Fuel Price Rant Thread. HOW MUCH???????

[brammy777]

Petrol prices are actually starting to put me off driving now. I am ready for my test, but bear in mind thats a good £100 plus another £1800 (at least) for car and insurance, it certainly builds up. Oh well, better get it done before it gets any higher. I remember when that fuel crisis happened a few years back, and petrol was running out at the forecourts, it was madness outside my flat in Slough as there was a Texaco opposite.

My buses are fine, £2.80 to do 11 or so miles, or if you're feeling bold, £18 for an all week gold rider ticket, the bonus being you can use it for unlimited travel (on stagecoach) in Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex. Although why anyone would travel that far on a bus is beyond me.

[warren t claim]

I'm thinking of going back to a middleweight Motorcycle for commuting journeys. 50 mpg and free through the Mersey Tunnel (which is also going up to £1.50 a trip).

 

Bus mongs and Transport Select quangos don't understand that some people have to start work at 4am 40 miles away from where they live. Fucking bellends.

[Negative Creep]

Costs me more to get the bus into town that it would to drive in and park for 2 hours. Although I always park a bit further out in the off hours permit zones and take a short walk in. Feels nice to give the council even less money.

[warren t claim]

There is a local government policy which name escapes me, which basically means making it so unpleasant to drive anywhere with high priced or none existent parking and lots of unnecessary traffic calming therefore forcing you onto public transport.

[Pete-M]

Last night I was fumbling around the interweb looking for a cheap flight to Prague at the beginning of April. Wizzair only ran the Liverpool - Prague service for a year or so, so now it's back to Manchester for a flight, which means either driving to the airport (36 miles each way) in the car and paying for a weeks parking, getting someone to run me to the airport and then pick me up again afterward, or getting a cab to and from t'airport. Getting the train from Liverpool to Man Apt means getting a bus into L'pool City Centre, then a train to Manchester, then a bus to the airport (I think). The public transport option is the cheapest, but it'll take me as long to get to Manchester as it does to get to Prague.

 

Then there's the unavoidable fact that if I fly from Manchester I am stuck with the horror that is BMI Baby, and that the flight arrives in CZ at 11pm. The other option is to fly with KLM, but that's twice the price.

 

So, I looked at the price of flying from Birmingham - which would involve a 200 mile round trip and a weeks parking on top of the cost of the flight. A little bit cheaper, but it'd mean staying in Geneva for a night - which I really cannot be bothered doing.

 

I then thought "Bugger it, I'll take the Jag again." and went on to do the maths. It'd cost £130 more in fuel than it did in September.

 

£ 130 MOREOoooh, I've gone all Daily Mail.

 

That's scary shit.

 

I also asked a few EuroBuddies how much LPG is in various countries, to see if the Heep would come into its own. Nope. In Czech it's equivalent to £1/litre for LPG, and £1.15/litre for unleaded - which is bloody expensive for Czechs.

 

We're being raped, folks. All of us.

[STUNO]

Having used pubic transport for the past two weeks, I know I want my car back, and I want to test 1.4 16v efficiency against 3.0 V6.

 

Here are problems with public transport:

 

a) Drivers are mostly miserable and don't seem to like the job at all,

Drivers wants to get back to depot ASAP, meaning bus can sometimes be over 10 minutes too early on quiet, off-peak journeys,

c) Drivers blame 'stopping distances of bus' as reason for going through traffic lights five seconds after lights have changed to red,

d) Price - 2.20 to travel two miles,

e) Drivers never have common sense to stock up on change, meaning producing anything larger than a five pound note is greeted with 'Av you got any less', and in some cases (10.30pm on a Monday night) being refused busride due to driver having no change,

f) Putting up with random rattles on the bus,

g) Seeing patches on windows where people's heads have been (after resting your head in the same patch),

h) Having people in cars looking at you while driving past the bus stop,

i) Giving a bus driver the wanker symbol because he drove past without seeing you (and then not stopping anyway), and then realising you have to catch that same bus everyday,

j) Running for the bus, which leaves before you reach the stop, and you have to pretend you are running somewhere else (with your hand stretched out for some reason).

