I Think Car Seats And Booster Seats Save Lives

@Tuscan I know right.

@Madison [image]

@ArishMell that is a major difference. The libertarians here had a partial win on this one.

@samueltyler2 Well, I can't relate it to the USA's internal party-politics!

Areas of the Law in the UK covering things like motoring are made fairly consensually in Parliament irrespective of the Parties. The Government and Opposition might argue over details but tend to agree generally, on things that have no partisan significance. Lower-level regulatory powers are often delegated to the Ministries closer to the fields under discussion.

@ArishMell things have been nuts in the era of tRump!

@Roundandroundwego That is true to a point, but apart from taxis, public transport never has reached, and never will reach, everyone. That includes a lot of suburban areas, too, not just rural villages.

Apparently there are now people living in or near British cities who find they can live without a car (they might hire one for the occasional long trip). Also, many more commuters who live a long way out, do own cars but drive to suitable railway-stations and complete their journeys by train.

By long way, there are commuters who live over 100 miles from their London or other urban work-places, so driving the full distance would be impracticable, take much longer, and be very unsafe by end-of-day tiredness.

There is an important impetus for this in the UK though - the "Congestion Charge" or "Low Emission Zone" charging - same thing. These are daily fees for taking into the affected city areas, vehicles that do not meet whatever international exhaust-emission rating is chosen for the scheme. It uses cameras linked to the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency to identify the owner from the car registration-number.

I think residents and regular drivers can pay monthly or in some similar way - I don't live near any such town so don't know the details, which vary from city to city anyway. Otherwise you receive an invoice from the Council.

I live close enough to two towns for buses to be my usual way of visiting them. I can travel from home to the North of England, or to Scotland, easily by buses and trains, and have done; but obviously not have my own ready way to travel around my destination.

So whilst public transport does indeed have the advantages you say, it cannot possibly cover everyone's needs, and may not be an option for a lot of people anyway.

A friend living in a small village once told me "This is no place to grow old." Two pubs but no shops, no Post Office, etc; and no buses to the nearest towns less than ten miles away.

@Roundandroundwego True, but in the US, the neglect of such, and lots of other infrastructure, has been so long, that it may not be possible to catch up!

@samueltyler2 @Roundandroundwego

That's happened to some extent in the UK, and has been since the mid-20C.

The decline though is more by public transport becoming uncompetitive with the private car, so it cuts services and raises fares, so more people use their cars instead, so......

Ironically, bus services here have also been hit by more recent developments intended to encourage people to use them.

Those on State Pensions here (as I am) used to pay half-fares, but that was replaced by Bus Passes free to the holder. These are magnetic-strip cards recorded by the ticket-machine on the bus. The bus companies are re-imbursed by general taxes, via the Government, but unfortunately, unlike direct full and half-fares, that has not kept up with inflation. Then a year or two ago the Government capped fares to £2, higher than the Passes but still too low for many routes even if everyone pays that. One local service I used to use, has gone as a result; leaving a sizeable residential area devoid of any bus services.

On the other hand, over the last couple of decades or so the railways have picked up so much trade that parts of the national network - damaged by the so-called "Beeching Plan" in the 1960s - are now at full train capacity with many trains also running very crowded, and delays more frequent.

.......

[That Beeching Plan was publicised as part of a huge modernisation scheme of the then-State-owned British Railways. It removed not only many hopelessly uneconomical rural branch-lines, but also a lot of more important link routes. Although designed by Dr. Richard Beeching, it was really at the behest of the then-Transport Minister, Ernest Marples, who believed in road transport. He had a very large shares holding in a big company building the latest thing, the "motorways", so it was in his interest to undermine the railways. Marples had to sell his shares to remove this conflict of interest, but there was nothing to stop him selling them to... his wife!]

@stella0 yes exactly!!!

@SophieCharlotte they have very few recalls and I feel the quality of product is the best. How old are your kids needing car seats?

@SophieCharlotte check out your consumer group... Not sure what its called there, but they offer free unbiased results based on rigorous testing 🤗

@Immia race car drivers do it.

@Father8787 I think that's one of those my dad got for me

@noah08 Perhaps not... though being needlessly crippled or killed is even less cool - but do very young children really worry abouy fashion, especially when they see the adults in the car are also wearing their seat-belts?

@Tuscan It would save even more lives if we got rid of automobiles entirely.