Originally Posted by Dick Dasterdly

Fascinating theory, even better than the one about rabbit hutches.

Originally Posted by Lenox

Here's the thing. I live in the country. There's no metro, no train, not much of a bus system. Maybe the State wants us all to live in cities, where we can walk to the nearest bar, shop or library rather than sedately drive about hoping that the cops - stationed on the only road - leave us alone.

Originally Posted by betris

hi.can you play a banjo.sorry when i think the campo i always think of "deliverance"and hill billys

Originally Posted by Dick Dasterdly

I can assure you you'd be quite safe, well most of the time anyway, and we aint all that desperate for a shag. In any event unlike the US hillbillies we've always got the sheep to turn to.

Originally Posted by Fred James

Please can we get back to the topic of speed limits.

Originally Posted by angiescarr

Nearly;-)
I think more trains to airports would cut the fuel used to get to airports and maybe offset our fuel use on the planes. Now that would make real sense. Oh and incidentally provide work for building the infrastructure. At least in Spain there's still space to do this.

Originally Posted by steviedeluxe

Well there's already a train link to Madrid airport (as indeed there is to Heathrow and Gatwick in London), and the AVE link will be in place 2012. But I'm not sure that you can justify new train lines to airports that are relatively quiet 6 months of the year. Malaga maybe stays busy all year. But surely a decent bus link is far more effective?

Originally Posted by betris

dick sit down.open a bottle and think about it.we are all getting hoodwinked.

Originally Posted by bil

PML

Hoodwinked? Sold down the river, shagged and made to pay for the lubricant.

I heard a reference today to the UK gov thinking about raising motorway speeds to 80mph.

Originally Posted by bil

PML

Hoodwinked? Sold down the river, shagged and made to pay for the lubricant.

I heard a reference today to the UK gov thinking about raising motorway speeds to 80mph.

Originally Posted by Dick Dasterdly

Would be a better idea to follow the UK lead and raise road tax on engine size and emissions.
Double the tax rate on 2ltr plus for family cars and treble it on 3 ltr plus.
Call the extra a surcharge to go direct to the tax collector and apply only to vehicles not registered for commercial purposes.
In this day and age most motors up to 2 ltrs are more than adequate for general domestic purposes and can comfortably cruise all day at the legal speed limit.

I wonder if the roads will be any safer or will the extra concentration of traffic at similar speeds cause more mishaps?

In any event most of Europe has been moving in this direction for quite a few years with even the Germans now having 120kph restrictions on most of their autobahns and 110kph in some cases.

Originally Posted by billgates

Surely anyone with a big gas guzzler is already paying more in fuel taxes with the increased fuel consumption.
You think these people should be taxed again just for having a big engined car?

Some people do live in the campo and need a decent sized vehicle to tow trailers and get around their fincas in all weathers. We don't all spend our time cruising motorways.
If you hadn't noticed, the mountains of Spain reach almost to the coast, and there are a lot of people that live in the mountains.

Originally Posted by Dick Dasterdly

I take your point, however I'm not only considering the taxation issue but also avoiding excessive fuel consumption to help the green point of view.
Modern torquey 2 ltr diesel engines can comfortably handle just about anything from a domestic point of view, incl.the Spanish mountains and small trailers.
There may be a few exceptions I agree, but most who really need something more substantial than that, generally have commercial interests.