Want vs Need - Ding Ding Fight! Round Two

Do we really need a car at all? Are we really better off by bike...Over the last few weeks everyone has been feeling gloomy about the credit crunch. We are trying to save more money by cutting our luxury holidays and the pint at the pub to start our weekend. It got me, and very likely other motorists to consider if they really need a car at all? Drivers are really being hit by taxes, the road tax band which looks the car's CO2 emissions and charge accordingly, the soaring petrol prices and also having to pay car insurance. It's no wonder that drivers are looking for ways to save money. However it's very difficult as some people can't live without a car to get them to places.I have been questioning the campaign for 'Your better off by bike' which is the scheme by Mayor of London Boris Johnson to encourage us to think twice and use our cycles instead of our cars to get us around which include cycling to work and shows us the benefits of using a bike. It also offer schemes to learn in your Borrough as well as designated parking spaces for bikes only.On average we drive 13,438km (8350miles) per year (approximately 23 miles per day). Could we cycle this far or find other means of transport that will take less time? I drive about 50miles a day all together, but it costs me over £50p/w to fill up my tank. I am only able to do about 16km (almost 10 miles) in an hour on a bike, so it would take over 2 hours to get to work! How about our wonderful, unreliable tube network including a 15 minute bus to work? Over 2 hours again. Just to compare, my drive to work takes 45mins- 1 hour and driving is hard enough. Our time is precious to us because we seem to be having less and less to ourselves and to live our lives. But for now, my car is here to stay. Time is Sanity.In saying this, I could probably ride my bike to the gym and other places, it's just about getting more efficient and seeing what we can all do. Before any of us can think about changing our cars for public transport or cycling, the system needs to be improved (and much much cheaper!) and cycling needs to be made safer on the roads. Do we really need to use our cars to get us everywhere? Is there no other way we can get to nearby places without our cars? After all, we can always hire a car at the weekends if we are going away, or opt in for a car share scheme to get us to work and back.