Over the years, the gospel of the private motor car has been proclaimed with great energy and persistence. But, like other forms of organised religion, the cult of the car has proved to be as much a curse as a blessing.
It’s encouraging that even GA Musey (‘Banning cars is a non-starter’, Opinion, June 11) recognises the polluting impact of the badly-designed transport systems with which our cities are currently burdened.
However, car-cultists demand not just more road capacity but ever larger temples to parking. They shriek in desperation at the thought of sharing road space with anyone other than their co-religionists.
Well before the final shape of the “Mini-Holland” proposal has been settled, the death of retail on the high street is confidently predicted if there’s even a hint that a cyclist, let alone a pedestrian, might be catered for.
Hideous as such apocalyptic visions may be to some, they are of course puny in the face of evident climate change and the contribution to it of the “big car society”.
RP Blows
Elmwood Avenue, Palmers Green
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