Manual or Auto

[Gavster]

95% of my driving is in London where an auto is the only sensible choice. Ideologically I'm Manuel.

[Mito Man]

London is world's slowest city for drivers, study finds https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67916773

Yeah, any extended driving with a manual is a pain here.

[Gavster]

London is world's slowest city for drivers, study finds https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67916773

Yeah, any extended driving with a manual is a pain here.

Not surprised. This is my old commute when I lived in Camden. On average over a long period, there wasn't much difference between cycling and driving commute time. Cycling was consistently 1 hour +/- 5 minutes. Driving also averaged around 1 hour, however could be as fast as 35 minutes, or as slow as 2 hours, depending on what time of day or night it was, or if there was a tube strike.

[Mito Man]

Holborn—Imperial Wharf for me. By car during rush hour it’s close to 90 mins. Busses are useless now since they changed all the routes since covid and reduced them where I am. Overground between Imperial Wharf and Shepherd’s Bush and then Central to Holborn is another option when it’s more quiet.

I think that car ownership and actual numbers of cars in London has remained pretty flat over many years but the traffic just gets worse which points to (shock horror) crap local policies and restrictions making the traffic worse.

[GG.]

Yep - its done deliberately to make things worse for drivers with the idea of 'nudging' people to take other forms of transport, e.g. changing all bus lanes to be "at any time" rather than running through peak hours, infesting central London with cycle lanes which are used for 2 hours a day and empty the rest of the time.

New developments and planning approvals make things even worse as well - I work in a 30 storey office building near liverpool street and there isn't even a set down/pick up area for taxis, let alone waiting areas or parking. Its completely ignorant as to how people actually work in our types of jobs (and the building is almost entirely law firms and banks) - if you work late you will get a paid taxi home - no-one is getting a bus/tube/train back at 11pm so there are just cabs parked everywhere on double yellows or circling round not wanting to stop. Utterly idiotic.

Of course if you work in a planning office, TfL or for the London mayor and go home at 4.59pm, you won't even be aware this world of people actually contributing to the economy, rather than sponging off tax receipts, even exists...

[Mito Man]

I used to be a bus wanker until the routes got shortened. Now I have to make a change at Hyde Park corner which is impossible during rush hour as the busses are rammed. Even then the bus usually won’t make it that far because it pops up with “the destination has changed” and just kicks everyone off as it is running so late itself with all the traffic. And then I’d resort to a taxi and stressed to fuck.
Just drive now.

[integrale_evo]

It’s not just London, it’s everywhere.

Lots of small towns they’re tried to make more pedestrian friendly only to make it a pain to actually get into town and whack up parking charges, so people don’t bother and going to the out of town shops where it’s east to park.

Then they wonder why town centres are dying

[Matty]

There's no parking at my nearest train station....that's always handy and annuncentive to use the train.

So you drive instead. Add on that you need to pay £2-3 to park, plus fuel....or I could just get Amazon to deliver stuff to me for free.

[IanF]

https://www.instagram.com/stories/harri ... hybzMxdg==

[MikeHunt]

There are 26 auto mx5s for sale on auto trader, tellingly all are RFs. It just looks wrong.