital? Yep we do - only if you need treatment you are sent to Belfast. My MIL just had to endure 120 mile round trip every day for two weeks while having Chemo, my own parents have a 90 mile round trip for treatment ( cancer and heart disease)

We have one bus a day - five days a week that takes us to the nearest town. To get to the local hospital - bus into first town, second bus to next big town ( passing said hospital on way) and then 3rd bus back out to hospital

[Deleted User]

HappyMJ wrote: »

£70 for a taxi is a ripoff. I can get from my home in the midlands and travel for 75 miles taking over 90 minutes to Manchester airport for £75. You need to shop around. Virtually any journey I take it's around £1 per mile. Nottingham will cost me £35 each way and that's about 33 miles away taking 45 minutes. I thought virtually everyone in the UK (except scottish highlands) lived within half an hour from a hospital or is that by ambulance only?

Me personally I'd love a car but I simply cannot afford it so I am reliant on buses, taxis and walking. Yes I live in a village with council subsidized buses half hourly from 7am till 6pm. Then another 1 at 7pm and then only at 9pm and 11pm.

You live in the Midlands, but I live in the middle of nowhere so prices are so different. I live much more than 1/2 an hour away from a hospital (I suspect from my house to hospital in an ambulance with sirens on and going through red lights MIGHT make it in 45 mins to 50 mins). Most of the roads near me are unclassified they are that rural. I have to drive more than 5 miles to even reach an A road. It takes about an hour to get to hospital for me by car and so the cost is £35.00 each way by taxi. We have very little choice in taxi firms too.

NEH

HappyMJ wrote: »

£70 for a taxi is a ripoff. I can get from my home in the midlands and travel for 75 miles taking over 90 minutes to Manchester airport for £75. You need to shop around. Virtually any journey I take it's around £1 per mile. Nottingham will cost me £35 each way and that's about 33 miles away taking 45 minutes. I thought virtually everyone in the UK (except scottish highlands) lived within half an hour from a hospital or is that by ambulance only?

Me personally I'd love a car but I simply cannot afford it so I am reliant on buses, taxis and walking. Yes I live in a village with council subsidized buses half hourly from 7am till 6pm. Then another 1 at 7pm and then only at 9pm and 11pm.

That me laugh everyone except for the Scottish Highlands is half an hour away from a hospital....

My mum in North Yorkshire if she has something bog standard wrong with her, her local hospital is just over half an hour away. If it's more complex like cancer/chemo, back surgery or something else it's nearly an hour away each way....What's worse is people in the Dales have to go even further meaning they could have well over an hour trip to hospital.

Her "local" hospital has 2 buses a day running to it....If she had to go to the bigger hospital there are no direct buses. She would have to take a 45 min bus ride, then a train for 25 mins, then take a further bus for another 30 mins. Hospital transport has to pick others up so it can take a lot more than an hour...When one of their neighbours had cancer, every car driver in their close had to do a day a week taking her to hospital as she had to be their serveral days for chemo....I couldn't imagine having to take hospital transport when you're suffering the side effects of chemo...

As for Taxi fares you're lucky to have such cheap ones....I've yet to find a cheap taxi service charging £1 a mile and i've lived up and down in the country in a fair few places...;)

TooDee

nickyhutch wrote: »

Can you not just accept that you and I have different lifestyles and therefore different transport needs? I'm not slating you for using a bus - just saying that it mostly wouldn't be practical for me, so you have no need to slate me.

When I said "you" in that last post, I meant "one" rather than you personally.

You are the one who started being so judgemental! I already said I know some people NEED cars but there are plenty that don't.

I felt the need to defend as its balls that buses are constantly late, dangerous etc! I've got buses in 6 different counties for work and never felt at risk. If the buses round by you are late and the drivers are dangerous then complain. Someone complained about a driver round here and he got the sack. If you don't get the bus then how do you know what they are like!?

If people just moan about bus services but don't do anything about it then they will never get any better.

onlyroz

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

It is if 1) you have a bike or can afford one. (I work 5 miles from where I live and this would be my answer to anyone who said I didnt need taking to work in OH's car I dont have one and neither can I afford one :mad:)

2) Assuming you can ride a bike (I can't)

3) And assuming there is an alternative route than a main road (I really, really wouldnt fancy riding a bike up the A50 :eek:)

Regarding 1, many employers offer a "ride to work" scheme, where the company purchases the bike on your behalf, and you pay them back over a year, minus the VAT and income tax. This is what I did.

Regarding 2, surely it is possible to learn?

Regarding 3, isn't there a less dangerous back street or "cross country" route?