Those of us working in transport know that, despite what the public feel, the real cost of motoring is really much lower than it used to be. The Guardian today have an analysis of what fuel really costs, which shows this pretty clearly (and fuel is only one part of the falling cost).
If, like me, your memory extends back as far as the 1970s, you should know all this to be true. Look at car ownership and use prior to... ooh, let's say 1987: a typical person owned a second-hand car and used it fairly infrequently, and the cost was a major factor in this behavioural pattern. Today the same typical person has a brand new black pickup truck and uses it to go everywhere. (Okay, I know not everybody has a black pickup truck, but it does sometimes feel that way. I can't express how much I loathe those ridiculous Nissan and Mitsubishi pickup trucks and the morons who buy them.)*
Sure, part of this is the greater availability of credit, but still: go back 20 years and there was no way the average British working person could have afforded to drive in the manner they do now. And what's the cost of public transport done whilst the cost of motoring has fallen? Yes, you've guessed it...
* Edit: Is anybody else annoyed by the names these moronmobiles have? What sort of inadequate feels the need to drive a vehicle with 'Warrior' or 'Outlaw' slapped on the side? My suggestion: everybody who drives round with 'Warrior' written on their vehicle should be pressed into the army and sent off to Afghanistan, everybody with 'Outlaw' can be lynched and everybody with 'Animal' gets sent to a zoo.
2 comments:
I don't know what the effects in economic, biofuels & etc. would be, but IF and it's a big 'if', the economy (food prices) and biofuel effects (deforestation, 3rd world starvation) etc. were minor, I'd quite happily consider a price per litre of £5 or even greater. Yes people I know would be hit badly, but it would only be discomfort.
Then, most of the idiots with these 4X4, pickups and Hummers would be priced off the roads. They could be sold as scrap.
I cycle more than I drive. I'm not a petrol-head, but I enjoy watching BBC's Top Gear. The presenters demonstrated in the programme's £1500 Two Wheel Drive African Cross-Country Car Challenge
that it wasn't necessary to have a 4X4 to drive on slightly less than perfect tarmac or offroad. They crossed the Makgadikgadi, a large salt pan in Northern Botswana. The Makgadikgadi are as wide as Portugal ~110 km / ~70 miles. Apparently the Makgadikgadi had not previously been crossed by any car, let alone knackered old 2WD cars.
Yet they managed it!
Who needs a 4X4? Clearly, very few! Most 4X4 drivers would chicken-out.
The first part of six is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwiTlqv0PR4
The rest are also available on YouTube.
I have to say -- and I'll probably be shunned for this -- but Top Gear is great... except for all the stuff about cars.
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