....have a better chance at making our world a better place? On a local, national and global level? I can't think of a better time. Hopefully our leaders will grasp the chance and not just turn us back to the old ways. Fingers crossed.
Dream on. As I've said on other posts, traffic levels are almost back to normal round here. My daughter is doing an OU degree in conservation and has done a survey on transport in Swadlincote, mine is the only response saying they would even consider cycling to work (even if there was a traffic free route) almost all respondents said they had 2 cars and wouldn't consider car sharing.
right now a majority of people are showing good manners, politeness, patience and helpfulness towards one another. As I say no more than a month after its said to be all clearthey will be back to the self centred ignorant aggressive intolerance that it was before.
Sought of makes me think there is a God. He's given us all another chance. If we **** this new society up we deserve wiping out. Who knows if Covid 19 doesn't get us it might be the plague of locusts in Africa. It would wipe out the Romanian strawberry pickers straight away.
Around my part of Barnsley Traffic has increased this last week or so, but my observations from travelling to and from work and going to the Supermarkets is that it’s nowhere near back to ‘normal’
In contrast to my previous post (I must have been in a bad mood) one hopeful aspect is that the number of leisure cyclists is probably at it's all-time highest at the moment. Hopefully a reasonable proportion of the new riders will carry on afterwards and maybe having experienced a bit of bad driving from those still in metal boxes they might drive a bit more considerately when confronted with cyclists. Similarly, walking may be more popular after normality returns and just possibly the roads will be slightly less busy as companies realise that staff who can work from home are just as productive as those sitting in the office (I speak from experience, 10 years ago when working for Jaguar, I worked at home occasionally and found that I got a lot more done without the constant interruptions of the office).
I think it's hard to do that a lot of the time. I live 25 miles away from work so its a non starter. If your other half works different hours and works in a different town or city then car sharing isnt viable either, nor is it likely someone nearby works near me and has similar hours. I'm hoping to move closer to work but as someone who has to move between bases with a lot of stuff to carry unfortunately my car is the only option.
Absolutely, It would be great if the government would give Sustrans some more cash. If they did, I would suggest that they should upgrade all canal towpaths to tarmac and 2m wide, we would have an instant traffic free cycling network.
I fully understand your position, I was in the same position for many years, commuting to Birmingham (25 miles). Even with a traffic free route, it's just too far to cycle. There are solutions; for the last 5 years me and a mate who lived 5 miles from me and worked in the same office took turns to drive and saved a small fortune. Working from home should be a realistic possibility for a good proportion of office work.
I wonder how much a network would cost? If you could use a traffic free route it makes it much more palatable. We seem to be about to fork out a huge sum for HS2 when I see it as poor value for the north, just cheap housing for them that work in London. Buy house in Yorkshire, commute to London. It'll just put house prices up near the HS2 stations.
Not sure, but per mile I would guess it would be less than 0.01% of a 3-lane motorway..... All former railway lines should be similarly treated. Totally agree about HS2 by the way, I really can't see the point.
