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Drivers need to be freed from “burden and tyranny” of owning cars, cycling campaigner tells Labour conference

London Cycling Campaign’s Ashok Sinha told the fringe event that cuts to Transport for London’s budget were “bonkers”

London’s motorists need to be freed from the “burden” of car usage through improvements to active travel schemes, public transport, and the introduction of road charging measures, says the London Cycling Campaign’s Chief Executive Ashok Sinha.

Sinha was speaking earlier this week in Liverpool at a Labour Party conference fringe event titled, “A gear shift on low-carbon transport”.

He told the event, chaired by the Green Alliance’s head of climate policy Helena Bennett, that around 10 million car journeys are made every day in London, a figure the cycling campaigner says needs to be drastically reduced if the UK is to reach its climate targets.

> Transport for London accused of “breaking promises” after funding for cycle training cut 

“It’s a toss of a coin whether we keep climate change under 1.5 degrees,” Sinha said. “We’ve seen improvements in all sectors in London – except transport emissions.”

The London Cycling Campaign CEO criticised the cuts to Transport for London’s budget – a result of the body’s precarious financial situation and current reliance on short-term government bailouts – as “bonkers” and told attendees that a major expansion of public transport in the capital was essential if people are to be encouraged to ditch their cars, MyLondon reports.

“We need to free people from the burden and tyranny of owning tons of metal that sits unused 90 percent of the time,” he said.

Sinha also argued that initiatives such as Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and potential smart road user charging methods are important “tactical solutions” to discouraging car use.

> London needs to talk about roads pricing for cars 

The cycling campaigner has long been an advocate for road pricing for cars in the capital, though he has insisted that people on bikes should be exempt from any charge.

“There are many of us who sit back and think, well, hasn’t the time now come for road pricing? Not for everyone, because when you look at cycling as being part of the solution, it’s [about] incentivising a shift to cycling,” he told road.cc in 2016.

“We’re trying to disincentivise excessive motor traffic use and shifting people out of those vehicles onto bikes, so it doesn’t make sense to apply that road charge to cycling.”

At this week’s Labour conference, Sinha said: “It’s very difficult but we need to look at the demand side, with smart and fair road user charging. I can’t see a way of reaching net zero targets without it. It’s a massive political battle… It’s a toxic issue.”

> Active travel to be “first choice for our daily journeys,” says minister 

Yesterday we reported that Lucy Frazer, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to active travel, including cycling and walking, in the first such announcement since Liz Truss won the Conservative Party leadership election and took over from Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.

Frazer, the Conservative MP for South East Cambridgeshire, was appointed to her current ministerial position earlier this month after Truss replaced Grant Shapps with Anne-Marie Trevelyan as Secretary of State for Transport.

In a written question, Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York and Shadow Minister at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, asked Trevelyan whether “she will introduce a funding pilot aimed at increasing the number of people who shift from using cars to public transport.”

In response, Frazer said: “As set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, we want public transport and walking and cycling to be the natural first choice for our daily journeys.

“This shift has the potential to save significant amounts of carbon, improve air quality, and reduce noise and congestion – improving health and wellbeing for all. We are undertaking pilot projects which will explore new ways for how we can use our cars differently and less often.”

She continued: “For example, we have provided £92 million to fund local authorities in Solent Transport, Nottingham and Derby, West Midlands, and the West of England to become Future Transport Zones and pilot a range of innovative mode shift efforts, such as mobility as a service apps, or paying ‘mobility credits’ to people in return for giving up their cars.”

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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11 comments

Avatar
NOtotheEU | 1 year ago
3 likes

Ashok Sinha sounds like my mum and Dad. They think there is “burden and tyranny” in owning a car, a house or more possessions than you can carry in one trip in a hire van.

It may be unconnected but they also happen to be the happiest and most content people I've ever known.

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP replied to NOtotheEU | 1 year ago
0 likes

He does make an interesting point though. 

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
6 likes

Well, now that government policies have reduced the car industry to a shadow of its former self, this is the ideal time to introduce draconian restrictions on cars; as well as climate change, pollution and danger.

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iandusud | 1 year ago
8 likes

In response, Frazer said: “..... We are undertaking pilot projects which will explore new ways for how we can use our cars differently and less often.”

WE don't all own cars. This statement only underlines the carcentric attitude that prevails when thinking about transport.

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brooksby | 1 year ago
6 likes

Quote:

“We need to free people from the burden and tyranny of owning tons of metal that sits unused 90 percent of the time,” he said.

laugh

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chrisonabike replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
6 likes

It's the white van man's burden, having to do all that vehicle owning and driving...

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
6 likes

The problem also being people don't own cars anymore they rent them via various finance deals. I wonder what the impact would be if you could only buy a car outright?

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Secret_squirrel replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

Maybe a punitive tax on car leasing finance with a corresponding zero rate for registered & audited car sharing schemes?

We have to try to modify the aspirational part of car ownership.   Though the Trussterfuck on interest rates will help knock cheap car finance on the head.  

Something to console us as we huddle inside a bike box warming our hands over the fire of our last tyre.

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Backladder replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Its a stupid criteria to decide if you need something or not, what else don't you use for  a minimum of 2 hours 24 minutes every day? All your crockery and cutlery for a start, most of your clothes, maybe even your bike! We need to provide a better reason for giving up a car like living healthier for longer, not this rubbish!  

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essexian replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

"Hang on a second... if I am not allowed to own an expensive car, how am I going to show to my neighbour that I am better than them???

Nope, my BMW is going to stay parked half on the pavement until you remove the keys from my cold, dead hands...."

 

(Actually, my BMW I3sports is parked on my drive, is made mostly of carbon fibre and weighs less than 1500kg.... but its still a 22 plate against the 2018 reg the poor person next door has....)

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Bmblbzzz replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

Quote:

“We need to free people from the burden and tyranny of owning tons of metal that sits unused 90 percent of the time,” he said.

laugh

See also Patrick Field, "The primary victims of motorisation are car drivers." And no doubt others before and since him.

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