Too many Councils and some officials in government want to price, ban and regulate the driver off the road. They spend large sums of driver taxation to thwart the driver, to delay the car, and to prevent the use of certain roads. The road authorities under provide road space on the grounds that if they supplied more motorists would dare to use it. There have always been people in government wanting to do this. The numbers have intensified now that cars are seen as one of the main causes of CO 2 emissions.
The car is one of the great liberating inventions of the twentieth century. In the age of the horse you needed to be rich to afford a horse and carriage let alone a bigger carriage with several horses. Even keeping a horse for riding or a horse for work purposes was a difficult financial commitment beyond the means of many. As the twentieth century advanced the arrival of the Beetle, the Mini and other cheaper small cars empowered the many with the personal transport privileges of the few.
Most seventeen year olds want to pass their driving test and many aspire to own their first car. It is the way to personal freedom, no longer having to plead with a parent to be given a lift to a social or sporting event. A vehicle is the foundation of many small businesses, allowing them to get the person with tools, equipment, goods and materials to any home in the country to carry out some work and earn a living. For the retired and elderly the cars and vans of modern UK are a supply line, bringing food and goods to the door, helping family and friends to visit and offering taxi rides to special events . Those who want to ban or inconvenience the car are trying to frustrate much of modern life.
Those who do it in the name of greenery may be undermining their own aims. More traffic jams bring much lower fuel consumption with delay. More traffic lights bring stop start with further fuel burn. Taxing new cars too much impedes moving more vehicles onto the low emissions standards of the modern car over the older one. Promoting electric vehicles with a high CO 2 emission to make them can also be counter productive when the person has to charge them from a grid mainly delivering fossil fuel based electricity.
Over time fuel efficiency and fuel types will evolve, and CO 2 will continue downwards. Taking more road space away from vehicles with every traffic management change, making junctions more difficult to get through, and having more traffic lights than roundabouts will frustrate the motorist, create congestion and put government at loggerheads with the many who see the car as a crucial part of their lifestyle and freedoms.
