Time to end reliance on cars
The latest increase in fuel prices has sent shockwaves through the UK economy, yet again.
In every decade fuel prices yo-yo up and down. Even if it were possible to drill for oil immediately, the price would not change, as oil is an international commodity and unfortunately it’s not all available in lovely democratic Norway. Using fossil fuels means holding your nose and dealing with some unpleasant regimes. The cost of running a car has dropped over the years, because cars are more fuel efficient, go longer between services, and in theory, achieve a life of 100,000-plus miles. The downside of car ownership is congestion, the space taken up by parked cars, and seemingly an irreducible level of road deaths.
Cars spend 96% of their time parked up, and many coastal communities are finding it increasingly harder to accommodate more cars.
In some of the back roads of our towns, there are serious problems for buses, delivery vehicles, refuse vehicles and emergency vehicles trying to operate safely and to schedule. There are alternatives. Walking, cycling and public transport are viable alternatives but the great car economy still prevails. Walking and cycling take effort and during inclement weather they may not deliver a happy experience.
Public transport, especially buses, ought to offer an alternative, but what do we see? Service reductions, an ageing bus fleet, poor reliability, and a lack of real time information. The lack of bus buy-in by Kent County Council does not help. Cutting financial support by
40% for rural bus services in a vain attempt to buttress spending on adult social services, is not going to persuade central government to grant KCC a substantial grant to improve local bus services. KCC is a car first council but even here the record is mixed, with reduced road maintenance, a lack of commitment to providing new infrastructure to cope with all the new housing developments being built and planned and a general sense of drift and delay.
A single electric bus service in Dover, does not make a 21st century bus service for all. Coastal communities are popular retirement areas. As people get older, driving becomes more difficult. If we want to reduce the expenditure on adult social care, we need active citizens who can socialise. How can they do this within rural bus deserts, or being reliant on disconnected urban bus systems which rely on an increasingly clapped out bus fleet?
Someone needs to blow away the cobwebs and change the complacent culture of helplessness and decline. If nothing happens, public transport will be something we only see in a museum in Kent. Doing nothing is not an option.
Richard Styles