Why bus deregulation has been a disaster
As Nick Onley made clear in your excellent coverage ‘Die-in marks final stop on climate walk’ (The News, August 19) ‘There are 14 places across Portsea where the levels of nitrogen oxide are illegal and have been for nine years’.
In order to change this situation we need to offer the car-using public an alternative.
Cycling is one option, seizing on the city’s unique flatness and compactness. Another option is free public transport.
It is alarming to hear that if you need to take a journey which includes two buses it is cheaper to take a taxi.
We have inherited the most inefficient and expensive public transport system in the world. Deregulation has been a disaster. We must take the buses back into public ownership ASAP and subsidise it heavily.
‘Where do we get the funds to subsidise public transport?’ I hear you ask. By setting up a congestion charging zone on the island.
Here again, local geography is our friend. The island is accessed by three roads which makes the implementation straightforward. This provides an obvious incentive to leave your car off the island and board a cheap bus.
This may be regarded by some to be rather radical. Yes it is. It needs to be.
Climate change will be a very serious problem in our future. According to an ongoing temperature analysis conducted by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on earth has increased by about 0.8° Celsius (1.4° Fahrenheit) since 1880.
Two-thirds of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of roughly 0.15-0.20°C per decade.
However, what is most alarming is that there is a lag in time between emissions and heating. This means if we miraculously stoped all carbon emissions today we would still get a heating effect of 0.5-0.7 degrees Celsius on top of the current 0.8 – meaning 1.3-1.5 degrees Celsius is locked into our future.
We must establish radical solutions to decarbonise as swiftly as is humanly possible. Business as usual is not an option. We need system change, not climate change.
I urge the Portsmouth public to join the Climate Strike at Friday lunchtime, September 20.
This comes as an continuation to Greta Thunberg’s inspirational school strikes. Staunton Street, Portsmouth