Four Wheels Bad


The �2bn on roads is actually part of a bigger scheme, but the Government have still caved to the car lobby. They really need to take a wider view.

The problem with the jamming motorways isn’t really at the point of the jam, but rather upstream and downstream. Multi lane roads are supposed to ease the flow from A to B, but if there’s nowhere to go when you get to B the traffic starts to back up. The battle against congestion starts on the local roads. Set up Safe Routes To School schemes and decimate the school run. Increase the rates out of town shopping centres pay for their expanses of parking space and get trams and buses running into city centres. Set up schemes that reward companies for encouraging bike and public transport use. Introduce use charges instead of road tax and have it scaled to penalise shorter journeys and reward not using the car at all (I haven’t a clue how this would work to be honest, but if they can flag every car entering the zone for London’s scheme I’m sure it’s possible). Anything, just so long as it gets us out of our cars.