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Falling out
of love
with the car
Anthony Seaton
‘Oh murder, what was that, Papa?’
‘My child, it was a motor car,
A most ingenious toy,
Designed to captivate and charm
Far rather than to cause alarm,
In any English boy.’
Hilaire Belloc lived in another age, one that few now recall. But how we love our cars. Some collect them like stamps, some wash them and polish them like household heirlooms, and we all drive them and take on their personalities. They make the humble proud, the meek brave, the polite rude, the slow fast, the modest arrogant and the weak powerful. They are constructed and promoted to reflect our most undesirable characteristics. Was there ever such a transforming invention?
In Belloc’s time, a car was a real rarity. Now most adults would regard them as essential. Their effects are visible everywhere. Local shops close, out-of-town supermarkets proliferate, roads become congested, street profiles are obscured, pavements are deserted, public transport deteriorates and people stop walking. Epidemic obesity stalks the nation with its attendant complications. And, in refutation of Belloc’s early 20th-century view, cars are the major cause of death of young people.
I think the tide is slowly turning. While a vociferous minority regards it as a right to break the law by speeding and by parking in a way to cause public inconvenience, I notice an increasing sense of responsibility among drivers (excluding those controlling white vans). Recent understanding of the likely consequences of global climate change coupled with more realistic pricing of fuel is making individuals accept responsibility for their own contributions. Smaller, less ostentatious cars are now widely used in towns and electric/hybrid engines are available. The desire to accelerate furiously from one set of traffic lights only to brake forcefully at the next is becoming obviously stupid, except to youngsters with baseball caps and noisy exhaust pipes.
Some are even realising that on a typical journey it makes little difference in time to destination whether you stick to the speed limit or exceed it, since the journey time depends largely on the hold-ups rather than the time taken between them.
Government action can help solve the increasing problem of the car and encourage us back onto our feet, bicycles and public transport. Higher fuel and vehicle taxes are inevitable. Increased investment in public transport and restriction of city centre driving are necessary – how short-sighted of those who vote against congestion charging. But I have a simple suggestion that I think would help at no cost.
We should all try, when we drive, to do so by a device that tells us the instantaneous and cumulative mileage per gallon. Nothing more effectively improves driving habits. Why do our cars show us the revolutions of the engine and yet so few give this information? Should we not campaign for car manufacturers to make it standard rather than optional?
Professor Anthony Seaton is an emeritus professor in the school of medicine and dentistry at the University of Aberdeen
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