[Bonnyboy]

Originally Posted by derekgas

People are as much to blame in many ways, we have all watched it happening and have sat back and allowed it, we know they always punish the smokers, drinkers and drivers, and many still do all these at the same rate they always have, granted, some people have given up smoking, and the non smokers havnt gone back drinking, but very few use the car less, or make use of one car instead of several cars, between a family.

You are right saying that we use the car more these days. In quite a few ways I think there is a need for us to use the car more though.

People work further away from home these days. I know a few couples where the hubby may work in Manchester, the wife Preston.

Shopping trips are by and large done differently these days. Weekly groceries are no longer done on a daily basis, say picking a few bits and bats up from the local shop, they mostly shut years ago. When I was young my mother and gran used to do the main shop for food at the weekend, in town and it was whatever they could fit into their shopping bags, the rest of the food bought locally through the week. Most of us take the car to the big supermarkets now and fill the car boot up

Out of town shopping centres are another relatively new thing. As are the big DIY stores, there weren’t really any of those around when I was a kid, folk tended to go to the local hardware store.

The government know all this and encourage the development of industrial estates in the middle of nowhere for us to do our shopping for Sofa‘s, electrical goods etc. Then try to price people out of their cars with a supposedly “green” tax.

It’s even being done with our hospitals now, the local ones are all but shut and these new “Super Hospitals” are being built.

Seems only logical to me that more use of the car is being made.