Not if it had been introduced gradually, from when the urgency of climate change became apparent 20 years ago or more.
As a tradesman, I concur. My personal "environmental policy" is not to drive whenever I can use public transport. That means I won't work on sites with inadequate night security nor on sites where I can't get a secure lock box in a secure compound for my kit at night. The problem is that there are a lot of sites where that just isn't the case, and a van is the only viable way to get to the job (try lugging a 2m level, a router and a one-piece hinge jig around together with your hand tools and you'll get the drift why we need vans - and no Jacob, you can't make a living doing this sort of thing with a sharpened teaspoon and a mallet any more). I'd like to see some more sensible approaches to fuel pollution instead of idiotic schemes, such as the ones proposed for Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield where private cars will be exempt from the "Congestion Charge" whilst vans, taxis, lorries and buses will be charged. Wrong way! Private cars should really be banned from city centres completely whilst other vehicles allowed in should have a very valid reason for being there. But then I feel the same about pollution from cheap air flights (I gave up flying 20 years ago - the fuel is not subject to much or any duty, unlike road vehicle fule) and unnecessary travel such as cruises (which often use highly polluting bunker fuel outside of EU controlled waters). So improve public transport, put some proper environmental controls on vehicular road users and it may get better for cyclists - but many cyclists also need better training and discipline
What - cyclists don't fart????
How about a challenge to build a wooden bike, maybe allow the chain and sprockets but all else in wood, yes maybe rubber tyres as well.
It doesn't work that way. The construction industry is a lot more about people working for main contractors on fixed-rate/priced-0measure schemes and where it is impossible to pass on that increased cost to the customer. If you want to see the issue first hand go and stand on an overpass into any major city between 7am and 9am in the morning and count how many cars, vans, taxis, buses and taxis there are. Any money that 80% or more of vehicles on almost any road will be private cars, the vast majority of which have but one occupant
The guy appears to be a taxi driver. Well known for their adherence to the laws of the road.
For a very long time I have been mumbling to myself that fossil fuels are far too cheap...Triple the price of fuel, that would make people reflect on
the necessity of their journey.
Bit tough on those that need their vehicle for work though,
I suppose.
And, no, I don't even possess a bicycle, let alone ride one.
What makes this really silly is that not only are there a load of cars with one occupant but they are also passing loads of similar cars going in the opposite direction because a lot of people in town A work in town B and people in town B working in town A.
Yes, indeed. I well remember one firm I worked for in the 1980s where every week I travelled from Ormskirk to Reading to collect a works van and then spent the week working on jobs between Swindon and Bristol in the main whilst at the same time a colleague travelled from Basingstoke to Reading to collect his works van, driving up to work on projects in the Liverpool and Southport areas. They also had a 2-man team coming in from Norwich to Reading, then working in the Kent area whilst other guys from Birmingham were workingh in East Anglia during the week. Despite protestations to management this insane situation continued for the whole 6 months that I stuck it out with them (national chain of pubs and restaurants - since subsumed by a larger operator). Eventually I just gave up and left on the basis that you can't cure stupid
I started one have yet to finish it!
I had a van too before I retired! My name plastered all over it. Peugeot 305 - a smart little mover, went like a rocket and a pleasure to drive!
I'm a subbie in the large build field these days. The contractors I work for in general won't increase what they pay us until they can no longer get bodies to work for them. My expenses getting to work are never in their calculations because we aren't paid to drive - we're paid to build
As someone said a couple of days ago "I was in the right" is virtue signalling from a gravestone.
