Act on CO2
14:15 Tuesday 1 Jan 08
New Year starts and so does the propaganda. We now have a government funded website called “Act on CO2“. It offers tips for motorists to help them ‘reduce their carbon footprint’. Things like “have less junk in the car so it is lighter” and “keep the tyre air pressures right”, “Petrol or diesel” and using a smaller car. They even have a Brand Partnerships page which if you look really carefully at you’ll realise that every brand there is absolutely reliant on the car. No car, no brand. This then explains why the biggest clue for car users is not anywhere on that website. So here it it:
Get out of the damn car and walk or use public transport.
Fact is there are school mums taking the 4×4 to drop off little Timmy when they live only yards away, people driving to shops they could easily walk to, perfectly good public transport that car drivers will ignore because it is beneath them. That website – which we as taxpayers have also funded – is car propaganda, nothing else. If the govt were serious they could do so much better. I’m surprised they haven’t followed that ridiculous Honda ad from last year which seemed to preach that the internal combustion engine was in fact a gift to nature.
This is why the Road Tax is a nonsense. It’s a one-off pain that is shrugged off. Abolish it. Get rid. Instead, impose a car insurance tariff and double the tax on petrol. The person who has the best clue about this? Ken Livingstone. The congestion charge in London isn’t just right, it should be extended to all cities. (The arguments against are in the main crap because the govt actually wants to see this fail. No way can the govt lose the support of the Roads lobby). Until the motorist is actually hurting daily they won’t consider using their head and will not consider what they are actually doing. But then it’s always the other guy isn’t it?
1
Alas the lack of investment in public transport means that, unless you are commuting from town centre to town centre (city to city), then it isn’t a viable option.
I COULD spend 7 hours of my day using public transport to get to where my office is located but that isn’t great for my wellbeing. So I should change jobs.
Alas, there aren’t that many jobs around in Scotland for what I do, fewer less that are in the city centres… why do councils and the government encourage these business and office parks out of cities but not provide adequate public transport to them?
Ohh and a 4×4 doesn’t actually produced more CO2 than a normal car, that’s more due to the state of the engine..
16:49 Tuesday 1 Jan 08
2
My point is though that site doesn’t even say “Buy all the shopping in one go” or “Walk to the shop for the milk”. It promotes the car as being a Good Thing if you follow their advice. Good is a relative term.
We use the car for J – it’s needed and because of that we actually do plan what we buy better. That’s what they should be talking about.
The public transport vs car situation is an old one and will not be solved without massive hostility to the needed govt action. So that won’t happen at all.
As for transport… when I started in the NHS certain hospitals had buses that went around the outlying villages to pick up staff. This had a few effects:
1 – staff knew where to be and when
2 – staff got to talk to each other and know more people on the way. It became a social situation
3 – staff ‘sickness’ was very low among those staff
It was cost-effective on every level – until someone just looked at the fuel cost. So companies should be looking at custom solutions. The point isn’t that people should be turfed from their cars. It is that the car should be seen as more problem than solution and addressed as such.
I am and always have been more anti than pro car, but my gripe here is that this site exists.
4×4 – if someone has mountains between them and the shops, no problem. But if the biggest obstacle is a sleeping policeman, why bother? From my experience it produces bad driving because it’s bigger and because the owner probably feels more protected. I’m all for massively taxing those unless you do indeed have that mountain.
17:05 Tuesday 1 Jan 08