Black Box Recorder A coffin for privacy 451

says...

And if there are *no* alternatives?

I don't think I'm uncommon. I work 30 minutes from work (electronic engineer). My wife works 20 minutes the other direction (teacher).

Fortunately, neither of us experience congestion problems, but if (for example) I did, our list of options would be...

1) Use public transport. What public transport? To get to work it would involve a walk, bus, wait 8 hours at a train station, a train, a bus, a bus, a 3 mile walk.

2) Move closer to where I work. This would mean my wife moving further away from her work. Because I work in Wales, she couldn't get a job as a teacher because she doesn't speak fluent Welsh.

3) I find alternative work. Even though the electronic engineering market is picking up, there aren't employers on every street corner, so you've got to go where the jobs are. Where I work, there are 10 permanent members of staff, and ~30 contractors. As far as I'm aware, the closest contractor works an hour away. Most of the others live so far away, they stay in B&Bs.

4) I find alternative work outside my field. This would involve either getting a minimum wage job somewhere within walking distance, that would mbuttively disadvantage us (financially), or spending another decade+ retraining (4 years at uni + 10 years industrial experience), with the added disincentive of reduced wages in that 15 year experience.

Unemployment overall, as far as I understand it, is increasing. If you were to tell your boss you were leaving because the commute was too much, 2 people would do what you're doing to get the job you've just left.

As I said above, we don't experience congestion (except on the M56 where there's some roadworks until October), and all our decisions are down to money. It's better to spend £5 a day on fuel compared to losing £100 day (or whatever it is) on wages.

I really do feel for the people who are *forced* to drive on congested roads, and I feel lucky that I don't have to put up with the same, for now.

I say *forced* because you need money to live. If you've got to drive on a congested road to get enough money, they you drive on the road. It's all well & good saying "use public transport" instead, but what PT we *do* have is more expensive than driving, is crowded and uncomfortable, and there's the constant threat of increased prices and decreased capacity to "reduce overcrowding".

I can almost guarantee0 that if Public Transport was made as cheap, clean, reliable and frequent as on the Continent, people would use it, over their cars.

would rapidly take me to close to work, for the same amount that it would cost me to fuel my car for the same journey, I'd use it.

Pete.

0 Not a guarantee.

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