Just wondering if we have lost the plot

Rocker

While travelling to the Dublin hospital early this morning, I could not fail to notice all the cars heading towards the city.  The M4 almost became a car park about two Kms from the M50.  The M50 itself was more or less the same.  Thousands of cars inching along, some constantly changing lanes to gain a few metres.

Several things struck me:

The vast majority of the cars were single occupancy.

Each of those cars needs somewhere to park.

The situation will be repeated in its entirety this evening.

The situation in Ireland is likely to be mirrored in the UK.  Except in much greater numbers and locations.

If each car had a minimum of two occupants, this would go a long way to ease the congestion in our cities.  Large car parks could be built close to major motorways and buses used to ferry people in to the city.

From what I saw this morning, traffic wise we have lost the plot somewhere.....

lloyd

I can't understand people who put themselves through that day in day out, same goes for the trains/buses/tram commute they must be mad. My mates wifes commute is 50+ mins each way on a journey that out off rush hour is 15 minutes-I'm sure others face a lot worse too, I can't understand why she does it. I'd look into starting 2 hours early/later or something.

Some of them will need the car but a lot will want it for convenience. Car pool lanes would help.

I'd be on a motorbike if I had any distance in built up traffic to go through.

Myranda

Having been in london for some months I've seen a LOT of buses and tube trains jam packed with people... so there's a lot of public transporting going on too

TTony

Rocker said:

The situation in Ireland is likely to be mirrored in the UK

And in most cities and major towns across the world.

IIRC, over 95% of the energy consumed by a car is what's required to move the vehicle itself.  The remaining <5% is what's required to move the contents (ie passengers, luggage, whatever).

How inefficient is that?  How wasteful is that?

Could we - the highly developed & intelligent human race - not have found a better use for all the resources that we waste in this way?

Jalapeno

Car pool lanes seem to work where I've seen them around San Francisco & Houston.

There's also public mass transit which Ireland / Dublin desperately needs, that journey into the city centre from Dublin airport is a bloody nightmare !

Rocker

Correct @Jalapeno.  One of the problems is that the people charged with coming up with a solution, don't think 'big' enough.  When it was first built the M50 was a two lane motorway!  I also feel that the people who could change this traffic chaos [for the better], don't use the road network themselves.  If they did, they would do something about it after a week stuck in traffic.....

PolarityMan

The problem at least where I live is that public transport is shit and expensive. We need a economic environment where public transport is viable but like so many other things our ridiculous tax base prevents that.

vasselmeyer

TTony said:

IIRC, over 95% of the energy consumed by a car is what's required to move the vehicle itself.  The remaining <5% is what's required to move the contents (ie passengers, luggage, whatever).

How inefficient is that?  How wasteful is that?

Could we - the highly developed & intelligent human race - not have found a better use for all the resources that we waste in this way?

If only someone would invent a machine, say with a couple of inflatable wheels, that could be powered purely by moving your legs up and down.

DesVegas

You bloody hippy ... 

Good point though

McToot

I have to travel to Delhi twice a year and I can assure you, whatever we see here (even the M25 in car park mode) is utterly civilised compared to there. 

It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most ghastly place imaginable for commuters. 

I have a 90-minute commute each way, and am at the mercy of Southern Rail, but I almost always have a seat and I just factor it into my day.  I catch up on iPlayer downloads, social media, work emails etc. And on the way home I might quaff a sneaky beer.  But I do pay £100 a week for the 'privilege'.  That bit really sticks in my craw. 

exocet

Jalapeno said:

Car pool lanes seem to work where I've seen them around San Francisco & Houston.

There's also public mass transit which Ireland / Dublin desperately needs, that journey into the city centre from Dublin airport is a bloody nightmare !

I think Car Pool lanes are a far better alternative to the "Bus Lanes" that we appear to have adopted in the U.K.

Whilst in City Centres, bus lanes can work efficiently (used by large numbers of buses). It the folly of placing them on Motorways that gets me, e.g the bus lane on the M4 heading into London. This drastically reduces the motorway capacity, causing tail backs and delays whilst offering the odd bus a jam free passage into the city.

cj73

I am a case in point on this.  My next door neighbour and I commute the same 30 mile round trip each to the same office.  We've tried to untangle the gordian knot of two both working full time parents and shifts and kid drop off/collection and it's beyond us.....still feel slightly guilty about it every day

Myranda

I do think people have lost the plot though...

Like FiiO advertising a music playing portable deviced based on its processing power... all it has to do is make digital music files into noises and they mention the GPU power...

Phil_aka_Pip

exocet said:

Whilst in City Centres, bus lanes can work efficiently (used by large numbers of buses). It the folly of placing them on Motorways that gets me, e.g the bus lane on the M4 heading into London. This drastically reduces the motorway capacity, causing tail backs and delays whilst offering the odd bus a jam free passage into the city.

It would make sense if there were loads of buses on the M4 so that the folk in cars could park say at Newbury or Reading and take the bus from there. You could have lots of buses (ie frequently) to do away with the "they don't run when I want to travel" excuse for using a car

Axe_meister

If we want personal transport then we really need to accept cars like the twingo, or that BMW motorbike with a roof, but in a 3/4 wheel stable configuration.

Generally people (especially with families) can only afford the car so want to make full use of their investment.

I've gone down the two seater sports car (dirt cheap MG) route.

Pity the little Smart roadster never took off

Fretwired

exocet said:

Jalapeno said:

Car pool lanes seem to work where I've seen them around San Francisco & Houston.

There's also public mass transit which Ireland / Dublin desperately needs, that journey into the city centre from Dublin airport is a bloody nightmare !

I think Car Pool lanes are a far better alternative to the "Bus Lanes" that we appear to have adopted in the U.K.

Just buy a blow up doll .. :-)

spark240

https://www.renault.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/twizy.html

Danny1969

The big problem is lack of trust. Thousands of people live their homes equipped with internet and phone to sit in an office with internet and phone ...... they could do the exact same job from home half the time but a lot of boss's won't trust them!

Also everyone want to be at work at 9 and leave at 5. I'm doing my bit to help and ease the situation here, I generally start at 11 and leave at 4  ..... and I'm on a bike but every little helps

quarky

I have the worst of both worlds. Long and expensive. Almost two hours each way, and a cost of more than £6k/year.

A job is a job though.

Phil_aka_Pip

"we" lost the plot when "we" agreed to sell our time for a pittance to the rich bastards who owned the means of production back in the Industrial Revolution

With hindsight, not only was coming down from the trees a bad move, but nobody should ever have left the oceans ...

Sporky

Danny1969 said:

The big problem is lack of trust. Thousands of people live their homes equipped with internet and phone to sit in an office with internet and phone ...... they could do the exact same job from home half the time but a lot of boss's won't trust them!

Absolutely. My last employer let me have a day a week (at best) working from home but wanted me to check in regularly to prove I'd not just headed off to the seaside.

My current employer has made it very clear that while I'm allowed into the office I shouldn't be there very often, and I should turn up and leave at times that suit me.

It's a bit odd feeling trusted.