Selling out to the dark side....

[Si]

thank you all for the good wishes.

The driving is the downside. there is a longer term plan afoot, involving better weather and motorbikes.

pity you've become disillusioned with Bikeability.

Yes, it's the fact that we do L2 at primary then pick up the same kids in secondary for L3 but find they have forgotten most of the L2 as they've virtually none of them been riding on roads. It's not bikeability itself that is the issue, rather the fact that it is delivered in isolation with no further support to keep them riding after the sessions.
Although I will continue with adult bikeability as I find that more rewarding because they do go out and use what they have learned.

[reohn2]

Good luck with the new job Si and I hope the car pays for itself

[Mick F]

3 adults Doncaster to Edinburgh. Return . Booked 5 days in advance ..... £528 .... or £80 In diesel and drive.

Just checked the GWR website.
Leaving tomorrow from Doncaster to Edinburgh and returning on Monday.
Three adults.
£325.50 return.

[meic]

Good luck with the new job Si and I hope the car pays for itself

Which is fine on a personal level and we all have cars because it does pay for itself.

It isnt so good in the grand scheme of things where us all having cars is destroying health and planet.

Though as my car is a gold* car it is obviously not as bad as Si's red one, so I can feel smug that I am doing my bit to save the planet despite still driving a car.


*Though it is a VW and they probably cheated there and it is in reality only beige.

[kwackers]

If this isn't Si's car I'll be very disappointed...

[youtube]sjCjbV2EnJ4[/youtube]

[landsurfer]

3 adults Doncaster to Edinburgh. Return . Booked 5 days in advance ..... £528 .... or £80 In diesel and drive.

indeed! I'm sure you could contrive to pay that,

Why would i contrive to pay that much ?
Prices quoted are from thetrainline.com this morning.
Contrive ... really !

[landsurfer]

3 adults Doncaster to Edinburgh. Return . Booked 5 days in advance ..... £528 .... or £80 In diesel and drive.

Just checked the GWR website.
Leaving tomorrow from Doncaster to Edinburgh and returning on Monday.
Three adults.
£325.50 return.

Get it down to around a £100 return and your in the ballpark ... until that we drive ...
And we haven't got to get from Waverley to Haymarket carrying our overnight bags and tool kits ...

[PH]

Imagine .. 3 children . 2 adults . Baggage . Bicycle.
Bus to railway station, train to Sheffield . Change . Train to Nottingham . bus to uncle johns . Bus back to railway station . Train to Tamworth . Bus / taxi to hotel
... REALLY !!!

I'd probably use a car for such a journey even with the expense of hiring one. That doesn't mean cars good, trains bad, it just means sometimes one form of transport is better than another. Which goes back to the point that so many people only ever consider one...

[pwa]

When you don't live near a railway and the first bus in the morning arrives at your nearest bus stop half an hour after you are supposed to be at work, bike or car is the choice for the commute. I'm close enough to work to have that choice, but if I got a transfer or a new job......

[Geoff.D]

....
Today i have, after not owning one for years, purchased myself an automobile. I'm shortly starting a new (non-cycle related) job.....

Congratulations on the new job. Hope it works for you.
If Cyril Haearn does deport you to Adelstrop, I'm just down the road. There's a hot cuppa waiting for you before you set off home!!

Personally I do own a car (well, a van converted to a camper) and find it very useful and much cheaper for longer journeys (rural Cotswolds to Edinburgh is regular) especially with more than one person. It's a no-brainer financially. Add to that the sheer inconvenience of two bus rides on rural schedules to even get to a mainline station.

I do feel some guilt, I admit. But I live with it, without being able to present any cogent argument for the pollution I'm causing.

A very small concession to my guilty conscience (and it is really only small) is that I built an electric bike last winter onto an unwanted BSO, converted a knackered child buggy into a cargo trailer and now do the 5 hilly miles into Chipping Norton to do the weekly shop rather than use the car.

And before anyone says it ..........yes, even that is a sell out because I could ride my hpv bike or trike on several journeys to effect the same result, and both save more of the planet whilst putting miles into my legs. But those 70 year old legs are happy!!!

[Mick F]

3 adults Doncaster to Edinburgh. Return . Booked 5 days in advance ..... £528 .... or £80 In diesel and drive.

Just checked the GWR website.
Leaving tomorrow from Doncaster to Edinburgh and returning on Monday.
Three adults.
£325.50 return.

Get it down to around a £100 return and your in the ballpark ... until that we drive ...
And we haven't got to get from Waverley to Haymarket carrying our overnight bags and tool kits ...

Mrs Mick F bought a ticket to Bedford and back for early January.
£50odd quid. Via London.
250miles each way to drive from here, so the train wins out easily.

Checking out various dates for your trip to Edinburgh, they all come out as £325.50
Very odd indeed and I'm a bit puzzled why the prices aren't different at different dates. Not my experience at all with train journeys. Odd.

[mjr]

:roll: indeed! I'm sure you could contrive to pay that,

Why would i contrive to pay that much ?
Prices quoted are from thetrainline.com this morning.
Contrive ... really !

Yes, contrive, by using that booking agency as well as whatever else you did to exceed even Mick F's price. There's no shortage of warnings about thetrainline being more expensive than train company websites - where do you think thetrainline get the money for prime-time filmed-in-NZ (Wellington IIRC) TV adverts from? Even on this site: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=107949&p=1040538&hilit=thetrainline#p1040538 and viewtopic.php?f=16&t=104740&p=1007772&hilit=thetrainline#p1007772 for a quick selection.

Imagine .. 3 children . 2 adults . Baggage . Bicycle.
Bus to railway station, train to Sheffield . Change . Train to Nottingham . bus to uncle johns . Bus back to railway station . Train to Tamworth . Bus / taxi to hotel
... REALLY !!!

Not disputing the decision, but if I'd got a bicycle, I'd ride back to railway station and bus/taxi to the hotel at the end.

[Mick F]

Checking January, you can get the three adults to Edinburgh for £70 single, and back again for the same price single.
That's £140 for three adults there and back.

As far as driving is concerned, for only £140 return, driving 240 miles each way doesn't get a look-in.

[landsurfer]

We usually only get 2 - 3 days notice of meetings in Scotland and Penzance, sometimes we need to be there the next day ....
Thats the big real world issue for us.

[Debs]

You didnae mention what sort of vehicle it is

It's a red one.

a Ferrari, congrats!