Graham Butcher

I presume that the home scooter refers to an e scooter, yes? If yes then you must be aware, that these are illegal to use on public roads or indeed in a public space. I find it very interesting that you state that you have given up on bus rides due to sitting in the same congestion as car, and yet in earlier post you were advocating that people should PT as sustainable solutions, but again, you are not taking your own advice, so clearly you seem to think that you are special and everyone else has to give up their cars, use sustainable PT so that you drive from A to B with clear road as if you were the King, is that it?? If actually took the effort to read posts, or did a bit of research you would have discovered why it is that buses cause congestion, it is to do with them being operated by driver only (OMO) largely assisted by an incompetent government allowing the introduction of these buses to remove the old half cab type which used to have a conductor on board to take fares while the bus was kept moving to speed up the traffic flow. The rules were changed in 1966 so the nationalised buses could be prepared for privatising which finally happened in 1988. So the congestion was actually brought about by HM Government. Once privatised, profit became the essential item, prices rose rapidly, services cut, rural areas were often stripped of any bus service at all so the rise of the private car began. Once upon a time, it was very common on Chelmsford Town services (my route was a 10 minute service) using buses like this Bristol FLF seating 70 with 12 standing at peak times to see 2, 3 and sometimes 4 of one after the other, full up with the first bus being the scheduled service and the other as duplicates or reliefs, such was the demand for PT. We have had special "Works Services" that would take workers to their factories around the town in the morning and in the evening take them home again. Those services also stopped and workers started buying cars and driving to work each day. So you want to blame someone for the massive congestion and the so perceived bad air quality (even though data shows it is not), then blame the governments over the years for sowing the seeds of the car culture for their idiotic culling of road and rail PT and selling them off to the highest bidders. Then in 1966 these began to be phased out and replaced with these Bristol VR, again similar capacity and one man operated. These days, the fares are so expensive and the car has become transport of choice, chiefly brought about the selling of the state owned buses and also the railways, these days we get just 1 of these single deck shuttle buses every 15 to 20 minutes which now largely run about almost empty. And yes, we do have park and ride and these are the buses that operate that, run by Essex County Council. Yes, I was having a go at you, it should be no surprise to anybody when you always change the narrative, even though myself and others have perfectly good and valid points, but you always try to belittle those who dare to think differently to you. My stance is neither pro buses or pro cars and I have a free bus pass, but as I pointed out earlier about standing out in the rain waiting for a bus to take me shopping, which when it came along would still leave me needing to catch a further bus or 2 at least to reach the food shops because the they are no longer in the city centre, they are now on retail parks dotted around the edge of the city and there is no suitable direct service, and not a single park has a dedicated bus service, which means that is still some walking to be done to reach the shops. This can take over an hour each way but I can reach the shops in about 10mins by car. Then there is the small matter of trying to carry upto 6 bags of shopping back to the bus stop and then going though all those changes and waiting around for the connections in order to get back home again. You try doing all that in all kinds of weather. One of these bags will have 30 pints of milk for instance, bloody heavy stuff seeing as the milkman delivering is now also a thing of the past. So shopping could easily take up a day as it would be impossible to carry those bags single handed, so it would take 3 maybe 4 trips to do a weeks shopping, would you in all honesty be prepared to that when you reach 75 years of age? Then my son has to be taken to and from his place of work, each day, 13 miles each way, twice a day (3 buses and 90mins to 2 hours each way and costly if I don't take him), my wife to be taken and collected from the Crown Courts when she is on duty. My 92 year old Mother in Law also needs help and care 3 or 4 times a week on the other side of the city, and she needs picking and taking to keep doctors and hospital appointments and then taking home again, so a car is a real necessity for me and so it is for many other people. So even though I have free travel on the buses in my city, they are useless for me. So hopefully you could be a little bit more understanding of other peoples positions and requirements, you really are in a very different place fiscally and location wise for decent PT services, which you shun because it is not suitable for you, just as for many others it is not suitable. This will also explain why I'm dubious, of the many of the governments plans as I have seen grand schemes before that were going to greatly enhance everyones lives etc and they all have just turned into a massive sh1tshow.

Anyway, back the normal service and topic, I was wrong about Vauxhall making electric cars the same monthly payment as their ICE versions. The correct information is that ICE versions were paid for over 4 years and the electric ones over 5 years, which still makes them more expensive to buy and means the private buyer now has to keep the same car for a year longer before they can actually own the car.

No we never had those, we used machines made by Setright, which the conductor would wear on a leather strap and when they went to OMO operation, the same machine was mounted on a motorised plinth as shown on the photo.

