On Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:01:55 +0000 John Rumm wrote :
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.

It's not the increasing number of cars, rather the way in which they
are used. The Telegraph recently carried an article which inter alia
tried to elicit readers sympathy for a couple living in Farnborough,
Hants who might face a five-figure bill if road pricing came in.
Each day he drives to Chiswick, West London, she drives to an office
park near Heathrow. Multiply this a thousand times over and you see
why the roads in this part of the world are full of standing traffic
for hours each day. Pre M3/M25 they would not have made this
lifestyle choice.

Several times a year I drive up the M40 to NEC, invariably endless
miles of slow-moving or static traffic coming towards London. Again
pre-M40 those drivers would almost certainly have chosen homes and
jobs in closer proximity.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk