When I sold my car, I didn’t expect a pat on the head; I wore my halo on the inside, and that was enough. But I did assume that those who had encouraged me to do the right thing – among them, my local council, which supposedly favours the walker, the cyclist and the keen user of the bus – wouldn’t now actively seek to make my life more difficult.
Oh, if only there was a German word to describe my feelings reading this...
Three years later, and part of me wonders why I bothered. Thanks to low traffic schemes, which benefit only select groups of very lucky people, bus journey times are often twice as long as they used to be, cars having been forced on to the main road.
What did you think would happen, they'd all disappear in a puff of smoke? Did you really count on everyone doing what you did? Did it never occur to you that some people can't live by bus and bike alone?
Meanwhile, the council has decreed that those who want their garden waste to be collected, as it has been ever since I’ve lived here, must henceforth pay £75 a year for the privilege – and for a service only half as frequent as before.
Isn’t it obvious what will happen next?
It is to us, yes.
Relatively few people, I predict, will cough up. Those with cars will drive to the dump, increasing traffic and pollution, while those without will either hide their dead dahlias in their regular rubbish (which means they won’t be composted), or they’ll simply fly tip (a serious problem in our neighbourhood).
More joy in heaven, etc, etc...
* apologies to Simon and Garfunkel
My generation, who turned seventeen in the 1970s, just about all learned to drive as soon as they were old enough. Most of us rode small motorbikes until we could afford a car. It was usually a bit of an old banger but cars were low tech and easy to fix back then. I only really became aware of the inconvenience of not having personal transport due to my daughter and her partner not learning to drive until a little later in life, just short of twenty-seven in fact. I can imagine not wanting a car if you live in the middle of London as I suspect that driving there is a bit of a nightmare, but where I live, not having your own wheels would be a right pain.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a garden that is big enough to generate a significant quantity of garden waste, you have a garden big enough for a composter or two. My next door neighbour with a garden the same size as mine puts his lawn mower cuttings in a green bin for collection. I put mine into one of those plastic composters at the back of my shed. Interestingly, the mowings turn to soil, and after 6 years I can't get the bin full. Sure, it looks full at the end of the autumn, but over winter it seems to empty magically! I have yet to dig any soil out of the hatch at the bottom, although I have looked, and it's there. Things that aren't woody rot down comparatively quickly, and even some woody trimmings do so if you cut them up fine. For the price of that tax you can buy a cheap shredder for other stuff.
ReplyDeleteif only there was a German word to describe my feelings ...
ReplyDeleteOr a singular for "sheeple"
In order to see the Coonsil's true thoughts on use of cars, bicycles and walkers she should have paid a visit to the Coonsil offices and studied the car park.
ReplyDeleteThere she would have seen the rows of secure bicycle racks reserved for the heid bummers with the racks for the lower orders being far away from the main entrance.
Maybe the Chief Executive Supreme Boss Leader Officer has a rack for a tandem or rickshaw because the Coonsil (the rate payers) employ a special pedalling minion whose only job is to bring the CESBLO from his home in the morning, take the CESBLO to Important Meetings and not have to worry about blood/alcohol ratios, and then at the end of a hard day, return CESBLO to a humble abode.
But only a few spaces for cars, only for those of the disabled with blue badges.
Aye, right.
"My generation, who turned seventeen in the 1970s, just about all learned to drive as soon as they were old enough."
ReplyDeleteI'm of the same generation, and I didn't learn until my early thirties, and only then because work paid for the lessons.
"If you have a garden that is big enough to generate a significant quantity of garden waste, you have a garden big enough for a composter or two."
But then you have to actually do gardening!
"Or a singular for "sheeple""
Quite!
"she should have paid a visit to the Coonsil offices and studied the car park.
There she would have seen the rows of secure bicycle racks reserved for the heid bummers with the racks for the lower orders being far away from the main entrance."
Heh! Undoubtedly.