Blackmail?

[Martin Cassini]

Manchester's proposed con charge was shelved after a massive No vote, but government is still making public transport investment dependent on con charge schemes. Manchester was told that if they voted No, there was "no plan B". Yet within months, £1.4bn was found for the tram extension. Cambridge still pursues a charge even though road layout tweaks would ease its self-inflicted congestion problems. Birmingham's Mike Whitby says con charging on essential car journeys is 'morally corrupt'. Time to scrap it nationally and put public money to constructive use?

[Martin Cassini]

Don't disagree with any of that. In the same way that economic/environmental Armageddon is finally forcing change in the direction of sustainable living (a long way to go, of course), I believe the same sort of organic rationing will happen with car use. I just prefer it to happen with freedom of choice, rather than imposed by interfering policymakers and revenue-chasing authorities.

[Ian Perry]

The biggest problem with cars, which is shared somewhat by public transport, is that it encourages and forces us to travel. When my bicycle breaks, I can walk or run to my destination. If I was car dependent (as I was when in the UK) and my car broke, I would be reliant on public transport or stuck.
Why can we not produce locally again? Why should our apples come from Australia, our potatoes from Israel, our tomatoes from Spain? Why do we have to travel great distances to our place of work, why can we not work in our local community? The markets of Freiburg in Germany sell mostly local produce and small businesses thrive as people shop, work and socialise locally. Here in the Netherlands, farmers sell their produce at the roadside. In the UK, farmers markets and farm shops are growing in popularity, but are still not mainstream. Local shops have been taken over by the big chains and people drive past the independents to shop in large, unseasonal stores, spending money on fuel and maintenance in the belief that purchasing slightly cheaper potatoes will save them money. The UK could once again be a nation of shopkeepers and small farmers, producing and selling healthy foods.
Who would choose to spend an hour or more as many do travelling to and from work and then spend more time travelling to shops and leisure places, when if we reorganise our society, we can spend more time at our destinations?
Neither consumption nor travel makes people happy. We need to reduce both and invest more time in our communities and on our relationships. FiT Roads can improve community relations and strong communities make the introduction of Fit Roads more desirable. The need for a car and the desire to own one can and will be reduced.
FiT Roads are just one criterion for a better society, with greater equity and opportunity.

[Martin Cassini]

In a sense you're preaching to the converted because in London that's how I get about. Not only can you beat cars, but motorbikes too. True, I "cheat" by practising what I preach and going on opportunity, while riders, on our current unfit roads, have to wait at red even when no-one is using the green. Re the carbon impact of car production, that's a thorny one, but once I drove to Cannes and back in a wooden car called an Africar (I might have mentioned this to you before). Is it beyond the wit of man or the invention of mother to devise a means of post-industrial production using mostly renewables? You're not advocating the complete "disinvention" of the car, are you? If you want to educate people to cycle more, I'm fully behind you there. Otherwise, nothing I've read convinces me to put away my resistance to the attack on our freedom to choose. Finally, I think that FiT Roads would usher in an era of far fewer deaths, less noise, less pollution, and, I think, less social exclusion.

[Ian Perry]

Bicycles have won races against cars for crossing cities in the UK. Bicycles do not get stuck in traffic and can be easily parked, or easily taken into buildings if you have a folder. Much time is lost, and congestion caused, when people are simply cruising for parking.
Cars are expensive. Huge sums of money have to be invested in their purchase, maintenance and repair, that cannot be recovered when the vehicle is sold. People spend many hours at work to earn the money to keep their vehicle roadworthy, never mind fuel it.
There are few greenfly in most cities and you would be surprised as to how often there is no rain, and when there is, how effective a light coat and protectors for the fronts of your thighs are at keeping you completely dry. Cyclist in the UK probably do get wet, but if they and their bicycles were properly equipped, they would not suffer these problems. It is sad but true, the average UK cyclist does not have a bicycle suited to use on streets, but for climbing mountains and getting muddy.
Screens, roofs and electric motors to assist climbing hills are already available for bicycles and tricycles – they are just not seen in the UK… This is a problem that needs to be addressed. People need to see things to believe in them.
If you want to visit the Netherlands, I and I’m sure someone even older than you, will challenge you to run some everyday errands by car, quicker than we can do them by bicycle. If it is sunny… you just might be sweatier than us when you finally complete your tasks.
Bicycles have gears that make climbing hills easy and then you can relax as you freewheel down the other side. In Freiburg, another cycling city, there are hills that enable cyclists to exceed the residential speed limit, without pedalling! People of all ages cycle up this hill.
Can there be a “green” car, given the environmental damage from mining for the raw materials, the energy requirements to produce, maintain, repair and fuel them, and even with FiT Roads, there will still be noise, pollutants, social exclusion and fatalities from private vehicle use?