 

From a BUS DRIVER

 

a) Guess who makes the bus driver miserable

b)The bus always leaves on time but no passengers = a fast run (I got accused of being 15 mins early on a 20 min run recently)

c) It's called hurrying, and me is NOT GUILTY

d) price $2.30 for any trip any distance incl transfers to another bus (that is about 1 pound)

e) correct fare is what you should have, or close. think BEFORE you get on!!! no sympathy from ME. you could get a bus pass.

f) the driver has to put up with them too, yesterday I had to put up with a screaming diff. That did wonders for a)

g) not on our busses! they get cleaned

h) that's not the bus drivers fault, that's paranoia.

i) make yourself visible and stand and hail the bus, the driver is looking for autoshite not passengers (GUILTY)

j) you running = i wait. you wandering about 50 yards from the stop i will go! you overweight and tryingto run i wait cause i knows what it is like.

so there

[STUNO]

Do you always have the correct change (or close) when you pay cash, Stuno?

At the newsagents, the supermarket, the pub?

 

And the bus I occasionally take to to work hasn't run on time for five years, when the driver's running ahead of time he'll wait at a stop with no passengers and once, a driver pulled up at a stop, stood up and asked "is anyone going to the airport?". When nobody responded, he went ahead and missed out the four mile airport loop section of his route.

 

I'll leave driver's attitude out of this one for now.

 

Time to get serious Tayne,

I use a bank cash card for almost all purchases so rarely carry cash. If I was a regular bus user I would get a bus card which in our case gives a very worthwhile discount over cash (30%)

In reality we do stop at the half-way point to wait if we are early. And if I left off part of the route a bolloking would be the least of my worries (gps is watching).

Attitude ? you should hear the laughter in our tea-room when we discuss the day's doings

Now go and get that coin out of the jar on your dresser and use it for the bus.

[garethj]

I don’t think this rant about bus drivers is half as good as the one we had about lorry drivers last week.

 

Instead of buses I think there should be more hitch-hiking schemes. There’s loads of cars driving around with empty seats, why not use it to take other people? And as a Brucie bonus, there’d be fewer sour-faced old trouts walking around, they’d have to cheer up a bit or they’d never get a lift.

 

Trig would be guaranteed a ride to work if he wore his Christmas jumper, although it might be with Noel Edmonds.

[trigger]

I'd sooner walk then get a lift of that twat, even if he was driving a MG Maestro.

[pogweasel]

Been having a look at these liftshare / carshare sites, no sucess so far unless you want to walk 5 milex to het a lift then trudge across town at the other end. Again in theory, great. In practice pretty inworkable.

[garethj]

I don't think you can plan these things ahead - just get wave down a car going down the right road and get out when you want to turn off.

 

I'm sure there's an iphone app in the making right there, gps linked and everything. And it would do the job of sticking your thumb out and smiling hopefully

[pogweasel]

So like an electronic book that emits a signal when you need a lift, and that contain within it information on everything you neef to know about the universe? I shall specify mine with the words DON'T PANIC printed in large letters across the cover. Don't forget your towel now...

[wuvvum]

There's a village I pass through every day on the way into Norwich, and there's quite often a woman in her 40s stood at the side of the road thumbing a lift. I've not stopped for her as yet, mainly because every time I've seen her I've been in the Innocenti which would mean she'd have to get in and out of the offside, which could be awkward in rush hour traffic, but I'm assuming someone must give her a lift or she wouldn't bother trying.

[dollywobbler]

On buses and change, growing up in the Midlands, there was no such thing as change. You had the correct money or you overpaid/didn't get on. I still find it really odd that some bus companies bother with change - it slows everything down so much.

 

As for driver attitudes, there's nothing I'd want to do less than be a bus driver, especially in a city. Hours trapped behind the wheel with mongs surrounding you both on and off the bus. Sounds like hell. Bit nicer round here like, but buses only run on occasional days - not much use!

[Cavcraft]

It'll take a big price hike to get people out of their cars nut if we keep accepting increases and not protesting or whatever we might as well get dry bummed over the price per litre. Sadly for some people pleasure driving is being decreased due to fuel prices. Thank God for two wheelers I say.

