Just when you thought climate activists couldn’t get more annoying

To be fair, one could drive a Kia Sportage because it's better for one's arthritis and still be an arsehole.

 

With all the talk of driving to school, do kids not go to the school nearest them any more?

I walked to both Primary and Secodary school, and watched as Buses ferried in kids who lived further afield. Do school buses not exist any more?

These are genuine questions btw, for once I'm not being a tool. Been a while since I left school and I've no kids.

 

Both my children have Autism so go to specialist settings. Despite the local authority suggesting otherwise you have next to no say as a parent where they end up. We didn't find out which school he would be going to until 3 days before the end of term last year. It's just another layer of discrimination you get used to dealing with as a parent of disabled children.
As for the getting school part, the council have to put on mini buses with the distances involved and collect all the kids. For my eldest the council said they were struggling to put together a cost effective and reasonable route (I.e other pick ups) so asked if we would be willing to take him ourselves and they pay per mile for the journey (4 ways)

I did used to, until last year live next to a secondary school and can confirm the buses do still exist but the numbers picking up themselves seemed to increase over the 10 years were there.

 

They still use bus's/coaches to bring them to St.Wilfreds High school in Featherstone from Hemsworth, South Kirkby ,South Elmsall and that area which about 6 to 7 miles away.

 

Wrong.

You have changed the subject so my earlier post no longer applies.

To be honest I couldn't give a toss about anti cycling rants, what I do object to is motorists thinking it's ok to squeeze between me and oncoming traffic. There's only one person going to get injured or killed in these situations and he's not sat behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

 

The roads are full of idiots. In vans, cars lorries and on motorbikes and cycling. No group is exempt from having its idiots. As you rightly point out those on 2 wheels and sadly pedestrians are most vulnerable.
I personally find horses the most frustrating to pass as they are slow and you have to be cautious not to spook the animal too.

 

Quite true but an idiot on a bicycle is only likely to injure or kill him/herself whereas an idiot in big lump of steel with a powerful engine (or electric motor) is likely to kill or maim innocent bystanders....

 

I agree, I was just adding a little balance. Why people hate cyclists is beyond me, it's hardly the biggest inconvenience you will ever face.
The standard of driving is abysmal these days and seems to be without consequence.
Putting aside other factors I personally would never ride a bicycle on a road for fear of my safety.

 

I remember a time when on approaching something like a parked car people would stop and let the vehicle coming the other way go first. Nowadays they don't really do that, they just go for it. This is particularly evident when driving our motorhome, I think many car drivers have the same attitude to motorhomes as they do towards cyclists.
Sorry to hear about your reluctance to cycle on roads, I do it all the time (over 10 miles a day this year) and have only ever been in collision with a car once, no injury but sustained a buckled rear wheel. Had a few near misses, mostly due to poor driving but occasionally my own fault.

 

I don't hate cyclists at all, I think we should see more of them, and better provision should be made for them in most British cities, which are still woefully behind Germany and the Nordic countries in this respect. However, when I'm driving behind a cyclist who's all over the road and appears not to know what's going on around him, only to see that he's wearing headphones, it makes me want to jump out of the car and rip them out of his ears. One of my biggest fears as a motorist is hitting a pedestrian or cyclist. They aren't well protected, and don't have a rear view mirror. You need all of your senses when cycling on the road, especially in a big city, in order to know what's going on all around you. We all have a responsibility to ensure our own and other people's safety on the roads. Just because a cyclist who collides with a car due to his own stupidity will only physically injure himself, it doesn't mean that the car driver involved won't suffer mental trauma, whether he's deemed at fault or not.

 

Yes I find that really annoying, the same goes for joggers and walkers. When I come up behind them on a shared path and ring my bell they are oblivious. You could also say the same about drivers with their stereo on so loud that it drowns out the sound of the engine and road noise - so zero chance of the driver hearing a warning horn for example.

By the way, some cyclist do have rear view mirrors, both of my bikes and my partner's have them. As I've got older and since I now wear varifocal specs (you can't see clearly away from the central area of the lens), I find that turning to look behind me is really quite difficult so a mirror is essential for me.

 

I understand the frustrations of the protestors due to lack of effective pushback against inaction by Governments

Nevertheless I have a Skoda Yeti 4x4 2.0 TDI (Euro Cat 5) so am seen by these numpties as one of those polluting the planet. However, living in a rural area in the foothills of the Sibilini Mountains with treacherous hairpins and narrow roads where winter tyres mid November to April and carrying snow chains in vehicle is mandatory I need the addtional grip of the 4x4. A car is essential. I average over 45mpg due to most of my driving being rural roads and rarely encounter heavy traffic.
Since I bought it new in 2012 I have covered only 45k miles and about t a quarter of that is down to the 3 trips I have made to Yorkshire and a handful to Rome and Bologna airports. So my mileage has averaged 5k per year in total and yet these eco-warriors treat anyone , regardless of circumstance as a pariah and fair game.
Pay per mile has always been a fairer solution in the form of a pollution tax on fuel (ring fenced). That would also make people think a lot harder about whether or not the journey is really necessary.

Replacing diesel and petrol ICE will never happen .. Combine harvesters which at harvest time run 24/7 and round here on 1 in 5 slopes, tractors HGVs with trailers carrying seeds, straw bails etc are simply not suitable for 'electrification'. and as for induction charging (cable under streets) the power loss compared to power at source or even plug in means additional grid capacity would be needed (I have seen no figures that recognise the losses due to transmission over distance. The headlong rush into EVs is, frankly, a sick joke and unfortunately anyone who says so is labelled a Luddite.