Recently I discovered the twisted logic behind Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak’s plan to do away with low traffic neighbourhoods in order to allow drivers free access them. Low traffic neighbourhoods were created to make them safer for
residents and to encourage walking and cycling.
You may have thought that creating traffic-free areas was more relevant than ever with the need to reduce traffic pollution in a bid to tackle
climate change.
But to hell with all that, says Sunak. We cannot punish the
motorist!
Clearly, he is shit scared of losing votes in this year’s
general election and is turning current transport thinking on its head. He is not considering for a moment that taking
a stand to help reduce car dependency might instead work in his favour.
I have since learned that Sunak’s decision, which flies the
in face of the government’s own Active Travel Policy, was based in part on a
conspiracy theory whipped up by ministers concerned about “15-minute cities”!
“15-minute cities”, explained Peter Walker in The Guardian recently, is an urban
planning concept devised by France-based urbanist, Carlos Moreno.
It is described as a broad planning concept devised for
people living within easy reach of schools and work places, for whom cycling
and walking would likely offer an attractive alternative to driving.
It is all part of the world wide move to reduce car
dependency and reduce pollution which is killing people and one of the causes
of climate change which could ultimately
wipe us out. But who cares, says Sunak and cohorts, we can’t allow that, its
anti-motorist!
According to Cycling UK’s research large numbers of people
would willingly switch to cycling for short journeys instead of always using
the car, if road safety was improved. It was not about forcing people to stop
driving, they have insisted!
Restricting vehicular access to certain neighbourhoods was
seen as vital to improving road safety, and this has largely been acceptable in
government circles for years. It was
never the intention to force people to stop driving, but to restrict access and
bring calm to residential areas where children may play as they always used to
be able to do, and cyclists and walking becomes safer.
The current problem has its roots in the 1960s, when car
ownership took off. The government of the day seized on this, with a policy to
encourage drivers to be able to go where they liked and when they liked. And
most drivers believe it.
Trying to row back on that “promise” is proving a problem.
So now we have a government which has dropped all pretence
at supporting Active Travel and has become gripped by the fear drivers are
unfairly being targeted. Supporting this
belief are conspiracy theorists that see it as part “climate lockdown”, in
which, as Walker describes it “people are forcibly kept within their local
neighbourhood and not allowed to travel.”
Walker reports a speech by Mark Harper, the transport
secretary,
made to Conservative
conference in October. In this bonkers speech
he describes 15-minute cities as schemes in which “local councils can decide
how often you go to the shops” – which was incorrect and never been proposed in
Britain.
But we are where we are. Sunak – bidding to become our fourth
useless Prime Minster after Johnson,
May and Truss – is set to scrap government guidelines to
local councils to install more 20mph speed restrictions, spreading the lie that
Active Travel policies intended to improve the quality of life are in fact “anti-car
measures”.
No comments:
Post a Comment