Quote:
Originally Posted by Jezer
I can certainly compare the price which is what counts to me and other consumers.
(And the USA isn't 100 times larger.)
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I can't claim to be an expert on England's transportation choices ...
But as a tourist on several trips to rural England ranging from the outskirts of London (as fast as we could get away from Heathrow) to Southern and Southwestern areas, and then to Cornwall and up the coast ...
I observed that the farming community depended upon similar equipment to what we use in the USA, so there's no difference in the fuel economy there per acre of crop production compared to the USA.
I observed that livestock transport was done in lorries that were dedicated to that function, rather than the prevailing truck/trailer transport we use in the USA. Fuel economy advantage to the USA on this one ... my diesel 3/4 ton pick-ups can haul horses or other livestock at high teens mpg range. Those big lorries can't get anywhere near that type of fuel economy, although a big difference in their use is that I've got longer distances to travel for feed/supplies/vet/sale barns.
I saw a lot of Range and Land Rovers, which are pretty consumptive vehicles by anybody's standards for fuel economy. There were a fair number of the smaller pick-up trucks, too ... which see a lot of use and utility here in the USA. There's a lot of Ford Rangers, Chevy S-10's, Mazda, Toyota, and other small pick-ups in use here.
I was taken to various places in London ... such as Harrod's, or high priced residential districts where I saw a proliferation of Rolls-Royce/Bentley, V-12 powered M-B's, high end BMW's, Daimlers, Jaguars, TVR's, and exotic cars from Italy or domestic Brit production. Those cars are consumptive by anybody's standards, although we recognize that these aren't the everyday driver of the average wage earner. But even here in the USA, a Cadillac can achieve mid to high 20 mpg ... and some of the late ones based upon GM's euro car platforms can cruise at close to 30 mpg. It was comical seeing all the valet juggling of the cars on the street blocking traffic behind Harrod's .... as well as realizing that so many of those high performance cars were used in an area where they couldn't possibly see speeds in excess of 60-65 mph. In the city, these were the height of conspicuous consumption unless the owners were heading to homes in outlying areas instead of Mayfair or Kensington or ?
The USA consumer is prohibited by our emissions or saftey regulations from driving a whole host of high efficiency cars that are common in the European markets. I've been driving MB diesels since 200D's came out, and have progressed through the series to my 123 chassis 300Dt, along with driving a number of 504 & 505 Peugeots. In my England travels, I've always hired Peugeot's ... and been very happy with the size/performance & fuel economy. But these cars aren't sold in the USA, and the current crop of high effficiency diesels in the euro market aren't sold here because they won't meet California diesel emissions standards (which are more stringent than euro or fed USA standards) ....
One thing I did observe was the use of mini-cars ... a number of vehicles such as 2CV's, or an old Bond (long out of production, right?) or similar very low HP cars. Most of them incapable of maintaining 45 mph, and they were obstructing traffic everywhere I saw them in operation. Certainly not cars that would meet transportation requirements here in the USA, no matter how good the fuel economy. Suitable for Bermuda with a low speed limit throughout the island or a very dense city use only.
What's significant here is that anybody with a private car in England is heavily taxed via fuel taxes to support the public transportation system. Even at that, there's still a lot of folk that prefer to use their personal cars to the extent that cities impose use taxes for private cars to penalize and discourage that use. Did I understand correctly that London has some days that certain vehicles are even banned from entering the city?
Another aspect of the retail trade in England's cities I found very interesting ... was how common it was for wholesale deliveries to be made by hand truck to retailers or restaurants in dense areas. That's one man ... with a relatively modest amount of goods to be transported, which has got to be a high labor cost portion of the retail price of goods. Even in USA big cities, you'll see delivery trucks in the streets right up to storefronts or sidewalk delivery entrances for retailers ... even if it means double parking and blocking traffic as needed. I preferred to head to the "industrial park" exits off the highways where I found a larger supermarket type (Safeway, Tesco, etc) shopping available. Judging from the parking lots, this is a preference of many Brits, too.
FWIW, no ... the USA isn't 100 times larger than England. But at 3.8 million square miles compared to England's 50,000 square miles, it's still 76 times larger. The land mass of England would fit within the borders of many individual states here in the USA. The distances and topography of the land here are a totally different situation ... I was impressed with how close so many towns could be in England, yet so removed from one another due to topography and vegetation. There's no comparison to much of the USA with longer distances between communities. In the rural mid-west into the Rocky Mountain States, it's not uncommon to have 60-100 miles between communities of any size ... and the 60 miles distance was something that was established by the railroads through the area from the days when that was a day's travel for a steam locomotive powered train.
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