Whilst I appreciate that every case is different, I think there is a preconception that if you live outside of a city or town then a car or access to one is a necessity. I live in a village 3 miles from a town and 10 from a city. It's also a 2 mile trip to the nearest railway station (which I walk each morning and in reverse in the evening). Now I live with my parents but can't drive myself due to epilepsy, yet I do manage to get by without a car. I can see it getting harder, as it has done in the last decade. Ten years ago my village had three newsagents, now it has none, but in the adjacent village has opened up a Tesco, specifically designed for car trips and hence bulk shopping. I think what's needed is a systematic movement back to local community shops, but unfortunately I can't see it happening.
One thing I think we are going to see a welcome growth in is cycling. It's such a underused godsend at the moment, and after the initial purchase, absolutely free.
I think this post makes quite an important point.
I bet that there will be other people living in Stavros's village, who if they were to post on here, would set off on a big rant whinging about how they simply
can't exist without a car, and it's all because there isn't any public transport, but if there was, then they would act differently.
The thing is that Stavros gets by OK-ish because I imagine he goes to work in town every day, and probably can do his shopping and stuff there. But for other people who aren't so mobile (either physically or for financial reasons) doing stuff like shopping must be a real pain unless they don't have a car. This is because there is no local shop which is because of growing car usage (and by the sounds of it, planning policy which encourages this by allowing the construction of the Tesco) and we are into the classic vicious circle which then just causes even more local facilities to go under.
These kinds of cases are important because they are fairly marginal - ie it obviously
is just about possible to cope without a car (as Stavros proves) but we are allowing places like this to gradually slip into the category of places where it genuinely isn't realistically possible to do so.
And I think we should be doing everything we can to stop this happening - through planning policy and through reinforcing the existing public transport policy - but also through a bit more in the way of "stick" measures, whether that is increased fuel tax, or making people pay for their parking when they do get into town or drive to the supermarket. That way, although some will of course complain, perhaps it's still possible to swing the balance to a situation where more people are walking a couple of miles to the station everyday, and then suddenly things like village shops become viable again, the vicious circle can be reversed and ultimately, the majority of people will be better off - including all the most vulnerable ones like old folk who can't or don't run a car.
What I'm trying to say is that you can't just rely on carrot measures - I bet you could instigate a ten-minute frequency bus service and loads of people would still get in their cars and drive to Tesco. The bus service would benefit people who don't have cars but it wouldn't necessarily provoke the major shift in habits that would really benefit lots of people - I think folk need a bit of prodding as well as pulling. Of course, as others mention, that prodding is likely to kick in automatically through rising energy prices some time anyway, but it'll be a lot easier for everyone if we're a bit prepared.
The thing about increasing bike usage is significant too - it's interesting to see how cycling has taken off in London, for example. It's an excellent example of a self-reinforcing shift in attitudes: I bet there are lots of people who now cycle to work who just a few years ago simply wouldn't have considered an option. But now it's become more popular, and more facilities are provided in response (bike storage rooms in workplaces, for example)
these changes in turn make it more popular still. I believe that this kind of change can be encouraged to take place in the sorts of areas described above, if people are brave enough to take on the inevitable whingers and whiners.
