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Post by ServerKing on Mar 28, 2023 18:13:27 GMT
New car sales only fell because of a lack of available parts for manufacturing due to COVID. A lack of parts from China and other countries have also affected other industries as well documented. In addition a lack of used car stock on forecourts also pushed down used sales. People have decided to hold onto cars for longer rather than get costly replacements. When coupled with dramatic increases in second hand cars it’s no wonder why car sales fell. But within all of this sales of used electric, hybrid and plug in hybrid cars actually rose by 37%, 9% and 4% last year. But to be clear it isn’t down to young people preferring rider share apps or hire schemes, it can be attributed to a rise in living costs and a lack of availability. Of course within London the ULEZ implementation isn’t helping fill the resale forecourts. I am looking for a replacement used car at the moment and the prices are an absolute joke! I need to get one fairly urgently and don’t want to wait until it gets closer to the ULEZ goes London wide in August. Arnold Clark are good, they can deliver to you (like Cazoo) or you can collect from their handover in Milton Keynes (depending on where you live). Some car supermarkets will cajole you into a Warranty as useless as a Haringey LTN, or the usual "had a lot of interest in this car" to hurry you along. Watch out for fleet favourites (Audi A3, VW Passat, Mercedes C and E Class, BMW 3 and 5 series) on high mileage with interiors as tired as Antonio Conte's football  Component shortage, plus Khanage and his ULEZ have had an effect on prices to a degree. Steer clear of electric as infrastructure is still poor, a lot of cars are being returned as people hate range anxiety and effort to charge them as half the chargers don't seem to work  Motorpoint, Cargiant, Cazoo are worth a look. Avoid the less known dealerships and subprime finance (Oodle, Blue, Carfinance 247) if you can Back on topic, Khan has launched SuperLoop (white and red buses will get filthy soon), slightly better branding than Barkingside or Hayes schemes  |
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Post by Hassaan on Mar 29, 2023 20:18:43 GMT
The past couple of weeks for me has shown how London is completely unprepared for the expansion of the ULEZ. Losing access to my car for a temporary period showed me how hard it is to get around in outer London and why people here see cars as necessities compared to luxuries. Even little things like going to get a takeaway become harder as the buses run every 12 or so minutes, enough for your food to become cold. As opposed to inner London where you often have a choice of multiple routes which combined run every 2-3 minutes. Not to mention carrying shopping back on buses when they're infrequent is an even bigger pain, especially when it's pouring down with rain. TfL really need to improve bus services out here fast before completely screwing over a large amount of Londoners. Forget takeaway a second . Why on earth would I give up my car, which gets me to work in 25-30 minutes and home in 30-40 minutes, for public transport that takes twice as long and at best requires changing twice? Even the indirect rail route takes as much time as using just buses. Just because it's in London doesn't mean that the journey time is good by public transport, and not everyone travels at the busiest times. I'm one of the fortunate ones as I can afford having a car (ok, I also took a bank loan to be able to get a newer one) and the options that having my own transport opens up, including being able to wake up later . If that public transport journey dropped to below an hour both ways, AND had a better frequency on all legs (one is 4bph), I'd be hugely tempted to return, but clearly that's not going to happen any time soon. As I'm looking to change job soon, I'm not tied to somewhere that's easy to get to by public transport. Of course, I can still use public transport if I wish (especially if I find somewhere in Central London), but it opens up options. I actually started at a different site with my current employer, which was outside London and located roughly half-way between Ascot and Martins Heron stations. That took about 45 minutes to drive the 18-20 miles, and again public transport would take double the time (actually closer to 2 hours). A work colleague who lived only 12 miles away didn't drive and took longer to get home, spending over an hour on the 703 and a long walk to near Langley Station (in fact, he had to negotiate an earlier start and finish because the school bus on the 703 goes via Datchet and missed his stop). He didn't put up with it for more than a few months, although he moved to another part of the country to be closer to family. As for 20mph and mpg, my car does noticeably worse at 20mph compared to even 25mph, according to the display on the dashboard. But that is off topic for this thread and a whole different can of worms |
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Post by greenboy on Mar 30, 2023 10:15:29 GMT
