Andy Hall wrote:
On 2007-02-06 01:01:55 +0000, John Rumm
said:

Tony Bryer wrote:

The reality is that something has to be done to reverse the ever
increasing amount of traffic and the Conservatives know it too.


I have never quite followed the logic of this "ever increasing"
argument. Just who is supposed to drive all these extra cars? Most
people eligible for a drivers licence already has one. The number
turning 17 each year probably does not even match the death rate. So
appart from social trends forcing more people to resort to car use,
there does not seem to be that much scope for expansion.

I looked at figures for my area (which has one of the highest levels of
car ownership in the country), and the figures seem to support this
point. For number of households:

No car: 2001 9.2% 1991 11.4%
1 car: 2001 37.6% 1991 40.1%
2 cars: 2001 41.1% 1991 39.5%
3 cars: 2001 9.1% 1991 9.1%

So if anything there is a minor fall in ownership but nothing significant.

Public transport has continued to dwindle but in any case doesn't match
the profile and requirements of
the area.

Traffic congestion in the area, where it happens, has much more to do
with incompetent traffic schemes than volume of cars



Perhaps rather than trying to social engineer a different response to
car use which goes against necessity and human nature, they ought to
consider encouraging an environment where the need for car use is
less. Home shopping is starting that trend. We just need home working
to catch up.

I looked at those figures as well.

70% of the local economically active population is involved in
managerial, professional and related occupations vs. 53% in England and
Wales. These are potential candidates for home working - i.e. don't
necessarily need to travel to a place of work every day or at all.

Nonetheless, 68% of people travel to work driving a car (65% in 2001).
Bus travel has fallen from 5.2% to 4.4%
Train travel has increased from 4.7 to 5.3%
Othe modes of transport have changed by a fractional percentage.

Home working has increased from 4.9% to 10.7% (more than double, but
still not a lot as a percentage)

Nationally, 55% travel to work by driving a car and 9% work at home.

OTOH, we have Ken Livingstone publishing figures for transport in
central London (by definition suspect) extolling the virtues of public
transport (36% of journies); 40% of households not owning a car (guess
what Ken, this means that 60% do); and only 10% of people using cars to
get to work (surprise, surprise).
The point is the same. Why do people perceive a need to go to central
London to work and do their shopping?



Simple. Because in the case of Cambridge, you can earn 100K plus jumping
on a train and going to the city, whereas 50k is the tops locally.