Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out

Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/07/cars-killing-us-driving-environment-phase-out

Let’s abandon this disastrous experiment, recognise that this 19th-century technology is now doing more harm than good, and plan our way out of it. Let’s set a target to cut the use of cars by 90% over the next decade.

Yes, the car is still useful – for a few people it’s essential. It would make a good servant. But it has become our master, and it spoils everything it touches. It now presents us with a series of emergencies that demand an emergency response.

…

Transport should be planned, but with entirely different aims: to maximise its social benefits, while minimising harm. This means a wholesale switch towards electric mass transit, safe and separate bike lanes and broad pavements, accompanied by a steady closure of the conditions that allow cars to rampage through our lives. In some places, and for some purposes, using cars is unavoidable. But for the great majority of journeys they can easily be substituted, as you can see in Amsterdam, Pontevedra and Copenhagen. We could almost eliminate them from our cities.

In this age of multiple emergencies – climate chaos, pollution, social alienation – we should remember that technologies exist to serve us, not to dominate us. It is time to drive the car out of our lives.

Don’t you come on a car forum like this with your hippy clap trap.

See, if we weren’t so preoccupied with the car as a status symbol …

But for the great majority of journeys they can easily be substituted, as you can see in Amsterdam, Pontevedra and Copenhagen. We could almost eliminate them from our cities

.

Nice idea, but once again forgets that we don’t all live in (or in some cases even near) cities

I’m off on a global ocean cruise on a container ship staffed by a herd of cows. I don’t need a car!

It’s an admirable cause, but I fear things won’t change until either it’s too late or there is an alternative that offers all the benefits of a car without the pollution.

People are lazy, and people like cars. Collectively, we are exceedingly unlikely to vote for anyone who would take our cars away.

But for the great majority of journeys they can easily be substituted, as you can see in Amsterdam, Pontevedra and Copenhagen. We could almost eliminate them from our cities

Nice idea, but once again forgets that we don’t all live in (or in some cases even near) cities

Eh? We couldn’t cut the majority of cars from cities because many people, er, aren’t in those cities?

I know there’s always a surprising amount of people on STW that either need to tow a yacht from Aberdeen to Chamonix twice a week (without stopping) or have to drive 20 miles to get bread and milk – but since 80% of UK people in in urban areas, and a huge percentage of all car journeys are under a couple of miles, it is SURELY unarguable that society could cut down car use by a massive amount if we care enough.

EDIT

have just noticed that you carefully clipped out the sentence

“In some places, and for some purposes, using cars is unavoidable”

in order to argue that he is callously ignoring people for whom cars are a necessity. Oh, STW 😆

I’m all for the end of personally owned motorised transport. As long as it’s not for another 40-50 years as by then I’ll be either too old to drive or dead.

have just noticed that you carefully clipped out the sentence

“In some places, and for some purposes, using cars is unavoidable”

in order to argue that he is callously ignoring people for whom cars are a necessity. Oh, STW 😆

Try reading the thread title 😉

Since when was a modern car 19th century technology? Thats like equating a modern efficient home to a mud hut. Or laser guided bomb to a medieval spear. Also in 10 years time there will be a hell of a lot more hybrid and EV’s on the roads and in 20 years almost all cars on the road will be hybrids or EV’s so the problem is already well on the road to being phased out.

No problems with initiatives that cut down petrol and diesel engined cars in cities and large towns, like congestion charges or banning odd numbered reg plates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and even numbered ones in between. But you have to pair initiatives like that to having large out of town parking areas for park and ride, or introduce free parking at train stations for those who need to drive part of the way.

There are alot of people on here that would make great dictators…banning activities of vast swathes of the population. the problem with that is once you’ve banned one thing, you just keep on going. I think we should ban people who want to ban things.

Also in 10 years time there will be a hell of a lot more hybrid and EV’s on the roads and in 20 years almost all cars on the road will be hybrids or EV’s so the problem is already well on the road to being phased out.

Which do nothing to stop collisions, congestion and SMIDSY along with all the other problems like covering huge amounts of space to park oversized single person transport devices.

