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April 29, 2005
Traffic congestion
I suppose we couldn’t expect much more from the RAC but according to them the most devastating effect of road congestion is the ever-rising £15 billion cost to businesses, whilst employees are stuck in traffic jams. Not a single mention of what we are doing to our planet.
Their solutions are disturbingly misguided and misleading. Number one on their "Agenda for Action" is the
‘widening (of)all main motorways and trunk roads and adding more tunnels and bypasses.’
Isn’t this a bit like saying that the solution to the obesity problem is to provide our kids with more sugary, fatty snacks?
The last solution on the list sounds just as dangerous. When they suggest that we should be
‘reviewing the use of speed cameras and speed limits’
do they really mean that we should all drive faster (and get away with it) causing more fatal accidents just so everyone can get to work a little quicker?
I agree that the government should be doing more to sort out our transport, but the way forward involves putting money into our public transport system. I want to see it more efficient, cleaner and a hell of a lot cheaper. This is no pipe dream, I have used trains and busses in France, Spain, Belgium and Denmark and if they can all do this then why can’t we? Tax the drivers heavily to pay for it and make it not worth their while to get in the car unless it is necessary.
So much more is down to us however. Do we really need to use our cars as often as we do? We need to think hard every time we reach for those car keys. Could we walk, cycle, use public transport, lift share instead? Are such excuses as ‘it’s raining’ or ‘the shopping is heavy’ good enough where the stakes are so high?
If each and every one of us vowed to cut our car use by (say) a half then theoretically the roads would be only half as full and they would have fewer excuses to keep ploughing through our countryside with new roads.
I’m the first to complain about the government but I think sometimes we sit around and whinge about what every one else should be doing because that is so much easier than taking the power into our own hands and doing it ourselves.
Posted by purple elephant at April 29, 2005 05:51 PM