Safe Speed Forums

I would imagine each Sales Rep will be planning the route and sequence of his/her visits.

As for car sharing... if the person you are picking up is late - you both end up late for work. Also it is tying if one needs to work late.

Also - it is not always possible as firms do not employ persons who live around the corner from each other. They employ the person who they think can do the job - and all too often they live miles from the work place... Realistically - too far to commute daily by bike in many cases. Long hours cultures also tend to scotch the idea...to be faced with a 15 mile ride on a cold dark winter evening after a 12 hour stint in the office just does not appeal to the majority either.

I agree - long hours culture leaves much to be desired as these workers are often too tired to drive - and this fatigue can cause loss of concentration and can lead to an accident - whether on two wheels or behind the wheel.

Most of the people I work with do not live near me - but in another part of Durham or in the neighbouring Counties. Would not then be possible to hitch a lift. My next-door- but - three neighbour works for the bus services in some admin job - and can travel on the buses for free... only none of them would get her to work on time - so she drops her kids off on the way to work each day - in her car...


Not as simplistic as you think Cyclist B..

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Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

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Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

I do want more Grreen Cross Code rammed down throats in between dollops of "Corrie"

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Well, any fool can find a million reasons not to do something.

What the world needs is people who are prepared to take a risk, to put their neck out, to (once a fortnight) put others before them.

Your post is a classic post. It's all about can't.
Think about can.

As said - if only so simple ... we do have to look at work practices, In these days of computer technologies - lot of us could work from home. But a lot of us crave the "social contact" which employment grants us.

Wildy did tryo it out - bless her. You are new to this forum - but Wildy (prolific on PH espeically during her "confinement" is my cousin and we nearly lost her in a "freak incident"

I'm not bragging - respect this girl and she really is at the top of her profession. Anyway, after that accident she was informed that "pregnancy would not occur because of her injuries" and has since produced two healthy children.


However, this was not without risk to herself and drung the pregnancy and afterbirth - she worked more or less form home - but still found she had to travel out to the lab and hospitals to check things out at first hand .

This also applies to accountants and other professionals. You cannot work "independently" all of the time - and firms do not employ staff friom the same area.

One of my pals was speaking to a lady who has moved here from Holland. She is thinking of buying a car because the waits of over one hour and cancelled buses and trains is making her life as a temp "untenable"

But you are assuming we neighbours works at same location - and we just don't. It is not "cannot/ will not" but reality of life that our neighbours do not work where we work and travel in an opposite direction...

You are being too simplistic or idealistic here..

Tell me - where you work ...does everone who lives near you work at the same place as you? Does this make a shared commute "viable" and acceptable to all parties?

Once upon a time - this might have been so - but not today and yes - I would agree - it is a failing and damning indictment of our society and employment procedures

But - what can you suggest to change it? This is the SS forum - we listen and discuss here. Flaws we highlight - but hopefully we do so with respect as we try to look at the entire argument and work out the constructive solutions and then our host takes note and uses it to keep it safe ithin the campaign.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

5% That's all. Just 5%.

1 in 20.

If you really cannot ever work from home, share a lift, cycle, take public transport, then why do a deal like the MPs do - they pair off with an opposition MP so neither has to go to Parliament. You could find a co-worker who could do 10%.

It is far easier to find reasons to not do it....

Can you prove this figure?

I have not seen anything to verify this.

No one in my area woks where I work.... in fact none work at same place and all have different working hours and commitments.

In a way this is linked to the "taking kids out of school for family holiday argument" Work and floating days do not lend to other wayas of life and I agree - it's a problem which we have brought upon ourselves to some extent.




MPs are not "real" workers as such.


Nope ... I do not work where neighbours work and I know myneighbours do not work near each other.

The Mad Cats work in opposite directions as well and no one near them works where they do ...agreed they are bit of beaten track ....and even if they decide to work in USA as on cards - they stilll face same problem of commutes.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

what is there to prove? that 5% does equate to 1 in 20?



The way to work it out is as follows:

1
-- x 100
20

Car sharing may be difficult but not impossible - I work in an office with 2 colleagues, we try to plan our visits to other sites so that we can car share, not for the 'eco' benefits but for the social aspects.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

I'm not really interseted in Chinese cooking at your place of work.

Read the post again.

I'm afraid this makes no sense to me at all. Are they going to work in Las Vegas?

The position expressed here is really fundamentally wrong. Stats are useful and the better and the broader the stats, the better, obviously.

But stats alone can't tell us much - or sometimes anything at all - about what causes what. And without information and understanding about causes we can't plan effective interventions.

And we have to compartmentalise, mainly because we need to consider individual effects within a system. Having selected a target area, the stats that apply to other target areas are likely to be unimportant.

The proper route is that stats and understanding should inform research and research should inform properly designed trials and clinical style trials should inform policy. Nationally we're a very long way away from this sort of position.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

That 5% can really share a car commute. I could take some bloke with me and drop him off - but I'd be going two miles out of my way and would add to my journey time. Also - I do not work the same hours and if an emergency crops up - I cannot walk away - my patients do come first. So - he'd be a bit stuck!

Wildy works a bit further on and her hours are more or less "stable" - but even so - if she dropped me off and then had to wait for me - we then have a problem with kittencare.

True - we chose to live here - but my job was around here (in a Cumbrian hospital) when we moved here - I moved as I climbed up the professional ladder - and basically if we were to move to one of the leafy 'burbs satelliting the big towns - we'd still be in the same situation of long jams and no one working at same place as ourselves.



Andy - since these people scream "peer review" and "back up from some obscure internet site - I want him to provide mor than one accredited and acclaimed source proving this.

I think this is what Charles was getting at...but trying to be "tactful!"



