I decided to go to the supermarket today and get the bus. The schedule states the number 6 goes every 10 minutes. Except, I had to wait 15 minutes! In the cold.
A bus or train service is great if it sticks to the timetable. If it doesn’t, it leaves you feeling like you never want to get on public transport again! This is so important and yet is just not happening. [Sigh]
I need to write up on my travel experiences…The rest of the world it seems does quality public transport!
So this week I had some more car free adventures.
I needed to go a few miles to go to a specialist shop so I got the bus. The First Bus I get sells a day pass ticket if you go any reasonable distance – so if you want a return travelling about 4 miles, they sell you a day rider ticket (£3.80). This is significant as to what happened later.
GOOD 
So as I had this bus ticket, I got my money’s worth, riding buses 5 times, including to and from my local shops.
BAD 
Thinking it would be handy to use the bus to go to my martial art class at 7pm, I got an evening bus. I walked to a stop that has multiple services, but to my dismay, I saw five buses travel in the opposite direction and only one venture to town (where I was going) in 45 minutes! Feeble service.
Two disappointing notes to add: The bus that came through still had it’s number displayed instead of ‘Not in service’ and the bus stop had a time table display which obviously does not show live data.
Luckily, a friend gave me a life back at 9pm saving more hanging around. What I really hate about waiting for buses is the feeling you are not doing anything constructive. You are at the mercy of that big behemoth of the road, if it decides to pay you a visit. Rarely punctual, pricey and lacking information. Our bus service leaves a lot to be desired, still.
Cycle stop
On a brighter note, the following day I decided to not use public transport to go to town (6 miles), but to cycle in and use the Cycle Point at the main train station. This is a great idea, commuters being able to drop their bikes off for the day for £1 per day. I did my shopping that day and rode home in the rush hour without too much trouble.
There were plenty of bikes in the Cycle Point but they said they had capacity for another 300 bikes upstairs! I did notice also that day that many people are happy to leave their bikes locked to railings and lamp-posts (free of course) but for the sake of £1, I prefer to leave mine in a safe place (although they do recommend you lock up your bikes in the Cycle Point).
Further details can be found at Northern Rail – Leeds Cycle Point
As I am car free at the moment I decided to use my bike this week to the shops and post office. This is a good thing – get the heart pumping and the legs working, etc. Unfortunately there are some snags to riding a bike to the shops.
So for posting a letter it was great, but for doing the weekly shop, walking wins.
Me and a friend went for a bike ride today. We went from North Leeds to Harrogate via Pool, Huby, Burn Bridge and Pannal. In Harrogate we got the train back. I made a few observations:
GOOD
BAD
I went for a ride on the bus today. The fares have gone up to £3.80 (it was £3.40 last year) for a day rider. This ticket gets a ride on any FirstBus. However, last time I used the buses I got on a Centre Line bus which cost 70p extra!
Still today I have had 4 bus rides so far and intend to make another two! Got to get value for my money!!
Note: I use www.wymetro.com for journey planning and timetables, and www.leedstravel.info has maps with bus stops showing live bus departure times. Example embedded below:
Since I have been reading up on this today, I might as well discuss it.
I found this while looking at my council’s website for travel info – Leeds Travel Info which shows locations of cars available for use with City Car Club.
The spiel on the site states that for people who use a car less than 6000 miles a year, it is a more economical service. I assumed that there might be a garage where cars are kept but no, they are parked in designated bays on the street. In fact I passed one on the way back from the shops recently!
Is it cheaper?
So, is it what they say, cheaper that owning your own car? Well there are plenty of tools to work it out. I put a regular journey I make in the online calculator and it came out at £17 (this is for a 4 mile return journey which I would use the car for 3 hours). Hmm. Now I don’t own a brand new car – an old Megane 1.6 Coupe in fact, but I have calculated the running cost of my car is £40 a week. This includes insurance, tax and some pretty expensive servicing lately, not to mention the price of petrol.
The daily cost of a basic car is £42 so already, hiring a car club car is more expensive that using my car for a whole week
The other startling fact is that the insurance comes with an excess of £500! Unless you pay £5/month to reduce it. So don’t have a crash! Other costs include a £50/year membership fee.
Still I think the concept is great so I might give it a try one day.
And how about a car that drives itself to solve traffic chaos of the future?
Bill Ford (from the Ford car company) talks about transport ideas already implemented around the world. This is a great talk and an inspiration for this web site.
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