Do we need to stop driving?

I received this from a friend who is a member of the ABD. The way things are being driven by Mr. Shapps, anyone under fifty may not need to worry about what car they plan to drive in retirement. The choice will be bus or hired electric creation. Not much good either if you don’t live in an urban area with buses etc. I signed up for the petition and think it worth getting behind before we miss the chance.

The Government gives notice that the final assault on private car ownership and use is coming under the guise of Net Zero.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced plans for De-Carbonising UK transport (1) in order to meet the UK’s so-called ‘climate targets’ with a shift from cars to public transport. This follows on from the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee stating that private car ownership is not compatible with Net Zero (2) and West Midlands Combined Authority plans (3) to end private car ownership/use by 2041. It’s ironic that this announcement comes at a time when public transport is being avoided by many because of the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

ABD Director Paul Biggs said: “The end game of the anti-car lobby, which includes politicians from all parties, is now apparent for all to see. Electric Vehicles will not save the private car, which begs the question why go to the expense of a charging network requiring the upgrading of the local and national grids for something that the government doesn’t want us to use? Many politicians seem to hate the general public having the choice of motorised personal transport, which allows them to travel where and when they please. This decision has huge implications for drivers as well as the future and viability of the UK’s Motor Industry, along with the Caravan and Motorhome industry, which relies on private tow cars and van conversions - an industry already under threat from the proposed petrol, diesel and hybrid ban. The ABD and other organisations will be fighting the government all the way on this.”

The ABD is also supporting a petition for a referendum on Net Zero (4), which is bypassing a proper democratic process and cost-benefit analysis.

Ends

Notes for editors

(1) BBC - Climate Change: ‘Gob-smacking’ vision for future UK transport: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-

(2) BBC- Ditch cars to meet ‘climate change’ targets, say MPs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49425402

(3) ABD PR: Calm Before The Storm: Eco-Austerity Has Plans For You: [https://www.abd.org.uk/press-release-calm-before-the-storm-eco-austerity-has-plans-for-you/]KnZYCDrSYax9F1U%3D&reserved=0)

(4) Petition: Hold a referendum to scrap the UK’s policy of Net Zero CO2 by 2050:[https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300316]YSFw64bp2kkPZ58rtQue

The Alliance of British Drivers was formed in October 2012 by the merger of the Association of British Drivers and the Drivers’ Alliance

So what’s your preferred way of saving the planet?

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I think a shift to public transport isn’t so bad when:

  1. Public transport is a real alternative. If a journey of 30 minutes in my car takes 1,5 hour by public transport then hell no. If it takes 50 minutes then it could be an alternative; I can relax and sit back and do something else with my time. I love my MX5 but driving on a busy highway for 40 miles is not really my preferred use of my MX5. Also, prices need to be realistic. Here in the Netherlands the train isn’t really much cheaper than driving a second hand car based on regular usage. Let alone when you travel with several people. For me, public transport isn’t a real alternative currently. It can be in big cities (top 10 or 15) but I don’t live there anymore.
  2. They need to take into account people who have cars as a hobby. Limit the mileage they can do a year to, say 3000 or so and maybe ban them from driving during peak traffic or so. The number of people who have a car as a hobby is significant enough to take into account but small enough to keep environmental impact small if they have some space to continue their hobby.

We can’t just all keep our old habits and hope the earth heals itself. There’s always a reason not to change. And when we keep using those reasons to not change our behaviour, however annoying or even painfull this might be, they will be our demise.

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Sorry, but it does seem a little like a conspiracy theory by a lobby group somewhat like the NRA in the USA against gun control.

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We live in a village with around 12k people 6 miles from a city of around 100k population.

Return trip in the car for myself and my wife, around £1.50 in fuel.

Same trip by bus, £12.80.

No buses after around 6.00pm.

Provide a decent service for a reasonable price and it might work.

For many in the big cities a car can be a liability. Out in the sticks it’s a necessity.

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If public transport was cheap and reliable many more people would use it, but its expensive and unreliable with constant problems, and London commuters pay through the nose for a yearly ticket, so they can stick it, we’ll use the car for our everyday needs and pleasure for as long as we can.
When it comes to saving the planet the powers that be should be looking at Nuclear power stations pumping god knows what into the sea, and large countries like China chucking out pollution at a frightning level, along with dodgy hygiene practices and viruses, and Japan still killing whales in the name of science, yeah right, and super powers exploding nuclear bombs under ground, the Amazon forests ( the lungs of the Earth ) being raped. Car drivers seem to be a soft target in general, considering most manufacturers are striving to make their cars as eco friendly as possible with the technology available.

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Can someone help me find the section on banning private car ownership that Paul Biggs suggests is included in the report prefaced by Grant Shapps? I can’t. I see suggestions about promoting public transport (government policy since public transport was invented) and suggestions about promoting shared ownership schemes (makes sense for people living in big cities such as London). Oh, and traking a train to the airport.

Paul Biggs, on his twitter account, compares public health measures to reduce fatalities, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, to communism. I’m sure his views, as part of the board of the ABD Party, don’t ifluence the general policy development of this organisation.

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I’ll be dead by then, or probably not driving, so it doesn’t affect me.

In general, the UK’s so called public transport infrastructure is a shoddy disgrace, especially compared to the likes of Japan. (I hate whale slaughter by the way)

Joe Public’s fossil fuelled vehicles, be they hybrid or not, contributed around 28 billion pounds to the Treasury in 2019 with the compounded fuel tax just as one example of how vital car usage is. That’s no mean amount, and does not include Road Fund Licences or vehicular associated VAT & taxes on servicing & parts. I reckon the Treasury will end up around £8 to £10 billions short by the time lock-down is lifted, at a time when the most eye watering “Quantitative Easing” is pulled back, That’s a posh label to describe printing money you don’t actually have. The UK never did, which sees the UK National Debt zooming past the 2 Trillions mark.

In any case, taking people’s choice of personal mobility away will directly & indirectly destroy one of the UK’s most profitable National money spinners, which of course is seasonal tourism. Will we see the Lakes die for example? No.

It’ll take a generation at least to build in a reliable, efficient, and connective transport web.
I think shelving HS2 would be a pragmatic approach and divert it’s over budgeted billions into more effective methods of getting people to work and improving general mobility.
The UK is a land of remote & fragmented populace outside the big cities and their adjacent post codes…and therein lies a massive issue in itself.

One way or another, gases exploding in combustion chambers whatever the fuels is here to stay probably for my son’s lifetime in my opinion. Another subject is the vegetable based E10 “additive” which actually takes millions of acres globally to produce the raw crops instead of feeding people and to my mind makes palm oil forest destruction as secondary issue.
How ironic. Whatever, due to gross over population, in my opinion the world is going to Hell on a hand cart on several levels. Car usage is just one of the so-called civilisation’s issues.
Certainly, we probably represent the Last of the Mohicans doing what we do with our machines…because we just can. Or…used to,

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What size of boots please?
Shoe shops are shut.

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