Spa Tek

Congestion

Britain's roads are congested with traffic. It is slowing down the progress of all our lives. Recently the government has put forward some ideas for discussion, which fail to really address the root causes.

We have too many people living in this small land. We do not need more people. Those that are here should be given more freedom to organise their own lives, pay less taxes, do more productive work.

Ipso facto we have too many vehicles for our crowded roads. Go to France, with same number of people but twice the usable land area and it is comfortable.

Our vehicles pollute, because we insist on using fossils fuels and do little to develop alternatives, even though they are available.

Our approach to travel is wrong: cars are penis extendsions, that offer all the comforts of home, and the only TV programme that deals with transport on British TV extols the virtues of expensive, fast, raunchy vehicles and sneers at eco-friendly runabouts.

Most people travel no more than 5 miles in each journey.

Those are some of the problems, but what solutions can be found?

Pollution and congestion can be alleviated by insisting that only environmentally-friendly non-polluting at point of travel vehicles should be allowed in urban centres. And those vehicles should not be capable of fast acceleration or of travelling at more than 30 mph.

Inter-city transport links should be improved, leading to car parks on the outskirts of every town where public transport or transfer to eco-cars takes place. I see no reason why we should not develop vehicles that are in two parts, one containing an engine to push us along at speed over long distances, the other having a battery pack or hydogen-fuelled engine (perhaps) for urban use.

The other advantage of us all using more than one vehicle is the boost to the economy that could bring. Building works for the new car-parks, building and servicing of the new urban vehicles, and adding computer control to all these vehicles so that they are incapable of exceeding speed limits, and will take avoidance action when close to another vehicle or a person. Perhaps we should wear identity disks that will apply the brakes to any vehicle that gets too close.

Money will not solve the problem, it will just create an unjust divisive society. We need initiative and thinking beyond our present restrictive practices.

posted by Suffolk Notes @ 10:09 am