Apathy in the UK
Ian Eveleigh ponders on why motorists are letting themselves be demonised
Cue a montage of overlapping news sound-bites: "...nearby residents presented a petition of over 500 signatures demanding traffic calming measures...", "...demonstrators blocked the road for a total of eight hours...", "...since its installation last year the camera has caught 40,000 speeding motorists...".
Where did it all go wrong? There was a time – not that long ago, even – when motoring in the UK was not just a means of getting from A to B, but was also something to be enjoyed; something we were allowed to enjoy. Great stretches of road were built for our convenience and pleasure; our mobility was positively encouraged. But somewhere we took a wrong turn and lost our way.
Evil!
Instead of being applauded as a means to visit and explore, the car has become derided as a destroyer of communities. Instead of being seen as a wondrous tool for efficient door-to-door transportation, it has become an artery clogger that we should abandon because it is too slow, yet simultaneously a ruthless ground-coverer that should be reined in because it is too fast.
We are waist-deep in an anti-car age and struggling to find a branch to haul ourselves out by. But how did we get here? How is it that a nation so clearly in love with its cars – almost regardless of cost – can also hate them so much? 85 per cent of eligible males and 60 per cent of eligible females hold licences, and teenagers are still tripping over themselves to get mobile by motor at the earliest possible opportunity, so who exactly are we fighting? What is this massive force that makes us feel such guilt for daring to enjoy our cars, that makes us almost ashamed to declare a passion for them in polite company?
Utopia
Sure, there's a handful of small, extremist groups, occupying their time dreaming of a car-free utopia where children can play in the high street and where you can leave your front door unlocked at night. They inflict their vision upon the rest of us a couple of times a year by blocking a main thoroughfare or two (always when the weather is nice, you will note), but they are a minority, nothing to worry about, a small fraction of the population who never got the chance to learn to drive, or whose circumstances mean that they can't afford the unfortunately high cost of car ownership. Their numbers will never stretch beyond that. After all, have you ever heard of anyone who's had a taste of motoring turning their back on it?
Then we've got a government that chooses to lash out at the car. Not through any conviction that it is doing The Right Thing, but because it knows that it can exploit our weakness if it can make us feel bad about our habit. Motorists contribute £42 billion to the economy each year, but in return only £9 billion is spent on transport. Yet guilt buys our silence and our acceptance, and disproportionate reporting that favours sensationalism over education keeps the fear topped up.
Apathy
But the real threat to our motoring pleasure starts much closer to home.
Unlike those small but passionate anti-car groups, ignorance and laziness mean that when we are under attack, we motorists fail to organise ourselves and fight back to redress the balance.
And why is it that councils think we want lower limits, more cameras, restricted access, speed humps and "home zones"? It's because we're asking for them! Sure, we want freedom and rapid progress on our journeys, but in our own street we want everyone to slow down. Well, everyone else , that is, as humorously situated speed traps in response to residents' complaints often prove.
Small Minded?
OK, so you and I, motoring enthusiasts, probably aren't that small-minded, but Mr and Mrs Ordinary Average Car User are. Unthinking drivers taking their mobility for granted. And despite never giving a second thought to improving their own driving skills and behaviour, they know for certain that every other driver out there is under-skilled, inattentive and dangerous, and they want protecting from those reckless individuals passing their doorstep. Trouble is, everywhere is someone's doorstep. So the petitions start, the street furniture moves in, and we all have to tackle the obstacle course. And once one neighbourhood gets it, the next neighbourhood wants it: they need protecting too.
It's this frightening lack of thought from so many, mixed with superb propaganda from relatively few, that has led us to this position where cars are perceived as the root of much evil, and to invest more than is strictly necessary for basic five-seats-and-reasonable-economy transportation makes you best mates with Lucifer himself.
It's a sad state of affairs, but what's even sadder is that a large proportion of the blame lies at our own feet. It seems that when it comes to motoring, we're our own worst enemy.
So why dont we actually do something - there's gotta be something we can do to actually make people realise that motorists (expecially enthusiasts are being royally shafted!)
