“THE ECO-CULTISTS WAR ON THE CAR IS BUILT ON FANTASY AND DELUSION” – by Lord David Frost [redacted DT 4/7/23]:
“Everything is the culture war. It may have started over BLM and trans rights, but dip into social media with an opinion on cars, public transport or cycling, and you’d better be prepared for abuse.
The Uxbridge by-election was a single-issue vote about Sadiq Khan’s plan to expand his Ultra Low Emission Zone – and the result showed that people in outer London really don’t like it.
But make the case for cars and people will accuse you of wanting to kill children. Suggest that cycling doesn’t work for everyone, or argue that public transport can’t reach everywhere in the country, and you will be told you are a selfish planet-destroyer.
The Net Zero Mentality is the belief that it’s a serious possibility in a modern society for us all to live in the kind of place you find in the cuter children’s TV programmes, Camberwick Green or Balamory, where there is no traffic, no industry, and everything is available close by.
It is a prelapsarian fantasy that cultists have had as long as Western society has existed: the return to the lost Eden, living sustainably in harmony with nature.
Many of its fanatical proponents are coming to power. They get voted in because their plans sound warm and cuddly – but voters then tend to revolt against the specifics. That’s what happened in Uxbridge.
Christian safe zones in America.
There’s a reason for this: 85% of journeys in this country are made by car. Public transport can’t fill the gap. It generally does not go where people want to go. That is not going to change, because public transport is cripplingly expensive. The railways cost £13 billion in subsidy last year – nearly £500 per household, paid by everyone whether you get on a train or not.
The Jubilee Line extension cost £3.5 billion – more than £6 billion in today’s money – and that bought half a tube line, ten miles long. Crossrail cost in excess of £18 billion.
Just imagine the cost of a genuine new network for London that could get people out of cars. And then the fares. Then multiply this around our other cities and you begin to see that the problem is insurmountable.
Cycling is a bit more flexible, but for families or anyone carrying anything it’s even more difficult than public transport. It’s no fun in the rain or the dark. And it’s at least ten times as dangerous as getting in a car.
Studies have shown that the countries where most people cycle are small and wealthy – Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Austria. They do it because they are already rich. It’s for people without commitments, like food fads, farmers’ markets, or buying your carbon offsets for the summer holiday in Tuscany. It’s never going to be a serious way of moving people around.
Vast new spending on public transport or cycle lanes is fashionable displacement activity, not serious policy.”
#ulez #tfl #netzero #stolenbikes #cycling