You are correct about it is sometimes the buses slowing traffic down, this is in many parts of the country due to the introduction of OMO (One man Operation) buses where the driver has take the fares and issue tickets as passengers board, this takes time. Before, they used to have a conductor on board who would ring the bell so the bus get on the move again while the conductor would collect the fares. This only happened when the buses were privatised in order to make more profit, once again capitalism raises its head at the inconvenience of others.

Hence why I said that 1 DD bus could potentially remove upto 80 cars, hence entice people back onto buses, by making them affordable, more frequent, more routes, more comfortable etc would help to reduce traffic congestion. Most places today have park and ride buses, but are only good for visitors, local residents are highly unlikely to make use of them. Cars parked on the road slows the buses down, well who would have thought that would happen and it was nice to see you actually admit that people park on the road because their flat did not come with allocated parking, something I have highlighted many times before, few flats / houses in older towns and cities have off road parking for flats or houses, and clearly buses will struggle to get past these if there is other traffic in their way. Once again, while rain could well be a very good reason for getting the car out, who wants to stand at bus stop for any length of time getting soaked, plus there is the walk to the bus stop and again when you alight from the bus you have to walk to your final destination, getting even wetter? Have you ever for a single moment even considered that the cyclist in the snow might actually have no other option open to them? I think the answer to that is going to be NO because you're not skint. If PT is well built round your way, (your words) then why do you need to drive or indeed have 2 cars? You need to get out more, as I already mentioned, loads of other population centres have park & ride schemes, including here in Chelmsford and while I don't have the photographic memory of @Ootohere, I seem to recall that he has also posted about such schemes up in Scotland. OK then, so when are you giving up your cars, you already apparently live in an area which has a dense PT system so you don't need your cars, you could use the more sustainable solution that you are so keen for others to adopt, are you going to lead by example? Of course not, silly me for even thinking you would. Really, you need to come to Chelmsford then, Saturday and especially Sunday, there is more traffic in the centre, why, maybe because people are at work on weekdays, and on Sundays our PT system runs a skeleton service and network rail have bus replacement services due to ongoing rail engineering works. As for using the tube in London, you would be riding in the most polluted air in all of London, a fact that has been well demonstrated and I find that ironic given your position on the need to clean up the air, especially you say in London and you believe that ULEZ is fully warranted. Funny how there was NOT enough freely available evidence that Sadiq Khan could use, instead he had to waste thousands of £ of taxpayers money getting UCL to write a report which had to be altered because it found the air was already good.

I remember when I was working with the National Bus Company, that buses were also used to transport parcels from other towns etc, the same for trains. I used to have to go and meet certain buses and or trains to pick up parcels with urgent spares in them. That was back in the day when buses had conductors on board. Then along came OMO (One man Operation) and that service was hit on the head as the driver could not keep getting out of his cab to take on board, or give out parcels. It seems like we knew how to do things back then.

@wyx087Please accept that you live in one of the best connected cities in the world for public transport, have a nice house, a large expensive car plus a runabout that others can only dream about. For many people, owning a car means a banger costing a few hundred £ or less, have jobs with only 2 half days a week because it financially benefits bosses to employ people like that. You really need to have more empathy and understanding of the plight of others.

The best option to reduce traffic in congested cities is to make public transport more suitable, ie, more routes, regular frequent services, more affordable and comfortable. 1 doubledeck bus can take upto 80 cars off the cities roads on each trip. All too often the buses go with about 10 passengers on them.

@PetrolDaveThe problem is that some can only speak from their own viewpoint. In an ideal world we would all have access to things that others take forgranted.

Oh, so the information I was given is incorrect then but as that would appear to be the BIK rate, which is only applicable when the employer provides the car to you and that assumes that you are using car for personal miles as well, which would not apply when as I outlined in my earlier post, where the company pass the provision of a suitable car that fits within their brief, to the employee. I'll have to find out which system his company use. I've just found some notes I took at the meeting where my old company explained their system to their external team, and I had it slightly wrong. They were only offering a fixed contribution towards the monthly lease of the car and a fixed 15p per mile for all business miles, that was in 2016. That 15p was for fuel, tyres, servicing, repairs and insurance (business) and as most of my miles would be in London, I deemed it would cost me personally for the privilege of working. I might just have managed if I opted for a small city car, but that would mean I'd have to have a 2nd car for family trips, therefore not viable. For those people who had a more rural patch allowing them to maximise their MPG figures, they were in a far better position but around London that was not possible.