Remember that petrol strike? Had the whole county fkd right up. So why dont we think of something clever to do (maybe not too drastic) but to the point where EVERY speed camera in the coutry gets covered (with PH.com stickers! -bad joke sorry!)
And i think that every MP's petrol tank should suddenly spring a leak...or be emptied every night hehehah that'd be genius.
Ok, so maybe i'm not the person to think of the clever plans but why dont we take action and actually do something worth while... failing that...we could all just hoon across the country for charity (but that's a different post - gratuitous plug and i'm sorry!)
It's simply an extension of NIMBY, everyone wants a perfect small village or cul de sac without boy racers or wind turbines or factories etc nearby, and safe for the kids, but we hate it when we get inconvenienced by things like cameras and speed bumps.
We just have to either put up or shut up, since it is us asking for this, by letting a minority few speak for us all, and the majority not saying what they want, simply because they expect others too I think.
I do think though, that it's pathetic how the government and people don't wake up and realise what they are saying.
If we realistically all went on public transport tomorrow, the system would collapse. Billions on fuel tax would have to go on cigarretes and booze, no one would get to work, and commerce would loose billions in lost work.
I don't think it will be long before the snowball that is building right now gets too big, and the goverment are going to have to be "democratic" and listen to us for once!
It's not just drivers, it's pensioners and huge council tax, it's single mothers who earn bugger all, it's poor students who leave uni with 25 grand debt and have to buy single floor flats that cost 75 grand!!
The whole lot is just buggered!
There are no simple answers though, since no government would dare to do the right thing, the other parties and press would just use it against them even if it WAS the right thing, and they'd never control the country!
OK, rant over...
I just say find roads with no scamera's or police and enjoy them while you still can!
As for organising something, well I'm sure enough of us here at PH can do something like drive at 35mph on every road for a whole week (except motorways, we get done for that) and just see how much disruption it causes (one car on a busy 5 mile road is all it takes)...
Or have a slow fill up week, where we all fill our cars as slow as the pumps go in busy rush-hour fillups. I dunno, just enough to cause disruption and huge queues at pumps.
Mind you, just like the last demonstartions over fuel, the protesters were made to look like the bad guys by the press, and the government playing on ambulances and health service's not being able to drive anywhere which was entire cr*p!
But if you want to get your message across thats the way it has to go!
Seya
Dave
Also why do we still have railways? in cities yes maybe (with big free car parks at out of town stations), but we could recover all that space for major roads, (lower emabankments / fill in cuttings). Currently cars/lorries give the economy 37Billion? a year, trains remove 7Billion?
There is a mainline railway at the end of my road I am lucky to see 1 train a week (usually empty) and I pass there at least 4 times a day meanwhile there is a major traffic jam on the parallel dual carriageway at least twice a day (it runs into a town and drops to one lane) That rail line as a road could link up a number of Motorways and dual carriageways and the (relatively) few ex train passengers could be carried by coach (coach stations should replace the train stations). I am sure the saving in rail/train maintenance would cover the extra drivers needed.
As for what to do with the current situation - who knows - form a political party?
Protest? ( I like the idea of painting speed cameras on the road ahead of speed cams - its a safety measure "they are only located in dangerous locations" so how could you be prosecuted?
Any paint suppliers want to sponser it?)
Leave the country?
Also those who move near motor racing circuits / airports etc. and then complain about the noise should be issued with ear plugs until they move.
Bus lanes - why do subsidised travellers get to jump the queue causing more jams for the others?
etc.
Anyway enough ranting,
Tony
If we were all stinking, soap-dodging, workshy, rat-tail haired scumsuckers, or ivory tower Guarinad readers, then we'd have all the time in the world to dig tunnel networks and treehouses, or run a "charity" like BRAKE. But we're the people who make things work, and if we rose up, everything would stop. If we did though, it would be the biggest thing since Mr. Cromwell decided enough was enough.
The motorist is obviously a very large group and it's quite clear that those wishing to control / inhibit and generally frustrate smooth travel are in the minority (even if some of them are "motorists").
