Car owners!! Sign the petition

hawkwinddotcom

893,509

probably real, it goes to a .gov site

robnye

have you seen some of the other petitions nearing their deadlines...
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/list/open?sort=deadline

'ban halloween'
'ban christmas'
'ban junk mail'
'legalize cannabis'

and then look at some of the ones that have been rejected.... and the reasons why

lisyloo

Why? Surely congestion is self correcting?

Doesn't seem to be to me.
M25, London, Bristol or Bath etc. have not corrected themselves.

Tiglet

Shirie wrote:

...only 250,000 people had signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.

If 750,000 of us sign up, will he stand on his head and juggle ice cream?:rotfl:

Edited to add link

tomstickland

lisyloo wrote:

Doesn't seem to be to me.
M25, London, Bristol or Bath etc. have not corrected themselves.

My point being that noone chooses to sit in a traffic jam for fun. They don't wake up and think "oh I know, I'll go and drive to that jam in Bristol, it's a real hoot". They travel for a reason. Road pricing is just trying to increase the pain a bit more.

RainbowsInTheSpray

Oh God, yawn, yawn, yawn. Is it my imagination or is it suddenly 'petition season'?

I would make the following points:

1. Where is the voice on this petition for the millions of people who don't or can't own cars?

2.Where is the voice on this petition for the millions of people who are forced to use public transport?

3. Where is the voice of realism in all of this, with people seeming to think that we can somehow wish away congestion painlessly?

4. How about, if you DO want to even things up a bit on driving costs, drawing a little more attention to the zero rating on aviation fuel for the 4x4 sleasyjetters who zoom off to their costa hideaways 5 times a year... effectively being subsidised by the rest of us poor blighters trying to get to work?

5. So you get 750000 people to 'sign' it... that still means 19 out of 20 drivers haven't.

mpython

Tiglet wrote:

If 750,000 of us sign up, will he stand on his head and juggle ice cream?:rotfl:

Edited to add link

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Doesn't that just say it out loud.

And on a more serious note, as if this petition will make any difference people? How many people marched against the Iraq war (1m? 2m?) & still they went ahead.

Biggles

mpython wrote:

How many people marched against the Iraq war (1m? 2m?) & still they went ahead.

2m just in London. More like 5m across the country, tens of millions worldwide. And for what?

mpython

Thanks Biggles, I don't want to distract this thread with a discussion about Iraq. My point being, is if 5m actually took the time to go out & protest, rather than just log on to a website, will a 1m (according to today's Times) electronic petition be acted on?

lisyloo

My point being that noone chooses to sit in a traffic jam for fun. They don't wake up and think "oh I know, I'll go and drive to that jam in Bristol, it's a real hoot". They travel for a reason. Road pricing is just trying to increase the pain a bit more.

Of course people travel for a reason but not EVERY single car journey is essential.

For example I could get a train or a bus to work but it's more convenient for me to drive (even with congestion).
Should the balance change (worse or more expensive to go by car and better publiv transport) then some people might change their behaviour.

Also I don't plan my shopping very well because I know I can pop out at any time for a pint of milk.
Many years ago (when people didn't have the convenience of cars) people would have to plan better because they couldn't go to the all-night corner shop at all hours.

Chnage in behaviour in both modes of transport and cutting out unnecessary journeys is essential for both congestion and global warming.

BTW - I do try and cycle, walk and I lift share to work so I do try to be good.