Our roads are heavily traveled, 2 lane mountain roads, have 55 mph speed limits, along with tourists (who can't drive) and trucks. It just not my idea of a safe ride on any day. Plus it is 10 miles to the town. (Cars are not even safe, I had a deer jump in front of my car twice here, for $$$$ repair costs.)

My solution is to combine my trips, and only go into town once or twice a week, as necessary. And avoid wildlife.

@blogdiva

But it sure has been at least twice the US price at all times.

@blogdiva inflation-adjusted!

When I moved back to the UK, I spent three weeks traveling by bus and train to different towns and cities. I found a perfect walkable place with good transport links and a lively high street, but there are an awful lot of towns with abandoned centres and out of town retail parks with limited if any bus services. Away from the major population centres, it would be difficult to cope without a car.

I'm coming up to three years happily car-free, but the UK could still use more effort revitalising towns and improving public transport links.

I spoke to shop owners in my travels, the main problem that they shared was extortionate shop rents. For tax reasons, it seems the property owners literally do not care if the shop is empty or occupied. I suspect also that the "value" of the building is related to the rent cost - whether or not there are tenants.

Another town (Harlow, where I lived as a kid) used to have a thriving shopping centre and a large busy market. The town council decided to use the market stall space rents as a revenue stream. Within a few years the market was gone. Now, the market square with its almost entirely gutted surrounding shops looks like a set from The Walking Dead.

It's how towns like mine justify not providing the public transit and bike infrastructure they should despite having a population density higher than most of Chicago.