SO Roger Phillips and the Conservatives announce their determination for a bypass in the same week as oil prices hit a new high. Not an irony that will be noticed by the same council which tried to close our schools ‘to improve education’, or buried our heritage under a road ‘to preserve it for future generations’.
Are they asleep? Evidence now shows that oil production seems to have peaked and that we now face continually reducing supplies. This means that high prices are here to stay and will rise a lot further. There are lots of solutions to this but a bypass isn’t one of them.
Oil provides 95 % of the energy we use for transport. Airlines are already going out of business and even the bosses at BA agree the age of cheap flights is over. Much of the traffic through Hereford is caused by an oil-dependent system that shuttles food and goods around the world before we buy it. This will become uneconomic. It will become cheaper to supply things locally and this will reduce traffic. Lots of us are already cutting down on our own car journeys to save money. We don’t need more roads: we need more travel choices. A bypass is yesterday’s solution for yesterday’s problems. The council will cause huge problems if it goes ahead with it the same way it did the schools’ review, thoughtlessly and without understanding the long-term consequences. It admits it can’t get funding from elsewhere so money will come from council taxpayers: you and me.
Everyone in favour of a bypass wants it for a very understandable reason: they are sick of sitting in traffic jams. But we need a solution that works and doesn’t cost too much. A bypass in the age of peak oil does neither. Every mile of new road costs millions which you and I pay for in tax. Let’s spend a fraction of it on a first class pedestrian and cycle network, in modern rapid transport systems, and in greater rail capacity. These measures would reduce congestion and allow those with no alternative to the car, especially rural residents, to drive with less delay. It would make travel more affordable for all of us in an age of continually increasing oil prices. It would help local business. It would mean reduced council tax. The desire for a bypass as oil supplies decline is like a thirsty man wanting to drink seawater. We know it won't work. We know it’s bad for us and will drive us mad. But we are apparently still deluded enough to want it. Rob Hattersley, Park Street, Hereford.
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