Would you give up your car for the environment?

Why has No Car Day been so unsuccessful in Beijing?

China is holding a No Car Day in more than 100 cities as it tries to reduce smog ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

But correspondents say that in the capital National No Car Day appears to be making little impact, with high levels of traffic and most streets open as normal.

Environmental campaigners say China must overhaul its transport system to tackle pollution.

Is a No Car Day the way to combat pollution? Or does it just hit personal freedom? How else can we address the problem? How is traffic controlled where you live?

No one in the UK is going to give up their car so long as it is -

1) cheaper
2) simpler
3) easier

- than using public transport. The saddest thing is that the more we come to rely on the car the more industry develops to cater for car uses. It's a negative spiral. This is why tescos are located out-of-town, why all the biggest chains have massive acres of parking spaces and also why our aged population have to pay more for food as they cannot easily travel to cheaper outlets.

Sigh ... of all the cities on the entire planet to try to implement something like that ... Beijing?

Originally Posted by Rog

No one in the UK is going to give up their car so long as it is -

1) cheaper
2) simpler
3) easier

- than using public transport. The saddest thing is that the more we come to rely on the car the more industry develops to cater for car uses. It's a negative spiral. This is why tescos are located out-of-town, why all the biggest chains have massive acres of parking spaces and also why our aged population have to pay more for food as they cannot easily travel to cheaper outlets.

I think you're right there. I don't use the car a great deal because most of my travel is local but whenever I've used a train it has been packed with barely a spare seat to be found. Imagine if cars were off the road, even for a day, the trains would not really provide an alternative because the capacity is simply too low.

So really if a no car day were arranged here for many people it would mean a no travel day instead, although having said that I read recently that the majority of car journey's are 2km or less in distance, so that could easily be walked or cycled.

[Andrea]

I don't really drive a great deal so it wouldn't be a big deal for me but I suspect for others driving is just a way of life, and changing the habit of a lifetime will unfortunately take a lot more than one day without.

[MarkuisMellvile]

I don't think anyone sane would suggest that we could instantly swap the journeys made by personal car one day, with seats on our existing buses, trains and trams the next.

Nor would we expect any other infrastructure development to happen overnight. So lets try and find ways to think about lower impacting travel without turning it into a bash public transport as we know it exercise!

We own a car (that, coincidentally, cost us just £35 to tax for 12 months because its emissions are unbeaten among the diesels of today) and we could live without it, using our bikes or buses and trains for most of our journeys. But we haven't sold our one car yet, despite having discussed the use of hire cars for the few annual car journeys we would still make if we religiously used buses and trains.

The main reason we have a car is that, as a teacher living a few miles from her school, my wife needs some motorised transport on which to carry the mass of books and test papers she routinely brings home to plan lessons with, mark or otherwise work on at home. We'd also not be able to take large items of (usually) garden refuse to be composted or recycled at council facilities if we didn't have our own car. Sure we could hire a van or share with friends, but not every time we wanted to go somewhere.

So, the crux of the matter is that even working in sustainability as I do, and having a well insulated house with low fuel and water bills, the idea of a car-free existence seems restrictive to my wife and I can see her point. We drive approximately 15 miles Monday to Friday, and add another 20 miles at weekends (on average through the year).

Other than the journeys I've described, we make absolutely no local car journeys. I don't think many people can honestly say that. I do wish I could say that (like many of my friends who live and work in London can) we don't need or own a car at all.

MM

[R33]

The whole premise is ludicrous, pointless marxist greenwash.

Go ahead and squander whatever goodwill the environmental movement possesses on the subject

[Wowbagger]

People won't stop using cars because they live in an environment with infrastructures that require them. Build cities differently and you might not need cars anymore. I wish people would have figured that already....

[borrett71]

Mind you, I have no car and three kids, live in a city and manage absolutely fine. I think people only think they need that car, when really they don't. They are just so used to using it, they think it is a neccessity.

If retail provisions are especially car friendly, its due to public demand, because companies know people like to drive.

[forfi]

I need a car for all sorts of reasons and when I no longer need one then I will give up driving.Just one little fact on cost. I can go to the Capital City by car with 4 passengers for less than half of the price of one rail ticket.That journey is door to door as opposed to the rail trip which would involve another 6 short bus trips.
I would consider using public transport if there were some simple rules for passengers like
1 All user of public transport must carry a certificate to prove that have had intimate contact with soap and water at least once in the past 6 months.
2 That all lard a**es who need 2.5 seats should be confined to something like a cargo hold.
3 That said lard a**es should be loaded by fork-lift so as not to delay things while they lumber on board like breathless hippos.
4 That special devices be fitted to the seating used by the aforementioned lardies so as to remove the noxious emanations that seep from their nether regions as they slowly ferment the last big mac or super sized garbage that they slurped as they lumbered towards the transport.