Diary Note 251201-02
Embracing RoadsTrains good, cars bad. Buses good, cars bad. Despite every protestation, this mantra still dominates of Labour’s transportation policy. The Government has signally failed to get to grips with national transportation strategy, precisely because Ministers are still in the grip of this mantra, incapable of contemplating radical change. This has been greatly illuminated by the designer Stephen Bayley. His article “I like driving in my car” appeared this week in The Observer He asserts the primal attractions of personal mobility, the excitement of seeking personal destinations. “Henry Ford explained, in his 1926 autobiography, that he was impelled to develop (what he called) the gasoline buggy in order to get away from the crushing tedium of life on a Mid-West farm” . People talk about man’s “love affair” with the car, as if it were a form of transitory madness, and that mankind will eventually settle down and actually enjoy |
taking the 5.32 pm from Surbiton. That is the wrong image, and it induces wrong policy conclusions.
Labour must learn this political lesson, and quickly. Most of the rail network should now be decisively abandoned, and the remainder forced to pay its way. The collapse of Railtrack is merely a staging-post in a longer-process of decline. The UK electorate will simply not accept the public expenditure needed to rebuild the entire rail system.
Rail is an out-of-date technology, which reached its peak in about 1875, before the internal combustion engine was invented. Like the canals, rail will eventually give way to roads, retaining only exceptional functions. The London Underground would survive the self-sufficiency test, as would the primary Intercity routes, and some provincial commuter lines.
But for the rest, the Government should follow Stephen Bayley’s nose. That
radical shift should be made, if possible, before the next Election. |
Labour should make an outright commitment to road transport, with a massive programme of highway improvement and repairs. The Government should demonstrate that it understands peoples’ aspirations for freedom and flexibility in the planning of their lives. Anti-pollution measures should be presented in their true light, as pre-conditions of greater personal freedom.
Labour’s promise should be to improve motoring conditions for everyone. And there should be substantial public investment in high-quality buses and coaches (“I have yet to find the ideal bus”, says Bayley) .
The UK’s 27m vehicles will certainly increase, probably towards a 35m total. Future generations will seek the same freedoms, the same opportunity to assert their individuality, their own self-fulfilment. Why? “Freedom, and wealth, are the answers”, says Stephen Bayley. And he's right.
Why should Labour stand in their way?
End
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