Have I missed something recently - have my emails from crit geog 
been vanishing into the Bermuda triangle of cyberspace? Because 
here in Dump the Pump is a subject that (transport, pollution, 
accessibility, economics, etc etc) should be surely close to most 
human geographers, yet a deafening silence here on crit geog.
But then I wonder exactly what will DtP acheive. By their own 
admission, most motorists simply fill up the day before or after. 
They still drive the same  mileage - because lets face it the whole 
system, out of town retailing, cross suburban commuting, rural 
living, lack of local or rural shops, distant schools, forces us to.
I have been doing my own involuntary version of DtP this week as 
my cars been in the garage for a major MoT. And even if petrol 
were to rise to £2.00 a litre, I would still find it economic to use it. 
Commuting daily from Cross gates to Leeds Uni, 12 miles round 
trip, about £1.50 in petrol, or £2.40 in bus fares. By car, 20 minutes 
door to door;  by bus, including walking to and from the bus stops, 
nearer 50 minutes, assuming a bus turns up just as I arrive at the 
stop (Ha Ha!). Assuming that if I was a female I would have no 
qualms about using late evening buses, that is after 8pm, or 
wouldn't mind having to end my day at the Uni earlier than if I had a 
car. Weekly journey to Scunthorpe, 55 miles, by car about £7.00 
each way, and 1 hour, by train, nearer £10 and one change, then a 
long walk home at the Scun end, nearer 2 1/2 hours each way (if 
they don't cancel the hourly Doncaster to Scun train, then try 3 or 
4 hours. Oh. and who will carry all the luggage I can put in the 
boot?
No doubt we could all carry on with these examples; to make most 
of us willing to use buses and trains, not cars, AS THINGS ARE 
NOW, either, petrol must cost well over £3.00 a litre, totally 
politically unacceptable, and then prices would soar, so then would 
wages, and the real petrol price would effectively fall again, OR, all 
buses and trains must run at 10 min intervals, 6am till mifdnight, 
and fares halve or more, imagine the tax burden needed to 
subsidise something like that!
So enough of the gloom, here's the Monster Raving Loony Party's 
manifesto to solve the congestion/pollution/bad expensive public 
tyransport problem.....
1) Dig up all motorways, by passes, and any other big A road built 
after 1960 that goes around not through a town.
2) Sell all those acres of land back to the farmers, and watch UK 
town centres grind to a total gridlock...increase the gridlock still 
more by rigidly enforced bus lanes, penalties of £2000 for 
infringement.
3) Watch everyone howl, protest, say theyre starving as the local 
Tesco runs out of supplies, rediscover the joys of back garden 
vegetable growing or of walking to a local farm gate (Londoners, 
especially those living in flats, might be a bit stuck, but Screaming 
Lord Sutch tells me its far too big and dispersed anyway and could 
do with a bit of downsizing.
4) Use the money saved on road maintenance, traffic enforcement, 
sales of land to farmers, to reduce bus and train fares to one third 
of present levels.
5) Sit back and pray that 5 years till the next election is long 
enough for people to forget about cars and enjoy the benefits of 
less pollution, cheaper transport, and of localisation over 
globalisation
6) Panic as you remember that the USA, the EU, the IMF, the 
WTO, the big global companies, aren't just located in Britain and 
just wont allow this (London flat dwellers, you can breathe easy 
again - the car still rules!)
7) Finally, make sure you have moved to a location several metres 
above present sea level, buy ten tons of sand, spread it in the back 
garden, and wait for the sea to come to you.........
Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds


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