On the daily drive to work or school in the seemingly endless queues of traffic, do you ever wonder if there could be a different, car free way? Well we wondered that too, and decided to set up an experiment to see how easy or difficult it might be. Two volunteers took up the challenge have been keeping diaries to tell us how they are getting on in their bid to give up their cars.
 | | Plymouth commuter |
Kim Ebanks lives in Hele, ten miles North of Exeter. He runs a computer company in Exeter city centre and travels in by car every day. He pays £30 a week for a private car parking space and will be travelling in by bus. Paul Hussell lives in Totnes and travels in to Plymouth by car. He is a lawyer with a free car parking space in the city centre. His daughter will join a school walking bus while he cycles to the train station to get to work. Tuesday's Diary: Car Travel Kim Ebanks Commenced car journey at 08.30 from Hele via the B3181. The road was completely clear until reaching Pinhoe. Traffic congested for around 600 yards, but never stopped only slowed down to a crawl. Time to clear jam, 5 minutes. Whipton Road also fairly congested, but once again the traffic was constantly moving, 4 minutes to clear. Arrived at parking bay at 9.01. Total time of journey, 31 minutes. Summary: Comfortable journey, only two areas of traffic, this having a minor affect. The benefit of using the car today is that I was able to listen to my favourite radio station (BBC Radio Devon), utilise the air conditioning in absolute comfort, and then park 15 yards away from my office. Paul Hussell Left home at 08.00 and immediately hit congestion driving through Totnes. The traffic crawled along and after ten minutes we were out on the open road to Avonwick. It was a straight run into Plymouth but on the embankment we hit the usual rush hour congestion. Fifteen minutes of nose to tail traffic getting to the office. Arrived in the staff car park at 8.48 leaving a journey time of 48 minutes. Summary: Fairly easy journey with two major holdups which added twenty minutes to my travel time. Wednesday 3rd May Kim Ebanks - bus travel in Exeter Left house at 8.10 in order to catch the 8:15 bus. Bus arrived at 8:25, was not sure whether this was the 8:15 running 10 minutes late, or the 8:30 five minutes early. Boarded bus, sat on the upper deck. Only four very small windows, therefore this upper deck was very hot. Only a few other seats were populated, perhaps because of this. Read the paper, observed the beautiful Devon countryside. Traffic conditions were similar to yesterday. Arrived at bus station at 8:55 and walked for 10 minutes to my office. This was a most relaxing and enjoyable journey, other than the temperature, which was far too hot. In anticipation of the 10 minute walk to and from the bus station, I injected 15% less insulin than normal. It will be interesting to see the affect on glucose levels. RETURN JOURNEY Bus departed station according to time table (5:25pm) and arrived at Hele some 25 minutes later. Blood check reveals normal glucose level, Trish (diabetic nurse) will be pleased. Paul Hussell - bike/train travel into Plymouth Dropped daughter Bella off to the school "walking bus" where parents organise a rota to walk the children to school. Ten children on the bus today, all set off in fine spirits. Cycle ride to the railway station was an easy mostly downhill run along road and cycle path taking just five minutes. Travelling on the train was very stress free. Plenty of seats and enough room to put the bicycle without having to collapse it down. The train journey is half an hour so just enough time to relax. Might try to get a bacon butty and cup of coffee from the station café tomorrow. The cycle from the station to work is just five minutes, again downhill so arrived feeling refreshed. Colleagues enjoyed a laugh at the sight of me on my fold up bicycle. RETURN JOURNEY Drizzling when I set off from work and the cycle up the hill was pretty unpleasant. In addition I have a slight cough so when I got the the train I was wheezing. The evening train home was much more luxurious than the morning one. I had a cup of tea and packet of peanuts from the buffet while watching the lovely scenery roll by. Hitched a lift home from the railway station from my wife as I was feeling a bit poorly and she happened to be passing the railway station when I arrived (honest!). Hope that isn't cheating. Thursday 4th May Kim Ebanks - bus journey into Exeter Departed from house at 8:10 hoping to catch the illusive 8:15, which arrived right on time, though unavoidable delay in departing due to artic blocking the country lane. Sat on the lower deck due to “boil in the bag” incident yesterday. More heavily populated than Wednesday, though still plenty of spare seats. Drivers seemed to be in some kind of race, perhaps to make up time from earlier delay, ride not so comfortable as yesterday. Arrived at Exeter bus station at 8:45. Plenty of time to spare so went for coffee in Cathedral Green, lovely! RETURN JOURNEY Departure on time once again. Hey, this is good! 25 minutes to Hele. Paul Hussell - train into Plymouth Cycling in casual clothes today as I have left my suit at work, a good bit of forward planning I thought. Trainers and a track suit were much more comfortable travelling clothes. Caught the early train 7.35 which was very crowded. A special area is set aside for bikes and a few other cyclists were making the journey. Managed to grab a seat and relaxed. Very easy journey. Reached work in 50 minutes door to door. Pretty impressive timings, only 2 minutes less than the car, and a lot more relaxing. RETURN JOURNEY Lots of choice of train times travelling back from Plymouth to Totnes and I had a pleasant journey. The drive home in rush hour is usually awful. Trying to get out of Plymouth along the Exeter Road and embankment is very slow. So I was very happy to be on the train. Friday 5th May Kim Ebanks - bus journey Left house at 8:15 to catch the 8:25, which actually arrived at 8:23. Journey similar to yesterdays, apart from the driver being in less of a hurry so a more comfortable journey. Lower deck ¾’s full so still plenty of room available. Read my book for most of the journey. Arrived at station 30 minutes later so plenty of time to complete walk to work. Stopped of at the café on Cathedral Green for coffee. Could have been in Venice (where were the gondolas?). RETURN JOURNEY Uneventful, departed and arrived at destination on time. Overall opinion. This service has proved to be reliable, efficient, green and cost effective. I would recommend others to leave the car at home and give the bus a chance. You too may find that this is a service that at least deserves trial. Paul Hussell - train journey Weather good and decided to catch the 08.06 from Totnes. Another very busy train with no space set aside for bikes. We had to lean them up against three seats which meant seating was even more crowded. Lots of passengers had to stand from Ivybridge into Plymouth. It's a well used service. It costs £6.30 return from Totnes and if you take into account parking and petrol I reckon it is cheaper for me to get the train. Journey time 50 mins again. RETURN JOURNEY Lovely journey home, and celebrated the arrival of the weekend with a small bottle of wine on the train. Luxury! It's been great catching the train, and nice to get a bit of exercise on the bike. The car is more convenient and in wet weather I probably won't cycle. But I will definitely want to take the train more often. | 
