Bmblbzzz wrote:The fact is that livelihoods, careers and lives are going to change radically. Many jobs will disappear, some new ones will take some of their places. Either we start doing this about twenty years ago in a controlled manner and cope with the pain or we carry on ignoring it and it will happen suddenly in an uncontrolled manner and we won't cope with the pain.
I posted the text below on the thread about MP’s saying we all had to get out of our cars. It’s valid for this thread too:
“New houses are not built near or next to work places and they need to be, and they need to be desirable places to live too. Companies should be obliged to consider the sustainability of employee transport when they appoint people to join their company. It will not be possible or practical for all employees to live near the company, however a legal requirement for say 40% to live within say five miles (a 30 minute bike ride) would be sensible in terms of environmental transport concerns.”So basically for the Scottish Cities car ban idea to work to need to remove the need to travel by car and that’s done by having work places along side living places. Planning permission for new homes needs to consider (in broad terms) where the occupants will be able to work and how they will get there; we need offices, shops, schools, warehouses and factories to be built either alongside housing or a very short distance away.
I suggested a 40% with 5 miles policy above and think that a further boundary of 80% with say 12 miles would be good too. The spare 20% is intended for the likes of those living in rural and sparsely populated areas; work can be a long distance away and the problem is compounded for two wage earner families - especially so in times of recession. Those that live in rural communities need support and some other people have to work many miles from where home is ... often such people are away from home and family whole weeks and longer.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.