No one is going to stop driving if they don’t improve bike infrastructure. To cycle to the next town I need to cycle on an A road. Why is there not a dedicated cycle lane there?
IMHO the problem with the bus fare cap is that it’s too high. £2 sounds great until you realise it’s per-person and per-journey, so if there’s three of you and you’re only going a couple of miles, a minicab might end up being cheaper!
That’s actually ok! The real issue is low occupancy cars: when you start carpooling the benefits really add up. A petrol car with 3 ppl is (from an emissions perspective) equivalent to a diesel bus with ~30 ppl.
No joke!
If I wanted to get a monthly bus pass here (Canada), it would cost more than that I currently pay for insurance and gas for my car. Taking single trips would be quite a bit more than a monthly pass.
The pass would also be considerably more than investing in an e-scooter or e-bike, and absurdly more expensive when compared to riding a bike around.
I’m surprised that your insurance and gas cost is so low. A TTC monthly pass is only $156. You must have very cheap insurance and use only a small amount of fuel.
Yeah, I should add at least some context. LOL
I’m on a pay-as-you-go plan with CAA, so insurance is dirt cheap… something like $50 for 1000km of driving (that amount covers both my wife and I). My previous insurance was close to $150 / month, even if we didn’t use the car, so that was a total ripoff.
Gas also depends on how much I drive. Since I choose to bike everywhere within a 20km range, it means I’m not driving nearly as much.
If I had to take my car EVERYWHERE, including very short trips (<3km away), then it would cost more for sure.
But it’s really hard for me to justify the cost of a bus pass in lieu of other modes of transportation.
Oh man, I’m sure it’ll spur some change this time.
The general populace and politicians aren’t going to take climate seriously until we get sea level rise overtaking major coastal metros and causing internal (and external) refugee crises, and by that point it’ll be too late. It’s kinda like if smoking didn’t hurt you, but your grandkids or great grandkids, and the effects were just nebulous enough for the alt right to suggest that it’s actually because of a big gay Jewish conspiracy.
