Author Topic: Ditching the Car  (Read 3893 times)

BuzyG

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #15 on: 20:16:45, 22/05/18 »
Fine if you can trust the bus to be there.  That simply is not the case in Cormwall in my experiance of living here.  So for our Coast path walks we take two cars. When we are up country walking the canals we happily use the bus and train where we can.

gunwharfman

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #16 on: 20:23:28, 22/05/18 »
I forgot the other benifit to me by not using a car, I can hitchike, meet new people and always know that it is an interesting way of getting about. Especially after a hard days hike and the pub is some distance away.

BuzyG

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #17 on: 20:30:26, 22/05/18 »
Try that im Cornwall and you might bump into me.  I enjoy giving hitchers a lift.  Though there was one occasion years ago when I found a knife on the seat after dropping one near Looe.

barewirewalker

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #18 on: 09:02:32, 23/05/18 »
One of my first linear walks coincided with the town council, trying a new experimental traffic scheme. I thought I would be safer out of the town, so I took an early bus ride out to Attingham Park, an enclosed National trust place, where they wanted to charge me for walking through. Eventually I persuaded them that I had no money, only a bus pass and I did not want to lurk within the precincts of their august acres. I was given a wave through,  to a little known back access point, from there I wandered for the rest of the day aiming for the penultimate bus on a route about 11 miles away.

All carefully planned, but I missed that bus by 5 minutes, however there was another service about 3 miles away, so rather than wait an hour an half, I walked cross country, with selective field margins and subtle use of the RoW 2 step to this other bus stop. I arrived with time to spare according to the bus time table, but 3/4 of an hour after the time the bus should have arrived I was pondering a 7 mile walk home or going to the village pub and getting sufficiently intoxicated to spend a night under a hedge. Forgetting the reason that my free trip through Attingham park was caused by a genuine lack of funds.

At this point and empty bus arrived, as I boarded the driver said, "Bet you thought I wasn't coming". Apparently the town's traffic had been locked solid all day, due to the councils experimental traffic scheme, not a single service had been able to run to time and the bus I thought I had missed was probably running late anyway.
Since then I have done many interesting linear walks using public transport.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

NeilC

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #19 on: 18:26:26, 23/05/18 »
I was getting quite excited by this until I went to the Dartmoor official website:


By Train  : Unfortunately, there are no train services within Dartmoor National Park itself.  By Bus : Dartmoor is sadly not blessed with one of the country's most comprehensive bus network [/color]
The don't make it easy do they!    

fernman

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #20 on: 18:43:30, 23/05/18 »
Oh dear I seem to be at odds with the rest of you on this one.
The local tube station is 6 or 7 minutes walk from my home, trains are every 10 minutes and this line will take me in 30 minutes into the start of the Green Belt or almost to the Middlesex/Buckinghamshire border in 30 minutes.
Alternatively, any one of five frequent buses will take me 2 miles to a different Underground line that goes right out into parts of the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire Chilterns.
I can travel on these free with my old gits pass, but I have yet to do it to go for a walk, I will drive every time.
Why? Apart from being able to go to places where the trains don't, my main reason is the time factor, because it takes three or four times longer to get anywhere by public transport.

April

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #21 on: 19:37:50, 23/05/18 »
it takes three or four times longer to get anywhere by public transport.

It does  :(

If we had a car we could get to Patterdale in 45 minutes. By bus it would take 3 hours.
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Islandplodder

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #22 on: 21:17:44, 23/05/18 »

I think you have hit the nail on the head April.
Enjoying doing a few linear walks using public transport is probably dependent on having the choice of using a car for those places the buses don't reach, or take forever to get to.  Even then you tend to want a car at one end of the walk,  it takes real organisation and well timed walking days to manage a bus at both ends.  (you are obviously much better at it than I am)
I always find it a bit nerve wracking to know you HAVE to be somewhere at a certain time to catch the bus or risk ending up sleeping under a hedge.

Jac

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #23 on: 10:28:38, 24/05/18 »
Huge congratulations and thanks to Pembrokeshire for subsidising the little coastal buses that link the coast path.
Just back from 4 days round the St David's peninsula but so far from the start of the trail at Amroth we have used

The Coastal Cruiser
The Puffin Shuttle
The Celtic Coaster
The Strumble Stroller
and, on the next leg of our walk, are yet to enjoy The Poppit Rocket!

In the summer they run 7 days a week (which is more than the 'normal' buses do)
The drivers too are absolutely brilliant - cheerful, helpful, remembering where everyone wants to get off, and amazingly calm in the face of oncoming visitors who can't reverse in the narrow lanes, along one of which yesterday the cow parsley brushed both sides of the bus and there was more grass than tarmac. A wonderful service and in consequence lots of walkers who will all be contributing to the local economy.
So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

barewirewalker

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #24 on: 10:51:30, 24/05/18 »
It does  :(

If we had a car we could get to Patterdale in 45 minutes. By bus it would take 3 hours.
There is always a risk relying on public transport (PT) for walking and Islandplodder list some. Having spent 5 years on a LAF, I believe the authorities and those pressure groups, who supposedly represent us do not fully understand the positive points of using PT as an adjunct to both day walking and multi-day projects.

