Have you ever heard of "Wheels to Work"? No neither had I until about fifteen minutes ago. Apparently it is some scheme to provide teenagers in rural ares with free mopeds and "personal transportation" so they can get to work. Sounds great doesn't it, and to be fair it probably makes sense for local authorities to help young people actually get the jobs.
However, where does this policy sit exactly with congestion, road pricing, the environment and public transport? On the one hand the Government is telling us all that our car usage is evil; we're killing the planet; we must accept paying per usage on the road; and we must all embrace the wonderful *cough* public transport system.
On the other hand it is openly encourages the burning of fossil fuels by the young (how do they afford it?); asks them to add to already congested roads; and discourages development of proper public transport as a by-product of the policy.
Now I'm not suggesting this scheme should be scrapped, what I am saying is that the Government appears to have transport and environmental policies which are completely at odds with each other.
8 comments:
Well, mopeds can get 100mpg, so long as you don't mind being seen on a bicycle with a sewing machine engine attached.
I guess that the congestion issue is less for mopeds, apart from where they cause accidents because they are slow and often driven by morons.
What can you expect when according to Gov't statistics the Ministerial limos managed to run up some 10% more miles last year than the year before...?
Politicians bleat that no-one understands them and the Electorate is apathetic.
We understand them only too well.. they say one thing and do something else.. (remember Major and Back to Basics?).
Bunch of hypocrites imo and that's being polite..
And incompetent hypocrites to boot:-(
When you live in a rural area like Herefordshire, you begin to realise that public transport is very much an urban idea. Kids 'round here get a car for their 17th birthday. It's really not a luxury. The government needs to be commended for having a fleeting dalliance with reality.
The WtW policy also fits well with road pricing - the whole point about the road pricing scheme (rather than fuel tax) was to allow higher charges for inessential journeys on congested urban roads, and lower for essential journeys on empty rural ones.
John B
I've never heard of it either, I wonder how many they have given away? Do they have to return them at some time, or do them keep them forever.
The scheme is run by a charity in my area, though they may receive some government funding, I don't know. But the scheme's meant for 16-25 year olds in rural areas, and isn't forever, normally done in blocks of 3 months with a max loan of 12 months.
Dizzy, Where I live a moped on the road, apart from being potential road kill, would not add to congestion at all.
What is more important is that trying to run a bus service to accommodate all those who would wish to travel would cost more carbon emmisions.
We really do have roads where there are no cars during the day for 10 minutes.
It helps keep rural communities alive and get young people jobs. It is a good thing.
See what I don't undestand is why nobody has paid attention to what I said. I didn't disagree that W2W was probably useful in rural areas. I am from a rural area myself (but we had buses at least once an hour going between major towns), What I said was that a policiy that promotes road usage and petrol usage is contradictory to other things we're being told about the impending DOOM facing us all.
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