How To Cut Road Traffic By Half.

We're all (pretty much ) agreed that we need to cut down on private car usage.
But how ? It's just too tempting to use the car to nip down to Sainsbury's, and I've been known to drive to Turnpike Lane tube " in case it's raining when I get back ".

I'm instinctively against regulating people's behaviour by statute and hate the way our masters try to modify social behaviour by charging more and more for it ( just keeping this side of losing tax revenue by actually persuading people to give up the antisocial habit ).

How about rationing fuel (petrol/diesel )? Not by price, but by issuing smart cards that allow the purchase of only so much fuel per year.

Set the ration to half what an average driver uses per year (say enough for 4000 miles per year ). Then private car usage would automatically fall by half, gas guzzlers would be able to travel less far and owners of fuel-efficient cars and people driving efficiently would benefit from having more annual miles available.

Then I have a choice - I can take the bus to Sainsbury's; I can take an umbrella to the tube; and thereby save my petrol allowance for journeys where I really need the car. But it's still MY CHOICE as to how I use my allowance. There would probably need to be flexibility in the actual amount of the ration to allow for disabled people and others who need to use their cars more than the average, but if the ration were tied into the national ID card scheme (which is going to come - have no doubt about that ) then this could easily be done and would stop people selling their ration card.


Brilliant idea or what ?

"What" probably :-)