The past couple of weeks for me has shown how London is completely unprepared for the expansion of the ULEZ. Losing access to my car for a temporary period showed me how hard it is to get around in outer London and why people here see cars as necessities compared to luxuries. Even little things like going to get a takeaway become harder as the buses run every 12 or so minutes, enough for your food to become cold. As opposed to inner London where you often have a choice of multiple routes which combined run every 2-3 minutes. Not to mention carrying shopping back on buses when they're infrequent is an even bigger pain, especially when it's pouring down with rain. TfL really need to improve bus services out here fast before completely screwing over a large amount of Londoners. Forget takeaway a second . Why on earth would I give up my car, which gets me to work in 25-30 minutes and home in 30-40 minutes, for public transport that takes twice as long and at best requires changing twice? Even the indirect rail route takes as much time as using just buses. Just because it's in London doesn't mean that the journey time is good by public transport, and not everyone travels at the busiest times. I'm one of the fortunate ones as I can afford having a car (ok, I also took a bank loan to be able to get a newer one) and the options that having my own transport opens up, including being able to wake up later . If that public transport journey dropped to below an hour both ways, AND had a better frequency on all legs (one is 4bph), I'd be hugely tempted to return, but clearly that's not going to happen any time soon. As I'm looking to change job soon, I'm not tied to somewhere that's easy to get to by public transport. Of course, I can still use public transport if I wish (especially if I find somewhere in Central London), but it opens up options. I actually started at a different site with my current employer, which was outside London and located roughly half-way between Ascot and Martins Heron stations. That took about 45 minutes to drive the 18-20 miles, and again public transport would take double the time (actually closer to 2 hours). A work colleague who lived only 12 miles away didn't drive and took longer to get home, spending over an hour on the 703 and a long walk to near Langley Station (in fact, he had to negotiate an earlier start and finish because the school bus on the 703 goes via Datchet and missed his stop). He didn't put up with it for more than a few months, although he moved to another part of the country to be closer to family. As for 20mph and mpg, my car does noticeably worse at 20mph compared to even 25mph, according to the display on the dashboard. But that is off topic for this thread and a whole different can of worms Excellent post which I think sums up the whole situation. If bus enthusiasts, and for that matter bus staff with free travel entitlement, aren't willing to give up their car and go by bus what chance is there of other people doing so in significant numbers? I think the only time public transport is preferable to the car is travelling into Central London or where there's decent rail links, for example if I wanted to go from Beckenham to Wimbledon I'd use Tramlink but for most orbital journeys it's the car every time. |
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Post by northlondon83 on Mar 30, 2023 11:49:52 GMT
Forget takeaway a second . Why on earth would I give up my car, which gets me to work in 25-30 minutes and home in 30-40 minutes, for public transport that takes twice as long and at best requires changing twice? Even the indirect rail route takes as much time as using just buses. Just because it's in London doesn't mean that the journey time is good by public transport, and not everyone travels at the busiest times. I'm one of the fortunate ones as I can afford having a car (ok, I also took a bank loan to be able to get a newer one) and the options that having my own transport opens up, including being able to wake up later . If that public transport journey dropped to below an hour both ways, AND had a better frequency on all legs (one is 4bph), I'd be hugely tempted to return, but clearly that's not going to happen any time soon. As I'm looking to change job soon, I'm not tied to somewhere that's easy to get to by public transport. Of course, I can still use public transport if I wish (especially if I find somewhere in Central London), but it opens up options. I actually started at a different site with my current employer, which was outside London and located roughly half-way between Ascot and Martins Heron stations. That took about 45 minutes to drive the 18-20 miles, and again public transport would take double the time (actually closer to 2 hours). A work colleague who lived only 12 miles away didn't drive and took longer to get home, spending over an hour on the 703 and a long walk to near Langley Station (in fact, he had to negotiate an earlier start and finish because the school bus on the 703 goes via Datchet and missed his stop). He didn't put up with it for more than a few months, although he moved to another part of the country to be closer to family. As for 20mph and mpg, my car does noticeably worse at 20mph compared to even 25mph, according to the display on the dashboard. But that is off topic for this thread and a whole different can of worms Excellent post which I think sums up the whole situation. If bus enthusiasts, and for that matter bus staff with free travel entitlement, aren't willing to give up their car and go by bus what chance is there of other people doing so in significant numbers? I think the only time public transport is preferable to the car is travelling into Central London or where there's decent rail links, for example if I wanted to go from Beckenham to Wimbledon I'd use Tramlink but for most orbital journeys it's the car every time. I think the Overground circle is quite good too for orbital travel, like if you were going from Camden to Stratford I'd say it's quicker to go by train considering that there's not really any major road linking the two. It's a shame there isn't more of these in London. The SuperLoop orbital routes could have potential however improvements could be made by: Merging the Croydon-Bromley and Bromley-Bexleyheath services as other people have said; possibly extend onto Dartford Have the northern parts of the Loop further out of London, like extending the X140 to Edgware, then have Edgware to Enfield, Enfield to Woodford, Woodford to Romford or Rainham |
