Car travel is a privelige not a right

Every unnecessary journey made in a car contributes a little more to the poisoning of the air for everyone else.

When will people wake up to the damage being done by cars?

I saw recently a news item, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan meeting some school chldren. He asked who suffered from asthma. A large number raised their hands. Junior school children, some seven or eight years old with asthma - this is totally unacceptable,

It is also a product of recent years, asthma and other respiratory diseases were not common place among children  at all 20 to 30 years ago. This is a public health crisis totally of our own making.

Public attitudes are changing and not before time. But the attitude of the car driver to their seeming right to pollute and poison the air is something to behold. Threaten a parking space or attempt to restrict vehicle movement and it is as though basic human rights are being denied.

The number of people who protest in this vein against measures like the Mayor's Ultra Low Emissions Zone, is incredible

I know that many of those protesting are parents and grandparents, when is the penny going to drop?

How do people think life went on prior to the invention of the car? Whilst we don't need to turn the clock back that far, it is a point to ponder. So many journeys are so unneccessary, yet do such damage.

In London, we have excellent public transport networks. Cycling and pedestrian routes are beginning to take precedence - in some areas more quickly than others. 

This is the way forward. Car travel is not a right, it is a privelige, a privelige that growing amounts of public health data suggest cannot be afforded on any rational criteria. 

The development of things like electric cars can bring about change in this dynamic but that will take some time. In the meantime, we struggle on in the battle for clean air and the right to breath. Anything that can improve the air quality has to be welcomed, even if it does restrict the priveliges of the motoring public. Public health must take priority.

published in Wanstead and Woodford Guardian - "When will penny drop about cars and asthma?" - 14/2/2019 online - 16/2/2019