Bike "facilities", you gotta love them, at least for the giggle

On Saturday, August 2, 2014 3:59:07 PM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:

Perfect towns in picturesque areas with wonderful riding probably number in the dozens in the U.S. Perfect meaning that the town has more than a bar and post office; it is not over-crowded or ungodly expensive, and it isn't three or four hours from the nearest airport. I think these sorts of towns exist in larger numbers in U.K./Europe. The U.S. is just too spread out, and towns that otherwise meet the bill are just too far from major transportation service.

Europe is generally on a smaller scale. I think of Kenmare, one of Fortune Magazine's great retirement town choices, as more than an hour down the road, Fortune thought of it as only an hour and a bit from the airport and a major hospital. Ironically, about fifteen years ago when my mate Sir John Tavener, the composer, asked me if two hundred and twenty grand was too much for a house in Kenmare, I told him yes, they saw him coming and upped the price for an outsider... about a week before Fortune got into the act and rewrote the book.

All of Europe isn't all that big by comparison to the States. I used to cross Europe, from London (or later from the Forest of Devres just outside Boulogne) to Nardo in the boot of italy where there is a test track, in a day as late as 1980. My protege Dakota Franklin, whose day job is consulting engineering, thinks nothing of driving right up the length of Germany for a meeting on the Baltic and returning the same day for dinner at home in Switzerland with her family. You can also cycle all the way across Europe from Belgium to Turkey on lovely paths beside major rivers in about a fortnight. A chum from Eugene, OR, just up the road from you, has just done it; he's on his way back to Romania to return the bike he borrowed to ride in Europe..

Andre Jute
The things you learn on the net...

On 01/08/14 19:16, Lou Holtman wrote:

Just the the other way round here (The Neterlands). When I'm going to
the hospital for donating blood going by bike is much easier. With a
car you are first in sort of a traffic jam, then you have to park
your car way back and have to pay for that (it's is refunded by the
blood organisation). After you are finished you have to walk back to
your car and wait in line for the ticket machine. With your bike you
can park within 50 m from the entrance:



It is all about choices.


What does it cost to own a car in The Netherlands, Lou?

And can you relate the cost to the cost of a staple food item, like a
litre of milk, for example?

The cheapest I can buy a litre of milk is $1.

Licence renewal comes every 10 years or so, and the cost is negligible
over that period of time.

Annual registration, which includes compulsory third party person
insurance (to pay the victim of a crash, but not to replace their
property), is something like $500 - $1000, depending on the type of vehicle.

Annual third party property insurance, that covers the driver in the
event they crash into someone else's expensive car, costs a similar
amount or more, depending on the age of the driver and any previous
claims. Full comprehensive insurance may easily double the basic third
party insurance.

Strangely the registration insurance isn't geared by driver age or
reputation. A bad driver can drive a "safe" car and cause plenty of
havoc and pay less than a good driver in a dangerous car.

I'd like to see our registration insurance linked to a drivers licence,
such that worse drivers pay more compulsory insurance than good drivers,
regardless of what type of car they drive.

--
JS

On Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:07:41 +0700, wrote:

"When I go to the emergency room for real, I go by car -- and
have a novel in my purse."

You give "Disaster Preparedness" a whole new meaning :-)

I wasn't all that prepared the first time we went.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

On 8/3/2014 7:40 PM, James wrote:

I'd like to see our registration insurance linked to a drivers licence,
such that worse drivers pay more compulsory insurance than good drivers,
regardless of what type of car they drive.

I agree, as a guy who's never had a car crash (outside of a parking lot
dent, many decades ago).

I'd also like to see license & insurance costs linked to the number of
miles driven per year. I get an insubstantial price break on insurance
for driving low mileage, but if they charged on a per-mile scheme, I'd
save considerable money.

--
- Frank Krygowski

On Sun, 03 Aug 2014 23:32:47 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 8/3/2014 7:40 PM, James wrote:

I'd like to see our registration insurance linked to a drivers licence,
such that worse drivers pay more compulsory insurance than good drivers,
regardless of what type of car they drive.

I agree, as a guy who's never had a car crash (outside of a parking lot
dent, many decades ago).

I'd also like to see license & insurance costs linked to the number of
miles driven per year. I get an insubstantial price break on insurance
for driving low mileage, but if they charged on a per-mile scheme, I'd
save considerable money.

Interestingly, for commercial insurance, you usually find that
premiums are generally linked to performance. The company I worked for
in Indonesia was large enough that our Insurance Broker made a visit
to our home office annually to discuss next year's premiums and if,
for example, we had not made a claim for, say lost equipment, in again
say, the past two or three years, then next year's premiums were
lowered. On the other hand if we were paying a low premium and had
made a couple of claims then the premium might be higher next year.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 8/3/2014 7:40 PM, James wrote:
On 01/08/14 19:16, Lou Holtman wrote:

Just the the other way round here (The Neterlands). When I'm going to
the hospital for donating blood going by bike is much easier. With a
car you are first in sort of a traffic jam, then you have to park
your car way back and have to pay for that (it's is refunded by the
blood organisation). After you are finished you have to walk back to
your car and wait in line for the ticket machine. With your bike you
can park within 50 m from the entrance:




It is all about choices.


What does it cost to own a car in The Netherlands, Lou?

And can you relate the cost to the cost of a staple food item, like a
litre of milk, for example?

The cheapest I can buy a litre of milk is $1.