Try reading the thread title

yeah, that’s a typical newspaper clickbait headline. the actual article is not as extreme (“Let’s set a target to cut the use of cars by 90% over the next decade.”)

Since when was a modern car 19th century technology? Thats like equating a modern efficient home to a mud hut.

More like comparing a modern home with an 18C home, or a lazer guided bomb to the bombs used in the siege of Venice.

Much as I’d like to see 90% less cars in 10years time I predict 10% more cars.

Much as I’d like to see 90% less cars in 10years time I predict 10% more cars.

I was just about to say the same thing. Our entire way of life pretty much revolves around cars in this country. It will take way longer than a decade to even put a dent in that.

Nice idea, but once again forgets that we don’t all live in (or in some cases even near) cities

Where do you think the author lives?

Works for me.

Who wrote it?

A ten yr old ?

In some places, and for some purposes, using cars is unavoidable.

Quite right. I had to use my car to go and get it a new battery just this afternoon. Couldn’t have done that on public transport, bloody thing weighs a ton.

Most of us wouldn’t be able to go mountain biking without our personal transport. Getting the train to Swinley might be fine once, just.

But try getting the train/bus to the Forest of Dean, or just about anywhere rural.

We won’t give up personal transport, we might be forced into using clean personal transport though.

wobbliscott

Member

Since when was a modern car 19th century technology? Thats like equating a modern efficient home to a mud hut. Or laser guided bomb to a medieval spear. Also in 10 years time there will be a hell of a lot more hybrid and EV’s on the roads and in 20 years almost all cars on the road will be hybrids or EV’s so the problem is already well on the road to being phased out.

No problems with initiatives that cut down petrol and diesel engined cars in cities and large towns, like congestion charges or banning odd numbered reg plates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and even numbered ones in between. But you have to pair initiatives like that to having large out of town parking areas for park and ride, or introduce free parking at train stations for those who need to drive part of the way.

There are alot of people on here that would make great dictators…banning activities of vast swathes of the population. the problem with that is once you’ve banned one thing, you just keep on going. I think we should ban people who want to ban things.

True. There’s a vocal minority on here who would probably describe themselves as liberals, yet whose viewpoints are the exact opposite of what the word liberal really means. They make the assumption that people are stupid and need to be constantly told what to do and that they know best. It’s a bit worrying really, as this is what political tyranny feeds off.

JP

I don’t think work would take too kindly to me taking 8 hours or so to where I’m working tomorrow, plus an hours ride from the hotel and then 8 hours back on works time.

True. There’s a vocal minority on here who would probably describe themselves as liberals, yet whose viewpoints are the exact opposite of what the word liberal really means.

Liberal has some really interesting followers….In the US for instance it’s protect the interests of old white men against all those foreigners and gays like, in Australia it’s the party that wanted internet blocking and the hardest of borders.

Which one are you referring to?

In terms of the article it’s about trying to make a world where relying on inefficient and costly personal transport devices becomes a thing of the past and investment goes into better solutions that are better for the population as a whole.

In ironic news, Birmingham city centre is apparantly logjammed as I type by taxi drivers protesting about the proposed congestion charges.

Also in 10 years time there will be a hell of a lot more hybrid and EV’s on the roads and in 20 years almost all cars on the road will be hybrids or EV’s

Sooner than that even, we’ll maybe, the motor industry moves quicker than ever.

Although personally I still fear all EVs do is shift the energy generation to a more tax efficient location, but change is happening there too.

There’s no reason why cars have to go away, they’re safer (for people in and outside of them) and cleaner than they ever have been, but the next leap will be to remove the driver from the equation, you can’t trust a emotional being to be in charge of such a dangerous thing.

Where do you think the author lives?

He did live in Machynlleth; probably still does.

At least he’s moved on from Tesco being the route of all evil, which was the main gist of all his articles for a good few years…

This thread shows two things:

1. People don’t click through to the article and read it before commenting;
2. People are desperate to be able to continue to drive whatever the wider costs.

I think we might have got close to Godwin’s Law on page one as well?

