Safe Speed Forums

if ever the Gov price me out of the car owning market I will give up work, that my friends I Promise!

I shall become a burden on the Stazi, sorry State!, and steal and drug deal my way in life, after all it DOES pay don't ti?

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Welcome to the UK, the Land of "Selective Freedoms"

By then the Establishment of Community Work Teams/Unemployed Workers directive will be law and you'll have to do community work, living in dorms and home at weekends.

In any case, if you're current income is less than 150K you have no right to own a vehicle, you should wait for a bus like the rest of the plebs.

i wouldnt have a choice. public transport is no good to me. i dont work 9 to 5 or locally. my journey is 20 minutes on a back road then 15 minutes on a motorway and if i am starting or finishing between 10pm and 5am (which is most of the time) then how am i supposed to utilise public transport?

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

I work 184 miles from where I live and travel back and to every week, most of my journey is done on motorways and dual carriage ways. Under the pay as you drive scheme I’ve no doubt it would cost me an absolute fortune, and unless I could claim this back as a business expense then I can’t see it being a viable option to continue working where I am at present. Where I live when I’m away is in the middle of nowhere, I’d have to arrange a taxi every day.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

I once tried to investigate getting to work by public transport. Neither my home nor my workplace is out in the sticks, and there is a good route, mostly motorway, between them. It takes around 30 minutes by car to cover the 22 miles in the rush hour. (I have done it in 17 minutes, but that was on a bank holiday).

By public transport I would need to leave home at 2.15am in order to get to work by 8.30am. Leaving at 5.30pm I would not get home much before 10pm. Is this what the enemy (as we must now regard our so-called elected government) expects me to do?

As it is I run an efficient diesel powered car and car share with usually two others who make similar journeys. I think I'm doing quite a lot to reduce fuel use already.

Oh -the joys of living in the midlands, where all passengers are assumed to be high flying busness people who all want to get to places like London or Milton Keynes ( sad people).

Looked at possibilities of public transport - can get a train direct - yakes 15 or so mins. cost - about the same as a 40MPG car.Then add in getting to station - add £3.00 ( by stagecoach bus - wonder if the still pay Turpin protection money), or £5.00 station parking. Then at far end - no direct bus route - so it's walk - arriving at work in middle of winter either soaking wet from rain , or sweat.
For what - to spend a lot more , as i'd still use a car, be paying VED to take er indoors shopping ( because by time i got home busses would be off).

Yet be unemployed around here , have no car , get offered a job to refuse it for lack of transport - thats not an option- that excuse does not exist in the jobcentre handbook.

I deliberately chose to live where I worked. I used to walk to work during the lighter months. Unfortunately some council jobsworth decided to cut off the short cut so that left with me either an extra 10 minute walk on top of the already 25 minute walk through a woodland (yeah, that's a good idea) or an extra 20 minute walk on top of the normal 25 minute walk to go the long way. So I have to take the car as being in IT support I can't guarantee to leave on time so PT is out. This also makes car sharing impossible.

I used to use buses to travel up to uni when I was a student. It was quicker to walk then take the bus as you had to take one into the next town and catch one up to the uni, there was no direct bus! The fact that where I was is full of students and staff from there doesn't seem to have made the bus company want to do a direct service. My employer are now looking at having a bespoke bus service to try and ease the parking problems at the uni. They have 3500 parking permits but only 2000 spaces! How dim is that.....idiotic council planning means they can't have extra spaces under some green hogwash reason and if the place was knocked down and rebuilt they'd only be allowed 1700 spaces! If people can't commute to work how they want, they go elsewhere. People with choices do not choose crap PT. Unfortunatley they want to take away the choice rather than re-nationalising PT or forcing the current PT companies to sell to germans/swiss/dutch who have a fecking clue about efficient transport.

As i mentioned - little official mention has been made of the need to get to work (and home again ) without getting soaked. This is the UK FFS, where it does rain - not LA -where the sun shines .But hey, those deciding that a short walk in the rain ( oh -it's only 300 yards jobsworty-smyth) should decide what this can do, OR THE EFFECTS of taking remedial action and having to be prepared for all continguincies.
But then , they can be conveyed in their official vehicle, to a covered car park ( or some flunkey walks out with a brolley )(Ever seen EL Tone standing in the rain giving an interview???)

They either build the office complexes "out of town" - which require a car journey as thery are no buses, trains or trams to reach them.. or ... move all the services out to India or somewhere .. and you spend hours trying to get to past the automated menu.. only to get some person who is even more "untelligible" than Wildy.. At least you can understand the "und and ist" .

But .. people need transport.. they are required to subscribe to the "long hours culture" - which bus companies and drivers do not subscribe to and only offer "skeleton services after 6 pm"

Not everyone wants to or can ride a bicycle either - and let's face it.. if you have worked 10 hours in an office and face a 10/20/ 30 mile ride home afterwards - it can make that working day even longer - especially if it's wet and you have to cart a lap top home in a rucksack as well Oh sure.. whilst the majority are in their cars.. you could argue "quicker commute" in some cases..

