The Big End - From Yesteryear to Whenever

In the beginning man created the automobile, and until now he has rationally revolutionized this creation and given us mobility that we have come to depend upon.

All that has gone before is now under threat because of the overwhelming numbers of vehicles. We hear of such things as gridlock, toll roads, vehicle free zones, limited parking, conditions and problems which by day are increasing, ever onwards towards total immobility.

We are so blasé about it all, taking mostly the stance that it will not affect me. Oh how wrong we are, nothing could be further from the truth as if major rethinking is not carried out now it will be far too late to do anything.

Looking at what we have now is a terrible monster sitting in the wings, which we selfishly insist on feeding by our actions in persistently using our car unnecessarily to run small journeys, which we could well do by walking or using our bikes etc. Note I did not say public transport as I consider this bogus entity as less than useless, as it certainly falls well below an attractive alternative to our cars. Costs alone put this one last on our budgets, as a simple journey in hard cash will in most cases cost using the public transport three times more than using the car.

How do we get out of this spiral? Not easily I can tell you but radical thinking is a start. Lets look at alternatives. Most definitely top of the list is not to price cars off the road. This is completely the wrong approach as for those of us who live in the country will testify. It's okay for the townies to shout about this one, but remember you have much more available means where you live over someone who lives on Exmoor, etc. We must firstly get public transport running efficiently and cheaply to really tip the balance. Next we must seek some control over misuse of the vehicles by a balanced approach which intelligently find ways of managing usage. Sorry folks there is got to be some give and take, no other way is going to work. Lets take a closer look at this one.

Number one on my list is to get some of the lorry shipments clogging our roads back on the railways. The railways must be radically modernized as a priority and many small redundant branch lines must be brought back into operation. Central key depots for very large lorries must be set up across the country. Controlled shipping of goods by special overnight convoys to the selected depots must be implemented. Central management coordination of these movements is paramount.

What about us? Well I can see, in the not too far distant future, that our radical way of working has also to change, in that working hours will have to be staggered more towards replacing the normal 9-5 working we have now. Much more home working will be also the norm. You and I will begin to benefit from schemes which reward us for not using our cars for inefficient journeys, as going to the local shop for a small item which we could have got by better efficient organization. This one could be serviced by a local delivery system which in some places has already started. The Internet may function towards one much more. Gaining credits will allow us much more leisure use of our vehicles, which after all is what we should have.

It all seems like a cop out, doesn't it? You could also say what is this going to be, a police state? Well, no it isn't, it's management of our resources and that is it in a nut shell. If we don't do anything grid lock will happen then all hell will enfold.

I've said it before and I will again. We must control the number of vehicles that are being produced by a new approach to recycling and durability, not as it is by mass production. The other day I happened to be near a dockyard and was astounded to see fields and fields of new vehicles stockpiled and awaiting new owners. Some of these cars had been in these fields for some two years. What can I say, its self explanatory, quite unacceptable especially when you think of how long these vehicles will last before being scrap.

© Chris Street, August 1999