40:40:20

Lyn Sloman points out in her book Car Sick that 40% of our car journey's could reasonably be replaced by a journey on public transport, 40% could be replaced if the public transport network were slightly modified and only 20% would be very difficult to replace.

With this in mind we are reducing our dependence on the car. We currently run only one car and this is used mostly for my husbands work. He currenlty works two jobs, one in the middle of the night on an industrial estate with absolutely no public transport options and the other in a village about 7 miles away which would take two trains or two buses to get to.... in neither case do the trains or buses connect up without more than half an hour of a wait, the 10 minute trip takes over an hour either way. Given that he is a nurse, the route is very hilly and there is no shower at work, cycling is not an option either.

We are very lucky to live almost on top of a train station, so we can do much of our travelling by train. In addition we are doing the following:

• Cycling, running pushing and chasing to school (I say chasing since my 2 yr old is doing the 1.5 mile round trip twice a day on a push along fire engine.... his knees are nearly scraping the ground, but boy can he speed along ;-)
  
• Doing as much of our grocery shoping as locally as we can. We have everything we need in the village so we have to weigh up cost against travel on this one.
  
• Minimising our leisure travel in the car.... we are always mindful of whether we need to do the trip and whether we could do it on public transport.
  
• Ordering some shopping to be delivered..... and looking for the items on line rather than getting brochures delivered.
  

How easy are we finding it? Well, the train is great - except when it's replaced by a bus which won't carry bikes. The bus is incredibly expensive - our trip into town on the train cost £1.80 return, on the bus it is £4.80!!! On long journeys, the family facilities are chronic - has anyone tried to change the nappy of a 2 yr old on a train.... not fun. I would also welcome the ability to book seats together even though I'm not paying for the kids, booster seats and straps on trains which could be used if needed would also be great. As per Lynn Sloman's book some journeys are just impractical on the current network.... on Monday I travelled to the other side of Leeds, it took me 1 hr to get there at 6pm and would have taken 2 hours at 9.30 to get back... I was willing to do it, but there was someone there in a car who offered me a welcome lift.... train stations are not great places to be hanging around in the dark.

In general though, there are few sacrifices and lots of benefits if you are travelling during standard hours; I'm sure the kids are happier on the train for a 4 hr trip rather than in the car for 6 for the same trip, when the kids are older I'll be able to read during the journey which they play or read comics or books, we are getting creative about our leisure time - next week hubby is going camping and we're getting the train after school on Friday to meet him etc.