But then.. if everyone was on bikes and "in the way" - as it would be congested with bicycles instead.. Not quite utopia then.. and certainly not everyone wants to ride bikes anyway. You cannot force people to do so.. as has been discovered with the kids and thier school dinners (and all parents can tell you that a kid will want the sweety before the teaspoon of cod liver oil or greens )

Economy does depend on our mobility especially since the work places are now miles fron homes... and none of us can guarantee jobs for life on our doorsteps either.. Nor can people afford to move each time they change a job location ..

Nor depend on claiming whopping expenses paid for by the taxpayer ..

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They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
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Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

How do you think that would work?

Surely the taxi fares would rise vastly, so they could pay their road pricing for the journey.

The point I was making was that if I couldn’t use my car as it would be too expensive under the road pricing scheme, if I did get to where I lived while working away I’d have to use a taxi to get to work every day, as there’s no public transport. And yes taxi fares would no doubt go up, which in turn would add to the cost of my travelling making it even more expensive. I just could not afford to do it.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Once again our wonderful and intelligent government have seen the goose that lays the golden egg, but have simply not thought through the consequences.
'The Daily Commute' is now seen as a way of life for a vast number and the end of the old 'job-for-life' situation which my Dad's generation enjoyed (or not, maybe?) has gone forever.
In my recruitment business we see the need for a flexible labour force as vital to the UK economy, but those having to travel for current or new jobs will always expect to have a salary which reflects the travelling costs. Thus, if a company in, say, Luton, want to recruit a person living in, say, Northampton and the journey is 30 miles down the M1 at the suggested peak £2 per mile (it's the M1 and at peak hours), then that's £120 per day. So, the prospective employer in Luton will need to add that figure, after tax, to the salary, less what would have been reasonable in the first place. Around 30p per mile, to be borne by the employee has always been seen as reasonable, so take £18 off the £120 which is £100 per day extra to be found. That's a salary hike of c.£170 per day, bearing that tax on that will then be at 40%, making an additional cost to a potential employer of c.£39,000 per annum.
As this is clearly a nonsense one must question when sanity and reality will 'kick-in' and the likely impact on UK business will be realised. If companies cannot retain or recruit staff, they will fail or move abroad. It's as simple as that. It won't be a question of people unwilling to work, they simply won't be able to afford to get there if the journey is more than a very few miles, and that's not the way society has developed it's employment profile over the past 50 years.

If I wanted to live within walking or cycling distance to my place of work I would have the choice of either a cattle shed or a caravan. (I wouldn't really WANT to cycle mind, considering the psychotic tractor drivers in the village). The cheapest houses locally are going for £250k.

Trouble is, as I'm sure is the case with most peope here, its a unique job. There's no way I would be able to find anything like it again if I did move.

Public transport isn't an option as the nearest bus stop is over 2 miles away.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Yes, I travel 40 miles each way across country. I leave at 08-00, get to the office at c.09-00, then leave at 17-30 and arrive home at 18-30. By the only public transport, it's two buses, a train, then a 1.2 mile walk or a taxi if it's raining, so I would have to leave at c.06-15 and arrive home at c.20-30. I don't think I'll bother, I'll just continue to drive and put up my salary and, consequently, my charges to my customers to suit. If that makes my company insolvent and we leave creditors unpaid (inc. the IR and NI) I really won't care as thousands will be in the same boat. A recession again, how surprising and unexpected. Mortgage arrears, personal bankrupcies, repossions, high inflation, high interest charges, etc, etc.
It really would have this much impact. Now, who's for moving abroad complete with their business. I could operate out of Dublin or any other town in Southern Ireland very easily with business trips to the UK in a mileage-tax exempt Irish-registered car as often as I wished. Probably get an EU grant for starting a new company in Ireland as well.
Last one out turn off the lights!

Cooperman,
Try the Isle of Man,
Faster ferry trip
Single Persons allowance about £8k
Married Couples allowance £18k,
then 10% max rate,
and
You only pay tax on the 1st £ million of income, i.e. absolute maximum tax bill of £100k.

Oh and,
prescriptions about £3,
Full fees and maintainace grant for Uni students,
Couples pension about half as much again as UK
Right of audience before parliament (one of the worlds oldest continuous)
Low crime

oops, i should clarify that this is my most regular job. how do i get to an industrial estate whether near a town or out in the sticks? i am an agency truck driver so each day i could be working somewhere different

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

Very good insight into the typical London-based government thinking on transport last week (during that programme where Jane Horricks is a housewife who becomes the PM, forget the name).

They had the new "PM" instigating a "no car day" in the country every Wednesday for green reasons - anyone caught using a car for non-essential journeys would get 3-points etc.
Rather than use this as a great opportunity to show an enraged million-strong mob dragging the PM out for a lynching, the writers of the show chose to portray such a stupid idea as a success! Cue shots of Londoners walking to work or getting on shiney new busses with some background mention of a few hundred protesters! The "PM" did get egged, but only by a lone protester who came across as just being lazy.

Is this really how those in London (and hence the government) think, that we are all a bit lazy for not using PT? To get a bus to my work in the sticks involves 4 changes and a door to door time of nearly 4 hours - as opposed to a 20min drive in my 50mpg car.

can they do that? since when was driving your own car an endorseable offence???

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

No, there would be riots, but I would suggest that 'getting to and from my place of work which is 25 miles away' is an essential journey

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Worth pointing out that the writer of said TV series is on record as being dyed in the wool 'old labour'........