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Post by capitalomnibus on Mar 30, 2023 22:17:06 GMT
Forget takeaway a second . Why on earth would I give up my car, which gets me to work in 25-30 minutes and home in 30-40 minutes, for public transport that takes twice as long and at best requires changing twice? Even the indirect rail route takes as much time as using just buses. Just because it's in London doesn't mean that the journey time is good by public transport, and not everyone travels at the busiest times. I'm one of the fortunate ones as I can afford having a car (ok, I also took a bank loan to be able to get a newer one) and the options that having my own transport opens up, including being able to wake up later . If that public transport journey dropped to below an hour both ways, AND had a better frequency on all legs (one is 4bph), I'd be hugely tempted to return, but clearly that's not going to happen any time soon. As I'm looking to change job soon, I'm not tied to somewhere that's easy to get to by public transport. Of course, I can still use public transport if I wish (especially if I find somewhere in Central London), but it opens up options. I actually started at a different site with my current employer, which was outside London and located roughly half-way between Ascot and Martins Heron stations. That took about 45 minutes to drive the 18-20 miles, and again public transport would take double the time (actually closer to 2 hours). A work colleague who lived only 12 miles away didn't drive and took longer to get home, spending over an hour on the 703 and a long walk to near Langley Station (in fact, he had to negotiate an earlier start and finish because the school bus on the 703 goes via Datchet and missed his stop). He didn't put up with it for more than a few months, although he moved to another part of the country to be closer to family. As for 20mph and mpg, my car does noticeably worse at 20mph compared to even 25mph, according to the display on the dashboard. But that is off topic for this thread and a whole different can of worms Excellent post which I think sums up the whole situation. If bus enthusiasts, and for that matter bus staff with free travel entitlement, aren't willing to give up their car and go by bus what chance is there of other people doing so in significant numbers? I think the only time public transport is preferable to the car is travelling into Central London or where there's decent rail links, for example if I wanted to go from Beckenham to Wimbledon I'd use Tramlink but for most orbital journeys it's the car every time. There are a lot of staff who hardly use their free travel. Some have not used it in years and I am shocked when I hear this. As one or two say, they would not be seen dead in a bus. |
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Post by richard on Apr 12, 2023 14:19:15 GMT
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Post by enviroPB on Apr 12, 2023 17:16:38 GMT
ITV News London has said the grounds of the Mayor failing to comply with certain statutory requirements and a lack of consultation for the scrappage scheme will be contested in court. On the latter point, I'm not sure that would've been an issue if Sadiq Khan stuck to the 230 million budget for the scrappage scheme the London Assembly agreed on. Oh well, here's to the Mayor wasting public funds in court defending his Stalinist policy. |
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Post by ronnie on Apr 12, 2023 18:51:33 GMT
ITV News London has said the grounds of the Mayor failing to comply with certain statutory requirements and a lack of consultation for the scrappage scheme will be contested in court. On the latter point, I'm not sure that would've been an issue if Sadiq Khan stuck to the 230 million budget for the scrappage scheme the London Assembly agreed on. Oh well, here's to the Mayor wasting public funds in court defending his Stalinist policy. Here’s hoping he gets booted out next time Need the tories to put forth a half decent candidate and it will get done. Deliciously waiting to get back at some of the shenanigans of the Labour run borough! |
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Post by ronnie on Apr 12, 2023 19:05:38 GMT
The past couple of weeks for me has shown how London is completely unprepared for the expansion of the ULEZ. Losing access to my car for a temporary period showed me how hard it is to get around in outer London and why people here see cars as necessities compared to luxuries. Even little things like going to get a takeaway become harder as the buses run every 12 or so minutes, enough for your food to become cold. As opposed to inner London where you often have a choice of multiple routes which combined run every 2-3 minutes. Not to mention carrying shopping back on buses when they're infrequent is an even bigger pain, especially when it's pouring down with rain. TfL really need to improve bus services out here fast before completely screwing over a large amount of Londoners. Forget takeaway a second . Why on earth would I give up my car, which gets me to work in 25-30 minutes and home in 30-40 minutes, for public transport that takes twice as long and at best requires changing twice? Even the indirect rail route takes as much time as using just buses. Just because it's in London doesn't mean that the journey time is good by public transport, and not everyone travels at the busiest times. I'm one of the fortunate ones as I can afford having a car (ok, I also took a bank loan to be able to get a newer one) and the options that having my own transport opens up, including being able to wake up later . If that public transport journey dropped to below an hour both ways, AND had a better frequency