Uk sets out on a path to eliminate private ownership of cars for citizens?

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I fear with technology, it's only going to become so bad, telling truth from fiction will be almost impossible.

Worthy of its own thread maybe.

This thread is an indication that you've already passed that threshold. You - fueled by a blogger on an auto sales website, apparently, who was fueled by a sketchy tabloid - took a pretty mundane statement in some keynote address and took it as a brand new battle cry in some sort of war on the personal automobile. This thread is about your inability to tell truth from fiction.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Famously not known for.

But who cares.

I dont suppose, if like we invited your guys to
dinner, you might come back for another
150 years or so?

For better or worse, we are a small player on the world stage now. The sun has set on the British empire, while China's star is in the ascendant once again.

The one thing our Government should have done, in 1997, was to offer more British passports to those who wanted.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

That's not a bad idea. The more a person drives the more at risk they are. Insurance should reflect that.

And it does: the more you drive, the more you pay. It's just that until very recently, there wasn't a good way for insurance companies to measure how much you drive other than ask you "what's your one-way commuting distance?" and "how many miles do you drive in a year?"

I'm not sure how much other countries are seeing this technology, but it's pretty standard here for insurance companies to offer a gizmo that you can plug into your OBD2 port in exchange for a discount. It tracks how much you actually drive as well as speeding, heaving braking, heavy acceleration, etc., and automatically gives you a "safe driver" discount if your driving is reasonable. These programs are all completely voluntary - if you don't want the tracking device in your car, you don't have to have it... but you don't get the associated discounts.

These sorts of programs can help to reduce driving, not by increasing costs, but making more of the cost of driving variable costs instead of fixed costs.

 

[Audie]

For better or worse, we are a small player on the world stage now. The sun has set on the British empire, while China's star is in the ascendant once again.

The one thing our Government should have done, in 1997, was to offer more British passports to those who wanted.

We see it as betrayal.

 

[RestlessSoul]

We see it as betrayal.

I’m sorry to hear that. But it is what it is.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

in the 50'sand living in London. It was already clear that Cars were not the way to get anywhere.
The Underground system and busses were cheap and fast and taxis plentiful and affordable.
parking was already a nightmare.
Trains no longer gave an end to end service to pretty much any where as in the past, so roads were filling fast.
My solution was to use all of them and to have a Lambretta scooter for fast personal transport.

From my point of view Long Journeys should be based on trains and be subsidised to make them affordable. Their timetables should be fully synchronised with other routes and the local bus services as they had been before "Beeching".
Personal Luggage movements should be reincorporated with the train services. using modern logistic technology.
Even the victorians recognised that people and their luggage needed to travel largely to the same place.

Subsidies should be removed from maintaining long distance roads but which should be recovered from users.
Something now possible with modern technology. Individual long car journeys should be discouraged.

Where possible public services should be favoured for all journeys.
But for hire, self drive or auto drive electric vehicles should be encouraged on a summon or pick up and leave basis. for local journeys. rather than personal ownership.

If people want to pay for luxury versions of all the above so be it. First class travel has always been a feature of trains.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

A lot of high density areas see land as money makers, because there's more demand for housing. Parking doesn't make much money. If they have to build multi-level parking then it costs that much more. There has to be a balanced solution.

Sure... and that balance is achieved through the market.

Developers know what sort of product they need to build to attract their customers. They'll provide as much parking as they need to make the property attractive to buyers. They don't need a zoning by-law to tell them to do that.

 

[Mock Turtle]

The past few years of virus experience, and where working from home was often the norm, should indicate that not all journeys are that necessary, and with sufficient planning much of the travelling could be avoided. It just makes more sense to design and/or arrange work that doesn't require so much travel (where possible), and as to the many other reasons why we tend to use cars. A bit late now, and expensive no doubt, but I've always wondered about underground piping systems for delivery of the more common needs - and perhaps achieved by drones in future, but which might be more expensive overall. But then most cities were never actually designed as to utility (or designed at all), and why so many road users don't get on that well.

But overall, it does seem to make more sense to cut down on car ownership even if such might be more skewed to the wealthy than the ordinary person. But as long as our needs are taken into account I have no objection. And seeing Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear guru) in tears would make me so happy.

 

[anna.]

There have been "driving taxes" for ages: they're called gas taxes.

The issue that's cropped up recently is that with the increase in hybrid and electric vehicles, gas consumption is getting to be less and less of a good proxy for distance driven.

One suggested change to address this is to move the taxes from gasoline to insurance (and, as much as possible, base what you pay in insurance on what you actually drive instead of your estimate of how much you plan to drive).

That makes sense.

San Diego has never had good a mass transit system, that's part of the problem. I've ridden much better systems in Europe, and we're decades behind the curve. I do love my car, though, and that's a factor. Mass transit would have to be miraculously transformed here for me to be interested in using it.

 

[Kooky]

@Twilight Hue
You're an American, so I assume you have only ever heard of public transport, and certainly do not experience a semi-reliable public transportation system on an everyday basis.

This perception is strongly coloring your view of how people ought to move from place to place.

I'm not a Londoner, but I live in a European city with rather decent public transportation, and literally the only time I needed a car at all is when I was moving into a new apartment - and even then I could have just hired a company to do that for me if I hadn't been short on cash due to the brief, COVID related breakdown of my primary income source.

 

[Kooky]

I fear with technology, it's only going to become so bad, telling truth from fiction will be almost impossible.

I find it strange that you would be using the future tense for something that has already come to pass.

 

[Twilight Hue]

@Twilight Hue
You're an American, so I assume you have only ever heard of public transport, and certainly do not experience a semi-reliable public transportation system on an everyday basis.

This perception is strongly coloring your view of how people ought to move from place to place.

I'm not a Londoner, but I live in a European city with rather decent public transportation, and literally the only time I needed a car at all is when I was moving into a new apartment - and even then I could have just hired a company to do that for me if I hadn't been short on cash due to the brief, COVID related breakdown of my primary income source.

It's a good point. Demographics vary place to place and affects one's view on the matter.

My area is a mix of urban and rural environments and the value of private transportation and utility is essential.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I find it strange that you would be using the future tense for something that has already come to pass.

I think with advancements in tech it will be something that will continue to be refined well past one's ability to distinguish on a personal level without aids.