Topic ID 6234
In a bid to support admin regarding ‘Off topics’ here is a thread for the debate to continue regarding whether or not you need a car if you live in Hertford. Just to clarify NOONE is stating that you need a car to drive about Hertford. The debate is whether or not Hertford is large enough and well enough connected to the rest of the world to do without one. My opinion is that the traffic is bad in Hertford because you do need a car unless you are like Tubbs and Edward from the league of gentleman where you stay LOCAL. From the last post on area advice: Yes hiring a car sounds great fun :) I will laugh at the non drivers (or those who will seemingly sell their cars after this thread) whilst waiting at the bus stop in the rain, as I get to Cambridge in 45 minutes on a whim, listening to my tunes or as I go up to MK for some shopping, purchase an item for the house that I don’t have to pay to have it delivered. I wish there were more people like you guys around as there would never be any traffic! Indeed the views above are my own and everyone, as shunt has stated has different needs etc.
Reply ID 84226
Some people do, some people don't. Some people can and some people won't. What else is there to say on the matter?
Reply ID 84227
It's well connected enough for it to be possible. Whether desirable is another question altogether. I'm no spring chicken and car ownership has gone from a fun statement of independence and status, to an expensive chore. There are so few journeys which are not ruined by crowded roads, problems parking or simply that modern cars are too sophisticated to be fun at any legal speed. Lifestyle is what it's about. If I leave Hertford it is for work, to go to London, or to Stanstead usually. The first needs a vehicle. For the others, a vehicle is just a nuisance. You can't go out for a drink with a car, or go to a party unless you are tea-total. Trips to Suffolk use a car because I have one, but if I add up all the times I use a car in circumstances where there is a no viable alternative (excepting work), the car seems like an expensive white elephant. For what most pay in depreciation, tax, insurance, parking (including the extra you pay for a house that has it), maintenance etc., quite a few car hires can be had. Most never actually work out what their car costs, because they forget depreciation and the extra 30k they paid to get a driveway. Depreciation alone can buy 20 hire days, depending on what you drive and your own vehicle won't magically become a van for that odd occasion you need it to be. I am playing devil's advocate here though, being something of a petrol head. ;)
Reply ID 84230
For people who work locally ie: live in Hertford and work in WGC or places similar, try getting a bus that arrives during peak times and leaves when you need to!!! Impossible, so until/unless local public transport can offer major towns decent services to/from each other to allow business people to get to/from work I think the answer is the car is necessary and only way to get paid employment!
Reply ID 84238
Yes from my family view we do need a car as we were allocated a school (which is fab and we love it) that is not a walkable distance away each day with two small children. Think farmers fields/country lanes. We actually would have loved to downsize to one family car allowing us to share it but with the school drive each day this was not an option, oh and no direct buses either.
Reply ID 84241
quote:Ah, now that is a exception. I've never known anyone in Hertford to be allocated a primary school out of Hertford, without having chosen it themselves, but it seems it does happen. Are Hertford's primary schools now so over subscribed? There's an interesting side issue. What if the same compulsory allocation was made for a family less fortunate, who did not have a car?
Originally posted by kkey21
Yes from my family view we do need a car as we were allocated a school (which is fab and we love it) that is not a walkable distance away each day with two small children. Think farmers fields/country lanes. We actually would have loved to downsize to one family car allowing us to share it but with the school drive each day this was not an option, oh and no direct buses either.
Reply ID 84245
quote:With 2 separate train lines to London and direct coach/bus links to 3 different airports is there a better connected town of 25k people to the rest of the world ? Are the 2 separate train lines to London unique for a town of our size in the South East of England ?
Originally posted by Louis M
The debate is whether or not Hertford is large enough and well enough connected to the rest of the world to do without one.
Reply ID 84247
Years ago, someone told me that you have to be spending £60 a week on taxis before it's worth running a car (taking into account depreciation as well as petrol, servicing etc). That was a long time ago, I wonder what the comparable figure is today? I never use my car around Hertford as I am lucky enough to be able to walk and cycle (unless it's REALLY raining!), even carrying a couple of bags of shopping. But if you work in St Albans, Hemel, Harpenden or anywhere west, you have no chance with public transport and you have to have a car to get to work. I have made a manful attempt to cycle to St Albans but the roads are horrible and it is apparently beyond the wit of HCC to link the two nice off-road routes, the Cole Green Way and the Alban Way so you end up getting lost in housing estates in Welwyn/Hatfield. East/west links generally are v poor in Hertfordshire so to answer the OP, if you need to get east/west, not into London or Stevenage, you need a car if you live in Hertford.
