Bristol Green Party - Letters - She drives me crazy

Bristol Green Party

She drives me crazy - Charlie Bolton, 17 June 2005

To: Bristol Evening Post

Dear Sir/Madam

I find it amazing that people like Mrs Beatty still exist ('Government wants control', Letters, 16 June). The idea she suggests - that congestion will be reduced by getting rid of traffic lights and bus lanes - is one of the silliest I have heard.

For 50 years after the last war, the Government's approach to was to try and build its way out of congestion. All it succeeding in doing was cause more congestion by more cars over a bigger area.

All Governments have recognised that you simply cannot build your way out of congestion. We have to move forwards on the basis of getting people to find alternative ways of travelling (in the short term) and travelling less (in the long term). The Green Party's policy is not simply more taxation; as Mrs Batty rightly points out, this is not a solution in itself. Sustainable transport means making bus services reliable by bringing them back under local control; it means bringing the train service back into public ownership and running it as a service, not for profit. And we also need to have strong, vibrant local shopping areas which encourage people to walk to their local shops.

Sustainable transport does not mean, as Mrs Beatty suggests, that 'no one goes anywhere anymore'. It means that we take the necessary journeys by whatever means are best, and look for the most efficient alternatives for the less necessary ones.

Yours

Charlie Bolton
Bristol Green Party

GOVERNMENT WANTS CONTROL

16 June 2005

Why is it that for anything to do with the environment, whether it be global warming or congestion, the only answer the Government comes up with is for us all to pay more taxes. Now Alistair Darling has come up with a crackpot scheme of making us pay for every mile we travel and to install black boxes in our cars, just so that the Government will know exactly where we go.

We have cramped, unreliable buses and a train system where carriages and services are reduced, yet prices increase.

Obviously it is the intention of this government to stop us all travelling, so no one goes anywhere anymore and we do not leave our own cities, towns or villages.

As motorists raise £35 billion and only £5 billion of this is spent on various initiatives, there is no need to raise extra revenue.

To reduce congestion, why not get rid of the many traffic lights in the city centres, and abolish bus lanes.

J Beatty (Mrs), St George