What will it take to get over the addiction to cars that has afflicted our society? Whether I’m talking with an organisation about strategic priorities, knowledge of communities or building a new hospital complex, the obsession that monopolises attention is car parking facilities (or lack of it). Meanwhile buses stand empty, under-funded commuter trains are dirty and crowded, countless hours and lives are lost on motorways, and the carbon keeps pumping, pumping, pumping – while Green Travel Plans get signed, sealed but not delivered.
One solution is the cold turkey approach. But the lack of parking in a prospective office move turns a responsible workforce into a blubbering mass of demotivation. Furthermore, this blanket approach ignores the real needs of parents, disabled people and rural residents.
Congestion charging in the cities is a good idea but unacceptable to residents outside London.
Remote working is a partial solution, but still tinkering around the edges – it doesn’t deal with the addiction, just the behaviour.
Carbon rationing seems to be the only prospect for breaking the back of this curse on our society. Hopefully this would lead to more rational planning decisions about out-of-town leisure and shopping, and assumptions about transport behaviour.
I’ll support anything that will lead to people using their lower limbs and a decline in slob-dom, with a dose of increased neighbourliness thrown in for free. Go on, tell me to dream on ……………..
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