Could our cities could become car-free within a generation?

Could our cities could become car free within a generation? The question may seem fanciful, but it is of critical importance to a metropolis like London as it struggles to control air pollution and encourage cycling.

Andrew Davis, managing director of the ETA, quotes our belief that the proliferation of cars comes with a wider social price. “Studies have found that people who live on a road with lots of traffic in an urban environment, have much more significant social problems over people who live in, for example, a cul-de-sac. The studies show that living on a main road is not good for your health. We know beyond reasonable doubt that motoring in towns and cities is actually damaging for our health in a much wider way than is recognised in the media generally.”

| “They’d actually think it was slightly mad to have a main road going through a centre of town”

“Take Denmark: there’s no town in Denmark which a main road goes through. No town. Zero. Here in Weybridge we’ve got an A road going through the town centre, and that simply wouldn’t happen in Denmark. They’d actually think it was slightly mad to have a main road going through a centre of town. They’ve been developing the concept over 30 years. Consequently, their culture is much happier than ours.”

“Cars damage our happiness in a way that we find very hard to understand directly, because they also help our happiness in our mobility. It’s that conundrum of having the mobility without the downside which is stretching us, I think, as a society.”

| “…a huge social cost of cutting off people who can’t drive…”

Dr Ian Walker, a specialist in traffic psychology at Bath University, adds to the argument: “One of the big social costs is the way it disenfranchises people who cannot or will not drive a car. Around 25% of British households do not have a car or access to one. How are they meant to get around when we plan shopping centres, facilities and amenities on the assumption you’re going to drive to them? There’s a huge social cost of cutting off people who can’t drive, and that particularly affects older people.”

Ethical cycle insurance for car-free travel

On the face of it, one cycle insurance policy is much like another, but the devil is the detail. How much excess you will be charged is just one of the things that varies wildly between providers. Another is so called ‘new-for-old’ replacement – many insurers use this term, but if your bicycle is more than a few years old, devalue it severely. This means you are left out of pocket when you come to replace it. Read our insider guide to cycle insurance.

Furthermore, every cycle insurance policy you buy from us helps support the work of the ETA Trust, our charity campaigning for a cleaner, safer transport future. No wonder the Good Shopping Guide has voted us Britain’s most ethical insurance company.