Should We Ban Cars?

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How can it be done?

So how can people be persuaded to not use their cars, or even to get rid of them altogether? Banning them outright, besides being a little draconian, would not go down well with voters or industry; it would amount to political suicide.

One approach, used in Singapore, is to sell expensive transferable licences to motorists. This encourages car sharing and limits the total number of cars in the city.

With escalating pollution problems, India is now considering a raft of similarly drastic measures to deter drivers: restricting the use of cars and motorbikes on some routes; restricting ownership of private cars in general; cutting the number of diesel cars produced in India.

Since the London Congestion Charge was introduced in 2003, traffic has reduced in central London by an estimated 21% and more than £120 million has been raised each year to plough back into public transportation. And having fewer cars on the road makes the streets safer, which has attracted 43% more cyclists.

In essence, all such measures are just various forms of taxation. Do they work? Well, there is a rule of thumb for using tax as a deterrent: if you raise the cost of something by 1% through taxation, 1% of the public will be put off.

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