Driving towards disaster

“I see no parties, only Germans,” said the Kaiser when the Reichstag in 1914 voted against war credits. Looking at the current stushie over road taxation, there seems something of a parallel: “I see no travellers, only motorists.”

The Reichstag vote was a sort of suicide. Is autopatriotism any better? A rather conservative friend once visited the old East Germany. “A paradise for motorists,” he said on his return. Ah, so: a paradise is where there are few, if any, of your own sort? As we head towards oil depletion or the globally-warmed state, a few fundamental questions seem in order.


Such as: “Is individual mobility a good?” If so, it’s axiomatic that it ought to be universally available. But if at present 15% of the world’s people have 85% of the world’s cars, and we’re heating up inexorably, will we physically survive 30%, let alone 50% car ownership? Not even Jeremy Clarkson would defend that one. So roll on peak oil?

I am a veteran non-motorist. I can drive, but haven’t done so for more than 30 years. I found that the insecurity made me nervy and aggressive, quickly gave up, and lived. A lot of writing, reviewing, proof-reading and essay-marking is done on trains, perhaps adding a month or so to my working year. Virgin Trains told us back in October that rail travellers were 60% more productive on their journeys than motorists, but they would say that, wouldn’t they?

The Guardian