[Andrew353w]

My journey to & from work is about 70 miles round trip, although at 4.30 am there aren't that many hold-ups! Heathrow airport now have an internet site where you can check out if anyone can car-share with you, AND IT WORKS! You put in your home, your job and your shifts & they match you (a bit like E-harmony, but at work!) I've halved my use of the car, and share with a colleague. The airport give those of us on the scheme privileged parking spaces and the employer is asked, where practical, to adjust shift patterns for those sharing cars. In a recent survey over 98% of airport staff used cars as public transport doesn't work that early or late; this car share is a really good idea.

 

You don't have to share with someone who works with you either, although I suppose it would help if you did. I really think this could be a good idea for all big employers. It'd be even better if you could see what car the other person had, so you could autoshite car share! Possibilities.....

[Lord Sterling]

On buses and change, growing up in the Midlands, there was no such thing as change. You had the correct money or you overpaid/didn't get on. I still find it really odd that some bus companies bother with change - it slows everything down so much

 

They still do that around here in the double deckers. Though the doubles seem to be slowly being phased out as they have replaced mosty of them with single deckers. Not tried these new single decker busses yet so dont know if they give out change, I think I'll resist as long as possible. I mostly walk anyway.

 

It seems you need to have the "correct" change for everything, busses and parking aswell, why? Its not always possible. I once parked in the Bullring (On the VERY rare occasions I actually am forced to go there) got back, stuck ticket into payment machine and had about 5p less than the ticket price, I only had £10 note on me, naturally no one around me had change so I had to traipse all the way back into the horrible shopping area, find a shop for change, again no one would give any change unless I actually purchased something, so I had to purchase something, finally get some change, go back down to the pay machine only to find the fucking price had doubled in the 5 minutes I was away.

 

I've never been back with my car unless someone else has paid. Seems you've got to carry bags of change with you all the time.

 

Petrol prices? Well, Im alway going on about getting my 827 on the road sometime soon, its highly possible it could well become reality soon, and seeing as the petrol prices have shot up has got me wondering whether it would be worth fitting my LPG kit on it.

[scooters]

It's a growing problem for us all. I read in the Sunday Times that it could shoot up to £2 a lt if it kicks off again in the Middle East. The USA has a lot to answer for here as they have deliberately kept their production low to conserve their resources whilst buying from the rest of the world and keeping prices artificially high because of this. The real cost here isn't the blow to our wallets but the risk of tipping us back into recession.

 

It isn't helped by the idiocy of government - Edinburgh council is doing its very best to penalize motorists at the moment when THEY were the ones who turned Edinburgh into a city where you need a car. Granting planning permission to retail centers within 1 mile of the town center has turned princes Street into a desert. Office space in town is so expensive due to rates that there are dozens of empty buildings in the city whilst the council are happy to grant planning permission to green field sites on the ouskirts - the result being of course that the buses don't go there - they go into the middle of town. Our council responds by making the traffic system a Gordian nightmare, trying to introduce congestion charging and taxing 'large' vehicles through parking permits of unreasonable cost. all the pricks should be doing is incentiveise businesses to return to the centre of town which would reinvigorate the city and solve much of the transport issue.

 

Personally I'll be using the camper van for a while - I get 35 mpg out of it which is a tad better than the volvos - how I regret selling my Moggy!

[M'coli]

Here's a rhetorical question on buses, trams and trains: when the first one leaves the depot in the morning, and the last one arrives back at night, how do the staff get to and from their place of work?

[fotorabia]

It isn't helped by the idiocy of government - Edinburgh council is doing its very best to penalize motorists at the moment when THEY were the ones who turned Edinburgh into a city where you need a car. Granting planning permission to retail centers within 1 mile of the town center has turned princes Street into a desert. Office space in town is so expensive due to rates that there are dozens of empty buildings in the city whilst the council are happy to grant planning permission to green field sites on the ouskirts - the result being of course that the buses don't go there - they go into the middle of town. Our council responds by making the traffic system a Gordian nightmare, trying to introduce congestion charging and taxing 'large' vehicles through parking permits of unreasonable cost. all the pricks should be doing is incentiveise businesses to return to the centre of town which would reinvigorate the city and solve much of the transport issue.

 

Id noticed that as well Scooters..my sister was one of those pen-bike-pushers who tried to introduce the congestion charge into Edinburgh..and it didnt work obviously..a bit like the billion quid tram fiasco..i couldnt get my head around so many incredible buildings lying around empty...

