Road pricing bill before Commons

[BoredBloke]

"Roads were built and are maintained and modernised for the use of cars which funnily enough are used by "normal" people, so what if they are congested. "

I think it's the word normal here which is the crux of the issue. For most people they are not prepared to do 4 hours per day on public transport since it does not meet their basic requirements. Since Dang is keen to do this then I can only conclude that he is abnormal.

"It's all down to axle loading."

Take a look at the slow lane of the motorway. You can see indentations caused by lorry tyres. You don't see that in any other lane except for the one which is predominately used by the big trucks

[Churchill]

B-but... why do we ban firearms and knives in this country? I mean, duh, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". And knives don't do anything.

What else does this guy say? "Cars don't make potholes, lorries do." Yes, I'm sure lorries contribute greatly to the general mayhem. However, find a road junction at one of those side turnings where there's always a steady stream of traffic on the main road. At those places (and there are a lot of them) cars accelerate into gaps in the traffic. You can hear the crunch of ripped up tarmac and the wheel spin as they do it. Trucks cause plenty of damage to little bridges and villages as they thunder through, but they don't accelerate like that at junctions. They physically can't (and I've driven trucks, so I know). And there are far more cars than lorries, vans and buses combined.

What else? (I can't believe I'm spending time on this. It's basic common sense.) "Lots of things make polution." That's not even in the debate. Of course lots of things make pollution. Most of them don't cause hundreds of thousands of casualties every year, block up the roads and stink out the road you're walking down or make it so you can't talk to someone in the street without shouting.

"Arguments... personal opinion... poorly thought out... blah blah." No. Don't think so.

Has anyone else noticed that this tit argues like a kid?

[wendigo100]

Has anyone else noticed that this tit argues like a kid?

Yes. He is trolling though, so that is allowed.

In real life he is probably a nice sensible boy who you wouldn't mind your sister dating. Although if he parks a train outside your house when he picks her up...

[Vito]

Has anyone else noticed that this tit argues like a kid?

He's probably a 10 year old having a right old laugh at us!! If he is an adult thought, what a cock

[dang65]

Interestingly(?) enough, a quick google has provided some information to the effect that lorries do between 15 and 140 times the damage to the road as does a passenger car.

It's all down to axle loading.

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. I haven't said that lorries don't cause a lot of damage to the roads. In fact, I said... *checks previous posts* ...that lorries cause a lot of damage to roads.

It's worth noting though that of the 32 million vehicles on the road in 2005, 27 million of them were cars. It is cars which are clogging up the roads. Cars which most the time have one person in them, and in a LOT of cases are making unnecessary journeys (except TonyEnglish ) .

[dang65]

This is fairly interesting by the way. A spreadsheet to work out how much your car costs. Mine came out at just under a thousand quid a month (for a 14 month old car with a small loan to repay).

Even putting in a £2000 second hand motor with no loan on 19000 miles per annum comes out at about £310 a month. Apparently UK households spend on average £1 in every £6 on motoring. Stats. Averages. I know. But I can believe it.

[Ardesco]

What else does this guy say? "Cars don't make potholes, lorries do."

Actually I said lorries/busses are much a bigger cause than cars. I did not say cars do not contribute at all.

You can hear the crunch of ripped up tarmac and the wheel spin as they do it. Trucks cause plenty of damage to little bridges and villages as they thunder through, but they don't accelerate like that at junctions. They physically can't (and I've driven trucks, so I know). And there are far more cars than lorries, vans and buses combined.

I think you'll find that rubber (which most tyres are made out of) is a significantly weaker material than tarmac. Secondly an unloaded lorry can be surprisingly quick, and a cab without a trailer has a lot more acceleration than you are giving it credit for.

What else? (I can't believe I'm spending time on this. It's basic common sense.) "Lots of things make polution." That's not even in the debate. Of course lots of things make pollution.

Well that was one of your reasons for increasing the amount of tax on cars. Why single out cars why not whack up the tax on everything???

[Ardesco]

This is fairly interesting by the way. A spreadsheet to work out how much your car costs. Mine came out at just under a thousand quid a month (for a 14 month old car with a small loan to repay).

Even putting in a £2000 second hand motor with no loan on 19000 miles per annum comes out at about £310 a month. Apparently UK households spend on average £1 in every £6 on motoring. Stats. Averages. I know. But I can believe it.

Do you do 19000 miles per year on public transport then? Or are you comparing apples and oranges again ?

It's a moot point anyway because the majority of people are going to own a car for emergencies wheather they drive it regulary or not (If you accidently slip cutting the sunday roast and put a nice big hole in your hand you would expect somebody to get a lift to A&E, it's not life threatening and doesn't need an ambulance, most likely a couple of stiches and we all know how regular and reliabel public transport is on Sunday...), so by taking public transport when you own a car you are generally speaking not saving a huge amount of money as the main costs (e.g. tax, insurance, MOT, etc) have to be paid anyway.

[BoredBloke]

"However, find a road junction at one of those side turnings where there's always a steady stream of traffic on the main road. At those places (and there are a lot of them) cars accelerate into gaps in the traffic. You can hear the crunch of ripped up tarmac and the wheel spin as they do it. "

LOL - are you having a laugh. Where do you live? In a Vin Diesel film by any chance? Who joins a steady stream of traffic by wheel spinning their way into it? But a lorry on the other hand floats along like a cloud and is powered by fairy farts alone. The more you post the more you come over as a yogurt knitting tree hugger. Your arguments fail for the simple fact that public transport cannot meet the needs. If it could then more people would use it
Public transports is

1 - unreliable
2 - dirty
3 - slow
4 - expensive
5 - already running to capacity (hence the cost)
6 - unsafe - I've not heard of too many people being mugged in their cars
7 - starts working too late
8 - stops working too early
9 - inconvenient

and they were just the ones I could think of

Face it, while public transport works for you and your work location, it's not an option for a great many

[BoredBloke]

"Even putting in a £2000 second hand motor with no loan on 19000 miles per annum comes out at about £310 a month. Apparently UK households spend on average £1 in every £6 on motoring. Stats. Averages. I know. But I can believe it."

I thought your argument was that motoring was too cheap and had to be increased.