Could A Drive To The Library Cost A Local Woodland?
That quick drive to the store before dinner could cost you your open spaces!
I’m not talking about the cost of car pollution on the environment – although that is becoming a major problem. And I’m not talking about the amount of front yards and gardens being concreted over for parking spaces – although this is seriously affecting natural water cycles and causing localised flooding.
What I’m talking about is your single little car on your ‘quick drive to the stores’ being one of 30 other little cars on a quick drive to the store.
How Can 1 Little Car Cause A Problem?
Well, imagine only the people that 100% need to be on the roads at rush hour were on the roads. People going to work, emergency services and buses are who I mean here – and they all know where they are going. As a result of their A – B actions, they may well run smoothly with no snarl-ups – I mean traffic lights and roundabouts are designed to keep traffic flowing to avoid congestion.
Now, add dithering drivers to the mix. They either drive too slow, can’t decide which lane they should be in, are too busy fiddling with something on the passenger seat to watch the lights or are not in a hurry at all so make bad driving choices.
All these people are responsible for causing traffic delays – and these traffic delays get noticed by the residents and they want the traffic sorted out. This can involve a whole host of changes.
Who Decides?
If residents get annoyed about traffic issues, councils want to implement more traffic regulations and traffic lights to control the flow. They want to ‘improve’ the roundabouts and dual carriageways – which all make it more difficult for pedestrians to get around – what with all the railings and extra lanes to navigate.
The worst case scenario here is unfortunately the best alternative to traffic in towns – and that is to build a by-pass! Heavy machinery is used here to plough out fields and woodlands to make way for a super-fast easy-to-drive-on dual carriageway!
I know that this won’t happen overnight – but it could already be happening. Has your town got any roadworks going on? Any ‘highway’ improvements at the moment? Do you already have speeding cars and multiple junctions?
If you keep driving in rush hour or when you really don’t need to – you are causing some of these problems. And there is a simple way to slow this development down – and it involves forward planning, buses, trains, bikes and your very own little feet!