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

MrsE_2

thorsoak wrote: »

From reading threads on here, it would seem that there is a general assumption that a car is not an essential to all but those who live in the deepest, darkest countryside. Wrong! I give an example here - just 30 miles outside London, in Essex, just 5 miles away from Lakeside, there is what used to be a small village but is now quite a large suburban catchment area. It lies between the A13 to the south, A128 to the west and A127 to the north - all less than 3 miles from the centre of this village. It is just 9 miles from Brentwood or Basildon and 3 miles from Grays.

It is easy to get by bus to Basildon or Grays - although the services are only every 30-45 minutes and take around 30 minutes. However if one needs to get to Brentwood it is a totally different story. It takes 2hours 11 minutes - and it is impossible to get a bus which would get you into Brentwood for 9am. You'd have to get a bus into Basildon (going east) then change for a bus going west to Brentwood. And you'd have a 17 minute walk to the bus stop first! Heavens only knows what the fare is now either.

Please don't assume that everyone is served by a good bus service - they aren't - and it will get worse.

I'm in Surrey OP & I couldn't be without my car.

The bus service to our village is about 1 an hour, stops in the early evening, earlier on Saturday & none on Sunday:eek:

I would have to get three buses to work, its only 7 miles by car, but would be a much longer route by bus & take at least 90 minutes each way:eek:
I do a fair amount of driving in my work too, so that would be a problem without a car.

Spendless

I work 9 miles away from home. My hours are 9-3. With a car this means I don't require term-time childcare. Without one I can get a straight thru train but only at 8am so I need breakfast club, coming home I need to change trains and I am home 15 minutes after children. Currently I am without a car, and this 15 minute discrepency is creating problems.

My kids attend the school round the corner from where we live and I applied for a job that was walking distance..I didn't get it! My workplace was the only one to offer me a job in 18 months of looking so it's not all that easy to only work close to home. Just like many places in the UK don't have fab public transport, neither does everywhere have plentiful jobs. We haqve a mortgage on our house, so we'd have to sell in order for us to buy/rent somewhere close to my workplace which would be prety stupid considering I only have a temporary contract. we would also be moving from the catchment of a sought after secondary school to one that isn;t.

Humphrey10

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

There's a big difference between someone who hasn't ever had access to a car and someone who's used to running one. If you don't have a car you organise your life around that fact.

There's no difference at all. I had a car until recently, I now cannot drive, so I need to organise work etc around that. That is no different to someone who has never had a car.

I really didn't realise I should be feeling so hard done by, by not being able to drive.

laurel7172

It's a perfect circle, drawn with a compass.

That's pretty much my definition of "as the crow flies".

It doesn't make much sense in a city with a river and a railway line, obviously. Unless we all start taking helicopters to work.

*However*, what has got me on my high horse is the assumption that those who have chosen to live locally (and house prices are not a limiter here-they pretty much rise as you get *further* from work) are somehow morally at fault, and should make way for those saints who have chosen to drive a long way.

I'm sorry, but the short distance drivers are not the environmental villains here.

Oldernotwiser

MrsE wrote: »

I'm in Surrey OP & I couldn't be without my car.

The bus service to our village is about 1 an hour, stops in the early evening, earlier on Saturday & none on Sunday:eek:

I would have to get three buses to work, its only 7 miles by car, but would be a much longer route by bus & take at least 90 minutes each way:eek:
I do a fair amount of driving in my work too, so that would be a problem without a car.

But the point is that you wouldn't have chosen to live in your village if you didn't run a car.

tinkerbellsmum_2

we don't have a car don't really have the option of one either cause niether of us can drive (i've tried a few times when i was younger) but manage we have learnt to manage. it means we are restricted to how far we can go for work but we both do and it means getting the kids to their clubs can be hard but we do it simple cause we have to.
would i like a car now no i'm used to this way of life getting to places is like a adventure sometimes. we do alot of walking and if we had a car and stopped walking i dread to think how big i would get.
only thing i do hate is that people asume you have a car and if you haven't they asume you can't do things that you know you can do on foot.

faded_flowers

My current journey is a 2 minute walk to the bus, that takes 15 mins. Then there are 4 different buses I can get out of the city, taking between 20 and 45 mins depending on which one I get (not the latter of course!) Super cheap too - £50 a month bus pass!