Reply ID 84264
I agree that East/West travel by public transport is poor. The 724 bus route isn't too bad a service. There are other options. And convoluted train journeys can work. You could also car share/get lifts with colleagues who might be coming from outside Hertford and driving through/nearby on the way to your destination. Try to think what you would do if you HAD to do without a car for an extended period i.e. the DVLA took away your driving license. In Hertford, you could cope even if you have to put up with some inconveniences.
Reply ID 84268
I currently work in Hoddesdon and thought I could use the 310 service. I did this successfully for about three months buying what I thought was an excellent 4weekly ticket, only using the car when I was working elsewhere. I then discovered that the ticket was the wrong one by a driver. I had bought a Lea valley zone ticket which doesn't start until the Amwell roundabout. To buy a ticket to cover between Hertford and Hoddesdon would be over £80 compared to £34 that I had been paying! I sadly told Arriva that I would be returning to my car as it would be cheaper. I have always been a champion of public transport but in this case money played a major part. I will still use the bus occasionally - £5.30 return! - when my daughter needs the car for work further afield. At least I can get to Hoddesdon by public transport if the car was off the road, but as Rachel says other places are very difficult.
Reply ID 84269
I think that sometimes the bus fares are prohibitive. I sometimes will go shopping at Tescos on my way home from work in London so I get the HE line, do my shopping and then shuffle to the bus stop in Fore St and wait for the bus (and there is a 1.5 hour evening gap in the timetable so need to time this just right) and then I get to pay £2 for a bus to near my home and then I have to struggle with my bags on the last leg. It is so much easier to use the car. £2 is not an incentive to use public transport. And once they didn't even stop for me so I had to walk home. Other thing that really gets my goat is I have to find the exact bus fare each day for my son (not sure I would get the change back from him....). Why can't I buy a season ticket for him? To me that is just odd, especially as they are available when the Council pays for travel (live too far from nearest school etc). Why the bus companies cannot just extend this service to the public completely escapes me, I wasn't even after a discount, just convenience.
Reply ID 84272
At a guess half of my son's school class travels in from main Hertford and the other half live in the area.... There are children at the same school as mine, whose parents have had to learn to drive in order to get them there. And there was a bus service that was provided at a small charge but this has recently been withdrawn and has indeed seen some families that don't drive unable to get their children to this school. One family had to appeal this and was provided with a taxi service. But outside of the school runs (with my dream of the running costs of just one car shattered)we do love to walk around Hertford and i truely believe that had we got the local school to us we would now be a one car family.
Reply ID 84273
I have become aware that there are some reasons that we have been pursuaded to use cars, as well as those which are perfectly valid. I recently decided to give my least liked supermarket another chance recently. Whilst there, I noticed 2 litres of milk was £1.18, not £1, as it is in two independent local shops that are right on my doorstep. I elected not to buy Tesco's milk for that reason and because I was on foot and milk is heavy, purchasing from the small store on the Wash instead. I noticed several other items which were up to 20% more in Tesco than elsewhere at the same time. Ground coffe is 300% dearer than in Poundstretcher and washing powder, 200% .Now, if one believes Tesco's massive advertising, one might think shopping at Tesco was cheap and that you need a car to get all that "cheap" milk home with a huge weekly shop. If, like me, you notice pricing, you'll find shopping on your way to or from somewhere on foot entirely practical and often cheaper too. Small local amenities become less common because we pass them by on our way to work, the station, or the pub, then waste the weekend shopping in a car. Then we moan that the small shops are closing and low footfall in our high streets. The car is key to Tesco's (and similar supermarkets) success. Without it, we'd see the competition in this town.
Reply ID 84274
The car enables people to travel to places not easily accessible by public transport. Surely that is simple. I would not have remained with my current employers if I didn't drive as the 50 minute car journey compared to the 90 minutes on train, underground and DLR is far preferable. I prefer to walk into Hertford for shopping or to use my bike and take a rucksack.