Sir – A recent in-depth article in The Economist magazine analysed research which shows that car driving in the UK (measured by kilometres per year per car) has fallen by just over 20 per cent since 1990, a trend which started well before the current recession. Among other similar observations it goes on to report that, owing to a variety of factors, growing numbers of young people are preferring not to own cars and drive less than older people if they do.
Tellingly, The Economist goes on to say: “Urban planning, in particular, has for half a century focused on cars . . . by improving alternatives to driving, city authorities can try to lock in the benefits of declining car use.” Presumably the transport planners at our local councils have access to the same statistics and we should now be pressing them to create a transport strategy for how the people of the county actually move around, rather than how they used to travel in the 1980s.
That means more public transport, proper facilities for pedestrians and cyclists and a smaller proportion of their limited budgets spent on yet more expensive road schemes for the county council’s ‘cars’ first’ policy. We might actually save money!
David Dixon, Oxford
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