Time to review transport policy
IF THERE is a positive experience of lockdown, it is the reduced traffic on the road. Cyclists can enjoy a freer, faster ride, pedestrians can walk the lanes without having to hop into bushes to avoid the cars driving past and breathing in the fumes.
It seems a perfect opportunity, then, for the States to review their transport policy. Better, to rethink it completely.
I have a few suggestions. Let’s look first at the size of car, especially those that bully their way through the lanes and smaller roads of the island – why not tax them (or offer tax reduction to those who do not drive them)? Let’s also look at engine size and polluting levels, and again either tax or offer tax reduction. We can imagine a day when tax perks are offered to those who drive electric cars (requiring the States, of course, to invest in charging stations), and status is connected to ecology and not size.
I am aware that such policies are unattractive to many, that it takes courage for a deputy to support such a radical rethink of the car’s place in island life. But it is essential if Guernsey is to be proactive in the climate change movement.
And who knows, it might even help the deficit.
So, I urge the States to grasp this thorny issue now.
TRICIA VOUTE
Address withheld.