But what’s the point of us giving up our cars if we’ve still got
to put up with everyone else’s?
Air and Noise Pollution
Car exhaust is made up of carbon monoxide, nitrogen
dioxide and numerous other toxic substances which, as well as intensifying
respiratory problems like asthma and bronchitis, are also harmful to the
blood and coronary system and can even cause cancer. Every year, poor air
quality is thought to be responsible for some
32,000 premature deaths here
in the UK, of which road traffic is the single greatest contributor.
And air pollution isn't the only type of pollution that cars bring.
They make a great deal of noise, too. Particularly when accelerating
hard. Other road users, like motorbikes and scooters, are even worse.
And then there's the thump-thump-thump of boy racer stereos and the roar
of their wide bore exhausts.
Danger
Cars can be deadly to pedestrians.
Whilst one car driving
into another car is quite bad enough, it’s so much worse if one party
dared to leave home without their 2 tonnes of armour. Many of
these casualties are children.
What exactly are we doing letting these metal death machines speed
around our cities? We need to seriously re-evaluate our
priorities. To paraphrase Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of
Bogotá: a city is more civilized not when traffic flows freely but
when a child on a tricycle can move about everywhere easily and safely.
Right of Way
And there's a deeper question. The only reason that cars can
speed through our cities at 30+ mph is that they always have right of
way. But why should someone in a car automatically have priority
over someone on foot? Why should we, travelling as nature
intended, have to wait for the little green man just to cross the
street?
And even that isn’t going far enough. A fully pedestrianised street is
infinitely more pleasant than one filled with cars.
Social Impact
Where once our streets were lively, full of people interacting with one
another, being sociable, now they are filled only with cars.
All the pollution and danger has driven us from them, until the only
walking we do is between our front door and the car on our driveway.
Modern housing estates reflect this. Labyrinths of cul-de-sacs,
each walled of from the next and the community as a whole, force anyone
on foot to take the long way round.
Our local shops have been all but wiped out by the supermarkets. And now even our
high streets are under threat from huge, soulless out of town shopping
centres which are only accessible by car.
But when everybody drives everywhere, speeding around in their little
metal boxes, nobody cares about the places they drive through. Nobody
knows their neighbours. In short, community goes out of the window.
Two So-called Solutions and One Actual
Many people believe that we don't have to worry, that eventually
technology will save us. But would hydrogen or electric cars
really be that much better? They would get rid of the air
pollution, at least locally, and maybe the noise pollution as well.
But they would still suck all the life out of our communities, would
still force us to wait just to cross the street. And if we can't hear them coming they would
be even more dangerous than current models.
Okay, so what about congestion charging? Not everyone would be
willing to pay so there'd be fewer cars and our streets would improve, right?
No, not really. Drivers rich enough to pay the charges would
certainly be happier, having less traffic to contend with. But
half as many cars moving twice as fast isn't really much of an
improvement for the rest of us, a little less pollution traded for a
little more danger.
There's only one answer: get rid of the cars, banish them to
the edges of cities and use them for travelling between communities, not
within them.
