The more I think about travel by car, the more I think of pollution, smoke and traffic. With the prices increasing as they are, I wonder how quickly alternative energy options like electric cars will make it into the mainstream and how viable is it? I like the idea of an electric car as I feel, it's kinder to the environment and would get me buying one, over a petrol car- if I wanted one : what's the worth of having a car that one never uses? if one lives in London and _can_ use public transport, at work the whole day and uses the car rarely but weekends - plus with the cost of road tax, mot, car insurance - what essentially might be a cheaper fuel, in terms of cost to our wallets and the environment, ends up being a question of paying more than what the convenience is worth. Added to the traffic is the risk of traveling; accidents, road rage, stress - all less prevalent when using the train say.

having said that, if you work in area not connected or suitable to public transport - you may need the alternative travel. In these instances, does one change to live a cheaper life? does one look for a cost reduction in using public transport? and if there isn't a reduction in cost in public transport - shouldn't there always be one? surely that's the point of public transport - to reduce overall costs? Or really if all arguments fall through, does one just have to pay more and live less.

Public transport is already heavily utilised, and I wonder how much of the public transport price increases are due to make provision for more space, infrastructure etc.. So as prices increases for public and personal transport ? how much is one cheaper than the other? if they ate close - why are they, they shouldn't be - public transport should always be cheaper. all the additional costs of a personal car, should be spread across all the passengers who use the service so it should be noticeably cheaper. Also, why must we pay additional fees for changes to infrastructure that negatively affect us in the short term and will only see benefits in the long term - surely tax layers money should go into this - not increases fare prices.(if indeed that's why fares are increasing). What would be worse if we were paying higher taxes and higher fares - both.

anyway, that's my uninformed, full of assumptions rant about cars, costs and renewable energy - hardly :-)