Plan to reduce car use is being 'blown off course' (Transport watchdog warns of key policy failures, 7  July 2003)

Dear Editors,

I am surprised that anyone seriously thought the government would be able to wean people away from their motorcars, onto public transport and bikes.

Our love affair with, addiction to and dependency on the motorcar goes far too deep.

Until quite recently, I lived in the German city of Brunswick, where I had no need of a car and cycled almost everywhere; what is more, it was a pleasure and often exhilarating to do so.  But since moving back to London last year my bike has spent most of its time in the garage. I still use it occasionally, but as a matter of principle rather than pleasure. Cycling on London's roads is a nightmare and poses a risk to life and limb that I am reluctant to expose myself to. As a consequence, my quality of life has taken a steep plunge. Many people, however, certainly most economists, would consider me "better off" in London, since now I have a car (my mother's) at my disposal and can drive anywhere I want. 

I confess to getting some pleasure from driving on nice clear roads, although not nearly as much as I used to get from cycling, but when in London do you have nice clear roads to drive on? Most of the time it is a frustrating and depressing experience, particularly when I remind myself of all the deaths and injuries the motorcar is causing (more than 40,000 deaths per annum in the EU alone, many of them children), of the way it has spoiled our cities, towns and villages (visually, structurally and socially) and scared our countryside, of how it is the biggest consumer and squanderer of Earth's non-renewable resources, and is placing a non-sustainable burden on the environment, disrupting our planet's climate and life-supporting ecosystems, particular when one considers that 4/5 of the world's population has yet to become, once it can afford it, addicted!

Our addiction to and dependency on the motorcar (by which I mean individual motorisation as opposed to a sensible and sustainable level of car use) is as serious (and potentially fatal) for society as a whole as is alcohol addiction for an individual alcoholic: like the human liver, society's and (even more importantly) Earth's vital organs can tolerate only so much abuse.

Like an alcoholic, before we can even begin solving our PROBLEM, we have to recognise and admit that we have ONE. At the moment, society as a whole (and the vast majority of individuals) is still in a state of denial, refusing to face up to the fact that we are literally addicted to something which is doing us terrible harm and which, unless we break it, will eventually kill us (because of the non-sustainable burden it is placing on Earths limited resources and carrying capacity).

We do not have time to wait for society as a whole, led by more enlightened government, to recognise and start tackling our addiction.  It is up to those of us who already recognise the problem to start acting now, as an example which others will hopefully follow. And it is not just a matter of making less use of our cars, although that is a good start. We have to begin creating a society (living and working conditions, lifestyles) - within existing society! - in which we are less dependent on cars and where walking, cycling and using public transport become the more attractive options.

It is not just the motorcar (individual motorisation) which is fundamentally non-sustainable, but mass air travel too, of course, and our whole mass consumer society, with its economy based and dependent on (i.e. addicted to) values, attitudes and aspirations which stem more from our primitive animal nature than from our our human nature. We have to start creating a sustainable society (within existing society!) with an economy based on our more enlightened, human nature.

It will be a huge task, but the sooner we get cracking the better (for some suggests how, see my homepage at www.spaceship-earth.org).