Some opt for two wheels, but the majority still use their cars, according to the survey
NOTHING will persuade some people to reduce the use of their car, a new survey has shown.
Twenty four per cent of those who answered the latest Jersey Annual Social Survey said that nothing would lead to them giving up their car.
But that result has not disappointed Transport Minister Mike Jackson, who told the JEP that although a lot of people were entrenched in their ways, he believed it was possible to attract more commuters on buses by making them more convenient.
‘I don’t read too much into it. People don’t like change, but the department is working towards making alternatives to using the car more attractive,’ he said.
This involved giving consideration to re-jigging routes, adopting circular routes, installing more bus shelters, and finding suitable places where buses could be given a priority over other traffic to reduce delays, he said.
Article posted on 2nd January, 2010 - 2.57pm
40 Article Comments
Blinking cyclists holding up all the traffic… ;-p
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Welcome to the 20th Centaury! (Yes the 20th Century, 1900 plus!) The car is a sunk cost. Having invested £10,000 in a new car the driver has no option other than to use the car, or to lose the investment.
Divers will continue to use cars until the alternative is cheaper, quicker or easier to use; preferably all three. On that Mike Jackson is correct.
The civil servants who now have responsibility for our transport mess need to cast off their blinkers and ‘think out of the box’; or go.
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too many cars = too many people.
only 24% replied to the survey, what a low rate, to draw a conclusion from.
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We needed a survey to find this out?
The states knows this perfectly well which is why they introduced paycards to replace disc parking using the reasoning that it would deter people from parking in town, it didn’t work but it did raise revenue as originally intended.
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it’s not a hard one to crack mike – here’s 3 clues … more buses, better bus routes and an expanded bus timetable.
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”Like a finger pointing at the moon. DON’T look at the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory”
Cars are not the problem in Jersey. People are. Too many people. SNAFU!!
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I guess a similar survey to ascertain if people would give up their automatic washing machines and revert to scubbing our clothes by hand would have the same response !
Its called progress !
In the overall scheme of things, the capital cost of a car is relatively low, and if two or more share a ride into town, the petrol and parking costs are cheaper than a bus.
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Fubar, that’s my line!!
David brown, the article says 24% of those who answered, not 24% took part in the survey.
People need to get on their bikes. Easy really.
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Don’t forget that this guy has a vested interest – people could commute by boat from St Aubin.
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I simply don’t buy the ‘too many people’ argument, particularly the person who thinks the population problem is caused by the number of cars?!
If you drive through St Helier during the day and encounter a traffic jam, the cause is almost always down to somebody making a terrible job of parking, or not bothering to park, and just stopping in the road to pick up their passenger and or load the shopping.
Improve parking, keep the traffic flowing that’s the answer for congestion. Environmental concerns? I believe you’ll only tackle these with a massive culture shift; not impossible, but way beyond the capabilities of Con. Jackson.
I’d like to see people walking to work, maybe the bus fare could rise the closer to town a person takes it rather than getting cheaper? The number of people who wait 10mins. for a bus each morning at First Tower rather than walk 10mins. into town doesn’t make sense to me.
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To Fubar .Why you dont use your boat to run around sir?
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Population is the problem, the roads are much busier than they were 10 years ago due to the increase in humans. Also the increase in the size of the lorries and tractors has not helped – look at all the degraded hedgerows.
I know, I ride my bike so I witness the maddness first hand.
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11 Martin
To Fubar .Why you dont use your boat to run around sir?
Actually I often do in the summer when the tides up. I hate having to go to town an I refuse to pay to park.
But the problem is there are still too many people in Jersey. No matter how many cars are owned in the island.
1 person can only drive 1 car
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Bruce Lee – “People need to get on their bikes. Easy really.”
Honestly I would but the bl**dy cars frighten me to death.I used to cycle everywhere when I was younger, I never considered the danger, now I see how badly people drive and I wouldn’t dare take my bike out on the road, I throw it in the back of the car until I gt to the seafront.
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Life is nearly impossible here without a car, so once you’ve already bought it, you may as well use it. If you don’t use them, they stop working anyway. As other’s have mentioned, driving into work with a couple people in the car works out cheaper than the bus, season parking and petrol included.
Either buses are way too expensive, or they’re not as eco-friendly as we’re being lead to believe. A bus trip costs £1.5/person from St Brelade, but the same journey in an semi-decent efficiency car (35MPG) will cost about £0.5. Put three more people in the car and not only is it a more comfortable journey with people you know and trust, it’s also a hell of a lot cheaper.