In Shropshire there is a shuttle bus for walkers, high season, joining points in the South Shropshire Hills, this is  considered a jewel in the crown by the Outdoor team in Shire Hall, but I have never used it. The main routes radiating out from the county town and surrounding market towns and their relationship with the rail network is a far more valuable asset. The knack is to recognise these as 'transport hubs', then see how the access network fits the pattern.

When I tried to explain this on a LAF meeting and promote the idea of Linear Walking, I was told to read a guide book by some Uni-boffin from Loughborough called Lumsden, as this subject had already been covered. I found the book in Waterstones and skip read the relevant pages, the grasp of the idea was infantile,I hope his subject was not Geography and he is just an enthusiastic walker, with a penchant for Shropshire. I suspect the reason why I was steered of the subject was to avoid my taking up agenda time.

Maybe this points to walkers in general not saying how the craft is evolving. Having spent more than a decade browsing this site, I could point to many touched on this subject and Linear Walking and yet the reality is no one really understands how far it could develop.

A landowner on the LAF at the same time as myself, was very dismissive of the idea that anyone would want to walk between Bishop's Castle and Craven Arms. I think it was about 11 or 12 miles and I passed through that landowner's 2000 or so acres, when I tried to piece together a route that maximised the terrain and those rights of way that had real value. Bishop's Castle is on the end of a Bus route from Shrewsbury, but is also itself a transport hub interconnecting with other services, these all cease after children are got home safely after school hours, but Craven Arms is a rail station with an hourly service that continues to midnight.

Should these sort of factors come into our understanding of how the existing fabric of society be modeled to fit a developing leisure industry?

The landowner referred to became chair of the LAF and I was booted post-haste off that forum. Not that I minded, because I had served more than my allotted time, but it is notable that there is a lack of original thought going into access in relation to the existing infrastructure that is still there.

Now Jac's post highlights a county that has caught on to some extent. I think of the top of my head that the Welsh coastal path earns the Welsh economy about £80,000 per mile per year on the one year's figures I have manage to find. But is the Coastal Path the whole picture, how much does the other paths, which access it play in the economic's. If Wales manage to go the way of the Scottish Land Reform Act, will the Welsh coastal path show us how Demand Led route finding might boost this route into greater performance.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

Mel

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #25 on: 19:49:30, 24/05/18 »
I think one of my reasons for not using public transport more is cost.  Great if you have a bus pass.  Not so great if you're not, ahem, eligible  :angel:




April

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #26 on: 08:48:23, 25/05/18 »
it takes real organisation and well timed walking days to manage a bus at both ends

This is why I organise things and don't leave it to beefy  ;D

I always find it a bit nerve wracking to know you HAVE to be somewhere at a certain time to catch the bus or risk ending up sleeping under a hedge.

It is indeed a bit nerve wracking, we have had to race to catch a few buses over the years. We love going wild camping because of the freedom of not being restricted as much by time, we can relax and enjoy it more.

I think one of my reasons for not using public transport more is cost.  Great if you have a bus pass.  Not so great if you're not, ahem, eligible  :angel:

 ;D I'm not eligible yet

Single journeys can be very expensive. We have found the buses in Scotland to be very reasonable mind. Only £6.20 return from Dumfries to Moffat and you can return anytime in the next month, they aren't day returns like the buses in England.

I pay £99.99 per month for my Stagecoach pass and I can travel anywhere in Cumbria, go over to Newcastle, up to Dumfries and even can use it on all services in Lancashire as far as Ingleton (80), Blackpool (42/61/68), Blackburn (59), Bolton (125), Chester (1/2), Wigan (113) which is good value for money. When I ran my car I spent more money on petrol in a month than this.
Hate will never win

pleb

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #27 on: 10:11:14, 25/05/18 »
I think one of my reasons for not using public transport more is cost.  Great if you have a bus pass.  Not so great if you're not, ahem, eligible  :angel:
Surely wont be long now.................. :-\
Whinging Moaning Old Fart

Islandplodder

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #28 on: 10:29:18, 25/05/18 »

That's one of the advantages of a Scottish bus pass, you get it a bit sooner and can use it anywhere in Scotland, even on the long distance buses.  So I feel I should really use it when possible.
If I didn't have a bus pass I don't think I would be able to afford some of the highland buses! Friends who aren't yet 'eligible' say it's far cheaper to take the car, especially if there's more than one of you.

April

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Re: Ditching the Car
« Reply #29 on: 13:18:22, 25/05/18 »
Surely wont be long now.................. :-\

Ya bleddy cheeky monkey  :tickedoff:
Hate will never win

 

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