Cars, roads etc

I have a constant dilemma. I am a member of the Green Party, because I support their policies, and I believe that they offer an approach to politics that is different from the main parties, and we are definitively in need of some radically different approaches.

However, I think there is a real challenge with regards transport policy - and this is an example of a problem that is far more endemic in our society. It is not that I disagree with the green approach, just that there are bigger problems.

The core difficulty is that we have created a society that depends on transport. We live in one place and, very often, work somewhere else. Therefore we need to travel to somewhere else, usually on a daily basis, but sometimes on a weekly or longer. In particular, around London, millions of people live in the suburbs and the home counties, commuting into London each day - or to other places around London. This makes for a very substantial transportation problem, on a daily basis, that is not getting any better.

Of course, the answers normally come that people should find work nearer home, or live nearer their work. This is not always possible. For example, I more around where I am working, so I cannot relocate every few months depending on the latest assignment. It is also a problem that much of the work is in places that I cannot afford to live - Spitalfields, for example, or Chelsea. What is more, the need for flexible workers in a very difficult economic time means that I am not alone in this, by any means.

I cannot always find work "near to where I live". I would very much like to, but this assumes a ready availability of specialist work, something that is most certainly not the case. As a society, we actually don't seem to want this, because we have for decades tried to separate our living areas from our working areas.

I think there is another approach that we need to take - actually, two areas that we need to progress before we can make a real difference. The first is to enable and allow more people to work from home, or remotely, by properly utilising the internet and the facilities that we have available today.From a technological perspective, very many people could work remotely today, if companies were prepared to let them, and the technology infrastructure was completely up for it - which means good, high-speed, broadband access far more widespread.

The other area we need to progress is the transport infrastructure across the country. This includes roads, railways, buses, trams, cable cars, boats, and whatever else. The progress needed is to integrate this, make the pricing far more sensible, and make sure that people who need to travel can do so using public transport where possible, but also a combination of car and train, or bus, or whatever. I think more companies would be happy to let employees work remotely, if their manager could, easily, visit and check up on them as needed, if they were able to get into a central office when required.

Unfortunately, the current approach to green transport seems to be making cars more expensive. This doesn't work - especially not as public transport is still more expensive than cars for 2 or 3 people. It would make sense to make cars more expensive, if the other approaches above were implemented first. As it is, raising the cost of motoring just drives up inflation.

Ah, so what about the HS2 line - the  proposed new train link from Euston to Birmingham? Surely, this is a good idea, then? And Even Davis, in his "Made in Britain" series, made a very good argument for supporting this. While it may be a good idea for a new line - although I am not entirely sure this one is needed, rather than improvements to the existing line - the environmental damage this will cause, and the devastation that this will cause to many places along the route weigh against the proposal. Maybe it should be put underground? Yes, that is far more expensive, but one argument for supporting it is the economic benefits. Or put proper investment into the existing line.

Cars are evil. But we need to change our society structures, not just ban cars, or make them too expensive. And we need firstly to invest in the existing networks, not just assume we have to build new ones. We need proper improvements to existing systems, not just new services for specific journeys.