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Cycling – Don’t know how people have the nerve to ride these uninsured, unlicenced traffic blockers in this day and age. They cause more congestion on the inner road in the mornings than Hedley’s tractor! Then when you finally get past the jump to the front of the queue again causing my to have to get heavy with my right foot to pass them AGAIN. Plus about two years ago, some pavement jumping, red light running, BMX cretin scraped my car and didn’t even look back. Cost me £1k+ to fix.
Ban them or register and insure them!
Busses – Over the Xmas period and to avoid drink driving worries twice I decided to explain to my boss I would get the bus in the morning I would be late as the badly timed service that runs past my house doesn’t get me in on time, but besides this point! I have to say I was surprised, for many years I have always been a bus basher, not understanding why people would put themselves through this awful experiance once or even more a day! What surprised me? I was right, who knew all these years!! People coughing and spluttering were bad enough, the irritating chi-chi-chi from the earphone tangled hoodie in front of me added to it but what really finished it off was the person who sat right next to me in my personal space who smelled like they needed a good wash (@ about 8am!!!) and then proceeded to try to communicate to me!
Driving – When I drive in I get to choose my company to start with and I would say 80% of the time I am not alone so I am not being selfish, I also choose what to listen to, how warm or cold I want to be and if I want to stop to get a paper on the way or even if I am feeling fruity a sausage roll or some other calorific pastry delight. I always think of being a polite drive and try as a rule to let every other car out of junctions (I think more than this will annoy the person behind me) and this keeps I think a flow moving on a bigger scale! I don’t run red lights, overtake stationary traffic or drive up one way roads the wrong way (cyclists!) and all in all I find the experiance most enjoyable. Having lived and driving to work in three major cities world wide Jersey traffic is non existent! I leave home (Gorey area) at 8:20ish and I am usually at work about 10 minutes before 9:00, enough time to have a chat by the coffee machine! I travel past Le Rocquier School and never suffer any delays there, I drive past Harve De Pas, no delays there and then up Green st and all the way to the other side of town by the Hospital. No delays & traffic coming from the East or in the centre of town!
Expect Delays – I know from when I lived up Queens road years ago there was what most people consider bad traffic on the way in but I would still never leave before 8 – 8:10 in the morning. I also know someone who lives out St Ouen’s and he complains he needs to leave earlier than this to egt in on time, but he agrees it is better than hitting the M25 at 7:00 before finally commuting the final spat by train!
Make it better – Stop commercial vehicles between 8 & 9:00, put traffic controllers at congestion points, they can react immediately to anyone stopping where they shouldn’t etc… in fact, get traffic wardens to do this until 9:00 and see them do something useful for a change! What is the point of a traffic warden exactly? Assisting the flow of traffic by assisting the motorists OR increasing income by picking on people who have over stayed a scratch card by ten minutes?! Stagger school starting times, in fact why not stagger all public services starting times!
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So many sensible comments above. Modern life dictates that people have too much to do and too little time to do it in. You can get a lot more done if you use a car to get around, rather than waiting for buses or cycling (for those lucky people that can).
As for public transport, I’ve recently seen a bus go by with teenage girls at the back swigging from cans of lager (and looking like they were making lots of noise)… do I really want to share a journey with people like this? Bring back manners and self-respect and it might make for a more enticing propsect.
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Mr Jackson epitomises the political culture of…ignore the people they really don’t know what’s best for them bless’em so barge on regardless of what they want,after all they only voted us in…well sir it is you who are entrenched in your thinking,not us, we keep on telling you that you can’t keep bringing more and more people into the island and then guilt tripping the long term residents into walking or busing to wake room for them…Population control is the answer.But then why would you listen to us….but by election time ain’t too far away…and with it hopefully Govt reform so we can be rid of your arrogance.
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@JerseyBoy #16
“…Stagger school starting times…”
Trouble with this idea is that it means that parents taking their children to school, by whatever means, would also have to stagger their work starting times too.
Do you think your plan would go down well with the islands employers?
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The release of the latest results from the States Social Survey comes as no surprise to me. The fact that people would prefer to drive to their destination proves that the car is the preferred mode of transport for good reason. And one that I fully support.
The Survey stated that 38% of people never travel on the buses; this confirms the results from my survey which showed that 75.0% of people drive to work. We live in a democracy and it is our choice in the way that we travel, using whatever means suits our purpose. I would have expected this figure to be much higher in fact. This is not as high as I had expected and clearly shows that the mode of transport is relevant to people’s life style and that car usage is not as high as TTS would have us believe.
So please… stop trying to make us change what are too many people a cost effective practical solution to travelling. The car.
The survey also states that 24% of people would never give up the use of their car. Although this is lower than I would expect, it does confirm the result from my survey that showed 80.0% of the public would not use public transport.
