A dictator :
a person who behaves in an autocratic way.
"for some reason he's being a dictator—saying this is the way we're going to do it"
The Welsh people didn’t want this, the results of the 8 trial areas were that the people didn’t want it. But it still went through against the wishes of the majority. That for me makes him act like a dictator and how he is viewed by many in Wales at the moment.
As for not thinking there is a grand agenda to stop people using their cars, it’s there in black and white above, yes there is an agenda to do exactly that.
What I find bizarre is that at a time when we are shifting people into electric cars, with no emissions, they are also trying to ban them. Will the London ULEZ and other ULEZ zones be removed when we are all driving electric cars? I doubt it very much. As I said in another thread, having the freedom to get in your car and travel to see a relative or to have a day out will become only for the very rich.
I doubt 20mph zones will encourage more people to go out and cycle or walk. Obesity is more to do with our lifestyles and diets now rather than exercise. Just look at Uber Eats or Just Eat - it’s all fast food. People can still go out and exercise regardless of speed limits, but we choose not to and choose to eat more processed foods from the comfort of our armchairs.
Power trip may be - who knows. I think it’s more about trying to distance themselves as far away as possible from the London establishment than anything else. I would be amazed however if the people of wales vote him in for another term after this.
It’s good to see the PM today talking some common sense though and acknowledging that other countries need to do their bit whilst delaying some measures here coming in for a few more years, particularly the ban on new petrol/diesel cars.
There’s a big, big difference between disincentivising and banning. The Welsh Government are aiming to
disincentivise personal car use according to what you posted above. In my eyes, that’s no different to how things like smoking, junk food and sugary drinks have gradually been disincentivised through different laws over the years. All of these things have been
disincentivised to varying degrees, but none have been
banned.
As an example, the sugar tax doesn’t
ban people from buying a bottle of full-fat Coca-Cola. While it does
disincentivise it and not make it as much of an optimal choice, people are still given the choice about whether they want to drink full-fat Coca-Cola. They can buy the full-fat Coca-Cola and pay the additional money, buy Coca-Cola Zero and drink a less sugary alternative for less money, or not drink Coca-Cola at all.
While I accept that it’s not a perfect analogy, that’s pretty similar in broad terms to levies like the ULEZ fine. The ULEZ does
disincentivise car travel within Greater London for people with older and less efficient cars, but it does not flatly
ban it, and people are still given the choice about whether they want to drive a less efficient car into Greater London. They can drive a pre-2005 petrol or pre-2015 diesel into Greater London and pay the fine, drive a newer, more efficient car into Greater London and not pay the fine, or use public transport and not drive into Greater London at all.
I would also add that in terms of your point about electric cars not resulting in the ULEZ being removed; electric cars are ULEZ-compliant (to my knowledge), so the ULEZ being in place or not makes no difference to them. I would politely ask; if the ULEZ was a big autocratic conspiracy to prevent car use full stop, would Transport for London really have made it so that the fine will gradually affect less and less drivers with time as electric cars and newer, more efficient petrol and diesel cars become more prevalent? Surely as these cars become more prevalent and non-compliant cars become less prevalent with time, that would actually have the opposite effect of less people being stung by it, thus actually
increasing car use, no?
By the same token; I would argue that the 20mph speed limit in Wales is very similar, possibly even
less blatant in disincentivising car use than the likes of the ULEZ. It might possibly
disincentivise car use compared to other options by meaning that car users can get places slightly less quickly than before and providing a greater incentive to walk or cycle as the risk of injury from cars is lower (due to the lower speed of travel decreasing the stopping distance). However, it does not flatly
ban car use by any stretch of the imagination, and people are still given the choice about whether they wish to drive along built-up roads in Wales. They can drive along built-up roads and keep to the 20mph speed limit, they can avoid built-up roads and avoid the lower speed limits, or they can walk, cycle or take public transport and not drive at all.
In terms of why I cited the obesity crisis as something that 20mph speed limits might help with; while people
can still exercise regardless of speed limits, lower speed limits and safer roads might give people more incentive to engage in passive exercise (such as walking or cycling instead of driving to get to places) while going about their daily routine. As an example; if a child lives a 15 minute walk from school, but a 30mph speed limit and potentially dangerous driving mean that parents view the roads as too risky for their child to walk along, a 20mph speed limit and a safer road might lower the relative risk of walking and encourage parents to let their child to walk to school rather than drive them there. While a 15 minute walk each way to and from school is hardly a high-intensity workout, it is exercise nonetheless, and this would result in 150 minutes of exercise that the child engages in during the week that they wouldn’t have engaged in otherwise. This sort of passive exercise is bound to have at least some degree of knock-on effect upon calories burned across the week and by extension people’s waistlines, thus I feel that a 20mph speed limit could indirectly help with the obesity crisis. While it may not be the
main factor, I’d argue that exercise and people driving short distances that they could walk or cycle could at very least be a contributing factor to the obesity crisis.
