TheDarkMan
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Before going any further let me say I have never owned a motor vehicle much less driven one. I also live somewhere which has excellent public transport and is within easy travelling distance of some of the finest archives in the world, so I have no dog in this fight. That being said, there is a lot more at stake here than my convenience.
The 15 minute city is one of the many concepts dreamed up or schemed up by the World Economic Forum. Those who deride this as a “conspiracy theory” should take note that it now has its own dedicated website. The idea that the majority of the urban population should be able to access everything they need within a short walking distance or a bike ride certainly isn’t a bad one. I used to be able to bank in Sydenham – a short walk, or Penge – a somewhat longer walk. Now I have to catch a bus to Beckenham since my nearest branches closed.
My doctor’s surgery was located literally at the bottom of my road; now I have to trek or in my condition take a bus to the far end of Sydenham. I can still shop locally, some people have their shopping delivered, and at some point we may well all have our shopping delivered by drones or even robots. Convenience is one thing, compulsion is another entirely. The London Borough of Lewisham is currently running a consultation on creating its own fifteen minute borough but is dressing it up as a plan to create safer streets:
“Reducing unnecessary car journeys and prioritising active travel can help improve air quality and road safety, reduce noise and congestion and make our neighbourhoods greener, healthier and more enjoyable places to live.”
This will be accomplished by providing “modal filters” including physical barriers, although they aren’t too sure of the latter. Another way to pressurise motorists into giving up their cars is by pricing them off the roads. The congestion charge for London was introduced way back in 2003. It is said to be based on the Singapore version which dates in one form to the 1970s.
London’s gay-friendly Moslem Mayor Sadiq Khan is planning to extend the capital’s ULEZ low emission zone next August, and the charges involved are staggering. Returning to Lewisham, the people behind this scheme say “Our aim is for 80% of all journeys in Lewisham to be made by walking, cycling or public transport by 2041. To make this a reality, we want to create safer, less polluted streets to prioritise walking and cycling.”
In the unlikely event I am still around in 2041, I will probably be too infirm to walk, but those who are will almost certainly be told where they can walk and when, monitored constantly by CCTV, or if our masters get their way, by microchips in the backs of their necks.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The war on the car is real just as the war on identity, family, health and food. Carbon tax is going to be introduced on eaters of meat. The question is do we live for the enviroment or is the enviroment for us to use? What the WEF is promoting is creating a totalitarian communist state like the Soviet Union was. Central control now branded as World government. The elites oligarchs now branded as stake holders. Klaus Schwab admitted his inspiration comes from wellknown communists, Dom Helder Camara and Karl Marx.
They are monopolists pretending to be communists to sell monopolist takeover of imperialist economies to naive fools. If you actually read Marx and Lenin, they predicted this, but no way it was their goal.
If you ever took the time to read all three volumes of The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, you would see the evil malice that was in the heart of the Jewish name changer Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, when he made the decrees after the October Revolution to establish the forced labour death camps. Solzhenitsyn stated “that since 1917, Bolsheviks worked, starved and froze to death 66 million people, most of them Christians whom they hated”. As for Karl Marx, he was certainly one of the most evil men that ever lived, and his satanic accomplice… Read more »
Solzhenitsyn admitted he was wrong after visiting America and discovering degeneracy of imperialism.
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The car has always been a big mistake. Using 5000 lbs of steel to move a 150 lb person around is not the brightest idea in town. Long live trains.
Agree on use of trains wherever possible and practical. But – trains will not take me to all the places I go or plan to visit. How you arrive at the use of 5000 lbs of steel to transport one individual being applicable, a pointless parameter – bears zero applicability to the debate over cars. We plainly require trains and a wider rail network together with cars. Increased efficiency of cars, the steps towards hydrogen as a power source, forget electric cars, never enough materials to mfr enough electric cars for everyone. And are far from the enviro friendly package… Read more »
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Tell it to the people who live in Wyoming, Idaho, etc., and rural areas generally. We are here to avoid the noise and congestion of the city.
The government (UK) wants us all to drive electric cars and is banning internal combustion engine vehicles from 2030 and introducing congestion charging in cities across Britain. Electric cars are very expensive compare to ICE ones and the infrastructure to support them is virtually non-existent. Driving into towns and cities will become unaffordable. Motorist are being used as cash cows to prop up government finances.