It is not practical to expect someone to walk to a bus stop in the freezing cold, wind & rain & then walk to your work place because the bus won’t drop you off close enough and then look like a drowned rat to attend your next business meeting. It’s simply not practical.
This is clearly an indication of the busy and personal lives that people lead and is totally impractical to expect people to use the bus service when it does not offer the convenience of car usage. In most cases it would take to long to get to work.
So we have now established that car usage is an integral part of people’s lives TTS should now concentrate on providing the infrastructure for that use. And start to build car parks for people to park in.
And stop trying to force us on to the over subsidised buses that we don’t want to use. It is quite plain to me that this push to “get us on the buses” is an attempt by TTS to justify the gross mismanagement of public funds in financing public transport. And then tax us more to pay for it.
Revenue from taxation should be ring fenced for our roads and its infrastructure, and NOT given to Connex in increased subsidies. People have now made it perfectly clear to TTS that they will not use the buses anymore now than they did before.
For Constable Jackson to make comments Like “Although a lot of people are entrenched in their ways” and “I don’t read too much into it. People don’t like change but the department is working towards making alternatives to using the car more attractive”
So who is Constable Jackson expecting to give up the use of their car first? All States Members get FREE parking so do not have to worry about the stress of commuting and parking in town. Will they be setting an example for everyone else to follow? Giving up their parking spaces and getting the bus to town?
Seeing as Constable Jackson is putting forward these proposals will he be announcing that he will be the first States Member to give up the use of his car and commute to work everyday by using the bus? I would certainly like to see some of our States Members waiting in the freezing cold on the bus stops on my way to work. The weather at the time of writing this (Jan 3rd 2010) is +3 degrees outside.
Incidentally whilst were talking about this subject, Christmas has now been and gone. I have had no problems getting to work simply because the schools have been closed. As TTS have stated before, the schools are the problem and we get a 15% reduction in car usage when they are closed.
My advice….sort out the school bus service first…build some more car parks for commuter traffic and reduce public expenditure.
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of course we love ours cars. its the human condition to be lazy. the less effort the better, and too right. i love my car,i feel no guilt in drivig it, abnd never will. all those people who cycle to put a message acros actually do more harm. they create queues which back up traffic slowing it down makin people burn up more petrol, then short bursts of speed to get passed use even more. y car is modern, it has a catalyst converter and verygood fuel economy. i look after it, changfe its oil and make sure it runs smoothly, therefore i contribute very little to global warming. why dont we all just turn our heating down, turn off our television and read books made from the amazon, or cook using wood instead of electricity or gas. Get out of your towers and drive home, use your cars, use them with pride, the earth is screwed as it is.
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“but the department is working towards making alternatives to using the car more attractive”
And we’ll still have to own cars because we do actually like to leave the island once in a while! If we own them and we have to pay insurance, might as well use them frankly.
Unless getting a bus is cheaper than the fuel used, and no, I’m not advocating more thieveing fuel prices, people will still find it financially more viable to use cars. I know the politicians won’t understand that we are not all rich, but we’re not!
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a 20mph Island-wide speed limit would solve this problem.
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JerseyBoy: “Cycling – Don’t know how people have the nerve to ride these uninsured, unlicenced traffic blockers in this day and age.”
Get off your high horse. The internal combustion egine is a 20th century dinosaur and everyone who drives one has the blood of Iraqui children on their hands.
Cycling is cheap, clean and green. It’s good for the planet and good for you. It improves your fitness, tones your muscles and decreases your risk of heart disease.
Oh, and we don’t BLOCK the traffic. We ARE traffic.
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Why everybody in article about cars talking about people population problem?
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Number of cars on island and damage on enviromental what they doing that nothing.If you see the other contries? Anyway we everebody can use bikes for example going to tailand for holiday.
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#23 Utterly brilliant, now we know you’re on the windup. You brought a smile to my face though so thank you.
I think most people can accept that the only solution is better public transport and a good park and ride system. By a better public transport system I mean clean, well-maintained, inexpensive (relative to the cost of car fuel for a similar journey), with facilities and space for people with heavy bags, polite drivers AND… and this is probably the killer… no rowdy teenagers, drunks of any age, people with really offensive body odours or any other kind of disruptive person. Basically, if society went back to the days when people had self-respect and respect for others then public transport might actually appeal to me. I don’t judge anyone who avoids public transport given what people are like today, why let some idiot ruin your day when you haven’t even reached your workplace?
I don’t think it’s wrong of people to ask that any journey on public transport is free of disruptive people. That means no second chances, any disruptive behaviour you get kicked off and are banned for a certain amount of time. It’s a system that no Government has the guts to act upon anymore and most members of the public are now too scared to act if someone is being really disruptive.