However, our biggest fault is that we just wish to go about our business and our business is not usually concerned with matters relating to the ease of our means of travel (whether it be for business or pleasure), but for those who wish to interfere it is their main concern and when we do react it's always in defence.
Everyone go to work on a particular day by public transport.
When the system grounds to a halt and they can't fit anymore people onto trains/buses they might realise what a stupid idea it is with the present infrastructure. And all the complaints from businesses about people arriving late and leaving early to get to the station on time etc would be the icing on the cake.
Drive 1/4 mile past it, then pull up, late at night preferably, and then write camera ahead, slow down...
I'm sure more people would actually slow to the local limit for longer than they do currently when approaching a camera, so it could only really improve safety in that accident blackspot (cough cough).
Hmmmm, surely locals and papers and the government would condem it for some daft "made up" reason though.
Oh waht a crappy PC country we live in
Seya
Dave
mrsPhill said:
The simplest 'protest' we could all take part in would be to give them what they think they want...
Everyone go to work on a particular day by public transport.
When the system grounds to a halt and they can't fit anymore people onto trains/buses they might realise what a stupid idea it is with the present infrastructure. And all the complaints from businesses about people arriving late and leaving early to get to the station on time etc would be the icing on the cake.
What a fantatstic idea! It'd never happen though because we british are a nation of sufferers not protestors like the French.
Mr Whippy said:
Well it is all our faults really. We all want the best for our community, if we saw a car fly past our house we'd condem them for being wreckless even though WE do it past their homes.
Speak for yourself. Yes, I'd be angry if someone was speeding down our street, but I certainly dont speed past anyones home in towns or villages. On the open road is a different story....
You know, I think another factor does need adding to this - when the numpties have the upper hand, you've got to give to receive. We're not very good at that, so we end up digging our own graves.
Think about it: What have the 'anti-' mob got against us? years of naff sloganeering ('speed kills' etc), the ability to wheel out the families of RTA victims, banks of government-approved statistics, be they correct or not, environmentalist backup to tell us that driving a car, rather than breathing the hydrocarbon cocktail that is a bus, we're 'destroying the planet'. And every time the government comes up with a paranoid scheme to microchip us all, the Guardian raves about the technology involved.
And what have we done in return? Much as I like his shows, Jeremy Clarkson just gets demonized by the press and applied to all of us. When we lash out at speed cameras we do it in the form of vandalism, which can easily be represented as dangerous. We like cars which do, by and large, pollute more and are less useful. And what do we do? Just use our senses of humour to taunt the activists, getting them angrier.
The problem with the activists is that they are in power - unproportionate power - and they don't get the joke, so they just get shocked and legislate a bit more. What we need to do is adopt a two-pronged approach:
1. 'Get off my back'. Yes we mumble it but we must shout it! Point to the fact that speed doesn't kill necessarily, and that its preoccupation has lead to a rise in other sorts of crime. Make a point of saying that the over-taxed British motorist supports a huge chunk of Brown's crust, and that discouraging them would bring the economy, as well as business, to a standstill.
2. 'End the ignorance'. People who campaign and legislate against us know jack-s
t about cars. How can you group tax bands with supercars in the same group as hot hatches? How can you possibly describe 2 litres and 30mpg as thirsty? Don't you know that so-called 'small' cars are more likely to be involved in fatal accidents, are unstable at speed and actually rather impractical? Don't you know that tiny engines use more fuel than bigger blocks with more torque on the motorway? And sports cars are not dangerous, they are safer. Look at the real advances to safety made by sports cars - braking, handling, roadholding, rollcages and so on. We can't just go on taunting them with comments about Greenham Common and lentils. They are like the kids who got bullied at school - they don't get the joke, so they'll get wound up and tell the teacher. only this time the teacher calls the rest of the class bullies, and takes away their toys, dinner money and breaktime.
So the government's response will be: More buses, more priority for buses, more congestion charging, more road tax/Gatsos to pay for all this.
Sorry, but you've got to get inside their heads to realise the implications of what you intend to do to them. There's only one real way to end all this madness and that's to get the buggers out!
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