Get used to walking, cycling, and using public transport

• THIS is a rare event: I disagree with your editorial, (Giving up cars will need less stick and more carrot, Comment, May 13).

Cars, mostly with one person on board, are the most inefficient means of transport next to rowing boats and, in a city such as London with excellent public transport all day and even at night, their use is largely unnecessary, apart from two of the groups you mentioned: families and the frail. And even families could work differently.

I walked or cycled to school from when I was five, although that was only about a mile in a suburban / rural area. But I do see a few mums and dads on bikes with their kids behind or riding alongside as they get older.

Getting rid of cars will improve safety. I gave my car up 15 years ago, but had used it rarely in the previous three decades, and almost never for commuting, and not even when going to events in central London.

For most enjoyable things, cars are a liability: don’t drink and drive has been an appeal for most of my life.

And parking in London has always been an expensive nightmare, often costing more than the tickets for the event, and that’s if you park in a proper space and don’t get fined.

And now, as traffic levels return to worse than normal, things are getting worse.

So my solution is a bigger stick. Over the next few years we should double all motoring costs, including taxes on purchase and in use, such as fuel costs, parking, and other fines.

The massive proceeds this would yield would easily be enough to make all public transport free, with some of the money being used to create better services such as express buses between key locations.

And it could also subsidise travel for those who really need help in getting around, but perhaps not for those driving to local schools in massive gas-guzzlers with, perhaps, a lone kid in the back. Make them walk.

As for electric cars, there is a reason they are expensive. Their batteries use exotic minerals, from remote parts of the world, even the deep sea beds, I heard the other day, creating untold environmental damage.

And while they don’t directly pollute our local streets, they can and do kill people, while the power stations do pollute the environment.

It’s time for some new thinking. Of course, the revenue stream would soon dry up but, hopefully, by then we will have got used to the idea of walking, cycling and getting around using public transport.

DAVID REED
Eton Avenue, NW3