on all legs (one is 4bph), I'd be hugely tempted to return, but clearly that's not going to happen any time soon. As I'm looking to change job soon, I'm not tied to somewhere that's easy to get to by public transport. Of course, I can still use public transport if I wish (especially if I find somewhere in Central London), but it opens up options. I actually started at a different site with my current employer, which was outside London and located roughly half-way between Ascot and Martins Heron stations. That took about 45 minutes to drive the 18-20 miles, and again public transport would take double the time (actually closer to 2 hours). A work colleague who lived only 12 miles away didn't drive and took longer to get home, spending over an hour on the 703 and a long walk to near Langley Station (in fact, he had to negotiate an earlier start and finish because the school bus on the 703 goes via Datchet and missed his stop). He didn't put up with it for more than a few months, although he moved to another part of the country to be closer to family. As for 20mph and mpg, my car does noticeably worse at 20mph compared to even 25mph, according to the display on the dashboard. But that is off topic for this thread and a whole different can of worms Fully agree with you and that’s also why I am very much opposed to this hate-brained scheme of pay per mile sadiq khan is dreaming about. Am pretty sure all politicians will be exempt from paying (or will reimburse from the public exchequer), including on dog walking trips Barring central London to some extent (to which I will come to below) - someone needs to tell the guy that a car is faster (and more comfortable / safer) anyway in all weather conditions. Case in point - if I have to take my daughter for swimming lessons, I have a painful choice of a 286 (every 15 min on Sunday) followed by a 53/54/422 from a different stop. Try doing that in the depth of winter with a 4 year old while carrying stuff. In a bus it will take a minimum of 30 min. Add on inclement weather, wind, Greenwich council not bothering to grit a single pavement and this becomes a challenge. The journey in a car takes under 10 min with heating / AC as required Having done a number of Blackheath Knightsbridge car journeys, it’s actually not that slow if you time it properly. Off peak it’s quite similar to the bus to North Greenwich + jubilee / Piccadilly (and Piccadilly has very long waits at times) and I have managed to clock in 45-50 min which is same as tube + bus. It’s only in peaks when its a touch slow else car can actually be efficient time wise Which brings me to central London. One of the reasons why bus usage is falling off is all these idiotic 20mph schemes which has made buses so slow that I avoid them if I can. Labour politicians keep harping about every person being different, why do they tar all roads with the same brush! Isn’t a dual carriageway different from a residential road! Frankly in London borough elections (plus mayoral) I am now quite keen to back the Tories as (despite their national level flaws for which they deserve brickbats) they are actually sensible in London vs a mayor who only listens to the Lycra louts and calls everyone opposing him as a neo-na** |
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Post by redbus on Apr 13, 2023 12:16:26 GMT
Excellent post which I think sums up the whole situation. If bus enthusiasts, and for that matter bus staff with free travel entitlement, aren't willing to give up their car and go by bus what chance is there of other people doing so in significant numbers? I think the only time public transport is preferable to the car is travelling into Central London or where there's decent rail links, for example if I wanted to go from Beckenham to Wimbledon I'd use Tramlink but for most orbital journeys it's the car every time. I think the Overground circle is quite good too for orbital travel, like if you were going from Camden to Stratford I'd say it's quicker to go by train considering that there's not really any major road linking the two. It's a shame there isn't more of these in London. The SuperLoop orbital routes could have potential however improvements could be made by: Merging the Croydon-Bromley and Bromley-Bexleyheath services as other people have said; possibly extend onto Dartford Have the northern parts of the Loop further out of London, like extending the X140 to Edgware, then have Edgware to Enfield, Enfield to Woodford, Woodford to Romford or Rainham The Overground has it's problems, much of it is very slow. Say I want to go from Swiss Cottage to Highbury and Islington, I could go up to West Hampstead and take the Overground, but the Overground is not fast from West Hampstead to Highbury, and it's quicker to take the Jubilee line to Green Park and then the Victoria Line. This is inner London and highlights how public transport is all about getting into the centre rather than around the periphery. The further out you go the longer public transport takes to get around and the more changes that are needed, so making cars relatively attractive. There is no cheap way to provide sufficient public transport so that it becomes attractive like a car, and no one has any good answers sadly. Current answers are centred around making driving less attractive with LTNs etc, but that could well create its own backlash. The other so called answer are 15 minute cities, but that effectively tries to restrict the mobility people have had for many years and again is likely to create a backlash. How are people to supposed to socialise with existing family or friends who are further away, or wish to visit places that are further than 15 minutes away? |
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Post by capitalomnibus on Apr 13, 2023 22:01:47 GMT
