http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Two-out-of-three-drivers.6788452.jp
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"Two out of three drivers use car less as cost of fuel soars"
(11 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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I'll believe it when I see it. Long tailbacks of (mostly) single occupant vehicles on Easter Road and London Road for much of the afternoon. No, not bicycles - motor vehicles. Either the drivers are wearing a fixed grin through the financial pain, or fuel is still far too cheap.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Not going to go down well here I guess, but I use more fuel now to enable me to cycle to work..
I used to get train to work, so round trip in car of less than 3 miles.
I now have a round trip of 22 miles to park and ride where I cycle from. Cycling is fun though :)Posted 12 years ago # -
I've noticed the occasional car restarting its engine as traffic recommences moving after being stopped at a junction. Even, once or twice, a Beemer, though I assume it's not a built-in function which cuts the engine off after idling for a set amount of time. It varies whether it's behind or in front of me so it's impossible to discern whether or not the engine-switch-off action has been inspired by observing a cyclist at rest, seeing as cycles don't have a clutch or a special null gear which allows them to continue pedalling whilst stationary.
Posted 12 years ago # -
If you've seen the Beemer, Mr Pig, it's possible it was an auto thing. I have to grudgingly accept at times that my car is really a BMW, and it's got it built in. But then I used to physically turn off the engine in the car I had before that anyway.
In the Western Isles fuel was 15p a litre more expensive than it is here. And anyway, we are still cheaper than quite a few other European countries (including, I believe, Germany).
@Baldy, no shame in driving to a Park n' Ride to cycle in the rest of the way. I can honestly say it's exactly what I'd do if I lived out of the city. Makes absolute perfect sense, using the car for the part of the journey where it's the quickest, and ditching it before it becomes part of the urban congestion problem.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Its better than driving the whole journey!
I have a friend with that switching off thing in his car so I guess it is just getting more popular, I have noticed it a few times too.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Allan Archibald, a motorist from Glasgow, said: "I think twice these days about driving anywhere.
OK and this is being spun as a bad thing why?
Oh and to haulage companies - if fuel is pushing up your costs, pass them on to your customers.
It's altogether unsurprising that there wasn't a "and 1% of motorists blamed other motorists for the rising cost of fuel" response in the survey. Of course, it's anyone else's fault but their own. Sooner or later reality must hit that the price of (crude-oil based) fuel can never come down based on ever increasing demand and ever decreasing supply.
Maybe the government should consider teaching basic economics in schools?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Here we go again, I seem not to be able to help myself ;)...
I'm not against getting drivers out of their cars, and putting up the price of fuel is one proven way of doing so - much like increasing tax on cigarettes, people give up!
However, inflation is sitting near on 5%, and with take home pay being squeezed (I'm public sector and my salary has increased ~1% in three years, and there is more pain to come, I'm sure not just for the public sector) increasing fuel prices are nothing but inflationary and have a detrimental affect on the wider economy. These increases ARE being passed on to the consumer, hence at least in part the high inflation figures.
As we all know, continued high inflation can, and will lead to one thing, higher interest rates which will again have a detrimental affect on economy (I know the paradox of this, low interest rates are in part what got us into this mess, and they should be much higher in the longer term so as not to fuel another credit bubble!).
High fuel prices ARE an excellent way of getting people to quit their habit, but I'm afraid at this time of economic instability this is not the time for them.
Posted 12 years ago # -
New beemers do have an auto engine shut down when the car is stationary and in neutral.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I've noticed a lot of drivers of late trying to emulate these auto-shut-down-start-up-at-the-lights cars in a queue of traffic. And failing to be sharpish enough.
I'm not really sure but I always presumed that an idling "regular" car engine in those sorts of situations uses less fuel than letting the engine stop completely for 5 or 10 seconds and then going through the ignition cycle again.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'm not sure modern cars use that much fuel to start up, i'm fairly sure they don't use that much fuel at idle, not for the few seconds one waits at lights. I am sure normal starter motors aren't designed for use more than a few times a day they are rated for 5 to 10 hours of use over the life time of the car.
Posted 12 years ago #
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