Motorists have ruined England

[Bicycler]

Yep, look at how amazingly wide old streets look in old photographs and it takes a while to realise that those streets haven't got narrower, they are just filled with parked cars.

[merseymouth]

Hello there, One thing very rarely mentioned is the "Obesity Crisis"! Few things keep up with it, 1 Clothes 2 Sofas 3 Umbrellas 4 Size of cars!
Even cyclist's cause this effect, they demand sleek, lightweight, aerodynamic velocipedes, yet buy bloated, overweight, wasteful cars to carry them to their exercise area?
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. MM

[Tonyf33]

My 13 year old 'large' VW passat estate now looks positively slender and 'medium' sized next to the latest offerings yet I seem to have far more leg room and width inside, enough for very large people. Even traditional small cars are incredibly large on the outside and everything is going toward SUV/mini 'offroad' style with the much higher position factored in as a 'safety' feature
These bloaters hog more of the road than ever yet the highways people can't or don't want to see that the problem lies with manufacturers and their own inability to change things so that the roads aren't clogged up.

[tatanab]

Even traditional small cars are incredibly large on the outside

This is to accommodate side air bags which need space to work.

that the problem lies with manufacturers and their own inability to change things so that the roads aren't clogged up.

If Europeans made cars for European roads they could do that. However, the world is a global market and many vehicles have become bloated over the years to suit ever larger American backsides.

[al_yrpal]

My Mitsubishi ASX is a small 4WD SUV its a couple of inches wider than the last car I had, a Mercedes C class estate. Recently, I have considered swapping it for a Ford Focus which I thought would be narrower as the ASX is a bit more difficult to park because of the extra width.. I looked at the Focus at the weekend and I was amazed to see that it seemed quite large? I always thought the Focus was a small car? However, on checking the Focus is actually 10" wider than the ASX!
In this morning's Times it reports the average male American waistline is now 40" and the average female waistline is 38"! Its a crisis... And, our roads just cannot cope. My 71 Triumph Stag is 16" narrower than the Focus which clearly illustrates how things are going.

Al

[Mick F]

We have a few roads here with a 6ft width limit (except for access).
Trouble is, there aren't many cars under 6ft these days, so the width limits are universally ignored.

Even our thirteen year old Clio is 1.94m wide ...... that's 76" ....... ie 6ft 6ins.

Modern cars are HUGE.

[Audax67]

However, the world is a global market and many vehicles have become bloated over the years to suit ever larger American backsides.

Not to mention ever-larger European backsides as US eating habits take over.

[AlaninWales]

Not just England. UC Davis and the ITDP agree
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cars-will-cook-the-planet-absent-shift-to-public-transportation/

[ArMoRothair]

We have a few roads here with a 6ft width limit (except for access).
Trouble is, there aren't many cars under 6ft these days, so the width limits are universally ignored.

Even our thirteen year old Clio is 1.94m wide ...... that's 76" ....... ie 6ft 6ins.

Modern cars are HUGE.

My brother still lives in the house we both grew up in. In our childhood the ordinary family cars our dad owned, when parked beside the house, left plenty of space to comfortably cycle past between the car and the neighbour's wall.

Neither the house nor the neighbour's wall have moved but any of my brother's recent (modest) family cars completely fill that space so that his kids have to wheel their bikes through the house.

[rmurphy195]

A thought -

Until it was renamed "Road Tax" the annual car tax was called "Road Fund Licence" - that's 'cos it was (originally) a charge made on car users to fund the building of roads to drive them on.

Roads which we as cyclists all use.

Without cars and the original funding, would we have such a network of roads to cycle on - particularly in the wet, muddy winter months when roads and tracks would disappear (pre-tarmacadam days)? Or would we have had to pay a road fund licence on our bikes to have the roads made usable - and how much would it have been?

Reminisce - I once had an interesting conversation outside my house with a driver who'd followed me up the hill, rather impatiently
"You shouldn't be on the road, you don't pay road tax on that thing" saith he
"Ah" quoth I "But I do pay road tax on the car on that driveway, and council tax on the house - so I think I pay my fair share don't you?"

[ArMoRothair]

Without cars and the original funding, would we have such a network of roads to cycle on - particularly in the wet, muddy winter months when roads and tracks would disappear (pre-tarmacadam days)? Or would we have had to pay a road fund licence on our bikes to have the roads made usable - and how much would it have been?

I think you'll find it's the other way around. http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com

[TrevA]

The idea in the article could work and be made cost-neutral for the average motorist. Abolish or reduce tax on fuel and replace with a tax on driving. You pay more for driving in busy areas at busy times, less for driving in less busy areas at less busy times. I'd gain as my car sits on the drive all week, only getting used in the evenings and at weekends. Those who wish to drive into the centre of towns at rush hour may end up paying more, but hey-ho.

I still can't believe that people will sit in traffic jams that are miles long and crawl into work in their cars at 10 mph, but they do.

[Bicycler]

A thought -

Until it was renamed "Road Tax" the annual car tax was called "Road Fund Licence" - that's 'cos it was (originally) a charge made on car users to fund the building of roads to drive them on.

Roads which we as cyclists all use.

Without cars and the original funding, would we have such a network of roads to cycle on - particularly in the wet, muddy winter months when roads and tracks would disappear (pre-tarmacadam days)? Or would we have had to pay a road fund licence on our bikes to have the roads made usable - and how much would it have been?

Reminisce - I once had an interesting conversation outside my house with a driver who'd followed me up the hill, rather impatiently
"You shouldn't be on the road, you don't pay road tax on that thing" saith he
"Ah" quoth I "But I do pay road tax on the car on that driveway, and council tax on the house - so I think I pay my fair share don't you?"

No-one pays road tax. Its existence is a commonly held myth. You pay a vehicle excise duty which is these days largely a pollution tax dependent on your vehicle's emissions. The money raised doesn't go towards road repair any more than income tax or VAT does.

The so-called road tax, road fund and it's associated license were all abolished in the 1930s. Prior to that date its primary role was to repair the damage done to the country's roads by motor vehicles. The revenue raised by the road fund was never more than a comparatively small fraction of the amount spent on the roads. Most importantly, payment of the tax by motorists never conveyed any greater entitlement to the use of the roads.

The situation hasn't changed too much in centuries. Historically the roads were repaired by the local parishioners. The repair of roads today (with the exception of motorways and a few motorway-like trunk roads) is the responsibility of your local council who tax the local parishioners

[Vantage]

I've no idea if the content on this site is official fact or fiction, but it does make interesting reading.
http://ipayroadtax.com/no-such-thing-as ... road-fund/

[Mick F]

Roads were built for horses, not bicycles or cars.

During the industrial revolution, turnpikes were used to transport money and economy all over the country. Slowly, the old pack-horse routes were by-passed, gradients reduced, new bridges built, and new villages sprung up. The horse-drawn vehicles became bigger and bigger, and faster and faster. A journey from one end of the county to the other could be done in a few days instead of a few weeks.

After the battle of Trafalgar, the news was rushed to London from Falmouth in West Cornwall by horse and mail-coach 200odd miles in only 30hrs up what is now called the A30.

This was October 1805, well before the invention of the bicycle.