Carless days.

[Lou Girardin]

There was a time filler on TV this morning about the return of carless days. Despite the talking heads saying that it was a remote possiblity, the TV knobs were determined to make a story of it.
That is, until a farming rep came on and said that the very fact of talking about it is enough to get people to react and start panic buying and hoarding etc.
Basically if there isn't a problem don't create one.
You've gotta love that down-home common sense.

[MSTRS:Me]

Stupid idea - didn't work in 1976. Why would it work now?

[Beemer]

The weird thing is, has anyone heard mention of a fuel SHORTAGE? I thought it was just that the price had gone up! Won't affect us if they do bring it in - we have three cars and six bikes to choose from! And do they do it for bikes as well, or just cars?

[Motu]

The media has a lot to answer for - they control the minds of 90% of the population,motivated solely by money.

[zadok]

The weird thing is, has anyone heard mention of a fuel SHORTAGE? I thought it was just that the price had gone up! Won't affect us if they do bring it in - we have three cars and six bikes to choose from! And do they do it for bikes as well, or just cars?

Good point. There isn't a shortage that I know of. Plus as I mentioned in the 'petrol' link, N.Z is apparently almost 50% self sufficient in petrolium products.
http://www.ipenz.org.nz/heritage/ite....cfm?itemid=68

[crashe]

If they do decide to bring it back in , which I do doubt very much...
It won't effect me at all.
I have a car and a m/bike.... so I will always be on the road.

[Wolf]

Stupid idea - didn't work in 1976. Why would it work now?

It wouldn't, but the pollies can make the appearance (to the portion of the population with below-average intellect) of being "proactive" and caring about the "topical issues".

[Wolf]

It won't effect me at all.
I have a car and a m/bike.... so I will always be on the road.

Mate, most families have at least two vehicles these days (at least most of those who have teenaged kids still at home) so it's going to mean SFA for most the population.

[crashe]

there were two reasons that I came back to riding m/bikes.

1. I love riding m/bikes.
2. They are a hell of a lot cheaper on the running costs (petrol) than driving a car.

ok a pushbike would a hell of alot more cheaper...
but theres that thing called EXERCISE....
thats kinda against my religion
and m/bikes as much faster and better fun than a pushbike.

[scumdog]

Stupid idea - didn't work in 1976. Why would it work now?

I had my Carless Day and Exemption stickers still on my F100 until a couple of years ago a 'helpful' mate scraped them off.

Use to really puzzle the young guys as to WHAT the hell the were.

[Blackbird]

Shock, horror!

One Honda Blackbird for sale, will swap for economical 50cc step-through

[placidfemme]

opps I didn't see this thread

[James Deuce]

It's a stupid idea. Just like they want us to use Public transport, but despite living less than 20kms from central Wellington, it takes me 1.75 hours to get to and from work using Public transport. If they want us to do shit like that then that Public Transport system needs to be able to cope, and provide a timely transport option that doesn't reduce your day to 20 hours. Worse still, if I had to do overtime and missed the 5:30 train that stops at Petone, there's no bus up the hill to Maungaraki 'til 7:30pm.

As for the exercise thing, I would die of a heart attack if I tried to cycle up Maungaraki hill. Not all of us want to be extreme athletes, just to get to and from work.

[k14]

Good point. There isn't a shortage that I know of. Plus as I mentioned in the 'petrol' link, N.Z is apparently almost 50% self sufficient in petrolium products.
http://www.ipenz.org.nz/heritage/ite....cfm?itemid=68

Sorry to tell ya mate but motonui (Methanex) closed down last year, now its just a big pile of dormant machinery. Also I was under the impression (worked in the oil industry from time to time) that all NZ oil goes overseas to make plastics. The oil that marsden point uses to convert to petrol is imported from overseas. Apparantly the oil we get out of the ground in taranaki is too good for using to make petrol so is used to make higher grade petrochemical products (I have no idea what they are).

In regards to the shortage, aren't the oil prices governed by the old Supply/Demand theory. At the moment supply cannot fill the demand thus the price has gone up, so yes there is a shortage, although I don't know how short the supply has to get before there is an official "shortage", depends what the definition of a shortage is.

Carless days wouldn't affect me, only use my van in the weekends to transport my bikes around. Use push bike to get to uni

[Motu]

They had petrol rationing back then too...gas stations shut mid day saturday,it was always a pain getting your fuel sorted for the weekend...a mad dash from Wellington friday night to see how far you could get.We used to carry fuel on a ride,drop some on the side of the road and refuel to get home.....buying fuel from farmers...oh dear,the dramas.