Let’s see use of cars as a sign of failure

IT was refreshing recently to hear Environment Minister John Gormley say that spending on public transport must take priority over spending on roads, but this policy will fail unless people adopt it.

As long as the cost of motoring remains too low, traffic will continue to grow, congestion will worsen and the buses will be empty.

There is a clear need to pass on more of the direct and indirect costs to road users in the interests of fairness and to restrict traffic growth. There is also a need for parking restrictions and pedestrianisation in cities, towns and villages to enhance the environment for walking, cafes, markets, etc, and to relieve gridlock.

If even half the people travelling by car on a typical main road were put into buses, there would be a bus every couple of minutes.

That the private car has become the principal means of passenger transport, especially in urban areas, is insane and unsustainable.

But there is a Catch 22: public transport cannot work unless car use is restricted and car dependency cannot be reduced without public transport in place. We have painted ourselves into a corner.

It is a question of attitudes. The Dutch, for example, are not smug about cars; they do not see anything shameful about a grown man sitting in a bus or riding a bicycle. They did not need to reinvent the bicycle as a status symbol replete with expensive gimmicks but lacking fundamentals like mudguards, lock, carrier, stand and dynamo — their machines are cheap and functional.

As a result, travel is far easier and the urban environment far better. We could learn something from them.

The Government needs to educate people into seeing car dependency not as a symbol of virility but as a sign of failure.

Michael Job

Rossnagrena

Glengarriff

Co Cork