My Utopian World part 6
Well, to be honest this has become bigger and has been taken far more seriously that I ever imagined! So this week I thought I'd flesh out my Transport Policies, which were briefly mentioned in the original post:
The main thrust of my Transport policy is to encourage the use of public transport as opposed to private cars, and to reduce road use in general, both for ecological, environmental & financial reasons. Therefore the first law still applies:
Frieght & Commercial Goods should not be transported by road if any other alternative is available. No frieght road journeys should be longer than 50 miles.
The railways will be renationalised (yes I know this scares investors off from investing in other public services. I don't care. And no, I won't compensate the current useless operators, they've skimmed enough off already & business is a risky business!). Ticket prices will be subsidised so that it is cheaper to travel by rail than by road.
Every Village will have daily bus (or other public transport) services to it's local towns, all towns will have regular trains, and all cities will have an internal transport network (trams/light railway etc). (the definition of Hamlet, viallage & town is already set out and refers to the number of dwellings)
Road tax will be abolished. The aim is not to penalise people for owning cars, but to encourage them to use them less. The MOT will be more stringent & a criteria for keeping/using a car on the public road. Garages found to be issuing illegal MOT's will not only have their licence removed but will also be charged with attempted corporate murder. That'll stop 'em!
Tax on petrol will remain stupidly high:-)
Aviation fuel will be taxed at the same rate as diesel (yes I know the world will fall apart if we can't buy plane tickets for £1, everyone will be bankrupt & Stelios will be very annoyed. Tough!)
All government car parks will have electric re-charge sockets available on a pay as you park basis.
All commercial food outlets will recieve advice on converting their used vegetable oil into bio-fuel, and grants may be available for smaller businesses.
Driving licences will have to be renewed every 10 years, by re-taking the driving test.
That's about all I can think of right now. I'm sure some more will occur to me in time, as new news stories break, or following the comments I recieve.
As always, you are welcome to express your opinion in the comments, and I will try to explain my reasoning, although as supreme, beloved and lifelong dictator, I do not need to take your views into consideration when writing my utopian world laws:-)
In case any of you are new to my world, you can check out previous posts by clicking below, or read the whole thing by clicking the link in my sidebar.
My Utopian World Part 1 - Introduction, Freight & Drugs
My Utopian World Part 2 - Immigration & Welfare
My Utopian World Part 3 -Childcare & Parenting
My Utopian World Part 4 - Crime & Punishment
My Utopian World Part 5 - Education
The main thrust of my Transport policy is to encourage the use of public transport as opposed to private cars, and to reduce road use in general, both for ecological, environmental & financial reasons. Therefore the first law still applies:
Frieght & Commercial Goods should not be transported by road if any other alternative is available. No frieght road journeys should be longer than 50 miles.
The railways will be renationalised (yes I know this scares investors off from investing in other public services. I don't care. And no, I won't compensate the current useless operators, they've skimmed enough off already & business is a risky business!). Ticket prices will be subsidised so that it is cheaper to travel by rail than by road.
Every Village will have daily bus (or other public transport) services to it's local towns, all towns will have regular trains, and all cities will have an internal transport network (trams/light railway etc). (the definition of Hamlet, viallage & town is already set out and refers to the number of dwellings)
Road tax will be abolished. The aim is not to penalise people for owning cars, but to encourage them to use them less. The MOT will be more stringent & a criteria for keeping/using a car on the public road. Garages found to be issuing illegal MOT's will not only have their licence removed but will also be charged with attempted corporate murder. That'll stop 'em!
Tax on petrol will remain stupidly high:-)
Aviation fuel will be taxed at the same rate as diesel (yes I know the world will fall apart if we can't buy plane tickets for £1, everyone will be bankrupt & Stelios will be very annoyed. Tough!)
All government car parks will have electric re-charge sockets available on a pay as you park basis.
All commercial food outlets will recieve advice on converting their used vegetable oil into bio-fuel, and grants may be available for smaller businesses.
Driving licences will have to be renewed every 10 years, by re-taking the driving test.
That's about all I can think of right now. I'm sure some more will occur to me in time, as new news stories break, or following the comments I recieve.
As always, you are welcome to express your opinion in the comments, and I will try to explain my reasoning, although as supreme, beloved and lifelong dictator, I do not need to take your views into consideration when writing my utopian world laws:-)
In case any of you are new to my world, you can check out previous posts by clicking below, or read the whole thing by clicking the link in my sidebar.
My Utopian World Part 1 - Introduction, Freight & Drugs
My Utopian World Part 2 - Immigration & Welfare
My Utopian World Part 3 -Childcare & Parenting
My Utopian World Part 4 - Crime & Punishment
My Utopian World Part 5 - Education
posted by Juggling Mother @ 8:31 pm
2 Comments:
At Tuesday, January 24, 2006 2:08:00 am,
mig bardsley said…
Aah, dream on.
This sounds like heaven. You only specify 'daily bus'. Can we have several daily buses please. and can we have all our lovely branch lines back, on the railways?
And can our rail and bus stations have nice lockers so we can leave our stuff there after shopping while we go and have a cup of coffee in the lovely, child (and old lady) friendly coffee bars. Possibly launderettes and creches as well. And
And also a cheap (or even free) mini bus service from station to far end of town and to out-of-town supermarkets....and to parks and other nice places. Oh and free bikes like they have in Holland. (if they still do have them) And all the mobility stuff for disabled people. Roller skates? Pedestrian town centres with special mini bus routes.
Oh and suppose you're not able to get from your hamlet to the village under your own steam to catch the bus?
We used to have a weekly bus to town on market day. but I only ever saw it come back once (in three years).
At Tuesday, January 24, 2006 6:47:00 am,
Juggling Mother said…
The daily bus is assured in law, but hopefully demand will mean there are more than one. In some of the viallages round here there used to be a weekly bus - it went into Bristol at 2pm on a Thursday & came back out at 9am on a Tuesday! They withdrew it because for some unknown reason, not many people used it!
It would be logistically impossible to ensure buses were within a couple minutes walk to every hamlet, farmhouse & cottage, but funding applications for community transport would be looked on favourably.
I do like the idea of free bikes and very nearly put it in, but I'm still thinking through the wording:) Maybe it should be a LA decision.
I didn't put it in, but all planning applications for new build or change of use business premisis must have a transport policy.
Most shopping centres already have mobility shops where you can hire wheelchairs & stuff. That seems fine to me. And the DDA ensures access to shops & services for disabled customers. I don't think we need any more enshrined in law that would start to adversly affect the majority for the sake of a minority, which is wrong. Although I would speed up the "planned schedule of works" the railways have at the moment to make them acesable withing a few years rather than a few decades!
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