Yet more Transport

Saw Panorama's documentary regarding fuel costs today and I feel it missed the point, all though in fairness, it was pretty short of a point, it seemed to ask a lot of questions, such as is fuel taxation a bad thing, well yes if you talk to the crofters on Orkney who need to travel long distances to do anything, no if you talk to the LSE professor who lives, oh in London and sees no reason why people can't take public transport. For my money he has clearly been in London so long he doesn't realise that once you get out of London, yes there is an outside of London, Public transport veers wildly in quality and provision. The programme made a great deal about the GeeWizz electric car, a very small, pretty unsafe electric car that is all their age in London, and it is good there, you have car parks with recharging bays (It only has a 40 odd mile range) and it is exempt from the congestion charge and road tax. The show made the point that outside of London, while the government wants to promote these wee electric cars for cities, not many cities have the facility to charge them up, but hey, why provide any alternative when you can fleece us for tax. It is a catch 22. Councils won't provide charging points until more people have electric cars, but no one will buy one until they can charge it up. trust me I would get a gee whiz tomorrow if I didn't have to run an extension lead from my 3rd floor flat as it would be ideal for my short run to the station.

But of course, that's not the point at all. It is very easy for someone who can afford, say a big BMW, or a custom super charged mondeo with nitrous kit, to do such things as buy an electric car for small trips, or have an LPG conversion. Indeed both myself and my wife would definitely consider the latter as a local petrol station provides LPG at half the cost of petrol. However, like most people who have to drive a big family car (What with having a family) usually older and hence higher emissions (Because we can't afford to take the depreciation hit) and can't afford money staving measures like LPG or electric, we will have to continue to be punished for using fuel, despite the fact that we can not afford an alternative. Yes, the Rich can reap the tax breaks and be smug about being green, we take up the slack. Joy.

I did get a smile today though, I've already heard many negative things about Edinburgh's tram system from residents, largely the realisation of the small area it will cover and the disruption it will cause. As you know I find trams obsolete and wasteful compared to superior but rarely considered trolley buses, but also because of the mass whinge from interested party's (Not to mention councillors who had already taken kickbacks for contracts to dig up roads yet to be awarded) when the SNP tried to cancel the scheme on the grounds of it being a huge white elephant. Now traders in Edinburgh have complained about the drop in business due to the roads being closed during the fitting of their ails, and complaints about the traffic congestion in general. The shop owners admit that business may improve after the trams are running but feel they should be compensated for the disruption. Hmm, its like they have a cake, but also wish to eat it while still keeping the cake, or in a nutshell, they want to bleed as much as possible out of this. I sincerely hope the Government tells them that had they not whined so much to get the project un-cancelled they would not have had the drop in business and to stop wasting everyone's time and money.