‘Entrenched car culture’ leaves millions of Britons in transport poverty (Gauniadr)

There is another factor here, that being the cost of public transport and its reliablity.

I live just outside London and work in London. For me I have been able to save money by cycling part way, using a Brompton so I can take it with me. Even then my travel costs on a daily basis are £14.90 if I manage to go early enough to be off peak in the morning. For those where I live unable to cycle for whatever reason and having to use the closest station, traveling often enough that an annual ticket is best, a travelcard is now £4280. That's a huge chunk of an average salary. Add to that as much as I have increased the amount of my journeys that are by bike, we still need a car. My partners commute is impossible by public transport or by bike.

Car culture is amongst the most boring topic of conversation in the world, mostly spread by inadequate people who are desperate to appear to be more important than they really are. Personally I drive a 13 year old Clio, £30 VED, I get 70mpg driving back and forth, my cycle fits in the back, I can get 4 of my buddies in the car and I can listen to my choice of music with the CD player. It's just a shame I can't cycle everywhere I have to go to.

As a former petrolhead I shouldn't find this surprising, as back in my thirties I was probably spending 25-30% of my income on my car and car-related activities. But I do find it utterly bonkers how people shell out so much money on what's essentially a white good purchase for most of them. The car marketing industry has clearly played an absolute blinder for many years. I know we see a degree of snobbery and tiering in cycling ("wouldn't be seen dead riding Claris mate, you need Ultegra minimum to pop down the shops") but it's generally less expensive. I've got mates and family who are shelling out for two cars on monthly leases and based on the usual "SUV plus city car" combo that's got to easily be £500 per month. I've seen personal finance analysts saying that the whole lease model is the next sub-prime mortgage bubble to go bang (see also short term HP like Klarna) and I have to agree with them. Yes older cars typically have lower MPG figures but I wonder if people actually do a total cost of ownership calculation. I've got a Volvo 940 as a second car, yes it does 25mpg on a good day but I only do 3000 miles a year in it and it cost me just over a grand (so around 3 monthly car payments for a new car). It's still worth a grand, actually probably a little more than that, costs buttons to maintain because most things I can fix myself rather than plugging in diagnostics, and is utterly reliable.

Quote:

while just under half, 47%, believe they have no alternative

It's just a question of "how much change" isn't it?  It's a sliding scale - it's possible to live with approximately zero motor transport.  Although most of us would find that "impossible" and society would indeed collapse if we all changed at once.  At the other end, there are almost certainly some motor trips that everyone could eliminate.

It is very likely that you can't just replace a series of car trips with public transport / cycling.  Never mind "reliability" there may not actually be any way you can do that journey - especially in / at a reasonable time.  However - we make choices with our lives all the time.  About where we live, what we work at, what activities we do.

Those are all "radical" changes I guess.  However it's not a given that changing some of those so that a car is not needed will lead to a worse quality of life.  It might even be better.  Less travelling time, more local connection, not being able to be at the beck and call of others as a taxi service...

Pffft!

You can buy a new pick-up truck for $2000: https://supercarblondie.com/car-reviews/cheapest-pickup-truck-china-chang-li-explorer/