Electrification the way forward for our planet
MY ATTENTION was drawn to Robert Harries’ May 18 report in the Western Mail about the plans afoot to make the Cross Hands roundabout safe.
That these plans are long overdue can be gauged by the fact that, along with some of the many others I experienced during my driving career, the need for such a plan at this particular site was evident in the years that I travelled from Llandeilo to work in Bynea Llanelli: and later to London and Dover.
After the last two named stints, my late wife, Sue, and I lived in Maseru, capital city of Lesotho, for nine years. Maseru had its own congestion problems, and on returning home we found that the roads in and out of Llandeilo to other destinations were worse than they were before we had moved there.
As for the Cross Hands roundabout in particular, assuming that the plans are afoot (a big assumption indeed) the idea would be comical if they were not long overdue and if one could rely on them being well costed and delivered on time.
Of course, the traffic problems are not confined to the Cross Hands roundabout.
They are replicated on all the other routes on which I had driven before living in and since returning home from Lesotho, after which, in everybody’s interests, including my own, I ceased driving following experiences I had on the A40 approaching Carmarthen and some of the other antiquated routes nearer to home in Glamorgan.
By antiquated I include the roads that I overlook from my fifth-floor flat in Pontcanna that are expected to carry more and more polluting traffic.
I submit that the only antidote to urban pollution is electrification beyond individual means of travel (that not all people will afford) to the public electrified means that I marvelled at when I took up my place at Cardiff Uni in 1957: that is one foot backwards to go forwards to save the planet for future generations.
I invite Future Generations Wales to pick up the baton in the relay for a greener and healthier future for this generation and beyond, who will
depend on there being life on this planet called Earth.
Derek Griffiths Pontcanna, Cardiff