Is this just showing how daft modern commuting is? Even Mrs Duck's shortish 13 mile trip into work comes out at 6000 miles a year, making somewhere around 150-200 gallons of petrol a year. And that's not including trips to the shops, weekends out, etc. There's plenty of folks making even longer trips (1-2 hours), and that's totally barking. There's loads of ppl moving to the countryside, knowing full well that they'll need to commute into work and drive most places - I have no sympathy for these guys when they complain "We've bought this lovely little cottage (and priced out local residents) but it's sooo expensive with having to drive everywhere".

One of my requirements when choosing this job was that there were plenty of areas nearby where we could buy a house, so I could cycle to work. Then I picked a house in cycling distance. It took some time to find one at a reasonable price, but that's fine.

Mrs Duck, there may be no immediate problems with ambulances. But the problem we do face is that doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers can't get into work, bcos they've got no petrol (these folks are just as prone to living in commuting distance). Most hospitals are now cancelling non-emergency surgery, so your granny's operation for a hip replacement may not go ahead. If it gets worse, there may not even be the staff to cope with emergency cases. And without petrol, the ambulance service is then going to take a hit from ppl who'd normally get themselves to hospital (or get a partner/friend to drive) - expectant mothers being the prime example.

I'd be quite happy to see tax taken off diesel for bus, coach and rail transport, maybe even taxis - these are "mass transportation". But to encourage more lorries onto the roads by reducing their fuel price - I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks there's too many trucks there already. Get heavy transport back onto the railways, possibly with some decent subsidies (yes I know, but the government's already subsidising lorries simply by building roads!), and that'll zap traffic congestion on motorways. A large proportion of motorway traffic is lorries, and an even larger proportion of motorway tailbacks are caused by lorries (the "overtaking at 1 mile an hour" syndrome). Equally, get ppl out of cars and onto public transport with subsidies.

And the best bit is that getting rid of arseholes commuting hundreds of miles a week (or sometimes a day!), getting heavy transport off lorries and onto railways, and getting ppl out of cars and onto public transport is all good for the environment. Suits me. It seems that ppl have confused the availability of driving with the right to drive - I don't know of any Bill of Rights which says "Every person has the right to burn a tank of petrol a day on pointless travelling, and screw the results". When the petrol's there, fine - when it isn't, quit bloody moaning.

Incidentally, cars contribute to global warming, not to the ozone layer. Ironically, cars actually produce ozone, but since ozone is toxic to humans, it just causes breathing problems at ground level and breaks up into normal oxygen b4 it can get to the high atmosphere to be useful there.

Grab.