European Car Free Day

Reprinted from an article by Derek Brown, Guardian Unlimited, 22nd Sept 2006.

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All you need to know about Britain’s underwhelming response to the notion that we might all give up our cars for the day

1. You may have noticed that today is European Car Free Day, when we are all urged to leave our vehicles at home.

2. On second thoughts you probably won’t have noticed. Only 10 local authorities in Britain are taking part. Our European partners are much keener on the idea. Indeed, car-free days are something of a global industry.

3. We like our cars, in spite of the appalling costs of owning and running them. And, as the recent petrol crisis shows, everyone knows that the true costs of UK motoring are horrendously high, compared with other countries.

4. While organisations like the RAC huff and puff about the burden of taxes, some folk think they are just about right. Friends of the Earth (FoE), for example, is running a vigorous campaign for traffic reduction.

5. Persuading us to get our bottoms out of our cars is likely to be a heroic task for FoE. We are buying, and using, the things more and more.

6. It’s reckoned, rather conservatively, that there will be 40% more cars on the roads by 2031.

7. Investment in British roads is, at best, stagnant. In fact, it has gone down in recent years.

8. The good news is that more people are using public transport. The bad news is that they have to; the roads are jammed.

9. The new holy grail for the planners is Integrated Transport. That nice Mr Two-Jags Prescott even has a ten-year plan.

10. In spite of the torrent of available statistics, transport policy remains stuck in the make-do-and-mend mode. And we remain stuck in our cars.