The spin doctors of Westminster have been running a concerted campaign against the British Motorist. They present certain basic " Facts " which are designed to make all us motorists nod solemnly in agreement, and then bleatingly agree to shoulder the blame for the countries misery's
That we Brits are strange and unlike our more socially aware European cousins.
These lead inevitably to certain conditions and results or sub-facts.
and hence obviously
The British Car driver doesn't pay enough for the privilege of driving and can be made to pay much much much much more.
But those renowned Anarchist's the AA , commissioned a pan European survey and the results don't make very palatable reading for the smiling crocodile Honorary Members. Lets take a look at some of the results and see what the Pan European position is , and just how extraordinarily bad we British Motorists are.
The British have to pay the most for a car. Nothing we don't know there! we have the most expensive cars. Higher prices mean higher insurance premiums. So its a double whammy. Added to that we have the highest incidence of Car theft, and the highest incidence of Car break-ins, more crime equals higher insurance premiums, so make that a triple. ( the survey doesn't state what the recovery/detection rates are but I'm willing to put money on the fact that we probably have the lowest incidence of that, as car crime against the Motorist isn't a priority target. Unlike "Car Crime" by the motorist where we have some of the fiercest, highest saturation in Europe)
The British have the most expensive fuel in Europe taxation sits at over 80%. (yes read that again 80%+) Petrol is just about the most expensive in Europe beating even those renowned hugely expensive places to live , like Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Luxemburg. Bear in mind here too that the average wage in these countries in somewhat higher than Britain. When you look at Diesel costs the whole thing becomes a joke. Across Europe Diesel is a second class fuel and is recognised only for its ability to be economical. European manufactures are making great strides in Diesel development, to harness that economy to clean quiet cars. whilst we in Britain do our best to tax them out of existence.
Well actually we are pretty average, and indeed low to average for the more developed nations.
We are pretty average in this respect too. And when you factor in our uninhabited town center's and lack of coherent alternatives we are actually quite restrained.
Average again, and indeed low to average for the more developed nations. Look further a field to similarly developed industrial nations, America, Canada, Australia etc and we actually start to look like a nation of small car lovers.
Well yes that's probably so, but as we probably have a mix of the worst/most expensive public transport in Europe it hardly surprising. Push bikes are a damned dangerous way to commute on our under invested roads, not very pleasant in our climate and not feasible for those who have to wear a suit, even if there was a chance of your pushbike still being where you parked it when you wanted to go home. Motor bikes have virtually been legislated into submission, with pre-training, multipart tests, vast insurance premiums and rampant theft. The cost of getting on the road on a motorcycle is now so high its been relegated to a leisure pursuit for the well heeled. (and before you start I'm both a cyclist and a motorcyclist)
We have the second most congested roads in Europe, the loser here being that
highly developed nation of Portugal
see next paragraph
Actually compared to area of land, we have comparatively few Motorways ( the fastest most efficient roads) and our percentage spend of GDP on roads is the second lowest in Europe behind even the so called backward European nations. Only Denmark spends less than we do and that's probably a Geographical/Demographic Anomaly of a not highly industrialised nation. We now have the worst roads of the major European industrial nations. We used to laugh at French roads and petrol costs, now we cast envious glances across the channel.
The premise is that too many of us in and/or too big a vehicles are killing
the roads
Studies have shown that weight of the individual traffic rather than the
volume cause the damage, i.e. one 44 tonne juggernaut does exponentially
more damage than 44 tonnes of cars, (lets call it 40 decent size cars)
which in turn do more damage than 500 push bikes. Yet the governments latest
plans will allow the use of 60 Tonne wagons. The idea being that you will
only need two thirds as many trucks. That may be a valid Idea but can you really
see a 60 tonner squeezing down your local B-road ( you will do! ) and they will
cause more damage than the 40 tonners.
There is no direct correlation between spending on roads, increasing congestion and Increased Miles motored. We tax the most, spend almost the least and have almost the most congested roads. The facts don't bear out the statement. Its a phallacy promoted by the Anti-Car lobby. The figures suggest only that if you invest more in roads , then you will have less congestion and as a side effect less pollution. (see next paragraph)
Since 1992 there has been an
NB Catalytic converters - convert Toxics to CO2 so we have lost 45% of toxics without increasing CO2 and had a 11% increase in traffic miles, on increasingly congested and ever slower (less efficient) roads, that's actually quite some feat.
No matter which way you cut the figures it all adds up to the same thing. We pay the most and receive the least. Our reliance and fascination with the Motor car is nothing unusual by European standards, we drive average distances in averagely sized cars on poor roads, and our investment is the least protected by the Police and the courts. The Powers that be suggest that without enforced restraint we will continue to grow in numbers for ever. Of course the fact that you one have one backside means you cant drive two cars, We have a static population, of which those legally able or fit too drive is again fairly static. Once we all own one car there wont be any more able to be driven on the road. We are already at well over 20 million cars and that finite number is soon going to arrive. What we need is better roads NOW! ask your self which is better for the environment. doing 15 or 20mpg sat in traffic, or 30 - 40mpg gliding down a swift moving road.
Remember this next time you fill in a ballot form.
for more information see the AA