Just a reminder of the time limit, mentioned in a previous post and also for those who missed it.
Does everyone know about the Welsh Assembly proposals to make driving in Wales miserable, apparantly for no safety reasons whatsoever.
They will be proposing speed limiters on cars (dangerous, ask a trucker), extensive traffic calming measures (US research suggest they cost more lives than they save by impeding emergency vehicles) and much more.
Is the Copenhagen Declaration the real reason for this anti-car hysteria?
London Highways engineer Malcolm Haymer says of the constant attacks on motorists........
"There is an even more sinister reason. In May 1996, The Car Free Cities Network of the European Union (www. edc. eu. int/cfc/about. html) adopted the 'Copenhagen Declaration', which included the following exhortation: "All decision makers at the local, regional, national and European levels are urged to play their part in changing our culture of mobility.'. Thus car use is to be discouraged by all possible means."
Professor Garel Rhys of Cardiff University Business School has said that "Plans to tax and penalise car use are leading Britain into a former Soviet-style regime."
Anyone wishing to object or express an opinion to the Assembly can write to Meryl James at
road.safety.consultation@wales.gsi.gov.uk or
meryl.james@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Minsiter involved is Susan Essex, Minister for Environment
Time limit November 30th
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...............or emigrate.
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Emigrate? Sure. Where to?
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England seems to be easy to get into, just stow away in a truck say hi here I am for asylum can I have my new flat and book of vouchers please?
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Copenhagen declaration might have something to do with the effect that gradually pedestrianising the centre of Copenhagen had. Turned it round to become a thriving city, getting round became a lot easier as well through vastly improved public transport. Florence has been gradually doing the same thing as well and benefits starting to come through. I'm by no means "anti-car" it's just that I've been learning about these initatives as part of my training in Town Planning.
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That's fine in city centres, but it sounds like the proposals Alwyn is talking about are aimed at discouraging car use across Wales as a whole.
Besides, the UK lacks the efficient, reliable, reasonably-priced public transport network that offers a realistic alternative to the car in places like Copenhagen. It took me 75 miserable, sweaty, sardine-like minutes to crawl the 10 miles across London to work by Tube this morning. This is slightly longer than average for the journey, but by no means exceptional. And it's definitely getting worse.
I've also just tried to book a train ticket from London to Newcastle. Booking 3 weeks in advance, having a railcard, and being flexible about times, I thought I might get a bargain. No chance - cheapest I can find is £75 return. And they laughably call that a Super Saver! Sod it, I'll drive instead and save myself 20 or 30 quid.
The sort of people who are trying to force us all out of our cars are, I think, well-meaning but hopelessly naive. They need to wake up to the fact that public transport in this country is (a) inadequate for the existing users, let alone millions of extra passengers, and (b) totally impractical for those who don't happen to live/work in an urban area. Otherwise they're just going to cause massive resentment and untold damage to the British economy.
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I'm by no means able to have that great a say on policies nationwide or indeed in the district that I work. I also love driving and... lived in Abersytwyth for four years, only leaving last year. Driving round there is the predominant form of transport agreed. The train to Brum is usually only two carriages long as well. What is needed is for the government, local authorities and business to actually have the heart to invest in public transport in a major way. We need to have a good alternative to the roads before we consider other ways of carrying out our journeys. At the end of the day tough decisions will need to be made but they depend essentially on one element... us (the public). If we are prepared to vote for people and keep buying products/services from companies that make these radical shifts in the way that they think then these things could happen. As it stands, no power hungry politician or money making business man will make them as they know that they will ultimately lose out
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Why should we invest (waste money on) public transport, Tim? Half the buses on the road are running round empty, as are the trains. We should spend money on better roads. The economy depends on the car and it's about time politicians realised this.
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Ah a town planner - if my experience of my local planners is anything to go by, planners have no idea of what the real world is like and their objective is to spend of much of other people's money as possible.
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town planning was the longest first degree course available at my college, 6 years i recall
all that and they still do such a crap job
ah well state sponsored crap i suppose, never trust the government to do anything right
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If they make as much of a mess of it as Wales and Scotland have of their devolved "Governments" then it will *never* happen.
How many Heads of GovT have you had in the provinces since conception?
Let's face it - the money wasted on implementing 20mph speed limits on roads where 30mph would require the skills of Messrs McRae and roads such as the Ilminster By-pass on the A303 are claiming tens, yes, tens of lives each year go un-noticed - we all need help.
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Bang would go the chances of my brother and I going back to Wales - and presumably some others. I wonder what the tourist board thinks.
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