Distance from public transport

[RobynBlakeTS]

Hi di hi one and all,

Im currently doing some research/property searches for the future and im just wondering how much of a factor distance from public transport is in your decision making for seeing a girl? Im currently looking at somewhere in Stratford but its 500 meters from the tube station so that's about a 10 minute walk. I personally don't think that's to big a walk but you never with some people.

[Prospero]

Ten minutes walk is fine Robyn.... but maybe you should think about moving West!

[Plaything]

Prospero makes an excellent suggestion. Go West. To Cheltenham :-)

[Prospero]

Not that far west!!! West London... after that it is all the shires, tories, retired colonels, GCHQ and such nonsense

[francisfkudrow]

Around here (Harrisburg, PA), public transit is woefully inadequate, unless you're just going to a shopping mall. Both of my FWBs are completely inaccessible via public transit.

[Ts RedVeX]

I'd say it depends on who you are aiming for: centre is good for people without cars, outskirts are better for drivers... I've just arrived in Birmingham and i think I need soe sodatives before I start meeting... It was even worse than London! And that despite the fact it took me over an hour to drive the 7 miles to your place from Westminister last time, Robyn... :pissed: Myself, I'd just move to a quiet village where I could walk my dog in the surrounding meadows and forests, listening to birds singing in the trees on a summery day...^^

[RobynBlakeTS]

Ten minutes walk is fine Robyn.... but maybe you should think about moving West!

I thought it would be but I do recall seeing some people have a whinge in some reviews about having to walk a bit from the tube station etc.

Oh no im very happy and settled here in the east end and moving would upset all those who already see me here in this area.


Prospero makes an excellent suggestion. Go West. To Cheltenham :-)

Chelt-where? :P


I'd say it depends on who you are aiming for: centre is good for people without cars, outskirts are better for drivers... I've just arrived in Birmingham and i think I need soe sodatives before I start meeting... It was even worse than London! And that despite the fact it took me over an hour to drive the 7 miles to your place from Westminister last time, Robyn... :pissed: Myself, I'd just move to a quiet village where I could walk my dog in the surrounding meadows and forests, listening to birds singing in the trees on a summery day...^^

Yeah I find most people who see me arrive from driving but then im only 30 mins away from central London on the central line so its not like im a million miles away.

haha so another stressful day of driving for you RedVex, just no point having a car in big cities these days.

Well here in east London im lucky I got epping forest, Wanstead flats, and the Olympic park so got some nice bits of nature about :) and as soon as I get my own place im going to get my puppy Blue Heeler :) and call him Dogmeat :)

[bugklappe]

I think your current place is perfect Robyn. I don't understand people in London driving by car. You have public transport which embarrasses us elsewhere in the UK. Busses all night, the 257 is 24hrs I believe, every 20 minutes! Staggering! Tube trains till 00.30! Paradise. Stratford is chaotic! How do they work those platform numbers out on the train station?

[RobynBlakeTS]

I think your current place is perfect Robyn. I don't understand people in London driving by car. You have public transport which embarrasses us elsewhere in the UK. Busses all night, the 257 is 24hrs I believe, every 20 minutes! Staggering! Tube trains till 00.30! Paradise. Stratford is chaotic! How do they work those platform numbers out on the train station?

Thanks, I do like my current place its a lovely place to live and the area is nice also. Sadly though its rented and the goal is to get my own place so just doing some research and looking around what not. But unless my flat mate moves I will be in the same place for some time. I'm registered as self employed so for a mortgage I need 3 years tax return so will be a while yet, so just left to dream for now.

[martin48]

10 min walk - never been done in America

[Jericho]

Depends on the neighborhood.

[RobynBlakeTS]

10 min walk - never been done in America

Lol that's bad

[maaarc]

10 min walk - never been done in America

Once upon a time America enjoyed one of the most efficient and well used public transportation systems to have ever existed. It was all based upon the electric rail car system. interesting article about it's demise

http://theanthrotorian.com/history/2014/5/18/fact-or-fiction-the-great-streetcar-conspiracy



Fact or Fiction? The Great Streetcar Conspiracy

Like most big cities, the one that I live in used to have an efficient and elaborate street-car system that was dismantled long before I ever came along, and the streets were overtaken by cars.

The hot conversation now however, is how to expand and create more efficient public transit options (like extending the light rail transit services) so that people have to use their vehicles less.

If only we hadn't dismantled those streetcars. Which raises the question — why were they dismantled in the first place?


A streetcar in San Francisco, California

Some say that as vehicles became more popular, people chose to drive directly to their destination rather then cramming into a sweaty streetcar and being dropped only "nearby". Others claim that buses were cheaper to run because no additional track was required to reach the ever-growing suburbs.

Another theory however, and one that has been explored over and over again by scholars, researchers, journalists and conspiracy theorists, is that General Motors (GM) and other car companies conspired to systematically purchase and dismantle streetcar and electric train systems.

Known as the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy or the Great American Streetcar Scandal, this theory examines the actions of National City Lines and Pacific City Lines (both invested in by GM, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, Mack Trucks and the Federal Engineering Corporation) from 1936-1950. During this time, the two companies purchased more than 100 electric surface-traction systems in 45 major cities and converted them into bus operations.

Some theorists claim that this was a business strategy created by GM to expand auto sales and maximize profits — rather than walk, people would buy Buicks.

"In 1921, GM lost $65 million, leading {GM} to conclude that the auto market was saturated, that those who desired cars already owned them, and that the only way to increase GM's sales and restore its profitability was by eliminating its principal rival: electric railways.

At the time, 90 percent of all trips were by rail, chiefly electric rail; only one in 10 Americans owned an automobile. There were 1,200 separate electric street and interurban railways, a thriving and profitable industry with 44,000 miles of track, 300,000 employees, 15 billion annual passengers, and $1 billion in income. Virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system." (source)

Sensationalized in movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, sources claim that this competition was reduced through the use of bribery, freight leverage and a pack of notorious mobsters.

In 1949, many of the companies involved were convicted of conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce, but many still don't believe that an actual back-room, behind closed doors conspiracy actually took place amongst these powerful companies.

No matter what you believe, there is no denying that North Americans live a life of automobile dependency, and the hearts of many of the largest cities on the continent are completely devoid of life after the workday because of a lack of reliable public transit.

[CORVETTEDUDE]

Public transportation in the US SUX!!! Wish I lived in London!!

[Rusty Eldora]

Not sure of the conspiracy as Maaarc noted, but the social trends coming out of WWII with the expansion of suburbia, the perceived freedom of the car, the deferred maintenance of the trolley systems, and the generally low density of American cities basically killed most trolley, commuter train, and bus systems.

Today with the capital and operating costs of a mass transit systems, very few make it on the farebox alone, many subsidized to the tune of 60 to 70%. Still the low density of at least one end of the trip make it not preferred for travel.

It works in Japan because the stores are basically in the train station and it is a fast efficient system. Note that the stations are often quite basic, not the granite wonders of the US system. It also gives everyone the exercise that keeps the society trim and fit.