Comments on: Debate about public transport versus private

By: Mrs Green

Mrs Green — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:07:24 +0000

@Cameron Benz: great points Cameron. We would like to run two cars but can’t afford to insure and tax them both. We’ve back to the 4×4 now but that’s so we can gather wood to heat our home. It’s not an easy choice!

@Ms Tubb: I understand that public transport can be time consuming and not very convenient but there are positive benefits for the environment. I guess it’s better in some areas which makes it more attractive to use Hope you enjoyed the lesson at school

By: Ms Tubb

Ms Tubb — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:52:16 +0000

We are exploring Private vs. Public Transport at school in our Geography lessons and our teacher gave us a link to your blog. I myself don’t like public transport because it takes too long but I have no transport of my own so use it once a fortnight or even once a month and I prefer private transport myself because you can get to where you want to quite easily and don’t have to take detours.

By: Cameron Benz

Cameron Benz — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 07:04:31 +0000

It’s not always feasible to go with public transport. I know in the greater Seattle area of Washington state, USA, the public transit system is unreliable at best. There are things you can do however. As you mentioned, the economical vehicle is a major one. I own 2 vehicles. One is a Geo Metro that gets about 50 miles per gallon and, with 300k miles on it, is so far not scrapped. My other is a Jeep Wrangler. I know the Jeep isn’t the most environmentally friendly vehicle and I do use it as an OHV (Off Highway Vehicle), but I rarely use it as my regular transportation due to it’s lack of fuel economy. It does to be a bit more environmentally recyclable in the end and it’ll probably be very well worn out when it finally does get scrapped. It doesn’t get treated as disposable. I feel that fuel economy is only one metric we need to look at when we consider how “green” a vehicle is.

By: Mrs Green

Mrs Green — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:43:09 +0000

@vw camper hire: Yes, you highlight a very real problem. Where we live (rural) there is no way we could rely on public transport, so we just use our car the minimum amount we can, which is around 6000 miles per year. We do this by car sharing and combining errands. We’re lucky to have local farm shops, which is a good aspect to living in an area like ours

By: vw camper hire

vw camper hire — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:08:37 +0000

I think public transport varies so much even accross one county let alone the country. For example i used to visit manchester alot and the buses , trams etc… were great and i’d use them all the time. However in the smaller towns and rural locations the service isnt as good and not as frequent. I think it depends where you are and your reason for travel as to what you’d choose. For shopping i always drive, for visits around town its public.

By: Mrs Green

Mrs Green — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:40:37 +0000

@Max: Hello Max; convenience and price would be top of the list of considerations for most I’m sure, if they were honest. It sounds like you have a great service, but it needs to be cheaper to entice more people.
Your thoughts about people moving in to cities is radical LOL! I live in the country and I would never consider moving to the city; I would be so miserable. But I guess you’re right; we’re not as spaced out here as you are in the US. We can get to a small town within 5 miles and a city within 10, so it’s not so bad
Thanks for joining in the discussion.

By: Max

Max — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:10:33 +0000

I think the number one factor when choosing public versus private transportation is simply convenience. The second factor would be price. I currently live in Seattle where there is an excellent bus system. Taking the bus allows you to avoid traffic, not have to worry about problems associated with driving, and allows you to not have to pay for parking. These advantages are great, put paying two dollars for every ride (with rates going up next year) can often cancel out parking costs.

I think for our country to make a move towards more public transportation we need people to move out of rural areas and suburbs and into cities. Public transportation can never work efficiently if we live in such spread out areas. That is why you see such success in Europe and in Asian cities. By living in closer quarters, we can not only be more efficient in travelling and transportation, but we can conserve a lot more land.

By: Mrs Green

Mrs Green — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:15:34 +0000

@Sam: Hi Sam, thanks for sharing your thoughts. It’s interesting that you need to learn to drive to save money - that seems absurd doesn’t it? In order to make public transport work, we have a long way to go I think.
Good luck with the driving lessons.

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:48:52 +0000

I can’t drive (yet!) so I’m heavily reliant on public transport, with my two sons.

We don’t mind the trains, although in the rush hour it’s horrible. But at least they run to an exact timetable, there’s usually a decent shelter on the platform, and with a family railcard, they’re good value for money.

I don’t like using buses. I always have at least one bag, plus a small child’s hand, and there is no room to get down the aisle, they’re always busy, often there is no shelter, usually they are late (or very late) and around here, they are very expensive.

By train, or train and “PlusBus” (which is an excellent idea), we can get from my local station to the *next* city for about £6.
By bus, to get us all to a local country park costs £7 now, and will cost £9.50 when my youngest is 5 years, even though it’s almost walkable.

Buses are too expensive and I’m having to learn to drive to make travel affordable.

By: Mrs Green

Mrs Green — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:25:19 +0000

@Ben: Hi Ben, I hear you on this. Although we don’t have those temperatures here, the additional 2-3 hours travelling time makes public travel no go. Let’s hope in the future things change - near to us we now have a bus lane built. There are no busses on it yet mind you!