ITV News London has said the grounds of the Mayor failing to comply with certain statutory requirements and a lack of consultation for the scrappage scheme will be contested in court. On the latter point, I'm not sure that would've been an issue if Sadiq Khan stuck to the 230 million budget for the scrappage scheme the London Assembly agreed on. Oh well, here's to the Mayor wasting public funds in court defending his Stalinist policy. Here’s hoping he gets booted out next time Need the tories to put forth a half decent candidate and it will get done. Deliciously waiting to get back at some of the shenanigans of the Labour run borough! lol, wishful thinking. Khan got force everyone in London to pay £20 everytime they leave their house in a new Khanation tax, and he would still end up as mayor again. |
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Post by yunus on Apr 13, 2023 22:18:43 GMT
Here’s hoping he gets booted out next time Need the tories to put forth a half decent candidate and it will get done. Deliciously waiting to get back at some of the shenanigans of the Labour run borough! lol, wishful thinking. Khan got force everyone in London to pay £20 everytime they leave their house in a new Khanation tax, and he would still end up as mayor again. I want Howard Cox to become mayor. No chance but... He is anti EV and pro car. |
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Post by ronnie on Apr 13, 2023 22:24:17 GMT
I think the Overground circle is quite good too for orbital travel, like if you were going from Camden to Stratford I'd say it's quicker to go by train considering that there's not really any major road linking the two. It's a shame there isn't more of these in London. The SuperLoop orbital routes could have potential however improvements could be made by: Merging the Croydon-Bromley and Bromley-Bexleyheath services as other people have said; possibly extend onto Dartford Have the northern parts of the Loop further out of London, like extending the X140 to Edgware, then have Edgware to Enfield, Enfield to Woodford, Woodford to Romford or Rainham The Overground has it's problems, much of it is very slow. Say I want to go from Swiss Cottage to Highbury and Islington, I could go up to West Hampstead and take the Overground, but the Overground is not fast from West Hampstead to Highbury, and it's quicker to take the Jubilee line to Green Park and then the Victoria Line. This is inner London and highlights how public transport is all about getting into the centre rather than around the periphery. The further out you go the longer public transport takes to get around and the more changes that are needed, so making cars relatively attractive. There is no cheap way to provide sufficient public transport so that it becomes attractive like a car, and no one has any good answers sadly. Current answers are centred around making driving less attractive with LTNs etc, but that could well create its own backlash. The other so called answer are 15 minute cities, but that effectively tries to restrict the mobility people have had for many years and again is likely to create a backlash. How are people to supposed to socialise with existing family or friends who are further away, or wish to visit places that are further than 15 minutes away? Where on earth in London does one find work, school and friends all In a 15 min walking radius??? |
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Post by redbus on Apr 13, 2023 22:34:48 GMT
The Overground has it's problems, much of it is very slow. Say I want to go from Swiss Cottage to Highbury and Islington, I could go up to West Hampstead and take the Overground, but the Overground is not fast from West Hampstead to Highbury, and it's quicker to take the Jubilee line to Green Park and then the Victoria Line. This is inner London and highlights how public transport is all about getting into the centre rather than around the periphery. The further out you go the longer public transport takes to get around and the more changes that are needed, so making cars relatively attractive. There is no cheap way to provide sufficient public transport so that it becomes attractive like a car, and no one has any good answers sadly. Current answers are centred around making driving less attractive with LTNs etc, but that could well create its own backlash. The other so called answer are 15 minute cities, but that effectively tries to restrict the mobility people have had for many years and again is likely to create a backlash. How are people to supposed to socialise with existing family or friends who are further away, or wish to visit places that are further than 15 minutes away? Where on earth in London does one find work, school and friends all In a 15 min walking radius??? I entirely agree that it is ridiculous, but what is concerning is how many of those in power seem to think that it is the way forward. Hopefully they will get a rude awakening at the ballot box! |
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Post by DE20106 on Apr 13, 2023 23:01:19 GMT
May I just remind you all as well, victimising the less well off and telling everyone you shouldn’t be using your car in London to help clean the air up …
All while he’s being driven around in a £400k gas guzzling V8 Range Rover. Which of course by a remarkable coincidence will be exempt from the ULEZ.
This man is an utter hypocrite and I’ve never shown a major show such contempt to the people of London. I’m absolutely no Boris fan at all, but at least he used a bicycle when he was Mayor of London while encouraging people to do the same.
If this absolute clown of a Mayor gets re-elected (which tbh after his ULEZ fantasy idea thankfully is now looking pretty unlikely), then London is doomed.
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