Licence renewal comes every 10 years or so, and the cost is negligible
over that period of time.

Annual registration, which includes compulsory third party person
insurance (to pay the victim of a crash, but not to replace their
property), is something like $500 - $1000, depending on the type of
vehicle.

Annual third party property insurance, that covers the driver in the
event they crash into someone else's expensive car, costs a similar
amount or more, depending on the age of the driver and any previous
claims. Full comprehensive insurance may easily double the basic third
party insurance.

Strangely the registration insurance isn't geared by driver age or
reputation. A bad driver can drive a "safe" car and cause plenty of
havoc and pay less than a good driver in a dangerous car.

I'd like to see our registration insurance linked to a drivers licence,
such that worse drivers pay more compulsory insurance than good drivers,
regardless of what type of car they drive.



Our license fee includes liability insurance. Most also have
comprehensive coverage. The prices are affected by age, driving
record, traffic violations and whether mercury is in retrograde.
But basically, worse drivers pay more than good drivers unless the good
drivers are teenagers.

On Monday, August 4, 2014 1:40:38 AM UTC+2, James wrote:
On 01/08/14 19:16, Lou Holtman wrote:



Just the the other way round here (The Neterlands). When I'm going to

the hospital for donating blood going by bike is much easier. With a

car you are first in sort of a traffic jam, then you have to park

your car way back and have to pay for that (it's is refunded by the

blood organisation). After you are finished you have to walk back to

your car and wait in line for the ticket machine. With your bike you

can park within 50 m from the entrance:







It is all about choices.





What does it cost to own a car in The Netherlands, Lou?

I run my car through a calculation site:

about 0.70 euro every kilometer for my 5 year old Mercedes C Sportcoupe which I bought this year. All based on 10000 km a year. I have 80% no claim discount on my insurance for a no risk coverage.
About 50/50 fixed costs and variable costs. Hmmm makes you think how expensive it is.




And can you relate the cost to the cost of a staple food item, like a

litre of milk, for example?

I don't really know what a liter of milk costs. I had to look it up

http://www.ah.nl/appie/producten/melk




The cheapest I can buy a litre of milk is $1.



Licence renewal comes every 10 years or so, and the cost is negligible

over that period of time.

same here.
If you don't claim any damage to your insurance you get a discount over the years. I have 80% discount.



Lou

On Monday, August 4, 2014 12:40:38 AM UTC+1, James wrote to Lou Holtman:

The cheapest I can buy a litre of milk is $1.

A standard reference for a long time was a basic loaf of bread. These intercomparisons are tricky; I doubt you'll get a useful comparison on one contemptible. Australia is actually a cheap place to live. To maintain the same standard of living where Lou lives, an Australian moving to The Netherlands would have to increase his salary by a multiple rather than a fraction. Also, the money is spent differently. The EU, and The Netherlands even more, are semi-socialist jurisdictions in senses Australian politicians, even the ones who witter on about "workers paradises" haven't even grasped exist, and this has profound influences on apparent living standards.

In addition, Australian compulsory third party insurance, added to car's registration fee, is cheep insurance when compared with the same cover in Europe. It was deliberately designed that way, and taken over by the State, with other arrangements made to cap liability claims in personal injury cases, because the cost was spiraling and the commercial insurers no longer wanted to handle it. (I wasn't there when it happened; I got this from Ren de Garis, who used to lead the Liberals in the Senate in South Australia, though I think it was done a bit before his time too.) It always struck me as an advantageous system for the consumer, and it sounds from Duane's post as if the Qubec has the same system, with frills.

Andre Jute

On Monday, August 4, 2014 1:41:41 PM UTC-4, Andre Jute wrote:
On Monday, August 4, 2014 12:40:38 AM UTC+1, James wrote to Lou Holtman:



The cheapest I can buy a litre of milk is $1.



A standard reference for a long time was a basic loaf of bread. These intercomparisons are tricky; I doubt you'll get a useful comparison on one contemptible. Australia is actually a cheap place to live. To maintain the same standard of living where Lou lives, an Australian moving to The Netherlands would have to increase his salary by a multiple rather than a fraction. Also, the money is spent differently. The EU, and The Netherlands even more, are semi-socialist jurisdictions in senses Australian politicians, even the ones who witter on about "workers paradises" haven't even grasped exist, and this has profound influences on apparent living standards.



In addition, Australian compulsory third party insurance, added to car's registration fee, is cheep insurance when compared with the same cover in Europe. It was deliberately designed that way, and taken over by the State, with other arrangements made to cap liability claims in personal injury cases, because the cost was spiraling and the commercial insurers no longer wanted to handle it. (I wasn't there when it happened; I got this from Ren de Garis, who used to lead the Liberals in the Senate in South Australia, though I think it was done a bit before his time too.) It always struck me as an advantageous system for the consumer, and it sounds from Duane's post as if the Qubec has the same system, with frills.



Andre Jute

I was just reading in the Toronto (Canada) Sun that the city is nstalling some counter-flow bicycle lanes. That's right, they're installing bicycle lanes that run the OPPOSITE direction to motor vehicle traffic.

Cheers

On 04/08/2014 20:18, Sir Ridesalot wrote:

I was just reading in the Toronto (Canada) Sun that the city is nstalling some counter-flow bicycle lanes. That's right, they're installing bicycle lanes that run the OPPOSITE direction to motor vehicle traffic.

On one-way streets this is often a good thing.