What can be done about too many cars
Edited version of a Facebook post.
The builders of many never envisaged that there would be so many cars or that cars would be so large.
Once someone has a car they build a life round it such that it becomes indispensable. I have not applied for jobs where the ad states "you must have your own car", but there are people on here (a FB grop) who say they couldn't hold down their job without a car or their job directly requires them to have one.
There are people saying (on this FB group) that we shouldn't have more houses and flats because there isn't space for all the cars.
The volume of cars is already a problem and it is quite obvious that not everyone can have one even if they can afford it. The people that don't have cars don't get the jobs that need cars, and don't get to go more or less wherever they like whenever they. The people that do have cars like this freedom of course, and they don't like the idea that it will be curtailed, or that the cost of motoring will rise so they can't afford it.
Unless there is going to be some system by which people apply to have a car and prove they need it, price is always going to be a tool for reducing car use. No-one wants to be the person that can't afford a car, but if everyone had one it would be disastrous.
It's a real challenge, because the car cannot be uninvented, and getting people to lower their standard of mobility - and therefore their standard of living - by not having a car is a big ask.
Public transport, walking and cycling are part of the solution, if it can be called that. But if your transport is walking and cycling you need things close by. This is why high density housing is happening; it does bring its own risks if not problems though.
The builders of many never envisaged that there would be so many cars or that cars would be so large.
Once someone has a car they build a life round it such that it becomes indispensable. I have not applied for jobs where the ad states "you must have your own car", but there are people on here (a FB grop) who say they couldn't hold down their job without a car or their job directly requires them to have one.
There are people saying (on this FB group) that we shouldn't have more houses and flats because there isn't space for all the cars.
The volume of cars is already a problem and it is quite obvious that not everyone can have one even if they can afford it. The people that don't have cars don't get the jobs that need cars, and don't get to go more or less wherever they like whenever they. The people that do have cars like this freedom of course, and they don't like the idea that it will be curtailed, or that the cost of motoring will rise so they can't afford it.
Unless there is going to be some system by which people apply to have a car and prove they need it, price is always going to be a tool for reducing car use. No-one wants to be the person that can't afford a car, but if everyone had one it would be disastrous.
It's a real challenge, because the car cannot be uninvented, and getting people to lower their standard of mobility - and therefore their standard of living - by not having a car is a big ask.
Public transport, walking and cycling are part of the solution, if it can be called that. But if your transport is walking and cycling you need things close by. This is why high density housing is happening; it does bring its own risks if not problems though.
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