Now we ve got the wee diesel Ford Laser wagon im definitely going to look at collecting the old veggie oil number here...and doing the filter dilution factor..but even that the Viva is on the market..i still feel tempted to get another sml petrol...hmm..wonder what diesel i could put in the 1980 Mitsi Mirage ive got me eye on..

[Polystratus]

Here's a rhetorical question on buses, trams and trains: when the first one leaves the depot in the morning, and the last one arrives back at night, how do the staff get to and from their place of work?

 

 

In the case of buses and sometimes trains (although maybe more so in the past) something called a 'paddy', its a bus or train that picks up staff. Of course presuming there is one, I know the local bus co. run one.

[Guest]

And what does the driver of that do?

[alf892]

After 8 months on the dole I got a job......only an 80 mile round trip(last was 240). To celebrate I bought an oldish 530d estate as a commuting tool working on a gallon each way at £5 a gallon.........

 

Mind you I recently had a Fabia courtesy car (1.4 petrol) and saved nothing over the week...........so comfort wins!

[Pete-M]

After 8 months on the dole I got a job......only an 80 mile round trip(last was 240). To celebrate I bought an oldish 530d estate as a commuting tool working on a gallon each way at £5 a gallon.........

 

Heh, my commute is five miles a day each way. Costs me about a £5...

[Lankytim]

And what does the driver of that do?

 

The "paddy" tows a caravan, in which the driver lives.

[scooters]

After 8 months on the dole I got a job......only an 80 mile round trip(last was 240). To celebrate I bought an oldish 530d estate as a commuting tool working on a gallon each way at £5 a gallon.........

 

Mind you I recently had a Fabia courtesy car (1.4 petrol) and saved nothing over the week...........so comfort wins!

 

530D - I approve heartily - nice and comfortable I'll bet.

 

I've been on the brew for 6 months now and it is a fecking miserable situation exacerbated by my ongoing health issue. The good news is that I may have landed a new job in edinburgh, only a mile from home so I will be able to walk to work for the first time in years - having clocked 1000 miles a week commuting to st albans for 3 years it will be nice to get my life back.

Mind you - lifestyle changes will curb my shite for once - no more travelling nationally to collect kit - i'll have to be a good boy.

 

So my pocket money is going into the van now - the wife is up for using it this summer and for weekends so some motivation to get sorted - can't wait and it is about time I stuck with a project for once!

[mattblack]

Most of the people I see on the road must get their fuel for nothing, as they seem to be driving like they want to get burn as much as possible. And they all appear to have shares in a company that makes brake pads and brake light bulbs...

[Guest]

With regards to buses, the whole not giving change/breaking big notes thing would be negated if cash machines gave out pound coins - which they don't. Or if they had a change machine near the front of the bus - which they don't.

 

If you've just withdrawn a load of £20 notes, what are you supposed to do? Go round asking people if they'll change it for you?

[M'coli]

^^^Same thing for parking - if you need to park to get money to pay for the parking, and you then need to get change from the money to feed the meter with...

[pogweasel]

Parking thing is mega irksome.

Some places have this "ringo" thing, which means you don't need actual cash, but they take the piss by charging extra than coins in the meter. Also, you can only have one car on their records at one time, and setting that up involves a fone-jacker-esque automated machine.

 

Please state your registration at the boop.

*BOOP*

J***XYZ

You have chosen to park your - GREEN ZWOROKIN PAL - at Hillingdon NCP. Is this correct?

No

*BOOP*

NO!

Please state your registration at the boop.

*BOOP*

J***XYZ

You have chosen to park your -BEIGE - CONTADINI LAMBRUSCO - at Richmond Hill. Is this correct?

No

*BOOP*

NO!

Please state your registration at the boop.

*BOOP*

J***XYZ

You have chosen to park your -RED EARNSHAW SUPER GUMBY - at Cambridge Parkway. Is this correct?

Fuck off

*BOOP*

FUCK OFF AND DIE, JUST CLAMOP THE FUCKER SO I DON'T SPEND THE REST OF MY NATURAL LIFE ON THIS BASTARD CALL!