[Martin Cassini]

I appreciate your cycling efforts, and I know you cycled half the way to Holland from Wales recently. Three cheers! But then, you are a young, fit guy. Sure, if more people cycled, they'd get fitter, if not younger. But many of the advantages of cycling are outweighed by the disadvantages. Fine when you're just on hols, or under no time pressure, or somewhere like Cambridge with no hills, or in clement weather; but who wants to turn up to a meeting sweating, panting, or covered in greenfly, or soaking wet? Rather than force people out of their cars with negative measures, public transport should be made sustainable and sustainable transport irresistible! I always prefer the carrot to the stick. Also, as I've said before, when affordable, desirable "green" cars are available, won't all the expensive coercion be redundant anyway? Bicycles should have built-in anti-theft devices, they should be available with screens, roofs, and electric motors to help climb hills. That's where government money should be going, not on more bureaucracy and enforcement.

[Ian Perry]

I have strapped furniture onto the back and front of my bicycle, and now I have a ‘shopper’, I can tow great amounts and weights behind me.
If it was politically acceptable to remove lorries and vans from our streets, they could quickly be replaced by cargo trams and cargo bicycles. http://www.wso.wur.nl/?pID=11&lang=nl&type=main
It takes a little insight and imagination to realise the potential for non-motorised cargo transport. There is very little in the UK, but in the Netherlands, parts of Germany, and many countries further afield, non-motorised transport is used to move many goods.
A large volume of motorised traffic gives the motorist dominance and perceived ownership of the space because of their sheer numbers and allows little space for other users of the street. For example, in Bangkok, it is often quicker to walk than ride because traffic moved so slowly, yet it is not possible for a pedestrian to cross the road, due to the numbers of slow moving vehicles crammed into the finite space.

[Martin Cassini]

I don't know the basis of the mayor of Copenhagen's claim, but it makes good copy. I would have thought that people in cars are powering the economy at least as much as cyclists. For one thing, you can't carry much on a bicycle. - Good question, about defining an essential journey. One man's meet is another man's phonecall. - I take issue with you on your implication that roads are dangerous because of volume of traffic. If the road was a level playing-field with a culture of equality and natural empathy (rather than one of aggressive insistence on rights-of-way resulting from artificial priority), roads would not be dangerous, just crowded. - Again, fair point about 'the commons', but if roads were FiT, they would enfranchise everyone. - Con charging is premature because it was imposed before FiT was even tried. It's a vastly expensive extra layer of coercion and control which disadvantages the less well-off and dehumanises public life.

[Ian Perry]

One of the reasons why the Congestion Charge referendum was lost was that many people in the Manchester area believe a car to be essential, and people opposing the scheme were more motivated to go out and vote than those for it. I was interested to hear this week that the Mayor of Copenhagen said that every Km that a car travels in Copenhagen, costs the city 10 Euro cents, where as every Km cycled earns the city 16 Euro cents. Why should those in cars be subsidised by those walking and cycling?
What does Mike Whitby define as an “essential journey”? Does he mean driving past local shops to big out of town complexes to save a few pounds? Does he mean the journeys perceived to be too dangerous to walk or cycle because there are too many cars on our roads? Thirty, forty, sixty years ago, how many journeys were there for which a car was essential?
Congestion charging will not solve the problem of congestion, but it gives a value to ‘the commons’, and compensates those without a car, unable to benefit from the public space we call roads.
Linking investment in public transport with a Congestion Charge will always be controversial, but has been successful in London, despite what Boris claims. As our cities continue to grow, how are we to fit more cars onto our roads? Even the American policies of increased capacity have failed. The reality is that reducing road capacity for private vehicles can reduce congestion, and a Congestion Charge can deter people from making the least essential car journeys on what would otherwise be public space.