In ironic news, Birmingham city centre is apparantly logjammed as I type by taxi drivers protesting about the proposed congestion charges.

How can we tell the difference from any other day?

And, just for when this thread gets to this point:

Person 1: Improve public transport to reduce car dependency.
Person 2: I can't give up my car, public transport is terrible.

— Bruce McAdam (@BruceMcAdam) March 7, 2019

 There’s a vocal minority on here who would probably describe themselves as liberals, yet whose viewpoints are the exact opposite of what the word liberal really means. They make the assumption that people are stupid and need to be constantly told what to do and that they know best. It’s a bit worrying really, as this is what political tyranny feeds off.

Pretty fair evaluation IMHO. Pop over to the Brexit thread JP, you’ll get a warm welcome over there 😉

Wobbliscott gets my vote for ranting without having read even the synopsis.

In ironic news, Birmingham city centre is apparantly logjammed as I type by taxi drivers protesting about the proposed congestion charges.

Taxis are public transport last time I checked. Working mostly days non car owners are my biggest customer group.

mikewsmith

Subscriber

True. There’s a vocal minority on here who would probably describe themselves as liberals, yet whose viewpoints are the exact opposite of what the word liberal really means.

Liberal has some really interesting followers….In the US for instance it’s protect the interests of old white men against all those foreigners and gays like, in Australia it’s the party that wanted internet blocking and the hardest of borders.

Which one are you referring to?

In terms of the article it’s about trying to make a world where relying on inefficient and costly personal transport devices becomes a thing of the past and investment goes into better solutions that are better for the population as a whole.

Capital L or lower case l? The Guardian is a Liberal paper, and Monbiot is a Liberal voter, I suspect. So have I been historically, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to find common ground with the sort of Liberal voter (and people on here) who treat environmentalism as some sort of apocalyptic cult.

I’ve lived in places with great public transport systems (relatively speaking), but they were rubbish in reality – expensive, overcrowded, and rarely went exactly where you wanted them to. That’s not to say they don’t have their place, but to suggest that you could replace 90% of car journeys with public transport is ill conceived and unrealistic, even with a limitless budget.

JP

Well the Greens are already doing their bit in Scotland with their car park tax. That’s going to do wonders for progressive taxation when the lowest paid are hit harder than the management. Of course this city-centric policy has been fully thought out and will work fine outside of the Lothian Buses catchment area. Won’t it?

Are the Greens running Edinburgh Council now?

I’m still trying to work out if the OP had an actual point….or just left that there for people to trip over!?

I’m always impressed how a cycling forum could be so almost universally opposed to the idea of a

switch towards safe and separate bike lanes

I’m still trying to work out if the OP had an actual point….or just left that there for people to trip over!?

It’s seen it posted online today, so came here to see what STW thought about it. There wasn’t a thread, so I started one.

I’m with Monbiot.

The only way to end the private motor vehicles’ reign is to put other forms of transport first.

Will this thread overtake the other car thread or will it be too slow and stuck behind Edukator?

Scotroutes, no but some idiot in some council, probably mine, will think that it’s a fantastic idea.

I have no problem with the principle but as it stands there is no sanity test to account for a lack of transport links or the needs of shift workers. So it’s either going to be meaningless if no council adopts it or a colossal cluster **** if they do when it’s completely inappropriate.

For illustration the site I work on is a good couple of miles from the nearest bus stop, several miles from the nearest station (when trains are running) and has at least 500odd folk on site on any given day. Plus contractors. Plus the other site next door.

I realise there is a chicken and egg thing going on but this is just being pushed through with absolutely no thought behind it.

I agree, although I wouldn’t put it the way he does, as he will turn off a large percentage of the population. More journeys in future will have to be public, that’s just a fact, and to accomplish that you have to have much, much better public transport and cars have to be more expensive. EVs and autonomous vehicles have their place but as a solution they are on the fringes I feel..

Edit: sorry miketually I was agreeing with you but as usual I’m too slow

Bails, why would anyone be against that? Why do you think they are? That’s like saying people who like Hugo Boss are for the Nazi party. Literally nobody has said that.