Commuting

Returning to this topic, Wikipedia defines it as follows:-
“Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.”

Now to me that means using the most effective method of travel both in terms of money and time. High cost commuting impacts the individuals wallet and reduces the money available for living expenses and recreation even if it is subsidised (unless fully expensed). Too long spent commuting reduces the commuter’s personal time for those general day to day tasks and recreation time that is part of life.

Because of the time aspect I have rarely relied on trains in the UK for my commuting, and on those occasions that I have the experience has not been pleasant / enjoyable. Crowded trains mean that the amount of work that can be done during the journey is limited, sometimes impossible. Linking to other forms of public transport is stressful with unreliable services either being missed or running late. Which means I prefer to use the UK road network.

Moving onto the roads means 3 options, bicycle, motorbike and car. I find the speed of other traffic intimidating and makes using a bicycle too dangerous for me to consider further. My preference is to use the motorbike but there are occasions when the weather conspires to make this much less attractive (frost, fog, heavy rain / sleet / snow). The result is that I split my commuting between motorbike and car. I am fortunate that I can do this, not everyone has the options I have. But why, oh why, do those that commute by car appear to be in a race? Maximising economy to keep costs down cannot be achieved by fast aggressive driving, but it is a feature of the daily commute, and if you do the same route day in, day out, it is the same people driving fast and aggressively. Is it just in their nature to always drive like that or do they not understand the costs quotient?

The UK government has spend millions of pounds on “safety campaigns” in an attempt to reduce accident figures and casualty rates. None of those campaigns have focused on why people are driving in the manner they do. Yes, I know that many will ignore any message and think it doesn’t apply to them (witness the number of people driving and using hand held devices). But the government claims that every “safety campaign” has some affect on behaviour, so isn’t it time they addressed the commuting driver and their bad driving habits?