The Hawksworth's November Diary - Personal Travel
| Published: 31st March 2008 01:27 |
Personal Travel ... Planes, Trains and Automobiles! All those journeys... all down to flexibility, finances and a bit of focus!
We all have to travel, be it to work, going to the shops.. even the school run!
It's so easy to just pick up the keys and save a few minutes by taking the car, we all do it, its part of every day life.
So over this year how we coped with trying to get the Carbon Footprint down!
The majority of our travel is taken up with commuting to work or college by me and Carol, I being based in Shepshed and Carol in Loughborough. I suppose this is the biggest area of concentration to make a difference.
We were a little fortunate over the year with Carol's course going from a 5 day a week to a more condensed 3 days... this enabled us to car share more where I could drop Carol off and pick her up at the end of the day. Lauren also made a change where she left Shepshed Hind leys to take her AS levels also at Loughborough College, so another seat taken up in the car when not using her Bus pass or getting lift from a friend.
So a big difference was seen by car sharing with mileage reducing by almost 25% over the year.
During my investigations into car travel we also looked at what we drive and our own practicalities. We were able to gain the help of Renault to replace our thirsty cars with much more economical efficient Diesels, this was in August and this added even more savings!
In June we highlighted the differences in emissions of what we where using and what we have now, it proved that even if you still do those miles you can reduce your Co2 without giving up comfort or power (in both cases we actually improved in these areas)
VT Day
Venue Huntingdon Drive and out and about in Castle Donington.
An early start for Sally our producer, and Dave the cameraman as they wished to record our early morning comings, goings and the general chaos that a large family goes through.
I can say this was one busy day of filming and running around... not really helping my mileage!
So from the off ....
Capturing Olivia and Jacob's normal 15 minute walk to the community college, so that's a quick bit from outside the house, jump in the car... to the school gates, more filming... back home. Normally they would walk the journey but today with all the logistics and the timetable... no chance!
Then Fraser's turn, living so close to Orchard school has always meant a quick walk round and drop off for Fraser (or sometimes we will drop him off with friends or relatives if needed to get away earlier) but in this instance, Fraser on his scooter with Carol, his bag and lunchbox in tow. A nice few shots of Carol returning on board his scooter, scooting along! and some comments.
Once done, more rushing around as Carol was doing a "children in need" fund raising walk that day in fancy dress around Loughborough and needed to get away!
We had to do some leaving the house, then synchronized car pulling off the drive to show how we used to leave separately for work and college, not always as easy as it seems! Especially when I never even noticed my car wasn't even started on one take!
Once done ... Carol awayyyyy!
Sally and Dave then piled into the Scenic and off, around The Green and up Park Lane for some comments and more driving footage!
Another piece was to capture Lauren doing her driving lesson with Cathy - a little nervous with a camera on board but no stalls and wonderfully done!
We are friends with Andy Ridgway who runs Castle Donington UPVC (very good by the way!) who was working a few doors away, he has a wicked sense of humour and continually barracked the beeb whilst filming also stepping out in front of Lauren was very brave! He even got captured and shown in the finished VT.
Hardly a breather! But the shots just kept on coming... back to the school to capture Olivia and Jacob's departure back home... then back to the bus stop to get Alex exiting his school bus from Shepshed!
Back home, kids arriving back....pant, pant, and pant... more comments from the kids!
Then a piece to show the running around we have to do - loading the boys up for their weekly trip to Long Eaton swimming baths - (pity they couldn't capture and broadcast my gripes on our lack of leisure facilities here in Castle Donington!)
A long day for all but very nicely put together for the VT.
Live Day
Venue: A cold and wet miserable morning at the Bus terminal East Midlands Airport!
Sally had really struggled to find a good Outside Broadcast venue and plumbed for this one! It was cold, wet, had been snowing the night before! But up and out by 05:30 dressed, ready for the day with our smiley faces as usual!
Not the best of places to be spending your morning, we really didn't enjoy this one that much. We were sat on cold, draughty seats, near constantly opening doors, with just a nearby 24/7 outlet who would sell us the odd tea, coffee or warm sausage roll! Although Declan bless him did try and keep the kids amused by fooling around with them and plying them with chocolate!
In between filming we would hijack a bus for a bit of filming and amuse ourselves playing silly games.. car spotting etc! (This can be seen on the live VT with Jacob running up the line of us in the bus stop!)
The funniest part of the day was perhaps the early 06:20 hit where Declan was in full flow of broadcast mode, .... When a young lady walked straight between him and us during a live interview.... She went off and stood to one side and once finished she introduced herself as the airports public relations person! Oh dear! I could feel the ground being willed to open up!
It was difficult to promote the bus for us as we just can't get to where we need to be in the time we have - be it direct or indirect - just try making a journey to Shepshed from Castle Donington... so close yet so far! Buses are a good thing, if you work in a main city, or can use the park and ride schemes...You also need flexibility and time! Things that large families and busy lifestyles do not always see going hand in hand!
It was an experience but not fun that morning, I don't think we were able to show what we had truly achieved and focus on what can really make a difference..........
- Look at the journeys you need to make!
- Share or manage them better to reduce further avoidable journeys!
- Look at your transport...
- Do you really need to do a school run in the car!
- Get the kids to walk to school in numbers (for safety) and it also gets them out in the fresh air!
- Car share where you can, if off to do a weekly shop.. take a friend make it an outing rather than a chore!
- Do you really need a 4x4 3 litre petrol car to go to the shops!
- And if purchasing a car ... look at what it produces Co2 wise!
We were definitely ready for a cuppa and a warm up once the morning had finished.
Useful Links
BBC Breakfast Video Stream and VT of the day.
I have set up a temporary email address for those wishing to seek any further advice or submit useful ideas - please feel to contact us HFM@ntlworld.com
Paul & "The Hawksworth's"
Community Comment:
Add your comment:
You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.
