Agreed, congestion will not be sorted by any government because creating new roads (to relieve congestion) just encourages more traffic.
When we were young, I car symbolised freedom, and to an extent this was true because there were very few cars, in the cars of the day, long journeys were a major undertaking, and few could afford to buy or run a car.
Unless you lived in the country, work, and shops were near home, and there was reasonable public transport, cycles or walking if you were not close to work or shops.
Injuries, and deaths were proportionally quite high, I think due to the public not being exposed to vehicles therefore had not learned to lookout for them, and the vehicles themselves were not very safe, poor tyres, brakes, steering, and suspensions, safety was low in the designers list of requirements.
This was tempered to some degree by lack of speed, most vehicles had a short or troublesome life if driven fast, they fell to bits.
As the demand for cars increased, hire purchase became acceptable, and driven by the image of freedom, as a toy for big boys, and status symbol, prices fell due to the benefits of mass production.
Mass production = high capital input = the need to create a demand.
So today, we use a car because it's less trouble than putting a coat on when we need to go around the corner, and now the shops have been able to move out of town because shopping is another excuse to have a ride in our new toy, we can work miles from home, another chance to use, and justify our toy.
We no longer wonder if it will start, or will it get there, in fact very few know how the go pedal makes it go or what actually happens when they jump on the stop pedal?
I always think of Toad of Toad Hall, when thinking of people, (including me) and cars.
As to taxation, and cars, governments need money, everyone complains about direct taxation, almost everyone has a car in their life so it seems logical to shift some of the taxation onto cars.
As the number of cars increase, it becomes even more important that everyone understands and follows the rules, well at least try to achieve this but this is in conflict with the freedom image.
I have to go three times per week into Sunderland along the main route from the west, just about every junction has a roundabout, put there to avoid congestion.
I have to start the journey back around 4 - 5PM, the journey back consists of queuing to get onto a roundabout, as we leave that roundabout we join the queue for the next one.
One way or another, this has to end, we cannot go on increasing the number of vehicles running around at random on the roads.
Building more roads has not solved the problem in the USA, and they have plenty of space which the UK doe's not have.
Before you ask, no I don't know the answer.
In controlling where we we are, I still think the most effective deterrent, is the warning, guidance chat with a trained traffic police officer at the road side.
The NIP/points system is too easy, and is used as a status symbol.
Reading comments about having a probationary period (with appropriate plates) for new drivers, sparks off the thought for a deterrence for traffic offences, rather than a short ban (which makes many people unemployed) why not have stick on, R plates (Rule breaker) to be displayed for a set time?
With ANPR cameras now on police cars, it would be easy to police.
