Petrol protests

[rts]

So from 10am on Saturday 15th December there is strong likelihood of a group named Transaction 2007, blockading all fuel distribution centres in the country. Obviously this has the potential to disrupt local fuel supplies which may lead to panic buying by the public.

I wonder if we will see anything on the same scale as the protests a few years ago. Personally, I doubt it, but I may be eating my hat futher into this thread.

[Gavin Scott]

I got stuck on a coach back to Luton trying to get a plane home, but the coach couldn't get past a queue of cars lined up at the petrol station. Selfish cunts.

Of course *everyone* has to have their own car on the road, don't they? Impossible to car share or use public transport in urban areas, isn't it? It's a necessity to have one's own company to and from work every day. Oh yes.

Of course it fucking isn't. I've managed for 30 years.

And before any bumpkins come along to say that their village is only served by a jalopy-like bus every-second Tuesday in August - don't.

Whenever this debate comes up the whole argument gets swamped by people explaining they don't have the "luxury" of a public transport system because they live in the sticks, during which the urban and city dwellers sink down in their seat and say nothing.

WE KNOW PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY NEED CARS SO DON'T BOTHER MAKING THE POINT.

I want to hear from people who tootle a mile and a half each way to shop at a Tesco, bypassing small city local shops by the dozen.

I'm not a bit interested in how much people are charged when it comes to totally unnecessary car driving. That pretty much goes to anyone living in a metropolitan area. When I worked in an office there was any one of 20 people I could get a lift home from as they all lived within walking distance of my flat. They all knew and liked each other, all worked the same hours and between them could have taken FIFTEEN cars off the road for a 20 minute commute each day but did they do it? Did they fuck.

Let them pay through the nose.

Idiots.

Discuss more.

[AJ]

I absolutely agree with you there.

It is absolutely ridiculous the amount of people who drive less than 7 or 8 mile journeys. I was driving earlier today (a 30 mile journey, so I'm excused!) and I spotted a car come out of a driveway, travel around 3 or 4 mins (in heavy traffic) to the local co-op late shop.

Very unnecessary and very lazy. I frequently walk to my local morrisons, which is either a 3 min drive, or a 10 min walk. I enjoy the walk, and I use a hemp shopping bag too.

There should be a higher tax placed on short journeys - which is why I'm in favour of pay-as-you-go driving. Introduce a real pay as you go system that works, scrap road tax and fuel duty - then those who use their car unnecessarily during peak times can pay for it.

As for the fuel protests - nicely timed, at the busiest and most ridiculous time of the year for driving.

[Lorns]

I'm guilty of many things as a driver. I do travel to work alone because i live about 10 miles away and the staff are within walking distance. I will on a cold wet day drive to local shop rather than walk. I hate the way we're being treated. It's like the goverment are saying lets punish people for enjoying the things we tax them most on. Motorists are now the lepers like the smokers were.

I love my car. If i want to blow away a few cobwebs or a bad day. I go for a drive. I also use the small local shops rather than tesco or Homebase. I have found some wonderful little garden centres and arty craft shops.

I don't like this blockade lark. It causes unnecessary aggravation for everyone. Even the regular rail and bus commuters.

Infact we was talking about the amount of cars on the roads these days at work the other day, at. Not so long ago families only on average had one car per household. These days its 2 unless you have teenage kids which are still leeching off ya, in which case it can be 3 or 4 cars per household. When my brother and i first passed our tests we would borrow are parents car if they weren't using it. If they were it was shank's pony, bus, train or dust the bmx off.

[Jamez]

First I've heard of this.

Yeah, the BBC isn't covering it - as usual. I don't even visit their website any longer due to it being full of global warming propaganda.

[rts]

First I've heard of this.

Yeah, the BBC isn't covering it.

Indeed, thin coverage if any at all on the subject. I wonder which Downing Street bod has been briefing editors, urging "caution" and not wanting to cause "alarm" or "panic" amongst the public. Well, they're the three buzz-words I would pick if I was a spin doctor.

[cwathen]

I think the views raised regarding unnecessary use of the car for short journeys and that of potential fuel protests are two separate issues.

I agree that it's beyond a joke that people often travel short journeys, or journeys that are well served by public transport. I for instance spend a lot of time travelling between West Cornwall and Plymouth. Travelling by train with my railcard costs £9.25 for a saver return which lets me make the two journeys up to a month apart, and if I'm going and coming back in the same day, I can get a cheap day return at only £5.95. Travelling by car will consume almost £15 of petrol by today's prices. It's only simple economics that dictates that I never take my car now unless I need to move stuff or are going in a group and can ask for petrol money.

