“War on the Motorist” has become a little soundbite of late: we’ve had Eric Pickles declaring that

the Government is calling off Whitehall’s war on the motorist

and that boggle-eyed loony George Monbiot stating that

The only transport war being waged in this country is by motorists – against pedestrians and cyclists

My opinon, as a motorist, car enthusiast, cyclist and pedestrian?

They’re both idiots, though I always tire of Monbiot quickly: a man so away with the fairies he should carry a wand, with which he could doubtless magic everyone and everything to where they need to go.

The only war going on here is the government (and past governments) upon all of us. We have petrol and diesel over £6.00 a gallon (though, interestingly, in real terms fuel is lower than the 70s[1]) and a public transport system that is nowhere near good enough, being based on profit, not service.

Even for those of you not having to travel (or walking/cycling), the food you eat (and everything else you buy) uses diesel and the roads to get to the shops: most freight is now road-based.

Modern life is built around travel: travel to work, shops, school etc- and more of it, and we can’t easily escape from that. The private car provides a convenient means to do that, and while it’s expensive, it’s within the reach of the majority of people, which wasn’t the case 50 years ago. We’ve been encouraged (or forced) to travel further to work, send children to schools further away, shop at out-of-town supermarkets and shopping centres. Supermarkets get built with poor pedestrian access. Local shops are driven out of business. Children are driven to school, and thousands of cars carrying one person crawl into every town or city each day. In summary, we have infrastructure that depends on the car/van/truck (and diesel or petrol), and few viable alternatives.

As to loony George and his

“war” is being waged by motorists against pedestrians and cyclists

Just fuck off George. While there’s clearly an issue over sentencing here, to declare that an accident is war on anyone isn’t helping anyone. Yes: that’s an accident. Not an ‘incident’. Accident. One where clearly the driver was responsible for the death, but an accident none the less.

As for this section of the linked article:

You could argue that the knowledge he has ended a life is enough of a punishment for Lopes, but what about his employer? They haven’t even lost their driver to a ban, let alone endured investigation or possible punishment for failing to ensure their staff are safe on the roads.

What happened to the idea that the driver is responsible? He took the decision to drive without glasses.

Anyway, back on-topic. We didn’t have war on the motorist, but we didn’t have a sensible, coherent set of policies to encourage responsible car use (and indeed discourage irresponsible use): we had road safety campaigns that targeted nothing but speeding, we had reduced traffic police that’s given us a decline in driving standards. We’ve had half-hearted or downright stupid cycle paths, and the threat of cycling training being cut. We’ve got public transport that is dirty, not convenient enough, unreliable (London Midland diesel trains not running because the fuel froze, for example) and getting more expensive, or indeed axed.

That’s the real war.

[1]: From uk.rec.driving:

I found an old petrol receipt from the early 1970s for some petrol that my dad had bought. I think the price was about 35 p/gallon. I worked out the present price using an inflation prediction site (what would £1 at 1973 prices be worth today) and was surprised to find that the price would be slightly higher than today’s prices.

So *based on that one site’s calculations of inflation* fuel prices have
actually fallen. I was gobsmacked at that. And given that modern cars are more fuel-efficient than they were 40 years ago, the cost of motoring is quite a bit less.