How much would you pay...?

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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:11
How much would you pay...? - Dipstick
We are under political pressure to use public transport. Seems to me that...

If I have to catch the bus I'll need to get out of bed twenty minutes earlier to allow time to get to the stop with a margin. If I'm in bed and someone offers me the chance to stay there another 20 minutes on a winter's morning, I'd pay a fiver to be allowed to do so.

It's raining! Aargh! Ooh, a nice man with an umbrella will hire me one - oh, I'll pay £2.50 for a half hour use of that, while I wait at the stop, no trouble. Ta mate.


Oh this bus is so CROWDED. What? For a premium I can have a seat on my own, with all the legroom I want? Sure, I'll slip you a quid for that, thanks chum.

Oh this darned briefcase and shopping bag. It's such a struggle. What's that you say? You'll carry it for me, keep it safe? Ok! You're on! Have a 50p tip!

And now I've arrived, with a ten minute walk in the rain to where I need to be. Blow that, I'll pay £2.50 to get off exactly where I want.

So let's see. For that one journey I'd happily pay £11.50 over and above the standard fare not to do it. To be fair, coming home the bed bit doesn't apply. And it might not be raining. So call that £4.00.

So to avoid one day's commute by bus I'd happily pay £15.50 to keep my car then.

Gonna take a lot of pressure to make me change...

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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:20
How much would you pay...? - Mapmaker
Welllll... I can put down my bowl of cornflakes at 09.10 and be at my desk by 09.30 if I'm lucky with the buses (bus stop is 5 yards from front door). Just to make sure I'm inclined to stop munchint at 09.00 and then I can be at my desk with a cup of coffee and time to finish the newspaper that I read on the bus, whilst my computer boots up.

Alternatively, I can walk 200 yards to my car. Go round one-way system in residential area. Pay £5 to Red Ken. Get to work in approximately the same time as it takes to get the bus to work, but I'll allow an extra 10 minutes just in case (worth £2.50). Pay £35 to park.

Coming home, there's been an accident on the inner ring road. Get off bus, and walk home. Home within 20 minutes. Car still stuck there two hours later.

It's going to take a lot to persuade me to drive to work!

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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:23
How much would you pay...? - Dipstick
*grin*

I love extremes.
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:36
How much would you pay...? - runboy
OK, not an extreme, but real life:

Return bus fare-£2.40 X 20 (roughly a working month)=£48

I have to leave the house at 7.40am to get the early bus to have a fighting chance to have a seat. If I drive I can leave at 8.15am. This doesn't account for rain and cold if I walk to the bus stop and wait for it (or not if it doesn't turn up). And the bus doesn't stop near where I work, but the car park where I park is next door.

The return journey is just a reverse of the morning.

So the bus will add an extra hour onto my day.

The car park costs £34 per month leaving £14 for petrol. The distance travelled is 12 miles round trip, so 240 miles a month. My car does 260 miles to a tank and a tank costs £34. So I pay slightly more on the petrol. But I have 20 hours a month extra to play with, I can vary my travel times, I can call into the shops on the way home to collect shopping. I would ask the bus driver to stop and wait whilst I shop but I doubt he will.

The reality is:

No more buses will be provided to ensure I don't have to stand
The fare costs will not drop
Security in my city will not be increased to allow people to walk around/wait for buses without fear of being attacked
Buses will not wait whilst I load up 10 bags of shopping

So what's the answer? Cycling is one, but the infrastructure to really support it is a long way off.
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:33
How much would you pay...? - Cliff Pope
Walk 4 miles to nearest place on a bus route (1 hour) or cycle (1/2 hour).
Wait for probably late rural bus. Half hour journey to nearest point on main road. Get off and wait for (probably late) other bus.
1 hour journey to town.
Walk to work from bus stop (10 minutes)

Repeat in evening. Find bike stolen or vandalised. Walk home (1 hour)

Or I drive to work, 40 miles, 1 hour.

It's going to take a lot to persuade me not to drive to work!
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:31
How much would you pay...? - CM
I usually get to work at 9.00 having left the house at 8.52 and ambling past lines of stationary cars.

I very rarely use public transport but I had the great misfortune of taking a train from Paddington to Castle Cary (Somerset) a few weeks ago. It took 1hr45 (about 45mins - 1 hour shorter than driving on a Friday night) and cost a phenomenal £44 one way. I had the pleasure of being able to stand for the 1st hour.
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:39
How much would you pay...? - Dipstick
You can always trust the Belgians. How hard can it BE to do something like this here? What's the PROBLEM?

www.ils.nrw.de/netz/leda/database/measures/meas027...m
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:45
How much would you pay...? - CM
Dipstick, I agree that this is a good idea. The obvious way to pay for it is through Council Tax but would you be happy to pay even more CT?

Living in London I am not sure the cost of public transport comes into the equation. It is more to do with convenience (and this seems to be the same in other parts of the country as well).
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 15:54
How much would you pay...? - Dipstick
No no, the way to pay for it is in the reduction in costs, because you have less traffic = less road repairs, less pollution = less pollution fixing initiatives, less petrol distribution = less road repairs (again), less accidents (at apparently a zillion pounds each), less land bought for car parks...

If that ISN'T the case then how is it my taxes go up to pay for those things in the first place? Stop doing them = save the money.
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 16:00
How much would you pay...? - Hawesy1982
For anything less than a 10 mile each way commute i would struggle to justify any method of travel other than by bicycle (or possibly motorbike).

My old job was 6 miles each way, in 18minutes each way, come rain or shine, 5am or 5pm. By car in rush-hour takes 30minutes, by public transport takes 90minutes.

Save 100% of work petrol and work parking, also reduce insurance by £150 due to reduced car mileage, and therefore can afford nice, fast, light bike and all necessary accesories (good waterproofs etc).

Luckily for me i am young and fit enough for cycling to not be a problem for me, i can accept that many people don't have that luxury
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 16:08
How much would you pay...? - Mapmaker
Living (as I once did) just outside Cambridge, and commuting to London.

Either, leave house 7.30, no traffic so drive to station, catch 7.45 train.

Or, leave house 7.36, hit morning rush hour, just about catch 8.15 train.

Or leave house 8.01, cycle 3 miles to station (lovely in summer, virtuous in winter) catch 8.15.

That half hour in bed well worth the 3 miles each way on the bike. I shall leave the debate of commuting by train to somebody else, but central London is not practical in a car for commuting.
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Fri 6 Feb 2004 16:08
How much would you pay...? - Baskerville
I have this choice:

Either I walk eight minutes to the station, take a twenty-five minute train journey, followed by a fifteen minute walk. Total 48 minutes, cost £4 return (but this is more than wiped out by what I can earn by working on the train). Number of days with serious delays in four years: 2. Sometimes it rains but so what? I have a decent waterproof coat.

Or I drive: 3 miles rural roads, 12 miles of motorway, which at this time of year is foggy, rainy, icy or what have you, plus 5 miles of urban driving. Time taken: can be 35 mins, can be 2 hours: completely unpredictable. Return cost? Fuel roughly £2.50 Parking free in theory but unlikely to find a place. Plus wear and tear, plus lost time, plus execrable "drive time" radio shows etc.

It's the train every time for me: luckily, working from home, I don't have to do that every day, though my wife does.
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