Yet again, the outgoing mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, is making the lack of any progress towards building a fit for purpose mass transit system for the city and beyond, all about the opposition to his vision of putting part of it underground: Rees: ‘Mass transit is hanging by a thread’
The idea that we use cars just because we love them is aggravating. We use cars because we absolutely need to use cars. People's jobs require using a car to get to them. People design their lives with the fair and reasonable assumption of car ownership. I and millions of others find a car is essential to get to the job that keeps a roof over my head. There is no way I could reasonably use public transport to commute. And the idea that I should contemplate abandoning my good job for the sake of environmental ideals which will do nothing because the poor of the world will not stop trying to make their lives better is madness. I want a plentiful public transport system like the best in Europe. I love my bicycle. But I do not accept the assertion that people do not need their cars. Journalists who ignore that reality are being cruel and arrogant.
Short of levelling every town and city across the nation, then re-building them in a way that people can move around without a car, the truth is that cars are here to stay for a fair while to come. A state of the art public transport system would help in offering a viable alternative to some people who currently drive - the bonus being that road space is freed up:) What would also help is not allowing so called 'garden' towns such as Northstowe in Cambridgeshire to be built with no shops, cafes or GP surgery, leaving people with no alternative but to drive: Northstowe: The broken-promise new town built 'with no heart' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-66156561 What really gets me is the artificial divide that's being pushed between drivers and people like me who don't drive and walk/use public transport. With the '15 minute city' concept being rammed down our throats, it feels like there's a war on movement full stop so, unity rather than division is needed...
I've always wondered why they are promoting 15 minute zones when they have done everything possible to destroy the neighbourhoods we had. Neighbourhoods are dangerous. We develop that elusive sense of community which makes us dangerous. Something doesn't add up.
An interesting observation... On the one hand, they want to restrict our movements. On the other, they've allowed local, independent shops to fall by the wayside. What are we supposed to do - sit in our homes waiting for the vans to turn up deliver our needs? A 'solution' that doesn't exactly do a lot to reduce traffic volumes! Mind you, the real aim is probably to reduce social interaction:(
The idea that we use cars just because we love them is aggravating. We use cars because we absolutely need to use cars. People's jobs require using a car to get to them. People design their lives with the fair and reasonable assumption of car ownership. I and millions of others find a car is essential to get to the job that keeps a roof over my head. There is no way I could reasonably use public transport to commute. And the idea that I should contemplate abandoning my good job for the sake of environmental ideals which will do nothing because the poor of the world will not stop trying to make their lives better is madness. I want a plentiful public transport system like the best in Europe. I love my bicycle. But I do not accept the assertion that people do not need their cars. Journalists who ignore that reality are being cruel and arrogant.
Short of levelling every town and city across the nation, then re-building them in a way that people can move around without a car, the truth is that cars are here to stay for a fair while to come. A state of the art public transport system would help in offering a viable alternative to some people who currently drive - the bonus being that road space is freed up:) What would also help is not allowing so called 'garden' towns such as Northstowe in Cambridgeshire to be built with no shops, cafes or GP surgery, leaving people with no alternative but to drive: Northstowe: The broken-promise new town built 'with no heart' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-66156561 What really gets me is the artificial divide that's being pushed between drivers and people like me who don't drive and walk/use public transport. With the '15 minute city' concept being rammed down our throats, it feels like there's a war on movement full stop so, unity rather than division is needed...
I've always wondered why they are promoting 15 minute zones when they have done everything possible to destroy the neighbourhoods we had. Neighbourhoods are dangerous. We develop that elusive sense of community which makes us dangerous. Something doesn't add up.
An interesting observation... On the one hand, they want to restrict our movements. On the other, they've allowed local, independent shops to fall by the wayside. What are we supposed to do - sit in our homes waiting for the vans to turn up deliver our needs? A 'solution' that doesn't exactly do a lot to reduce traffic volumes! Mind you, the real aim is probably to reduce social interaction:(