Considering we are being urged to ditch the ICE car in favour of "clean" electric ones, or better still public transport? Take a typical commute of 24 miles each way, which for the majority of people seems about right. Ignoring those who are able to live and work in a big city. Most people it seems live in a small town or village where the housing is more affordable, but work in a bigger place because generally there are more jobs available and rates of pay are often more attractive.

My son has a similar trip each day.

Someone has done an experiment to find out, and here it is.

Edited 12 May, 20251 yr by Graham Butcher

The £3 bus fare cap where available in England must be a help for some.

Especially those that can not drive which could be quite a lots of people, maybe even that have a 'Typical 24 mile commute....'

£6 a day...Return. But only if it is a single bus used.

£3 national bus fare cap - GOV.UK.mhtml

Edited 12 May, 20251 yr by Ootohere

Yeah, bus fares at least for time being are more favourable, but not as user-friendly and take far more time, thus more time of your life wasted.

Location location location.

There are Cities in Scotland and probably in the RoUK where there are Bus lanes and the travel is quicker by bus than by car into or out of a city.

Then there is the issue of parking if no workplace parking or Free to Park, so another expense.

Hence 'Park & Rides.'

Park out of town free and travel in & out on Public Transport.

?

How do bus drivers travel to work, or train drivers? Maybe some use Public Transport...

Edited 12 May, 20251 yr by Ootohere

Well now, I did say ignore cities and those that live in them as they will benefit from such schemes, but even then, that will depend on how many buses you need to catch on the way to complete the journey.

But given the parameters given in the video, which are typical for most commutes, looking at the one my sons does, with a minimum of 2 buses (he actually goes out of the city to a smaller town, therefore he has far less traffic leaving the city, and he has the benefit of bus lanes and bus gates. In order for him to arrive at work for 8am by bus, he has to leave home by 6:20am, driving means leaving home 7:30am so even with the bus lanes and gates, he needs 3hrs 40mins as opposed to 1hr for the round trip. So on 6 day week, that means he would spend another 16 hours just commuting and we all know that time is money and time is the one thing that you'll never get back.

Even those living in a city like London, full of bus lanes and gates, over a similar distance journey, I would still expect the car to win (assuming parking was not a problem) because unlike a bus, a car can take whatever route it likes so armed with a decent satnav, can see where the holdups are and divert round them.

Edited 12 May, 20251 yr by Graham Butcher

3 hours ago, Ootohere said:

?

How do bus drivers travel to work, or train drivers? Maybe some use Public Transport...

Edited 12 May, 20251 yr by daftbugga
phat fingers

As a ex train driver I can tell you a lot of train drivers travel to/from work by car, simply because a lot of shifts involve starting before or finishing after the first/last train / bus has run.

6 hours ago, daftbugga said:

As a ex train driver I can tell you a lot of train drivers travel to/from work by car, simply because a lot of shifts involve starting before or finishing after the first/last train / bus has run.

That was why I never answered the question as it was obvious that was the case. Even during normal hours I expect many still prefer to drive even though like those working on the buses, I expect rail workers get free travel?

I bet there must be commuting cyclists among train drivers.

After all 7-11 hour shifts not very physically demanding as far as exercise.

They might leave the Porsche at home.

So the title and then the video is it, it is all about the answer being take the car.

Well if you have one that is and if your journey suits that.

"(Assuming parking was not a problem.") or an additional expense!.

It all gets very specific and not general to many 'typical work places'.

My Uncle Ben was a driver or engineer on the Edinburgh Night train back when i was a child.

I suppose he walked to work and home as he never had a car.

Unless maybe busses were running at that time back in the 1960,s.

Edited 13 May, 20251 yr by Ootohere

When still working I looked into commuting by bus instead of driving.

The problem was that bus routes were all radial from the town centres so to get to work meant 3 buses taking nearly 2 hours (because of poor connections) and 3 bus fares.

Driving took 20 minutes most days (more when there was an accident on the motorway) and fuel cost of less than 20%.

But it was 4 hours per day instead of 40 minutes per day that was the deciding factor!

1 hour ago, Ootohere said:

I bet there must be commuting cyclists among train drivers.

After all 7-11 hour shifts not very physically demanding as far as exercise.

They might leave the Porsche at home.

So the title and then the video is it, it is all about the answer being take the car.

Well if you have one that is and if your journey suits that.

"(Assuming parking was not a problem.") or an additional expense!.

It all gets very specific and not general to many 'typical work places'.

My Uncle Ben was a driver or engineer on the Edinburgh Night train back when i was a child.

I suppose he walked to work and home as he never had a car.

Unless maybe busses were running at that time back in the 1960,s.

So did your uncle Ben have to walk 24 miles, each way then?

The entire premise of the video was looking at the average commute, which was determined at about 24 miles each way and also excluded large cities like London etc. once again for obvious reasons. Yes of course there will be loads of incidents where people may only have to walk a few hundred yards to work, or cycle a couple of miles to their place of work like I did when on the buses.