I have just been informed that anyone getting a BEV as a company car and having to claim back business miles and not being able to charge at home or needing to make use of a fast charger during the day in order to complete their journey, the new is not good. HMRC only allow reimbursement @ 9p a mile and with fast chargers being upto / around 79P per kwH, they will be £s out of pocket so that there is road block tp the uptake of BEV cars as company cars when the employee is expected to supply the car as per my earlier post, diesel then becomes the defacto standard.

Ha, Scotland is not alone in the crooked stakes either, England can keep you company on that front I think.

@Winston_Woof Yes I think it is, if you read the details on the flex system they expect you to already have at least a large car capable of carrying 5 people which must also have business insurance etc.

Yes, I heard that many of the white van men delivering for the likes of Amazon and many of the courier companies have to purchase their own vans and operate them, many are forced to work long hours in order to earn enough to cover their overheads. I even looked into the possibilities of working in my retirement for a local courier doing the last mile deliveries and decided that I would be possibly working very long hours into the night with virtually no job security for little reward.

Actually many companies were, and I suspect are still, walking away from buying and supplying company cars. Instead, they are dictating to their staff that they must assume the responsibility of getting themselves a car, which has to be 1) a new car, 2) of a certain type and image, 3) insured for business use, 4) the employee is responsible for all repairs and sourcing a replacement car if needed due to their normal car being in for servicing / repairs 5) the company will in return pay you £XXX a month towards the monthly repayments, and also £XX towards the cost of servicing and tyres etc. 6) cars are not allowed to exceed 3 years in age before being replaced with a new one. Lastly, 7) any business miles you must claim for monthly and if they agree, they will pay you at the rate of XXp per mile. So they are expecting their employees to fund the business fuel for at least a month before you can make a claim, then if approved, wait a further 1 or 2 weeks before getting that expense payment made to you. Also, if you decide to leave their employ or they decide to terminate your employment for what ever reason, the car and its repayments are your responsibility, which can be a millstone around your neck. So this in effect becomes a private sale and yet it isn't because you might like to have a sporty car or maybe an SUV, but the company dictates it has to be a 4 door saloon with space for x passengers, of a certain engine size to preserve the companies image. I think that is less than ideal, as the company is accepting zero liability and if the company goes under, you are exposed to a lot of debt till you can work out a deal on the lease etc. This is the scheme that my old employer had just introduced when I decided to retire and leave them to it. With respect to keeping cars longer than the fashionable 3 years, this is precisely what Geoff buys Cars advocates as the car has already been manufactured and prevents yet another car having to be made, increasing the amount of carbon and pollution in its production and shipping, leaving just its running emissions to be accounted for which will be much lower than having a new car.

And I think the Vauxhall Corsa E is one of the cars on that scheme with 4 year plan instead of the usual 3 year one, still makes the car dearer over the ICE version.

Can they do that, petrol and diesel for instance is part of crude oil, and we will still need the crude oil and so too is gas a natural part of that process, is it not?

@wyx087 and there you go again, manipulating what I say to make it fit your narrative and twist things around and take things out of context, what a shame.

What are we going to do with the gas and the fossil fuels, just waste it, let it go free into the world to do further untold damage??

You mean the SNP wanted the revenue from oil to be beneficial for the Scottish residents, like better healthcare, care in the community for the elderly etc, and what is wrong with that? Nothing in my book, use what ever natural resources you can and take benefit from it to improve the lives of your citizens.

That's the point, they won't. Oil will continue to play a very big part of batteries and EVs as the video posted by @Ootohereshows. I think we can all agree that something needs to be done before all the oil that can safely be extracted expires. It's just the way that it seems we are going about it could end up with us being left in a far worse state than we are right now. As seen in the video we are looking at all kinds of battery make up and they are being devolped now and to a very large extent we, the consumers are the lab rats and the guinea pigs in the experiment, which may because of the rush to get fossil fuel consigned to the history books, could end up paying massively if it all goes wrong. We should be taking a different strategy towards the goal.

@Stonekeeper Thank you for posting this video. I did come across this before but was unable to find it when I wanted to post it. Many are in denial of these events, we get all the benefits and the locals get all the crap and are no benefits at all, those go to the companies.

Homologation - Wikipedia See the section under Motorsports.

Wrong, I never made that claim, some of what they say is pure guff and some is not. Others cannot admit that and automatically label everything as BS. Again, 100% agreement, but then I have never ever denied it, why can't you accept that fact? Once again, 100% agreement from me, but I thought we discussing amount of energy and pollution being used/creating just the petrol/diesel and the car itself. Lifetime is such a variable thing 🥱

Are you sure you are using the word homologate correctly, I'm not.