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@ Mrs Rosemary Bead #23
Why on earth do you say that?
Where in the article or anywhere does the speed limit have any bearing on whether people would choose their car over another form of transport?
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Mrs. Rosemary Bead 23.
Rosemary, you are so right!
A 20mph Island-wide speed limit would certainly persuade me to reduce the use of my car.
I tried it once, late-at-night on a traffic-free road, just to see what it’s like…and I must say, it’s intensely distressing and irritating to the nerves and certainly has the potential to be a very effective deterrent!
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28 – read 29’s comment for just one reason why I made such a comment.
29. Born Warrior, your point is yet another reason for a 20mph islandwide speed limit, thank you.
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#30 Of course it’s still faster than walking, it’s dangerous (you have to check your speedometer a lot more when driving at 20 than at 30), it’s worse for the environment, and a car is still better than a bus with people engaging in anti-social behaviour.
Regardless of anything I’ll be sticking with the car. It’s that or I’m as good as housebound.
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23 Rosemary Bead – she’s come back has she, still trying her hand at the 20mph BS.
Honey you were rumbled a while ago, it’s a wind up, go and find another alias and another BS campaign or do you only have the imigination for the one?
Bring back Beadmary Rose
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JL 10
You are correct. How many vehicles do you see on a daily basis parked illegally on yellow lines holding up traffic?
Too many in my opinion and there are never any traffic police/wardens to fine them or move them along!
White van men and mothers are the worst offenders and simply have no consideration for other road users and their (or pedestrians) safety. There are some idiots who actually force pedestrians to walk in the road because they have ignorantly and selfishly decided to park on the pavement !!
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What about a 2 plus lane on the esplanade to encourage people to share cars instead of one person in each car as it is successful in other cities.Commercial vehicles have no choice but to be on the road,but not all private vehicles with certain people who do not want to mix with the general public,except some people who have no choice if not on bus route.If two people share a car they could share parking fees,less traffic,more parking for others.
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You will find all the traffic wardens busy booking cars in the car parks during the morning rush hour. It is a lot easier and gets them far more brownie point with their boss than helping the community by ensuring that traffic can circulate freely around our roads. Community spirit is long dead in the civil service.
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#35
“You will find all the traffic wardens busy booking cars in the car parks during the morning rush hour.”
Presumably that is an indication that a lot of cars are not paying to park. Would you prefer that they got away with it?
Many congestion problems don’t need wardens to solve them. Just some thought and consideration from the selfish drivers causing them.
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Willie,
Do you realise the irony of your statement? You berate me and tell me to find another campaign, yet your own comment purely focuses on me and does nothing for this debate.
Perhaps you should find someone else to pick on – on another campaign yourself, leaving us sensible people to have a proper reasoned debate about an Islandwide speed limit and its benifit to the island.
Feel free to leave constructive reasoned comment, otherwise go and find another campaign to moan on perhaps up north in Yorkshire where your name suggests you are from.
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#34 You hit the nail on the head with “cities”. Jersey has none.
It’s not the same as in the UK where if you worked in a large office you could ask around and find someone that lived reasonably near you. The States have ensured that everyone is as spread out as possible but still ALL working in St Helier.
Still, let’s make perfectly good friends fall out as one has to wait for the other because their boss is being annoying and won’t let them leave yet, thus making the designated driver for the day either have to abandon the friend or get home late for their own activities.
Jersey simply does not have a traffic problem. Parking is an issue yes, but there is no real traffic to speak of. Maybe some people have just lived here too long and don’t get that waiting in a queue for 10 minutes is not traffic!
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Isn’t it interesting that people were driving at 10mph on the Avenue last night, even though it’s a 40mph limit! Indeed, having driven on snow many a time I can assure people that they could have gone a bit faster, this would even have helped melt the snow and would have kept the roads driveable for longer. So people were being over-cautious, not gung-ho as the 20mph campaigners seem to think we all are
Just goes to show what all sensible, intelligent adults know… most drivers self-regulate their driving to a speed that is suitable for both the road conditions and their surroundings.
The 20mph campaigners stil fail to understand that there will still be idiots racing through villages at 60mph. They don’t care if it’s a 30, why will they care if it’s a 20?
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Leah Holmes 39.
A 20mph Island-wide speed limit (as absurd as it may seem) would probably entice drivers out of their cars. Let’s face it, crawling down the Avenue at 20mph would be too much for even the strongest nerves thus, a relaxing bus-ride would ease the daily commute to work…unfortunately the bus drivers would probably all end up with stomach ulcers!
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