How the fuck has this become a left/right culture war issue?
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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They won a by-election by opposing the ULEZ expansion, so now he thinks that reversing any policy which might upset car drivers is a general election winning policy.
Sadly, he's probably right.
I prefer to say they 'barely clung onto a previously pretty safe seat whilst using a wedge issue as a bludgeon to beat the opposition'.
If it was a Tory mayor pushing it they'd have got absolutely fucking obliterated.
It was Boris who introduced the idea of ULEZ and the Tory Party who endorsed it. It was their policy to begin with!
Because the automobile and oil industries have plenty of political influence, and they are very afraid of a less car centric future. They will lobby, astroturf, and otherwise manipulate as much as possible.
Like the sudden appearance of outrage over "15 minute cities" amongst the conspiracy brigade. Urban planning theories don't attract much interest from the public usually, but will if spun in to the right narrative and whispered in the right ears.
Not to mention that 15 minute cities are pretty great!
Because of the way the one way systems are here, anything inside a 15 minute walk is already faster to walk to than drive to, and it works well.
How did selling a shackle to the common people that also isolates them from each other and helps keep society stratified, therefore breaking social cohesion, became a left/right issue? I can't quite put my finger on it...
Well when you put it like that 😂
when all you have is a hammer everythings a nail #torymanifesto2024
Because political necromancy has become the order of the day
You'd think tackling air pollution would have cross party consensus but nothing is off limits to populists
So why exactly are there still Tories that have not been tarred and feathered and run out of the cities by the common people?
There doesn't seem to be even a single one among them worth having around.
Here in Cambridge, the "Sustainable Travel Zone" was just torpedoed, killed largely by a curiously well funded "grassroots" campaign. The biggest public condemnation came from the Conservative minority on council.
In the end, it died because too many from the Labour/Libdem (mostly Libdem) majority flip-flopped on it out of fear of losing the next election to Conservatives.
This is what we get when we elect opportunistic cowards.
Sunak saying he has long term plans for anything is like the milk saying it has long term plans for the fridge.
This is the sad state of tory policy. Car good, motorist good, pedestrian poor, climate bad
Ah yes, more, faster cars are the answer to our problems. It worked out great for the USA! 🇺🇲🛻
I've actually taken to only doing 20mph in residential areas anyway. Kinda makes sense around streets where you don't know whether kids or animals will just run out into the road.
As any sensible person would.
Even if it's only because you don't want to damage your car you be careful wouldn't you?
How the hell do you intend to reach net-zero with these clowns in charge?
Many in the Tories are full on climate change deniers.
They don't intend to reach net zero at all
We won't. We're gonna continue to apathetically march towards a world-ending climate crisis, and when it's finally producing societal collapse and the average person's life is being disrupted in a practical way beyond climate protestors, and it's clear we strolled past the point of no return years ago, the millionaires and billionaires will all retreat into their private safe havens and shield themselves from the rest of the world and all consequences, proclaiming "we tried guys, we really tried, but the insert scapegoat blocked us at every turn and ruined it for everyone," while we proceed to tear eachother apart.
Logical conclusion: stop making babies
They don't. They're going to let Labour take the unpopular actions necessary to get anywhere close to achieving it and then get elected back in because Labour took unpopular actions
I don't think we will with anyone.
We need huge co2 taxes and taxes on imports too. That's just the start.
So as far as I can tell his new long-term "plan" is to not have any plan at all because there was a plan and now there isn't a plan.
Anyway why do we care what he says
He doesn't expect to be in charge long enough to make it worth having a plan.
What a fucking stupid plan.
So how much money did you receive again from car manufat?
I think this one is desperate attempt to gain some traction in the polls. They had a shock win at a by election over a green issue. Granted the green issue was very much a local issue and they only won by about 500 votes. But a drawning man will clutch at anything.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Rishi Sunak says he wants to stop "hare-brained" road calming and safety schemes, including 20mph zones, to end what he says is a "war on motorists".
He conceded that 20mph zones near schools "make sense" but said they should not be done in a "blanket way" - criticising the Welsh government's decision to drop the default speed limit from 30mph to 20mph for restricted roads.
Mr Harper also told BBC Radio 4's Today programme"we want them put in place where they make sense" such as "outside a school, or in a heavily built up area where you might have children playing, or where there's a particular issue with accidents".
But writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh posted previous commitments by the Conservatives to LTNs, adding: "Whose hare-brained idea was it in the first place?"
The latest plans follow the prime minister's revision of his government's net zero policies, which delays the ban on new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 to 2035.
It also follows the Conservative Party's narrow byelection victory in Uxbridge, Boris Johnson's former seat, after fighting a campaign focused on local opposition to the expansion of London's ultra-low emission zone.
The original article contains 697 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Here in Oxford at least, LTNs have been poorly planned and while side streets aren't being used to go from one main street to the other, it has resulted in all the traffic being pushed effectively into two main roads, in one area onto one. What this has done is create absolute gridlock traffic at least twice a day, concentrating all of the pollution and forcing LTN residents to drive further than before just to get out of their respective streets. It's absolutely bonkers. Sunak like the rest of these Tory idiots can go disappear in a hole for all I care but I would definitely welcome a reversal of this LTN nonsense.
That being said, reverting traffic-calming measures just for the sake of being a reactionary Tory and opposing "the green agenda" or whatever they're calling it is still profoundly stupid
I mean, those effects are part of the intent. Make traveling by car worse while making other methods better, encouraging more use of the later.
Sounds like those busy corridors could use some trains and bike lanes
Absolutely. It's still stupid because this also means that travelling by bus is basically impossible during peak traffic (i.e., when people have to go to work and would maybe consider taking the bus there). That only leaves going by bike, which is not pleasant in bad weather and as soon as you have to leave the city, you need a car