On 2007-02-06 13:52:11 +0000, Huge said:

On 2007-02-06, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Well it ought to be about three times the price..then scrap all road tax
and all congestion charges and all traffic calming and most of the lights.

People will not drive fast if it costs them an extra pound every ten
miles if they do.

Nor will they drive casually if its costing them half a days salary to
go to the shops in the next town.

I never drive anywhere "casually". Am I unusual in that respect? I suspect
that people have simply got used to the cost of fuel and no longer
think about it. The fact that it costs x pounds to drive somewhere generally
causes me to think twice about it, or combine trips.

I think more about the time element.

A trip to B&Q for me is 16km each way and with titting around because
of idle weekend shoppers and
push chairs getting underfoot takes in total 2-3 hours.

The cost of the time is hugely more (excuse pun) than the fuel and
running cost for the trip.

So the game plan tends to be considering the next weekend's projects in
the early part of the week
and placing order with Screwfix or ANO while sitting in an airport
lounge in Outer Mongolia or Glasgpw
(same thing really). It's worth paying the extra few £££s to
improve the probability of a delivery
before the weekend.

Otherwise, if I've screwed up and forgotten a pack of M5 widgets
without which I can't continue a project, what do I do?

If the answer is that there is high value (measured how one wants) in
continuing the project and the sacrifice of time is worth it, then I
may do the B&Q run. Otherwise, I'll look at other project options.

It would take quite a bit in terms of added journey cost through fuel
or a tax based on distance before I would consider a trip based on this
vs. time.