So then they published this precis of an earlier blog.
Sir,
were every car driven
in Morpeth there to haul away purchases in quantities that could
only be hauled away by car, all the shops in town would be
sold out by noon every day. Morpeth retailers grown rich-as-Croesus
on this daily tsunami of trade would be retiring to their yachts in
the Bahamas in droves.
This
isn't happening because not all car use blesses the town. Much of it
is commuter traffic, personal transport journeys, 80% or so single
occupant, one individual taking him/herself to work, parking up all
day, then home without pausing to spread cash around. This car use
brings congestion, noise, stench and hazard; devours space, overloads
limited parking, hoovers up subsidy and costs the town. Better for
Morpeth that these journeys be made differently.
The
Herald's front page from Oct 18th, on your website, is
illustrative. A Morpeth businesswoman scapegoats the usual patsies
for the stressful misery of her car commute. That she lives – the
electoral roll suggests – 1.3 miles from her place of work isn't
disclosed. That's a 20 to 25 minute walk or a 5 to 10 minute cycle
ride. Buses pass the end of her street, all stop at the bus station
which is closer to her place of work than any legal parking. Her
using a car for this journey, the stressful miserable option, can
most kindly be described as 'irrational'.
What proportion of those who currently commute by single-occupant car to work in central Morpeth, from addresses in Morpeth, over readily walkable/cycleable distances or along routes well served by public transport, would need to leave the car at home and instead travel rationally for Morpeth to be cured at a stroke – starting tomorrow morning if you want it badly enough - of the congestion and parking problems that so agitate the car-user lobby?
The heat and noise
generated by the Morpeth car-user lobby obscure a simple truth that
no politician dare whisper, let alone shout through a loud hailer in
the market square. Car users are responsible for Morpeth's traffic
problems.
This may be painful to
digest on first hearing, so to sweeten the pill here's a fun online
clip:
Sincerely
And they only edited out the youtube link stuff and the contentious info that Josie's commute is 1.3 miles or a 20 to 25 minute walk.
And the following week there were remarkably few letters spectacularly missing the point by asserting the need to drive of double amputees living 40 miles out in the sticks in isolated small-holdings.
