Do We Really Need Cars This Big?

[Quoi]

I am sure that future generations will look back to this period and wonder why we wasted all those resources driving around in big 4 seater cars and only usually using one seat.
Even cars like the aygo, vw up! and ka could be classed as too big for a single person really.
I know there are going to be claims about safety and what a happens when you hit something much bigger but surely it would be better to find a solution to separate Lorries and buses. Travelling longer distances needs to use a different transport method.
I thought the peugot tulip city car project was going to change the world but I bet its demise was due to car makers and profits rather than the ecology.

[Baldric]

So what is your solution, something like this?

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZ3WazcpSH3P3Liy6LYEG3wn0iBR1wNjgOK8EBkltKx-ocoAZM3g

[Quoi]

Ha baldric, not quite but It was triggered by having a quick look at how to make a golf cart road legal.

[Svejk]

I've never had a car and only used one seat all the time.

[Canary42]

In the Sixties I used to commute daily a 15-mile journey with me and three passengers on board a Fiat 500. And that version of the Fiat 500 did only have a 500cc engine. So the 3.5 litres jobs these days could carry 28 people at that rate.

[Baldric]

http://www.starev.com/

[woofgang]

But I don't only use one seat. My dogs go in the back and my sister sits in the passenger seat when she visits. If my sister isn't with me I use the passenger seat and footwell for carrying shopping which means I need to shop less often. Certainly if I had smaller dogs (or none) and always travelled alone then I would consider a smaller car but would still want room for things like shopping, tip visits, carrying visitors or being the driver when i go out with friends. I ghink its rare indeed for someone to NEVER EVER have anything in their car except themselves.

[Quoi]

I love the look of the people mover bus thing in the link.
Checked my nearest deal & sadly not really walking distance.

[Quoi]

woofgang - I agree but a lot of the time I drag a vectra estate around with almost nothing at all in it for the commute to work. Just because occasionally I need to fit a lawnmower in the back.
I'm not talking down to one seat & obviously families with small children need more seats but you dont take the kids to work every day do you?

[Old_Geezer]

Jeeze. One needs space to put stuff. The purchases from the shop, the boxes that go from a to b. And the ability to bring others as needed. Until the invention of the (intended) collapsible car that can run in one person mode to x people mode, a little slack is just common sense.

That stated I have little idea of cars, they look nice or they don't, they get me reliably from a to b or they don't. aygo, vw up! and ka could be too big or not. I'll have to keep an eye out for them then.

[Quoi]

At the time of the tulip project my utopian mind thought that it may be the end of car ownership as we know it.
Just 'free to use cars' everywhere that you just pick up and drop of wherever you needed to go. Bigger ones for bigger needs. Just like the auto equivalent of the boris bike but with the occasional tandem.
I am not really into arguing that one too hard because I can already see many flaws.
Still feels odd seeing a jam packed motorway nearly every hour of the day with 'mainly' one occupied seat.

[trt]

My first car was a 2 seater red Bubble Car when I was 17.

The best fun car I ever had, and if only had kept it under wraps, as it would be worth a few bob now.

[RATTER15]

We need our 7 seater, how else would we transport our hounds?

[Baldric]

Walkies! ????

[Baldric]

I guess it would have helped if we had been given the right information, eg, ???'s replacing missing letters so we at least knew what we were looking for

[RATTER15]

Baldric, yes, but we need to transport them up the road by 3 miles to get off the main road, it isn't big enough to walk them three abreast.

[Baldric]

Oops, wrong thread!!! ^^^^

[Old_Geezer]

But it allows the folk at relevant authorities such fun Quoi, when they think, "You there, who have paid a fortune in road fund licence and petrol taxes: we are stealing this bit of the road from you for the exclusive use of those already fortunate enough to be able to have a companion to travel with. To those who have, more shall be given, to those who have not more and more and more shall be stolen, and there is not a blind thing you can do about it. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. We are in control, we will do what we want to you. And here's a bus lane to maximise congestion for you too".

[Old_Geezer]

Not the wrong thread. It's Walkies! something something something something.

[Baldric]

There are 2 of us, we have 3 cars, all 5 seaters, one is an estate for us and the dogs, and there is a huge old 2 seater Merc in the back of the garage that is being restored.
Need them, no, but enjoy having them and driving them.

[ToraToraTora]

this may seem an odd thing to say but basically motoring is far too cheap. If the masses can afford personal private transport in a 2 ton steel box with 3 empty seats, it is far too cheap. Peterol needs to £100 a litre, car tax 10K and trains and buses need to be all but free, stands well back.......