Safe Speed Forums

Is anyone else out there finding the toyota prius to be a popular numpty car of choice?

I think it depends on if they chose it or had it foisted upon them by the company. When I see them on the motorway they either seem to do 60-65 or 75+

Almost as if one group is trying to prove just how bad they can get the fuel consumption to be.

the only practical and cost effective use for a hybrid would be con-charge dodging in london.

I'd agree with malcolmw and others; your numpty is someone not very good at driving, with very little awareness of whats going on around them, generally someone I figure has no interest or enjoyment from driving, it's a conveyance, a mere requirement to achieve their ultimate objective, eg to visit aunt mildrew.

Maybe the behaviours which we view as "numpty" really derive from the underlying premise in your post:

Numpty drivers are those which regard the car as a means of getting from A to B rather than being keen and interested in driving.

If you want to go into it, old people have paid tax all their lives. They still pay tax on their income, even if it is from a pension.
They have paid into the welfare system since it started.
If you really wish to contribute insulting comments then contribute them towards the pensioners who paid nothing for their pensions...index linked and income based. Public servants.

Taxation from motorists:

* Motorists in the UK pay £42.2 billion to the Government in taxation: fuel tax £22.1 billion; Vehicle Excise Duty £4.6 billion; VAT on vehicles £6.8 billion; VAT on fuel £5.6 billion and company car tax £3.1 billion
* In addition, motorists pay another £75.2 billion into the economy through their purchase of vehicles, fuel and basic running costs
* Just £6.7 billion was spent on UK roads infrastructure in 2003
* 92 per cent of all passenger travel is by road
* 6.5 per cent is by rail
* Roads serve 92 per cent of our travel needs
* Britain’s major road network has increased by just 0.06 per cent (under 200 miles/316kms) in 10 years
* Our motorway network ranks among the least developed in Europe (motorway network length to unit of GDP). The UK is fourteenth out of a European league table of 15 - only Ireland has fewer miles


Spending on roads, maintenance and repair:

About £6/7 billion

The real problem facing the country NOW, is the cost of providing pensions for public servants.
Even when deductions are made from salaries they are not invested in anything, those deductions just go to paying those already retired.
The cost of government pensions NOW is £1,000,000,000,000. That is, the cost of paying pensions to the CURRENTLY WORKING public servants and those ALREADY retired.
Fan. Hitting. Shit. The.
So, within 30 years....all the taxation will be needed to pay retirement pensions for government employees.
A bit simplistic ?

There is no connection in the country's Tax regime between monies paid in by sections of society and monies paid out. There is I think, one exception, which is the 1% extra NI that goes to the NHS.

[
Taxation from motorists:

* Motorists in the UK pay £42.2 billion to the Government in taxation: fuel tax £22.1 billion; Vehicle Excise Duty £4.6 billion; VAT on vehicles £6.8 billion; VAT on fuel £5.6 billion and company car tax £3.1 billion
* In addition, motorists pay another £75.2 billion into the economy through their purchase of vehicles, fuel and basic running costs
* Just £6.7 billion was spent on UK roads infrastructure in 2003
* 92 per cent of all passenger travel is by road
* 6.5 per cent is by rail
* Roads serve 92 per cent of our travel needs
* Britain’s major road network has increased by just 0.06 per cent (under 200 miles/316kms) in 10 years
* Our motorway network ranks among the least developed in Europe (motorway network length to unit of GDP). The UK is fourteenth out of a European league table of 15 - only Ireland has fewer miles


Spending on roads, maintenance and repair:

About £6/7 billion

* Motorists in the UK pay £42.2 billion to the Government in taxation:

* Just £6.7 billion was spent on UK roads infrastructure in 2003

It doesn't make much difference what the "spend" is, the money provides jobs and improves the transport system. Which is needed even if cars go the way of the dodo.
Buses need roads, cycles need roads and trucks/vans need roads. No cars means increased direct taxation. No cars means massively increased taxation.
The problem with government is that it is highly inefficient. Criticism of government projects is now so common that many people expect it as a normal function of government.
And the pensions bomb of government staff is going to blow us all out of the water soon..
Too many and too inefficient.

Oh, I'm not discussing the rights and wrongs of it, I just want some reasonably accurate figures to give when some non-driver yaps on about what a burden they feel motorists are, or regurgitates the green party claptrap that motorists are subsidised.

Quite, but if there were no cars the government would get the taxes some other way.

The combustion engine is quite a burden if you are to believe estimates that city pollution kills hundreds each year.

That may (or may not) be true. but if so, I don't see what charging more tax on people making essential journeys will achieve.

Ben the electrician drives a panel van, no other way to provide this service = pays con charge, increased parking permit, etc etc.

Tarquin drives his pious hybrid into town to go shoe shopping = gets subsidies all round.

Makes sense to you?

Maybe the behaviours which we view as "numpty" really derive from the underlying premise in your post:

Numpty drivers are those which regard the car as a means of getting from A to B rather than being keen and interested in driving.

Oh, I'm not discussing the rights and wrongs of it, I just want some reasonably accurate figures to give when some non-driver yaps on about what a burden they feel motorists are, or regurgitates the green party claptrap that motorists are subsidised.