NOTES FROM BIG BEN … BY PETER GUEST


tighter.Well, that’s the theory. At the weekend, a bus full of PBI’s returned from a training


I ‘We are a Small Island and


LIVE NEARALDERSHOT, UK, THE HQ of theBritishArmy.Over the 40 years of our civil war, security was tight and, most important, unpredictable.Nowwith the “ter- rorist threat,” it is supposed to be even


exercise somewhere in Europe.When they opened up the lug- gage compartment, twoAfghans stepped out. (PBI: Poor Bloody Infantry.)


Transport policy, the credit crunch and why “I Can Hear Voices” We in the UK have an ongoing debate about not having a


real transport policy; that is, a single cohesive and coherent state- ment about how people and goods should be moved around this island.We got a little closer in the early days of Emperor Tony Blair’s reign, with even a formerTory transportminister congrat- ulating his opposite number onmoving the plot forward. Now, with the credit crunch, the wheels have come off, and we seem to be operating on a policy that, like a mythical bird,


goes round and round in ever decreasing circles until it disap- pears up its own fundament. It goes something like this: We are a small Island, and we cannot deal with everybody


and everythingmoving by road. We may, or may not, believe in global warming and the


contribution of pollutants from road traffic to this problem, if it exists. We need to discourage car use (which implies that we need


to get people to own fewer cars). We will set planning standards so that future new buildings


will have less space to park cars. We investmore into public transport, cycle lanes, etc. We increase taxes on fuel above inflation tomake carsmore


expensive to run and to encourage people to havemore fuel-effi- cient cars. We introduce “measures” such as London’s congestion pric-


ing to actively discourage car use. But: If houses have less parking, people buy cars and park on-


street, so we start to abandon the policy. The fuel tax is abandonedwhen the oil prices go through the


30


JUNE 2009 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


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