Europe has had fantastic public transportation for a long time. I lived in Germany for three years in the 1980s, never had a car, and never felt I needed one. I traveled all over western Europe.
I've got friends in Berlin who have no car.
They're a family of four and they go everywhere either on their bikes or public transport.
Last year when they took vacation, they just jumnped on their bikes and spent two weeks on the road cycling. For me it was unthinkable until they told me there are guides telling you which roads are safe for cycling.
Rush hours are unpleasant, but so is rush hour traffic.
If you compare the throughput of the rush-hour tube vs rush-hour roads, you'll find that it's simply impossible to move this many people so quickly by cars.
Germany is totally different. Even in Berlin, if a train is a bit packed and I just wait 2-3min for the next one. It’s nothing like packing onto London Underground with the deep tunnels and narrow gauge.
Note for others not familiar, if you go Hammersmith Tube Station to Shepherd's Bush Tube Station overland by bicycle then it takes five minutes, depending on traffic lights. That is actual five minutes, as in three hundred seconds.
Clearly both areas are larger than their respective train stations but the stations are representative.
To actually get a tube or other train between the two is not entirely direct, you would probably get on the wrong Hammersmith station at first (there are two), spend five minutes crossing the road to get to the other one. Then at the end a bus or long walk would be needed, so you would soon be in 45 minute territory.
The traffic can be mostly ignored if doing the route by bicycle except on the various mini ring roads they have to keep traffic deadly. Hammersmith itself is like a six lane motorway ring road of hell, easy to die on that one. Then at Shepherd's Bush there is that green bit where the traffic just goes round and round very slowly. On the bike you just go straight without getting sent around these merry-go-rounds of car fumes.
No idea why anyone would want to drive in such parts of London even though I have had to do it for work myself. It is not even driving, just slowly shunting along, blocking the way for 'serious' road users who care about their time and arriving promptly. As a cyclist I don't see myself as a serious road user, I assume those people in cars have more important journeys than mine so I am deferential to them. Yet, if being prompt matters to you and you do work in London, the bicycle is the only reliable means of getting from A to B in a dependably timely manner.
By that definition, those people in their posh cars, inching along, can't really be that serious. If they thought about it properly they would abandon their tin boxes or find better jobs. Travel by car is that silly in London.
Most people are coming from outside of London and what you find is that it is usually quicker to drive in and just sit in the traffic than mess about doing park and rides and then travelling in.
It was far quicker to walk a mile to Twyford station, get the train to Ealing, and the tube to White City (or fast train to Paddington and tube to Shepherds Bush now) than to drive.
It was a long time ago, and I don't work in Shepherds Bush any more, but the trip today would be
0835 - leave home
0856 - get slow train to London
0935 - arrive Ealing
0950 - arrive White City
0955 - arrive at office
Or
0840 - leave home
0900 - get fast train to London
0932 - arrive Paddington
0950 - arrive White City
0955 - arrive at office
Driving was
0800 - leave home
0900 - arrive Hammersmith flyover turnoff
0950 - arrive car park
0955 - arrive at office
It was the hammersmith roundabout that was the real killer.
The reason I drove in for 10AM (once a week) was because I was on 12-14 hour shifts, and driving home after 10pm was about 50 minutes. Very few people working office hours would drive into London, especially Central London, and parking at stations across the south east is often full by 9AM.
Interesting tbh if it was the same amount of time I would just drive in.
Outside of London the train is always slower. I used to live in Manchester and get the train into Stoke. Driving was always faster without exception. Generally it was cheaper as well (I have a crappy old diesel astra that is even cheaper to repair and I will drive it til the wheels fall off).
All things being equal I'd rather take the train - you can read, work, watch TV
The main benefit of driving is not having to wait for a specific train.
From where I live in south cheshire, it's quicker to get the train into Manchester than drive (although quicker to drive to Stoke than train). That's with a 0930 arrival in Picadilly Gardens.
Same to get to Cardiff, Birmingham and certainly London (2h15 to Euston, vs 2h40 to the M25 with no traffic)
If I had to be in Picadilly Gardens for 0900 though it would be faster to drive thanks to the train times.
Virgin trains wants basically another 10-15 a month on top of your journey for internet and you can't take a bike on their trains without phoning ahead first. Cross country aren't much better.
Phone internet doesn't work on the train typically. That combined with the travel sickness after each journey make the car much more appealing.
I will never go back to using the train as long as I can legally drive. They are just garbage in the UK and expensive.
I doubt I will buy a new car either. I own two cars. I have an old 1994 mercedes SL which is kept in a storage garage at the moment and the other car is a 2005 vauxhall astra that is getting up to 400,000 miles and doesn't show any signs of dying just yet. Every newer car I have driven is full of mostly electric crap which tends to break or they have some awful drive by wire nonsense that takes the feeling out of the vehicle.
I think much like the operating systems I use, I am going to resist using any newer tech as long as I am able to.
I use 4G tethering and works really well between Crewe and Manchester (well enough for uninterupted youtube streaming and ssh sessions). Virgin "pendilinos" have free wifi now too. Northern run on the Manchester-Stoke line and don't need bike reservations. YMMV.
> I lived in Germany for three years in the 1980s, never had a car, and never felt I needed one.
You don't know what you're missing. I pity the people who have to use the hot, crowded, smelly, slow public transport every day and don't know any better.
