Your in for it Now

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
UK Government Transport Minister Trudy Harrison recently spoke at a mobility conference, addressing the future of personal mobility. In her comments, she said it was necessary to ditch the "20th-century thinking centred around private vehicle ownership and towards greater flexibility, with personal choice and low carbon shared transport."
That’s right, she said the quiet part loud and showed the hand of a growing number of government officials.

Harrison went on to praise not only public transportation but also bike share services, e-scooters, and ride-sharing platforms.
All of these are supposed to tune down how much carbon the UK is emitting into the atmosphere.
As with all choices, this comes at a cost, particularly for those living in rural areas.

What’s more,
300 residents in Coventry recently expressed interest in giving up their personal cars.
The tradeoff from the government reportedly would be a mobility credit worth up to £3,000.
This mobility credit program has been going since March of this year, with 73 cars turned in and crushed.
No, this isn’t a joke, but I wish it were.

Understandably, many Brits are upset about this.
Some have asked if they should start riding their horse instead, all the in the name of “progress.”
Others are tying this statement by Harrison with the looming government ban of internal combustion engines for cars by 2030.
After all, EVs aren’t exactly cheap, so what better way to force people onto public transportation than by pricing them out of the vehicle market?

I’ve been calling out the elitist plan in some government circles to eliminate the private ownership of cars for some time.
For many, the possibility that such a thing could be real leads to their minds lashing out at the source of such news, and so I’ve been called a “crazy conspiracy theorist” among other things for trying to shed light on this disturbing topic.
Well, time has vindicated my stance and people in the UK are starting to wake up to the very real possibility they would be completely dependent on the government to be driven anywhere.

If you think this plan is limited to just the UK, you haven’t been paying attention.
There have been other efforts to make private vehicle ownership a thing of the past, including a new measure in Fruitcake Southern California.
The 2021 Regional Transportation Plan passed recently by the San Diego Association of Government’s board of directors is a $160 billion initiative just for the metropolitan area to boost public transportation.

That’s a hefty price tag for such a small area, so one of the ways officials have been planning to fund it is by levying a per-mile driving tax against citizens.
That was such an unpopular move it was shelved, for now.
But I have a funny feeling that driving tax is going to be revisited. Critics say that and other fines, fees, etc. are designed to nuke personal vehicle ownership for all but the wealthy. Expect to see similar measures in other cities and maybe entire states/territories in North America and beyond in the near future.

As unpleasant as politics are, if car enthusiasts and really everyone who enjoys going where they please when they please in their privately-owned vehicle don’t start taking a stand, our freedoms could be severely restricted in ways many have thought weren’t possible.
Failing to do something to stop this push will end poorly for just about everyone.
 

Roscobbc

Moderator
"20th-century thinking centred around private vehicle ownership and towards greater flexibility, with personal choice and low carbon shared transport."
That has already been happening in a way for many years.
With people unable to afford (or not wanting to pay) the large deposit required to enable relatively small and affordable monthly payments to actually buy a new car........the option to effectively buy 'part of it' is a valid choice for many people saddled with the fixed debts of expensive house mortgages and other expensive household bills.
I say pay for part of the car because the typical PCP purchase schemes generally need a far smaller initial deposit - with smaller payments over perhaps a three or four years and
A. the option at the end of the contract period to give the car back (and simply walk away).
B. hope the residual value of the vehicle (minus with the initial deposit and monthly payments already made) give you enough towards a deposit for another car allowing you to start again with another contract.
C. pay the 'ballon' amount of what is left owing and keep the car.
For real 'car people' the fact that you don't actually own the vehicle (in the true sense) is a downer - but for many non-car people (much like leasing and contract hiring for commercial and business users) these schemes do have real benefits for many 'non car' type people.......and you effectively get the benefits of a new car every few years............unfortunately the cost implications for 'our' type of vehicles just don't work.
 

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
Be real boring if you mean people lease/rent a vehicle and cannot hack the performance mods on it :)
 

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
I wish I had lived in the 60s and 70s.

1960s and early 70s were grand as high-tech leaded gas was like 30 cents a gallon (though my C3s never got over 10 MPG :)
We had faster cars than the traffic cops did ( I know for a fact :)
Once getting a few miles out of town where I lived there were NO speed limits posted
Never had to buy my cigarettes as some gas stations had a deal if you did a fill up they gave you a free carton of smokes
or a free car wash.
Drag strips were open from Friday nights through Sunday
Drive in movies were grand, as you'd take a hot chick there at night and never see the movies shown ! :)

Mid 1970s, the crap hit the fan, all changed, smog cars, high price for gas and no free smokes anymore
and women turned into fem libbers and bitched if you opened the car door for them and still demanded we guys pay for the dinners ! :-(
 
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