Published: Thursday, 18th September, 2008 08:30
Leader: Bus is best
By Reading Chronicle, the Voice of Reading
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HOW many us will wake on Monday morning and actually go through with that resolution to leave the car in the drive and find an alternative method of getting to work or taking the children to school?
Whoever decided to call the event In Town Without My Car Day clearly wasn’t looking for the world’s snappiest slogan, but then we are fortunate that something originating from the EU in Brussels and called European Mobility Week has actually got off the ground at all.
Hundreds of well-intentioned folk will catch the spirit of the occasion and join in wholeheartedly, and it will be a cause for celebration if the school run is a few cars short of a traffic jam come the morning rush hour. But anyone who believes Monday will create a blueprint for a car-free future is labouring under a delusion.
It is more than 11 years now since that scourge of the green belt, John Prescott, promised us a fully integrated transport system and, while it was never going to happen overnight, it is fair to say that we are hardly much closer to it today.
Our own Reading Buses is a shining example of what can be achieved when a forward looking management looks at the wider picture. Whatever about the rest of the public transport system, bus services in greater Reading and beyond, are good, green and getting better and more efficient all the time. While it may still not be good enough to entice the majority of us out from the comfort of our cars, the company is certainly making great strides.
However, car owners who are paying several times over for the privilege of driving on barely adequate roads and filling their tanks with overpriced and overtaxed fuel, are never going to abandon them forever without having a viable, long term alternative to turn to. Assuming we are not all capable of becoming long-distance cyclists, there has never been a greater need for a 21st Century transport network on which passengers can choose their own time and method of low-pollution travel to get from A to B.
Simply penalising motorists with ever more painful and costly sanctions just will not do. We’ve been victims of this peculiar form of highway robbery for far too long.
It might not be much fun sitting in a stationary car, pumping carbon footprint fumes far and wide. But it’s infinitely preferable to standing in the rain at the bus stop. The politicians must stop preaching and, before we all choke, put their money where their mouths are.
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