It goes without saying, does it not, that if you don't have a car or get a lift from a friend/colleague etc that you either cycle, walk or use buses and trains. That then also limits the type of job you do and where your place of work is as well. For example in the example that John gave, a distance of 24 miles would take an average person around 8 hours to complete, so that would be impracticable, 16 hours a day to get to work and back again + 8 hours shift?, so nobody is ever going to take a job that far from home if it means that they have to get there before everyone else and or leave last.

Cycling is a possibility as that would be around 1hr 40 mins at a brisk speed, 2 hours at a leisurely pace?

So in essence, people will adapt their employment needs to their location and travel/transport abilities. I don't think I have ever seen any case where public transport beats a car when going door to door, and there have been countless attempts at doing it.

Edited 13 May, 20251 yr by Graham Butcher

Loving the irony of a bunch of retired fellas discussing the best way to get to work. 😁

25 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

So in essence, people will adapt their employment needs to their location and travel/transport abilities.

If you are a skilled professional you have to work where the jobs are, when I headed a department of 60 professional telecoms engineers in Surrey over 50% of them had moved from north of Birmingham because there were no jobs in that profession in places other than the South such as the Thames Valley and Cambridge.

They had to adapt their location to meet their employment needs not vice versa.

19 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

If you are a skilled professional you have to work where the jobs are, when I headed a department of 60 professional telecoms engineers in Surrey over 50% of them had moved from north of Birmingham because there were no jobs in that profession in places other than the South such as the Thames Valley and Cambridge.

They had to adapt their location to meet their employment needs not vice versa.

This is an extreme case that you have shown here. Where I live London is the biggest employment centre but housing is the most expensive so there are literally thousands of people moving here from London because of prices for housing is way more affordable here and then commuting back to London for work because the rates of pay and or the skilled jobs are located there.

There is a limit to the times you could move home to suit your work as no job will provide security of tenure and moving house is a very costly affair when compared to commuting and maybe adjusting your job slightly.

Hurrah for choices or those that can choose.

Hurrah for where there is proper planning and if traffic is to be reduced in towns or cities the public transport can suit all sorts including night workers or the night time entertainment industry employees.

Trains and busses that run late and there are connections.

Park and rides where in the location that suits people make sense.

They should be where there are the Services like a Doctors, Fire & Emergency Services, Police & any other essentials.

A Wind turbine or 3, solar and battery storage, a substation and EV charging & hydrogen production.

Low carbon transport areas.

Like is going just on the outskirts of Perth and elsewhere in Scotland eventually.

40 minutes ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Loving the irony of a bunch of retired fellas discussing the best way to get to work. 😁

The real irony is actually in my first sentence of my original post, public transport is not the solution that it is being touted to us as. The car will always be the best and most time efficient regardless of it being ICE or EV, surely a man of your calibre can see that this is the case and clearly is of way more importance to someone working. Being retired does not stop our brains being active and taking a real interest in the well-being of working people. I don't doubt that any of us retired folk want to become an ostrich and stick our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening around us? 😉

16 minutes ago, Ootohere said:

Hurrah for choices or those that can choose.

Hurrah for where there is proper planning and if traffic is to be reduced in towns or cities the public transport can suit all sorts including night workers or the night time entertainment industry employees.

Trains and busses that run late and there are connections.

Park and rides where in the location that suits people make sense.

They should be where there are the Services like a Doctors, Fire & Emergency Services, Police & any other essentials.

A Wind turbine or 3, solar and battery storage, a substation and EV charging & hydrogen production.

Low carbon transport areas.

Like is going just on the outskirts of Perth and elsewhere in Scotland eventually.

Or in short, we should be living and working in 15 minute cities, so no need for cars, park and ride schemes, just walk/cycle or use local buses/taxis and trains for the occasional long trip then eh

Edited 13 May, 20251 yr by Graham Butcher

Yes sound about right for some. There will be more low ground places flooding. New places need building. Labour says today training 60,000 builders. London might have 8 million but Scotland had less than 6 million in a country with 5 cities. Covering a large area. Places and people are not all the same. England needs to clean up their act.

Edited 13 May, 20251 yr by Ootohere

Generally found motorcycling as the best way to commute in to big cities.

Zooming through the traffic and seeing all those in their metal boxes.

When the weather bad might take a car but even in light rain and even temperatures down to near zero the motorcycle could do the journeys in about half the time.

Just looking at 3 wheeled motorcycles, quite some interesting machines in that class.

Where I live the answer is "where do you work wrt your home?"

I commute by motorcycle. I also did that when I lived in London in the bad old days before the ULEZ and my snot was black.

I have a decent bit of motorway to get to the city now. The trains can smash down parallel to that at 125mph. My bike can do that easily, but if I did that often I'd lose my licence pretty quick so I don't.

End result: commute by train is about the same time as commuting by bike, but the bike is far cheaper and really convenient and makes me happy. wheeeeeeeee.