I have been using public transport ever since I passed my driving test a good few moons ago. Cars have never fascinated me, full stop. I felt that I somehow ought to be able to drive – just in case, you know, someone else at the wheel was suddenly incapacitated……..quite.
Which makes me a very odd person, it seems. Most people look at me as if I am totally barmy if I say I don’t drive, and don’t wish to – am I an eco-warrior, they wonder? Hmm….he doesn’t look like one. And who on earth would want to rely on public transport?
Cut to the chase – not driving has its disadvantages. According to Wikipedia, there’s a whole cultural car-driven cornucopia out there focussing on the benefits of getting behind the wheel and driving away – liberation from social control, an expression of masculine power, potential sexual adventure (according to Wikipedia, in any case), travel….the list of brilliant things you can associate with mobile metal is a long one. James Dean coolly peering out of his gleaming roadmobile says it all….well, let’s not dwell on the car-crash.
All of which I can live with, frankly. What is more jarring is the public perception, which no-one less than Margaret Thatcher seemed to front up back in the 1980s, of being a lesser social being: “A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure”.
Well, thanks for that. I use buses all the time. And yes, there is something in what she says, I confess – you don’t find a good social balance of people using the buses. But why, for heaven’s sake? Why should public transport services be regarded as the terrain of the underprivileged? What about the superior carbon footprint?
Trying to persuade anyone to give up their car is, in my experience, a total waste of time.
But would it be too much to ask for better public transport, that folks from all walks of life might wish to use as a stress-free, cheap and eco-ok alternative? Now, where did I put my eco-balaclaver….?
