"Steve Haywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I am not anti-car. I am the owner of two cars, >one of them a mass production classic marque which I keep on the road >because of my interest in the history, development and technology of the >motor car. > >But - a big but - in the same way that I like beer too, I don't spend half >my life pi$$ed. > >The facts is that the motor car is increasingly dominating our life and >environment.
The car is one of the most beneficial inventions ever. It provides freedom. You get to travel where and when you want, without having to endure the company of strangers who may be ill, violent, anti-social, unwashed, have nasty habits, or all of the foregoing. It gives you somewhere warm, dry, and comfortable to be when you are out of the house (teenagers catch on to this really quickly). You can choose the car you want. But the problem is that using a car requires the use of roads and the space on roads. The latter is expensive to create, and our demand for it has now exceeded its supply, and its feasible supply. The result is congestion, to the point that the benefits of the car are counteracted. Because of the cost (financial and environmental) of creating more road space, and the cost (environmental) of having more driving, it is clear that we cannot / should not reduce the excess of demand for road space over supply by increasing road space. The only sensible option is to reduce the demand. >Public transport IMO offers the only long term way out. "Anyone seen on a bus after the age of 30 is a failure" (can't remember who said that, though). The counter to that is that sometimes it is very nice for someone else to do the driving (same applies to trains). Also to take care of the parking. Taxis are a bit uneconomic (until they are driven by computers, at which point they will replace all buses IMHO. Soon). There are two ways to reduce road space demand. By fiat (The Man from the Ministry says "thou shalt not drive on Tuesdays unless your name begins with L, Q, or V"), or by price. By price gives you the choice of where and when. And that is my choice. I really dislike being told what to do. I'm very strongly in favour of road pricing. And pricing most things by usage (such as using the atmospher for disposing of carbon emissions), come to that. But more strongly opposed to implementing it by a system that requires vehicle tracking, as that will remove most of our liberty IMHO. Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
