Avoiding public transport

Fire_Fox

For those who are confused the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, led the Downing Street Daily Press Briefing on Saturday (9th). Can be found on YouTube.

IIRC the average journey (?commute) outside London is 3 miles. Average journey including London is 5 miles. Encouraging people to continue cycling/ jogging/ walking, longer term e-scooters and electric cars. With 'social distancing' AND trains/ tubes/ buses running a full service there is only 10% previous capacity.

If you need to use public transport do so. If you can travel outside 'rush hour' do so. In my deprived city many do not run a car so rely on buses for getting shopping in and travelling to the bank or Post Office, it will not just be key workers.

lisyloo

KxMx said:

lisyloo said:

KxMx said:

Mum is in her sixties, three auto immune diseases (including asthma) and doesn't drive.

If her boss opens again she quite simply has no choice but to go back to work on the bus. 

Government need to recommend masks on public transport instead of the ludicrous notion that trains and buses will run at 10% of seats filled to maintain social distancing. 

Other countries have done this rather than manitain such a fantasy ideal.

I await this afternoons statement and release of detailled guidance with interest. 

She has a choice just as all of us have a choice.
she could simply refuse to go. That might mean financial hardship but like the rest of us she’d have to decide is that is the better option. Being alive and relying on food banks might be the better option if she doesn’t have savings to see her through until she can get a job again.
does she live with anyone who could drive her?
I sympathise but there is a choice albeit a tough one.
im facing living away from my partner for some days, it’s manageable at the moment but if I was asked to split up for the rest of 2020 I’d refuse and if I had to lose my job then so be it, we’ll deal with the financial consequences.

We live together and I don't drive either. 
She is single and has little savings. 
I'm on ESA and contribute where I can, I couldn't pay the essential bills for both of us if she gave up her job, especially if UC (which isn't much anyway) is reduced, which it can sometimes be in terms of resignation. 
She's been applying elsewhere for some time for pt work as ft is too much for her health, doing M-F 9-5:30 plus every third Sat 9-12 (current boss said no to reducing hours, she was willing to do them as suited boss, on the grounds he couldn't run office with less people, then a pt colleague retired and wasn't replaced, so that was false and even less chance of him agreeing now), but has had little success. 

No one said life was easy 

I sympathise, I really do, however I still maintain there is a choice.
worst case you’ll be in emergency accommodation and going to food banks but will be alive. I would not advise resigning. You won’t be left to starve on the streets.
is the doctor sympathetic? Would they write a sick note?
if not she should wait to be sacked rather than resign.
Does she have no brothers, sisters or friends who could help?

lisyloo

Fire_Fox said:

For those who are confused the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, led the Downing Street Daily Press Briefing on Saturday (9th). Can be found on YouTube.

IIRC the average journey (?commute) outside London is 3 miles. Average journey including London is 5 miles. Encouraging people to continue cycling/ jogging/ walking, longer term e-scooters and electric cars. With 'social distancing' AND trains/ tubes/ buses running a full service there is only 10% previous capacity.

If you need to use public transport do so. If you can travel outside 'rush hour' do so. In my deprived city many do not run a car so rely on buses for getting shopping in and travelling to the bank or Post Office, it will not just be key workers.

The average is extremely misleading - presumably the arithmetic mean.
there are millions of London commuters who do much longer journeys by train as few can afford to live in the city (and the accommodation doesn’t exist anyway), those journeys are mostly not cyclable.
this is being averaged out against many very short journeys where presumably people already walk e.g. if you live above the shop.
to average someone who lives above a shop with someone who commutes 30 miles and say they can both cycle 15 miles is not particularly helpful.
People in London already walk, cycle and shift their hours due to intolerably crowded public transport

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

I’m thinking Sunday might be a great time to try it, but then luckily we have a choice as self employed. 

Will also try to find out which weekday hours are least busy. 

It’s already worrying on Cumbria as there are more cases of coved here than rest of uk, last I heard. Don’t quote me on that, but it’s definitely dreadful in Lake District. 

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

Apologies for spelling errors - ipad!

Thrugelmir

lisyloo said:

Fire_Fox said:

For those who are confused the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, led the Downing Street Daily Press Briefing on Saturday (9th). Can be found on YouTube.

IIRC the average journey (?commute) outside London is 3 miles. Average journey including London is 5 miles. Encouraging people to continue cycling/ jogging/ walking, longer term e-scooters and electric cars. With 'social distancing' AND trains/ tubes/ buses running a full service there is only 10% previous capacity.

If you need to use public transport do so. If you can travel outside 'rush hour' do so. In my deprived city many do not run a car so rely on buses for getting shopping in and travelling to the bank or Post Office, it will not just be key workers.

The average is extremely misleading - presumably the arithmetic mean.
there are millions of London commuters who do much longer journeys by train as few can afford to live in the city (and the accommodation doesn’t exist anyway), those journeys are mostly not cyclable.
this is being averaged out against many very short journeys where presumably people already walk e.g. if you live above the shop.
to average someone who lives above a shop with someone who commutes 30 miles and say they can both cycle 15 miles is not particularly helpful.
People in London already walk, cycle and shift their hours due to intolerably crowded public transport

If they don't work in some capacity then their employer will have no requirement for their labour. People will need to make individual decisions based on their own circumstances. There'll be plenty of people looking for work as time passes. Recessions are brutal. As businessess themselves fight each other for survival. 

lisyloo

i agree. i dont understand the relevance of your response to mine, but i agree.

Thrugelmir

lisyloo said:

i agree. i dont understand the relevance of your response to mine, but i agree.

 Easy to pick holes and personalise a complex topic. People are going to have to learn to fend for themselves rather than expect a nanny state to constantly find all the solutions.. Been a long time since the last real recession. 

RyanHello

Regarding masks, the only ones that'll help you are the filtering masks. One made out of cloth is useless. If you can breath while having it on, its no good.

Andy_L

RyanHello said:

Regarding masks, the only ones that'll help you are the filtering masks. One made out of cloth is useless. If you can breath while having it on, its no good.

I'm pretty sure I'd want a mask that I can still breath while having it on