Dispatches Tonight?

[gremlin]

Don't know if anyone watched this but it was tripe! It was so pro road charging and doing the guilt trip thing if you're against it. They didn't mention bikes once. Get people on public transport, great if there are buses to use and if they go where you want to go. For us a five mile trip to our nearest town translates to a fourteen mile trip each way on a bus, not practical when shopping. They had Captain Gatso but left him looking a pillock. It seemed to be a propaganda trip to brainwash people into abandoning their cars. Poor car drivers feeling picked on, and of course it's all their fault for needing to get anywhere within a reasonable time. Spit spit!

[JerryXt]

what you're saying is right, but...

I see so many people driving 30 miles each way to go to work and back every day. One guy I work with drives his car to the office and back, his girlfriend drives PAST the office to her place and back every day. Another guy drives 9 miles each way.

I wonder if they would do it if they had to justify each mile? Maybe a fairer way would be to ration petrol, or the miles everyone can do each year. Or encourge people to take jobs close to home?

[DavidEJM]

It's an easy target in the major cities, but not so practical as you get further out from the large conurbations. Even here, six or seven miles outside Oxford, the quality of public transport varies dramatically from village to village.

The fact is, our wealth depends on flexible transport solutions. Is it fair to say to someone who lives in a village, 'either move closer to that well paid job in the city or see if there is some part time work in the local Londis'. The flip side is, could the cities cope with everyone moving back in?

Yes there are solutions for flexible working for many people and it is easier to work from home for many, but, as with anything, there has to be a balance and just blaming the motorist for the problems of the world is akin to sticking your head in a bucket of sand.

We need a much more honest approach to the whole, 'traffic' and 'environment' issue before any sustainable solutions are reached.

Of course, it is likely that road pricing will become reality in the UK because we are not very good at making a big enough fuss (by comparison, it won't happen anytime soon in France or the USA), however the cynical view is that there will be a deliberate policy of 'screwing up' the traffic and 'sexing up' the polution figures so that the new 'travel tax' can be seen to be a success and the not just the revenue raising cash cow it really would be.




<....steps off soap box and leaves quietly by the back door.........>

[gremlin]

The problem is always the same, they create laws etc to cope with problems in cities but catch those of us in the country. There is no reason really to have a car in the city because there is the transport network, but you can't live without a car even five miles out side. It's the 4x4 thing again, they penalise everyone for having them just to punish city dwellers. Of course MPs won't be affected because they don't have to pay their way. They don't get the fact that if people are charged for delivering goods, the goods will have to cost more, wages will have to rise to enable people to afford even the basics like food. If people are being charged even more to get to work, it will become economically not viable to go. Not many people can work from home so costs of service industries would go up. If we worked in central London we would have to charge £80 as it stands at the moment just to cover travel costs before doing any work. If it goes nationwide everybody will have to look at pricing and put prices up accordingly so everything will be out of the reach of the low paid. Of course it will only be those who are legally on the road who will pay. Some say put it all on fuel duty but those of us in the sticks will be punished even more.