Roland Perry wrote in message o.uk...
What's actually happening is that over the period of ownership of the
car, people find *enough* times they need to transport something large,
or go somewhere inconvenient for public transport, or travel at hours
that public transport doesn't work, or on routes that PT fail to
support.

Bingo. And of course once you own, tax and insure that car for the
above reasons, the incremental cost of journeys where public transport
is an alternative is lower then that of the PT.

In message , at 13:35:29 on Wed,
11 Aug 2004, Annabel Smyth remarked:
Isn't it Ikea which hires out its own fleet of vans?

Yes, I think they do. The nearest IKEA to me is as little as ten miles
away, but I'd probably need to drive there as it's on an industrial park
next to the motorway. And they don't sell TVs.
--
Roland Perry

Annabel Smyth wrote:

Gawnsoft wrote:

Have you figures to back this up? In my experience, taxi's are often
used for multiple occupancy, whereas most car journeys are
single-occupant.

Taxi's what? Which taxi, and what belongs to it? I'm afraid your
post makes no sense, as written.

You'll have to forgive him - he's a grocer at heart.


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On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 17:19:39 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:
That said, a degree of decentralisation is useful, and in fact quite
natural. Perhaps London isn't decentralised enough. However, i think one
should be wary of decentralisation as a solution - i'd hate to lose Oxford
street in favour of a dozen Mare Streets.

Well, good for you, most people hate crowded shopping streets. Personally
I have no idea what the attraction is, but then I have no idea why someone
would "go shopping".

You want Oxford street and the associated traffic, smelly busses,
pickpockets, and other undesriabilities, thats fine. The rest of us will
be happy with dispersed shops. Hell, even American strip malls would be
better then your average London market or shopping street.

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:39:19 +0000, Gawnsoft wrote:

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 16:51:07 +0100, "Paul Weaver"
wrote (more or less):

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
The large number of taxis in provincial cities (I cite Liverpool in
particular, with over 1500 licensed taxis) could not be sustained if
patronised only by "rich" people (who, in places outside London,
encounter far less restriction on car-use anyway, and are to be found
in very small numbers).

Sorry, I didn't notice this was anywhere but uk.transport.london. In
London, taxi's are more expensive then concorde - about £3 per mile. I
know that even black cabs in chester are around £1/mile, a reasonable
cost (especially given the lack of any other means of transport)

And given that the cost is per vehicle mile, rather than per passenger
mile.

As is a car cost. Sure, if you're 4 or 5 people in a taxi it's not the end
of the world price wise, but then a car with 5 people in costs about 5p
per person per mile including fixed car ownership costs, or
London-Manchester for £20 return. The average load factor in devon is
1.4 people per taxi (http://www.cfit.gov.uk/research/psbi/lek/a1051/). No
more details, whether that includes the driver (in which case load factor
is 0.4, less then half that of the worst case car scenario), or if not -
includes times when there are no passangers.

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 09:44:52 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:
So instead of getting the whatever that you carefully picked out in
the shop, at home and useful that afternoon; you get to take a day off
work, and wait in all of next Thursday, in the hope that the one they
deliver from the warehouse doesn't have a big scratch on the side.

Indeed. While I am very much part of the target demographic for
things like supermarket delivery, I just can't guarantee to be in at
any given point to receive delivery of an item, and I wouldn't want
such things delivering to work.

I suppose I'm an even better match for such a service; my landlord happily
accepts packages of all sorts for tenants and drops them inside our door for
free. I've had furniture delivered when I wasn't home, though of course
they didn't put it where I wanted it FedEx and UPS packages are dropped
for me quite frequently; even though I "work from home", I'm out of town
most days so this service is invaluable.

Groceries would be tougher, since many of them need to be put in the
refrigerator or freezer upon arrival; I doubt my landlord would go that far.
Unfortunately there's no delivery service in my area, so I drive the 3
blocks to the store every other week.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723 are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
K5SSS --Isaac Asimov

Paul Weaver wrote:

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 17:19:39 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote:
That said, a degree of decentralisation is useful, and in fact quite
natural. Perhaps London isn't decentralised enough. However, i think one
should be wary of decentralisation as a solution - i'd hate to lose
Oxford street in favour of a dozen Mare Streets.

Well, good for you, most people hate crowded shopping streets. Personally
I have no idea what the attraction is, but then I have no idea why someone
would "go shopping".

You want Oxford street and the associated traffic, smelly busses,
pickpockets, and other undesriabilities, thats fine. The rest of us will
be happy with dispersed shops. Hell, even American strip malls would be
better then your average London market or shopping street.

"Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

You're joking, right? Call me crazy, but I normally associate crowds with
popularity.

Mark

Mark wrote:

You're joking, right? Call me crazy, but I normally associate crowds
with popularity.

So does that make vehicle congestion popular?

On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 at 18:11:54, JNugent
wrote:

Annabel Smyth wrote:

Gawnsoft wrote:

Have you figures to back this up? In my experience, taxi's are often
used for multiple occupancy, whereas most car journeys are
single-occupant.

Taxi's what? Which taxi, and what belongs to it? I'm afraid your
post makes no sense, as written.

You'll have to forgive him - he's a grocer at heart.

If not a greengrocer!
--
Annabel - "Mrs Redboots"
(trying out a new .sig to reflect the personality I use in online forums)

In message , at 08:23:58 on Thu, 12
Aug 2004, Brimstone remarked:
Call me crazy, but I normally associate crowds with popularity.

So does that make vehicle congestion popular?

No, but the routes the vehicles are attempting to take are clearly far
too popular.
--
Roland Perry