Part of the misguided but frequently stated axiomatic goal to reduce car travel as an end in itself stems from the false assumption that public transport can provide a realistic substitute for personal motorised travel and that therefore the only way to reduce the considerable costs of motorised transport in the form of resource use, pollution, road trauma, and congestion, is to reduce overall car "dependence". This paper argues that this approach is misguided, that car use world-wide will increase considerably into the future, particularly in developing countries, that public transport is becoming less and less a viable substitute for car travel due to changing employment patterns, changing land use patterns and more complex daily activity patterns, and that the most efficient, equitable and environmentally friendly way to tackle the rising costs of urban motorised transport is to "civilise" car use by adopting economic pricing policies. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E210413.
Abstract