In principle, I am a supporter of Bristol’s Clear Air Zone (CAZ) and similar schemes such as London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ). As a fully-fledged wheezing and gasping chronic asthmatic, the less air pollution the better. All schemes have their critics, not least because the schemes would appear to discriminate against less affluent drivers who tend to drive older, more polluting cars, so authorities like Bristol have produced a list of exemptions to the charges. So, at least in theory, air pollution in the city centre is less severe than other areas in the city, despite the constant gridlock I experience when I have the misfortune to travel that way. Given the state of traffic in the rest of Bristol, and South Gloucestershire where we live, I am not entirely convinced of its merits.
Take our village, or former council estate as we don’t like to call it for reasons of what may be snobbery, for example. Traffic has always been heavy at peak times, much like anywhere else, We are surrounded by three motorways – the M4, M5 and M32 – and slap bang in the middle of numerous vast housing developments. Already, the new by pass that removes some of the traffic that would otherwise have seen the whole area grind to a halt is well on the way to daytime gridlock. It seems the more roads that get built, the more traffic expands in order to fill it. So, what’s the answer?
Well, we all know what the answer should be: affordable and efficient public transport. In Bristol, a combination of a decent bus service, which apart from the Metrobus scheme, which luckily runs near us, we don’t have, and a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system, which is and has always been a dream, since the existing tramways were scrapped in 1941. The simple choice we have is between spending vast sums of money on public transport or carrying on just like we are, making it harder and more expensive to drive and park everywhere, effectively taxing the motorist, mainly the poorer motorist, off the road and supposedly onto public transport which is unfit for purpose. In Bristol and surrounding areas, it’s the carrot and stick approach, but minus carrots.
The CAZ in central Bristol is supposed to prevent the worst levels of pollution for a small minority of people, not least the elite private schools in the area – a coincidence, I am sure – but the air pollution for the rest of us is just too bad. I am no expert on how pollution cars actually works but I would have thought that the CAZ boundaries do not prevent pollution spreading with the wind. Similarly, I would have thought that pollution from outside the one might just drift into the CAZ with the wind? Let’s say that I am not convinced by the CAZ and nor have I noticed a significant fall in traffic. Quite the opposite, I would suggest. So, what would I do?
Imagine for one second that I am the Supreme Ruler of the United Kingdom. It’s easy, if you try, as John Lennon might have put it. Here is my five point plan for Bristol:
- Borrow whatever you need to build an extensive bus and LRT system and pay it back over hundreds of years. No one really cares if the government is in debt, so long as we aren’t. Just print more money.
- Make it cheap to travel by way of public subsidy, if necessary.
- Yes, by all means bring in more ULEZ and CAZ systems but only when affordable and efficient alternatives are in place, not, as now, before.
- Er…
- That’s it
No more of this Green Party bollocks of charging workers to use the office car park, which inevitably affects lower paid staff more than the better off. Yes, climate change is real, yes global warming is here and, yes, we’re causing both of them. Oh and we need to get to net zero unless we want to destroy the world. But – and there’s the rub – I, as Supreme Leader, need to take The Great British Public with me. In short, we need more carrots to go with those sticks.
Add to this, making working from home the norm and not the exception and maybe I can spend a bit less of my time cursing at how the bloke in front should have stayed at home so the roads would not be so crowded. I of course need to be in my car, not her/him.
We need, deserve and, frankly, we are entitled to clean air but we are not going to have it with the current half-arsed ideas of government, both national and local. Let’s spend, spend, spend to give folk the opportunity to leave their cars at home. I repeat: if we don’t have the money, then just print some more. That’s pretty well what Rishi Sunak (remember him?) did during Covid. Why not do it so we can get about cheaply, efficiently and cleanly. You know it makes sense.
