Traffic jams lessen as fuel rises and recession see drivers switch to cycling and walking

Will it last? Or will the price come back down for a while, or people just grit their teeth and bear it?

Cycle commuting in London has doubled in the last ten years, mainly away from public transport, and while there has been some continuous stimulus, key events are a big factor - public transport strikes and 7/7. Each time, a lot of people have dragged an old bike from the back of the shed, just for a few days. Some of those have thought "hey, what have I been missing? Not sniffing the next strap-hanger's armpit, or having some perve try to look up my skirt?" They have stuck with it.

Perhaps some people will conclude that after all, you don't have to hop in the car to go down the 7-11 for pint of milk? Perhaps a many as a quarter of all car journeys are for reasons as trivial as that!

Quote:

“A lot of people are combining journeys, making shorter ones and looking at alternatives like the train,”

I don't see many multi-occupant cars around Shrewsbury yet, though queues do (subjectively) seem shorter than they were. Combining journeys? I thought only environmentally aware people did that. Everyone else jumps in the car without thinking... then moans about the cost. The cost of car use seems to be a total blind spot for most people.

However, until cycling becomes more attractive then most people won't bother. I think there are two big problems to overcome:
- many people see riding on the roads as dangerous. TBH I can't blame them, too many drivers are shockingly poor and dedicated facilities are pathetic. Using statistics will never overcome fear.
- cycling is still considered to be for those who can't afford a car. That's one reason why we get abuse etc - it's a status thing.

Train travel is too expensive to be an alternative. We considered going by train to see my parents in Bangor before Christmas. Driving 2 hours each way, costs <£25 in fuel. A return ticket for Mrs E, the 2 kids and me was £117. We'd have to get to/from the station at each end as well. Similarly, popping to Ludlow (40 mins by car) is £35 + a king's ransom to get into town on the bus. So we don't go anywhere on the train nowadays

as long as the interweb still works that is

is the money out there though handlebarcam?

Lots of it has been pumped in to the system but as far as I can understand banks are being forced to hold on to it as security against the bad debts they may or may not hold and also because the ratio of assets to loans they are allowed to make has been dramatically reduced - so they can't rack up a load more bad debts cos it turns out that lots of banks aren't actually very good at performing the basic functions of being a bank loaning out depositor's money at reasonable rate of return because they are way to clever for anything so boring.

This financial system is broken and it isn't going to get mended any time soon by the looks of it.

Fuel is likely to remain expensive and the longer it does so the more changes in behaviour we are going to see when it comes to travel and the longer the situation persists the more change we will see and the more engrained those new behaviours will become.

But then maybe that's just me, when it comes to world financial meltdown I'm a glass half full kind of guy

Bear in mind that we had a tough winter and a lot of people didn't drive much, I know I didn't and the family car remained parked for even longer periods than usual. Road conditions have not improved, despite what the DfT claims, as the number of potholes has increased.

The increased cost of oil has rather a lot to do with what's happening across North Africa and the Middle East at present. Yes, the oil will run out but there is still quite a lot of it. But the easy to drill oil has mostly been tapped. The money the bankers were passing around was largely an illusion, that's why we had a banking collapse.

The increasing scarcity of oil has been, until a couple of weeks ago, the only real cause contributing to this recession. Everything else was just the result of greed, stupidity and mismanagement, by bankers, governments and mortgage-borrowers. Of course, the developed world has now experienced real physical disaster, in the shape of the Japanese and New Zealand earthquakes, but whether that has as much effect worldwide as a few hundred bankers in New York and London in 2007 playing pass-the-parcel with bad debts, remains to be seen. At any rate, the money is still out there, somewhere. Perhaps when those that are currently holding on to it realise that things have got so bad that radically fewer people are driving to their offices and retail outlets, to give them their time and money, they will release some cash back in to the system. Either that or they'll hold on a bit longer, until the likes of Cameron give them, say, the roads instead of the forests, then they'll be able to rake even more money when the boom times do eventually return. Or they'll invest in China and leave the UK to rot. Anyway, much as I'd like to think it is the start of a cycling revolution, I doubt it. Small and/or local gains maybe, but on balance probably people staying home and sitting on their fat arses is more likely to be a bigger factor in reduced congestion.

The Mail must have been so conflicted.

Cyclists = bad

Motorists = good

More cyclists = good for motorists

Does not compute, does not compute... sparks, small explosion, smoke.

'cyling' is what Cylons do on a bike.

As anyone who followed the Battle Star Gallactica series remake knows, this means that they are amongst us and we can all look forward to be wiped out in a barrage of nuclear attacks.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Headline says cyling

Interesting, and in the Daily Hate too.