Sadly I have been told I'll need to drive to get further in my job, and I do have a problem with work colleagues not appreciating that I have timetables to keep to - that extra 5 minutes they're happy to do only adds 5 minutes to their car journey, but 20 minutes at a bus stop for me!

tsstss7

The problem as I see it is that one is socially disadvantaged if one doesn't have a car. With the recent decline of town centre and local shopping those with cars get greater choice and better value than those without. A cheaper car can pay for itself in so many ways and it's true if you have never driven you won't miss it - but once you have it's a pretty big addiction to quit.

I don't have a car at the mo and it's no biggy because I have access to my OH's but when I was single and without a car I quickly realised that however much I resented paying for it the opportunities open to me and my son where far greater than without. With a car he could go to clubs and friends houses after school which wouldn't have been feasible otherwise and i can access stuff on freecycle, buy larger items without paying for delivery and do a big shop.

I know mothers without cars and their younger children don't get to go/do anything outside of school because it is a logistical nightmare getting them there and back again. People think nothing of organising birthday parties for 4 yr olds at play centres 10 miles away where I live and they don't very often consider that it might be hard for some mothers to get their children there.

In general life now revolves around people having cars and easy access to transport. This might start to change now fuel is silly money but it will take a damn sight more than the expectation that poorer people should accept their lot and do without. It might help if employers didn't do things like put people on work contracts obliging them to travel up to 40 miles away "should the needs of the business demand" and perhaps the governmnt start doing some "joined up " thinking and actually consider consequences of policies surrounding transport. The only place i know with a really good public transport system is London everywhere else not only is it a hit and miss affair but notoriously unreliable.

Kaz2904

ceridwen wrote: »

I can understand some of the previous points (though I dont personally believe in organising ones life around having to have a car) - but I believe the answer to the question re the district nurse getting around would be "The same way she always used to - ie on a pushbike". From memory - I think that is what used to happen in the past.

Believe it or not, they aren't allowed to any more. Insurance purposes and they can't get from A to B quickly enough. Certainly the case in my area. Also, if they are carrying drugs like morphine around, it has to be kept somewhere lockable. Pushbikes aren't really equiped for a drug cupboard . Let alone the amount of dressings and other gubbins they need to carry.
I wish we didn't have to be a 2 car family but there isn't any way physically that we can both get the kids to school on time and us to work and pick them up on time without 2 cars.
Espescially now that DD is at a school 1/2 a mile from DS's school at the bottom of a hill. It is nigh on impossible to get up the hill in 20 minutes without having to do the road walk as well. There is 15 minutes between finish times and 10 minutes between start times.
I did it once from our house to the school at the top of the hill in 15 minutes with both kids as we left the house to realise DH had taken both sets of car keys. I nearly died at the top of the hill and was still 5 minutes from school.
In the snow I had to walk to both schools and it took 2 hours to do the school runs. Plus I had loads of stuff to carry home as it was the last day of school and I had 3 kids from 1 school and 2 from another (neighbours with small babies unable to get buggies up hills!)

GobbledyGook

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

If it were an essential tool for employment, surely the first thing that would happen when someone signs on as unemployed would be that they were instantly given free driving lessons or it was made part of the National Curriculum?

It's nice to have a car. But it isn't essential - it's convenient.

That entirely depends on the job surely?

A car is essential in my job. I work in different schools, most days in 1 in the morning and another in the afternoon. Very occasionally (thankfully only once a month) I'm in 3 schools in a day. A car is completely essential to my job. If I had no car I'd lose my job, that makes it essential.

To some people a car is convenient, to some a car seems essential, but it may not be - however to some it is essential and they could not do their job (and therefore live the life that they live) without it.

It would be easy to say "Oh then you'd get another job", however the next person doing my job would still need a car. The next District Nurse or On Call Doctor would need a car. There are some people for who a car is essential.



I also find it quite strange that people think others can simply 'move closer' to work or services. Some people can't afford to move. I find it staggering that people talk about moving to another town or place as if it was so easy.