Yes - but this is after you have arrived at work. Lotss of firms do this - know for fact accountant pals and relatives drives selves to the offices and then his team of auditors pile onto one car and go off the the clients together. Again reason why they do not give a lift to someone living nearby has more to do with travel to different places and directions - which can mean lengthy detours which rather add to problems rather than solve them.

I also know of one lady who works in North Trafford Hospital and lives in Sale which is not far. But it takes her two hours to get to and from work by public transport including long waits and cancelled buses. It takes her 10 minutes by car and it seems her neighbours work in Bolton, Manchester, Altrincham, Stockport....but not in the Urmston/Flixton area of Manchester....



Nope. Still weighing this one up. Wildy has been asked to head some research in USA and I've also been head hunted to research some lurgy or other over there.

Problem? I happen to like living in Cumbria despite the Speed Finder General - and I do not want to maroon my eldest at Uni in St Andrews or disrupt our -t-t-t-twins' studies - especially when we have to work on the discipline in this area with these two... Also - we have to consider how the younger ones will take to a change - one tweeny, two rogues ... our youngest is only 15 months so she's out of this equation.

But even so - should we bite the proverbial and accept this rather lucrative and "look good on our respecctive cv's" offer - we'd still be travelling in opposite directions to get to where we have been offered these positions.


We plan on a "recce" during the kids' half term to check on housing, schools and so on...to try to make up our minds.

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In all the threads in here , we have yet to hear if the ultimate WVM -talivan man will be taking this course - and of course the additional bit - to teach them how to park it properly. When trafpols did this job , we could have respect for them as their driving was what we aimed for , their parking too - many a time i spotted an unmarked car by the standard of driving.
Nowadays , don't know if its only Leics and Warks , but even parking in a laybye seems beyond them .Parallel parking - parallel to what i ask.
Perhaps some of the few remaining trafpols should get out and evalulate their driving/parking skills, before they cause a serious accident .

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Ah... but illegal und dangerous parking allow them to make all that money...

Ist perhaps on offer because government know these talivan twits are worst offenders...standard of talivan driving in these parts are defnitely sub-marinated



I had scrap with one (not Cumbria but LanCASH£££££££re one who used to park in several disabled bays when shopping for his bag of doughnuts... he got bit cross when I mentioned it to him once.... childish tantrum und a bit of trolley rage thrown in too.... My little rogues stopped the trolley before it hit my then large pregnant whaley look - und after complaint went in.. he ist not doing this since

But then - you look at IG driving und Ian und mates around here - und you feel reassured that these are minority und perhaps sadly the ones who got trained "on the cheap!" or even not at all due to cut backs und over reliance on scams

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nope, not quite right. We have a highly technical device called a 'planner' on which we put our expected trips as soon as we know about them. (It's a bit of A4 printed in calendar form and pinned on a noticeboard). If I happen to be travelling from, say Shevington to Woking on a particular day, and my colleague from Preston is going there the same day, we will car share. From home. We decide whos turn it is to drive and off we go. If it turns out that his meeting finishes at 2:30 and mine finishes at 4:00 then he waits around for me to finish, using that time to network with Woking colleagues or just checking emails.

Sometimes one of us will be away for a couple of days, and another for the day. So we look on the train / cheap flights websites to see if a one way ticket is available for less than the cost (at expenses rates, 13p a mile say) of a return trip, so we can car share one way.

It's not difficult, really it isn't. Unless you have no idea what you are doing or where you will be doing it next week. THAT is where individual car journeys are a necessity IMHO.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

The Government's policy of encouraging flexible working hours gravitates against the car sharing concept. I wonder which policy they would prefer to dominate?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

I think flexible working is the dominant (?) or preferred policy - i.e. flexibility of location rather than just hours worked.

Of course (q.v. Conspiracy or cock up) they then get you on the health & safety grounds - if an employer supports working at home they have to ensure your home working environment is a safe one. If you choose to work at home it's slightly different I believe (IANAL, don't quote me on that)

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Another point to consider about car sharing is ...

What happens if an emergency occurs requiring you to go home immediately?

Handy,

I actually think you are wrong about "flexible working" being about location. I think most people see it as varying their hours to fit in with their social requirements. The main problem that I see with variable hours is that the person you want to talk to, who knows all about your case, is never available.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

How many times has that happened to you in the last, say, year. It's happened to me once. How many times did it coincide with the times I was travelling rather than at my base office? Never. Even if it is so unlikely, each case would have it's own solution. Maybe hurrying home for an accident is actually a bad thing ... asking someone else to drive for you may save your life.

I think B Cyclist said it further up this thread, or I may be paraphrasing, rather than looking for excuses, why not look for opportunities? I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's not impossible to reduce a few miles travelled. Even without any 'green' kind of reasoning, you can save wear & tear, money on fuel, hours sitting alone with no-one to talk to, even do longer journeys in one day because (insurance allowing) you could even share the driving.



See http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/individual/flexwork-pl520.pdf page 8 "what kind of changes can be applied for" and further details on the next couple of pages.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

For people like myself who work in business park type thingies, flexible working hours are pretty much essential - it would be chaos if everyone worked 9-5. Unfortunately such developments are often built without any consideration to providing public transport options. At least they've taken the step here of providing a free bus to the local train station. Not that it helps me much since no trains from my town go there. Of course there are problems with car sharing as several posters have pointed out. In my case noone lives anywhere near me that I'm aware of. But as I go home alone in my 5 seater car, surrounded by countless others doing the same, I can't help feeling that we could and should do much better. There's so much wastage in the system. Perhaps we should be thinking bigger, e.g car pooling from motorway junctions and the like?

Perhaps it's a price worth paying for the flexibility and the privacy that it provides?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety