The Clarkson Controversy - I reply to Peter Franklin

Peter Franklin, on 'Conservative Home' has commented on my attack on Jeremy Clarkson. You can read what he says here : 

http://www.conservativehome.com/the-deep-end/2015/03/conservatism-cars-clarkson-and-peter-hitchens.html

 

I have had some technical difficulty, no doubt my own fault, in posting a response on the site.

 

This is what I sought to post there. I think it also answers some of my petrolhead critics here. : 

 

I am perfectly well aware of the fact that motor vehicle users pay taxes which help to finance our nationalised, subsidised road network . Alas, many of them think that non-motorists do not do so, when in fact they do through income tax, VAT, council tax and the many other duties and imposts with which non-car-owners are burdened, just as much as car owners are. This belief is actively dangerous, as it sometimes leads to inconsiderate treatment of cyclists and pedestrians by drivers who have been persuaded that such people 'don't pay road tax' and so don't have as much freedom to use the roads as they do. 

I am also well aware that a country which bases its transport system, and its town and country planning on roads and cars, as we have done now for nearly 60 years, makes it very hard to avoid car ownership. I quite understand that some people are more or less compelled to use cars and have never criticised anyone for doing so because they have to. I occasionally drive myself, though I prefer not to. Truly safe and considerate driving requires a level of responsibility and self-restraint which most people (I I speak as a cyclist and pedestrian who sees a lot of other people's driving at close quarters) can't achieve. 

I do not, as it happens, live in London. I work in London but I live in Oxford, a city where it is quite possible to get about almost entirely on foot or by bicycle unless you have a heavy load to carry. I can also travel between the two cities by bicycle and train, or by bus. 

What I notice is that, even so, many young and fit people use motor transport to make short journeys within Oxford that they could easily accomplish without cars. And that streets within easy reach of the centre are crammed with cars parked so densely that they are now officially allowed to park in many places with two wheels upon the pavement. Traffic in Oxford, since I first lived there in 1963, has grown immensely. Yet the city's actual population has not grown that much, thanks to a strongly-enforced green belt. One of the main reasons for the traffic is commuting from several nearby towns, which have grown greatly partly because they have become commuter dormitories for Oxford. . In 1960, all these towns still had railway links with Oxford (Abingdon, Thame, Witney, Wallingford). Now none of them does.