Why is space for cars seen as sacrosanct?

That's why I say we should expand public transport massively. But I've already had one 'environmentalist' on this thread tell me it's too impractical/expensive.

Here are some questions I'd like answered:

When are Britain (our closest neighbour, with similar aims) going to reopen the railways they closed from the '60s onwards?

Should we grow more of our own food as a country if we are insistent on winding down our transport infrastructure?

Should we greatly expand our native manufacturing sector if we are insistent on winding down our transport infrastructure?

Could horses play some kind of role in this new world (since they filled the same role that cars did for centuries)?

A bland insistence that everyone can just cycle while ripping up roads doesn't fill me with confidence. Where all the ideas and creative solutions for this 'sustainable future'...? *crickets*

Who suggested winding down our transport infrastructure?

1. Who cares what Britain do?

2. Yes we should try produce more of our own food

3. I dont think so

4. What role do you possibly see horses playing?

As far as I can see no one suggested banning the car or trucks. Or ripping up roads, except reducing 2 lanes to 1 and putting in a bike lane, but then the road is still available for transport.

Suggesting that the majority of car journeys under 4km could be replaced by a bike isn't suggesting banning the car. Suggesting that town centres are nicer without cars isn't suggesting banning the car.

We are a horrendously car dependent country. People can't see beyond the 4 wheels and it's like a comfort blanket for a lot. I cycle to work - someone working with me travels a similar distance and pays €5,000 per annum to park. Thats on top of fuel at neigh on €2 / litre, tax insurance and running costs of a car. Makes no sense. Literally a dart stop outside their door at home and one at our work - I suggested the dart and was laughed at.

Lucan near me has a campaign to remove a few parking spaces from the village. The village is literally dominated by cars in all approaches. There's war over it - its going to cost jjobs apparently. Its kind of weird that when you make places more accessible for walking and cycling that villages trive but yet there resistance against it. People only worry about their own convenience and 4 wheels and little else.

Lucan will become a much better place if they build the Outer Ring connecting the N3 and the N4. The roads around Lucan just aren't good enough for being as near as it is to Dublin. Lucan is used as a toll dodge of the M50 all the time, because its €6 per day to commute there and back via it.

The reason the outer ring hasn't been built near Lucan is due to vested interests and the clause in the M50 toll contract that a competing road would never be built.

I’m nowhere near a dart or train station. Nearest train station is 6 kilometres away, a 15 minute drive currently off peak and no direct buses. Dart 5.6 kilometres away, off peak, no direct buses. All according to google and Google maps.

Read the thread properly, thanks. Then you won’t have to ask questions.

cant limit the use of cars without proper public transport provisions.. given that’s a ways off , cars will remain a cornerstone of navigating people from A to B.

How long do you think we have to wait to implement changes?

Yeah, my plug in "SUV" is smaller than our Volvo V70.

They are a good deal taller even if not much wider or longer, making them more dangerous/lethal to pedestrians (especially children). They are also heavier, when combined with the height (less aerodynamic) this makes them less fuel efficient.

Really - you should tell that to mine, I'm getting better MPG (measured) from it that the Passat I had before it, height difference is a matter of a few inches, not a great deal IMO, we're not talking 4x4 here, the likes of the Qashqai's not much taller than a saloon.

Let those destroying the environment pay.

People going to and from work, taking kids to school, delivering goods to shops for moron greenies to buy. Anything beyond a stone age hunter gatherer existence involves altering the environment, and even then, hunter gatherers are now thought to have radically altered large areas of land through the use of fire.

Let me guess, you think everyone should drive an EV as they are all powered by CO2 free energy. As of a minute ago:

That's 1.87% of electricity being generated from wind, so your non polluting EV is being powered by fossil fuels.

There are hundreds of thousands of people who live within commutable distances of work, walkable/cyclable distances of schools and so on and yet drive.

There are tens of thousands of people who own SUV or Crossover vehicles and never use them for their alleged purpose.

The people who need to be encouraged (carrot - pricing, capacity, service levels etc) and maybe eventually forced (congestion charges - I'm against ULEZ setups as they only cause new cars to be bought) are those in those categories, not those that live beyond services. But most of those that live fully beyond services are there by choice - one off builds.

The "but but but but but" defences against any changes always come from those who are not the random group of people they have pulled in as a human shield. Not disabled, not elderly, not infirm, not living in an unserved area (by anything but their own choice), not anything but a driver that wants to keep driving unrestricted despite that not being sustainable - for physical space reasons if nothing else.

Where is that graph from?

Does it mean we need to build more wind turbines?

Ah, cool. Thanks for the link. I'll have to look at it when the wind is honking in the winter when we need more power!

Right, that's really interesting. Obviously many more turbines needed and some way of storing the power.

Oh cool, wait till the wind is honking in winter:

20-1-22

One of the basic underlying reasons for why gas and energy prices have been so high this year is because multiple countries in Europe 'thought' the wind would be honking this winter, and becuase lots of additional wind generation had come on stream ealier in the year, they thought the extra capacity and piles of expected wind meant they didn't need to buy and stockpile that villified gas stuff during the summer, when prices are cheaper, like they normally would. Then the wind didn't show up and those whirly things were doing a whole lot of nothing for considerable periods this winter - all over Europe - so suddenly everyone needed a lot of gas quick as they didn't have it stockpiled.

All made worse by the Germans who appear to have been bribed by Gazprom who funded the anti-nuclear movement which lead to that daft git Merkel shutting down perfectly good nuclear power stations, meaning those uber energy hogs had their greedy snouts buried in the gas market even more than usual.

The French also had an unfortunate discovery of some weld repairs needed to several of their nukes - after 20-30 years of near continous use - bit like my cars shock absorbers, and had to offline those, meaning more gas needed there too.

Not helped by the Russian Gazprom deliberately running down it's european gas storage so they could enact their Nazi driven invasion of Ukraine.

An absolute perfect storm of stupidity, skulduggery, evil and unfortunate circumstance.

If people only drove when they needed to, we'd be in a much better position. Look at the Census data showing the high number of short journeys, less than 4km, that are driven, when they could be easily walked or cycled.