I’m all for public transport, and limiting the need for cars, but public transport isn’t viable for EVERY journey.

What if you’re disabled and have special travel needs?

Or you’re sick/elderly/immunocompromised etc and need to avoid enclosed crowds to avoid catching COVID as it will surely kill you in your current condition?

What if you’re trying to transport something that can’t be taken on public transport, like your rotavator to go turn over your allotment? Or your big strimmer? Or even just your big gardening tools to do such jobs by hand? Or maybe you’re transporting a load of wood you just bought, or a new window, etc etc.

Or just a load of family grocery shopping for the week, which would take up several seats on the bus which isn’t allowed, assuming you could even get all those bags onto the bus - you cannot can’t carry them all once you get off, either, you’d be stranded at the bus stop. You could use a large personal shopping trolley, but again, those have nowhere to go on a bus.

What if you’re going camping and need to transport a bunch of stuff for the whole family down to a camp site?

What if you need to dump loads of old rubbish down at the tip, day, because you recently demolished your old garden shed, or had a big clean out?

Talking taxi every single time for these sorts of things is incredibly expensive and not viable, and those are just a few examples of the many reasons you might need to take a personal car over excellent public transport links.

I love love love public transport and reducing car usage, but getting rid of cars entirely severely limits people’s mobility. Cars fill an important niche. We shouldn’t all be taking cars for every single journey, that’s the main problem we have to tackle as a society, but they are important to maintain access to none the less.

Seeing news like this, and knowing how it will negatively affect the mobility and life options of the poorest and the most at risk, makes me sad 😔