This article from Theresa Villiers MP was published recently in the Daily Express about anti-car policies being pursued by the Mayor of London...
"Streets shut off by “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods”, road space lost to poorly designed and wrongly sited cycle lanes, inexplicable and seemingly pointless pavement extensions, 20 mile an hour limits on wide main roads: a range of policies are now being pursued which are manifestly and disproportionately anti-car.
Many of these are in London but their reach is spreading outwards to towns and cities around the country.
Schemes of this kind can be both appropriate and beneficial in the right setting, following real and meaningful consultation with the residents and businesses affected.
But the Mayor of London has seemed intent on making our capital city harder to get around. It feels like parts of London are being turned into a hostile environment for cars, vans and taxis. This undermines productivity and prosperity.
I am a supporter of measures to make cycling easier and safer, but why remove swathes or road space in Park Lane for a new cycle lane when there is already a far more pleasant one through Hyde Park right next to the road? Why ban licensed taxis from Bank junction, one of our most important transport arteries since the Roman era?
The Low Traffic Neighbourhoods introduced by councils such as Enfield and Tower Hamlets have seen roads blocked off altogether, causing traffic mayhem.
Now drivers in the London suburbs are going to be asked to pay £12.50 a day, or shell out for a new car to meet the requirements of the Ultra Low Emission Zone, which the Labour Mayor wants to expand.
We all want to improve air quality but the Mayor’s own research shows that ULEZ expansion will have only a minimal impact on pollution. The ULEZ was tolerated in central London because it has one of the most extensive public transport systems in the world, providing a practical alternative for millions of journeys. That is just not the case in the suburbs, even less so in other towns and cities in the midlands and the north, where the bus network can be sparse and unreliable. Yet new charging schemes are on the way in several of these.
Add to that, the Mayor of London’s attempt to build over station car parks, and increasing pressure in the planning system for developments to be ‘car-free’, and you have what looks like an ideological anti-car approach.
Of course there is merit in schemes which support a switch to cycling, walking and public transport, but the focus should be on improving services, not piling on costly charges or arbitrarily removing chunks of the capacity of our road network. It should also be remembered that for many who are elderly or have reduced mobility, parents which young children, or women who are expected to look and dress in a particular way at work, cycling is not a practical option.
A year or two ago, a number of backbench MPs were asked what road improvement schemes were most important for their constituency. I had to respond that, as a London MP, current proposals for roads all seemed to focus on removing bits of them, rather than widening or improving them.
There are of course downsides and risks which come with private car use. The goal of further improving road safety is one for which we must always strive. But huge progress has been made. There have also been big advances in tackling car emissions and the Government has set one of the most ambitious timetables in the world for the switch away from petrol and diesel.
I find it surprising that I need to state this, but the car is a force for good in the world. Without cars, vans and lorries, our transport system would grind to a halt, and our economy and our society would be paralysed.
Cars give us the freedom to live our lives in the way we want to. They keep us connected to friends and family. They make possible or facilitate so much of what we enjoy. It is time for a reset. It is time to lift moral stigma which is increasingly being attached to driving. It is time to scrap anti-car ideology."
