Cllr. Gavin Ayling

Courtesy: Rexius

There are several major forms of transport over land.

There are:
1) The car
2) Train
3) Aeroplace (airplane for you Gareth and Leanne!)
4) Bicycle
5) Bus
6) Walking

Of these four are considered ‘green’ and two are considered, by some, selfish and damaging.

I like Abi Rhodes’ definition of people who are light green. I consider myself light green; I’ll do what I can, within reason, to protect the environment from my effects. With that in mind recently I have tried to walk more and tomorrow I plan to try using a bus to go to work to avoid using the car.

But, while I am doing this, the government is trying to force me to use public transport. While they are doing this, we are emitting more carbon emission than we were in 2000. At the same time the US has reduced their emissions while not damaging their economy or imposing on their citizens. When Ken Livingstone created the Congestion Charge zone, New York citizens were interviewed by the media. The people of New York were laughing at Londoners - that they were willing to pay to drive on public streets. What we have learnt is that the Dark Green of this world are using methods to try and stop carbon emissions that don’t work. They don’t work.

But that wasn’t the point of this post (or points actually):

Price of public transport

First, EasyJet, RyanAir etc are cheaper than the railways. This is an insane fact that damages the government’s supposed aims and their credibility. Real Politics comments on a company that wishes to undercut the other railway operators and introduce genuine competition. Would you believe the government won’t provide them a licence?

Of course the current government’s reaction to my observation above would be to tax aircraft or budget airlines or both. Everyone else would suggest that making trains cheaper would be a better way of incentivising green transport use.

I recently had a flat battery when I needed to leave for work. I was given a lift to work by a kind sole, but I still needed a way home. I walked to Hove Station (15 minutes or so) and caught the train. I checked the price for a return when I was there and noticed that it was ten pence more than a single (£2.60 return, £2.50 single). That fee is sufficiently low that I considered getting the train the next day. During the evening, however, I was reminded that that was the cheap-day fare and that a standard-day return would be significantly more (£4.60).

So my first point, make green transport cheaper by providing genuine competition in an industry which everyone accepts had its privatisation botched.

Future of cars

Second, the future of transport does not involve people catching trains from stations or waiting in driving rain for buses onwhich you get spat at. The future lies with personal taxi-like vehicles that you can take and drive for a small fee and leave at your convenience. These vehicles need not carry much luggage (we can use genuinely private vehicles for that), but they should be able to travel outside towns and cities and should be more convenient than a personal car - a vehicle you can leave behind whereever you wish would be much more convenient.

When you need one of these vehicles you would check on the internet (from your mobile, an internet phone box, your Wi-Fi PDA or work PC) where the nearest one is and, if it is too far, request that it deliver itself (so we’re talking a reasonably distant future - at least 10 years).

There is a similar service already under discussion but its price is prohibitive - it is aimed at executives. The supply and demand curve should have been checked more carefully when this was planned. Brighton & Hove bus company makes a big song and dance of the relative value of taking the bus but they make several errors:
1) They include car cost of ownership. Unless you never travel anywhere but in Brighton and London you will own a car anyway - the car ownership expense is not relevant.
2) They assume you’re travelling alone. If you have a passenger you are instantly saving money compared with public transport that charges per traveller.
3) They assume you would not earn money doing overtime instead of sitting on a bus with a drunk leaning over you and asking you whether you can tell they’re drunk.

Similar price considerations must be made when designing this new transport method. The cost of use should be similar to owning a car and paying for petrol.