Cars  ...  and the Car Lobby

Transport is approaching a state of crisis in West London. As the roads get ever busier, congestion increases and it takes longer to get anywhere. Our city, our town centre and our local roads are becoming overrun by cars.

We have a problem

This increase in traffic continues to main and kill. It poisons the air we breathe. Road traffic ruins our towns and our countryside. And the emissions are the fastest-rising contributor to global warming. So all this traffic is bad for our health, our safety and our environment, as well as failing in its presumed objective - to get us quickly and efficiently to where we need to go.

Car parking presents whole extra dimension of problem. The vast and increasing demand for car parking is eating up our towns and threatens our open spaces. Residential steets, where people used to converse and children played, are now linear car parks. An issue of particular concern to Ealing FOE is the concreting over of front gardens to park cars. This is wiping out wildlife and the run-off increases risks of flooding.

Cars

There is no doubt as to the basic problem. There are simply too many cars on the road.

So what's the solution?

Cars clearly have a role. There are circumstances where cars are the best option, such as for heavy shopping or journeys late at night. But the majority of travel by car could be replaced by:

• walking,
• cycling, or
• public transport

Almost everyone who studies transport - be they transport professionals, politicians or the thinking public - know that we have to address the problem of too much car use. The professionals and the politicians, but perhaps not all of the public, also know that simply providing some public transport improvements and giving a bit of encouragement to walking and cycling will not solve our transport problems.

If we are to solve our transport problems, we have to restrain car use as well as promote the alternatives. We need 'sticks as well carrots'. Restraint of cars can be provided by:

• Limits on road space, while providing lanes for buses and other non-car traffic
• Constraints on parking - either physical limits or pricing
• Congestion charging

Why isn't the problem being sorted?

Given that these are the only answers, why is so little being done to restrain car use? The answer is, in short, fear of the car lobby. An example of the car lobby at work is the vehement campaign against the tram. We also lack political leadership; most of our politicians are not interested in addressing difficult, long-term problems.

The car lobby

Many car owners will argue and campaign with almost fanatical fervour for their right to drive and park wherever and whenever they want. They oppose bus lanes, the West London tram, parking restrictions, congestion charges and even speed cameras.

The ceaseless promotion of evermore car travel is bizarre and illogical. It is obvious to anyone that if traffic levels continue to rise, gridlock will ensue. This will effect car users just as much as users of buses and a good deal more than walkers and cyclists. Unfortunately, logic and strategic thinking do not form a noticeable component of the car lobby's campaigns!

A intruiging aspect of the car lobby is that the support for cars goes way beyond purely transport considerations. There is a worship of cars and an addiction to driving them. Every other advert on television is for a new car. Clearly cars are status and life-style symbols. Any hint of a threat to these idols - be they constraints on parking, taxes or even just discussion of their environmental impact - is met with furious, sometimes hysterical opposition and a catalogue of ludicrous arguments in favour of even more cars.

Invasion of the 4 by 4's

The current penchant for '4 by 4s', 'off road vehicles' and 'sports utility vehicles (SUVs) is a case in point. These are totally unecessary in urban areas such as West London - the most rugged journey most will do is drive to Tesco. (But they do like to park on pavements, so perhaps 'off-road' is accurate.)

The vehicles are environmentally disastrous fuel guzzlers. They do as little as 20mpg - and this is at a time when we desperately need more fuel-efficient cars. Did you know? In 1924 Ford cars did 24mpg (miles to the gallon). The new top-of-the-range American off-road vehicle (the Hummer) does 11mpg. And that's progress?

As well as being more damaging to the environment, large heavy cars are also more dangerous to other roads users, especially pedestrians and children. A 4x4 is 2 and a half times as likely to kill a pedestrian or cyclist as a normal car.

For more on this threat see 4 by 4 web site.

But, finally .. "It's been scientifically proven that unless you take your kids to school in a 4X4 some horrible fate will befall them." (David Cockle, tram analyst).

Links

Jan 05