21 Jan 07 - The government wants me to use my car

I'd like to take the train to work and avoid using unnecessary and polluting oil products. But because I work forty miles from home I'd have to pay a standard fare of over £20 a day, which is £100+ a week. A monthly ticket would cost a cool £293.80, or £67.85 a week, using the accountant's trick of dividing by 4.33 to get weeks.

Actually that's probably comparable to the cost of filling my car, but then the government gives me back 40p a mile in tax relief, which comes to a generous £36 a day. Yes, £36 a day on a 90-mile round trip. The government clearly wants me to use my car, at least its right hand does, although the left hand wants me to save energy.

It's not quite that simple, the rate goes down after the first 10,000 miles, or 22 weeks, but by then I'll have moved back to commuter-land as I'm self-employed.

It would be great to find a way to make it at least vaguely pay (like my car needs more servicing with the extra mileage), but it's a struggle. Then there's the question of getting there. I'm not just talking about calculating the probably of actually making it on any given day, but even on a good day it will take at least an hour, station to station. Then it's a 25-minute walk from the station to where I work.

That bit of the journey would be nicely covered by the fold-up bike I'd be taking with me (cost, I believe around £250). Add the time it takes to get to the station, factor in the residual bike -unfriendliness of the public transport system - the government (part of it) might want us to bike it, but the transport network sure as hell doesn't - and it still takes approximately twice as long and costs twice as much by public transport.

I say 'twice as much' because I can't be bothered to work it out. It's what's known as an educated guess.