Yet a ridiculous number of people shun public transport and keep their car congesting the road despite having to pay a premium price to do so. My favourite example is a work colleague who has a bus stop within 15 feet of his house and can get dropped off within 20 feet of work. Yet he drives his short 4 mile commute every day and then pays to park in a city centre car park for 8 hours. All costs considered, he's probably paying 3 times as much to drive.

But as I said above, I see this as a wholely separate issue to that of fuel costs. When 60% of the cost of a litre of fuel is tax, something is wrong. When fuel won't stop increasing above inflation, something is wrong. I *loved* the fuel strike of 2000. For one brief moment, this country stood up to the government, and won. Petrol dropped by around 15p / litre (more at some garages) almost overnight as a result of it. It took over 4 years for fuel to get back to 2000 prices.

When it brielfy looked like there may have been a repeat performance in 2005 (because petrol was averaging 96.9 at many garages, and had topped £1 / litre at some for the first time), the result may not have been a repeat of 2000, but nevertheless fuel has hovered around the same level for the last couple of years, until £1/litre became uniform a month or so ago.

I welcome another attempt at a fuel strike, and hope it suceeds. People can paint whatever hysteria they won't, everyone in 2000 had the chance to fill their car up at least once, meaning that they would have a full tank of fuel if they needed their car in an emergency, public transport was not really affected, and despite whatever hysteria was spouted, the ability of the emergency services to function was never at risk. And on top of everything else, it was all over inside 2 weeks.

I for one am quite happy to endure a couple of weeks of having to use my car sparingly if £1 / litre petrol will go away for a few years.

[Stuart*]

I got stuck on a coach back to Luton trying to get a plane home, but the coach couldn't get past a queue of cars lined up at the petrol station.

Very "carbon-neutral" of you to be flying when you could have simply walked to Edinburgh!

Of course *everyone* has to have their own car on the road, don't they? Impossible to car share or use public transport in urban areas, isn't it? It's a necessity to have one's own company to and from work every day.

No, everyone doesn't HAVE to have their own car. But it's not for you or anyone else to say whether they can or not. It's called personal choice, it goes hand-in-hand with living in a presumably free society.

When I worked in an office there was any one of 20 people I could get a lift home from as they all lived within walking distance of my flat. They all knew and liked each other, all worked the same hours and between them could have taken FIFTEEN cars off the road for a 20 minute commute each day but did they do it?

Taking that argument further then would you suggest that these 20 people also shared the same home? Think of the saving on unnecessary house building. Should we all live in communes, sharing every resource to it's maximum usefulness? No, because that would be unacceptable!

It is absolutely ridiculous the amount of people who drive less than 7 or 8 mile journeys. I was driving earlier today (a 30 mile journey, so I'm excused!) and I spotted a car come out of a driveway, travel around 3 or 4 mins (in heavy traffic) to the local co-op late shop.

And you are the person who would be allowed to decide what is a "reasonable journey" and what isn't?

Absolute drivel from the pair of you!

[Lorns]

And the reason i don't like passengers in my car is because they either talk too much or in the case of my mother, she talks with her hands. It as actually safer if i drive if i'm out with my mother. Cut her hands off and she'd be speechless.

Thank god i've never had to navigate a journey with kids in the car. I don't to be distracted when i'm driving. There are 2 many lives at stake. I look at my car the same way as if i had a loaded gun in my pocket. Both can snuff someones life out in a second if you're not careful.

[AJ]

It is absolutely ridiculous the amount of people who drive less than 7 or 8 mile journeys. I was driving earlier today (a 30 mile journey, so I'm excused!) and I spotted a car come out of a driveway, travel around 3 or 4 mins (in heavy traffic) to the local co-op late shop.

And you are the person who would be allowed to decide what is a "reasonable journey" and what isn't?

Of course I'm not, and neither are you. BUT do you consider a 4 min journey in heavy traffic (that stops and starts for most of that journey) to be reasonable by any stretch of the imagination?

Yes, you could get into the whole argument about disabled, unable to walk etc, but with a journey of just a few hundred yards it's hardly relevant.

[Beep]

Impossible to car share or use public transport in urban areas, isn't it?

In Birmingham we have a car share lane!