Blinkered drivers (From York Press)

Blinkered drivers

11:00am Saturday 30th January 2010 in

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HERE we go again.

City of York Council is considering three options to improve the city centre’s busiest and most dangerous junction, plus a fourth option to do nothing, all of which will be subject to public consultation, and the howls of derision have started already.

Why does it never occur to the blinkered minority of motorists who throw a fit every time the council suggests any improvements to the city’s roads that they are part of the problem?

It should be obvious to anyone who cares to think for a minute about it that the huge rise in traffic volumes in the city is unsustainable.

We cannot build our way out of congestion, especially not in a beautiful old city with so much worthy of conservation.

Such is this country’s dependence on the motor car that any new road space is quickly used up and so creates even more demand.

One-in-five car journeys in the UK are unnecessary and in urban areas that figure is closer to one in three. Changing this situation requires personal responsibility on everyone’s part for how they choose to travel. Some motorists may think that because they own a car they have a right to drive wherever and whenever they want.

However, the rest of us also have the right to live in a clean, green and healthy environment and not to spend our precious time stuck in traffic jams.

I feel proud to live in a city whose local authority has been at the forefront of innovation for sustainable transport, one of the very few places outside London where bus passenger numbers have increased in the past decade despite the legacy of deregulation, and one of the country’s top cycling cities.

This is a far better approach than the congestion charging favoured by the Labour opposition, which would only penalise those who have a genuine need to drive into the city centre.

Richard Brown, Horseman Avenue, Copmanthorpe, York.