Reduce traffic: encourage motorists

This week Terry Wogan read out a message from a listener (“Major General”) who appears to believe that rainy days in Britain are evidence that climate change isn’t happening. He also appears to believe that traffic jams are caused by pandering to users of public transport. Dedicated bus lanes! What next? A free bun for every bus passenger?

Thursday May 21st at about 8:30am: “‘Isn’t it strange what goes through your mind in idle moments?’ Sure we spend our time here idling away. ‘I was sitting in my car, stationery - ’ Sat sitting, were you? - ‘stationary on a dual carriageway, looking longingly at the deserted no-car lane to my left.’

I come regularly up the old M4 with the old bus lane; you never see a bus. It’s a motorbike lane really, or a taxi lane. ‘Drumming my fingers in time to the global warming hammering off the windscreen, I wondered: why are the government trying to encourage people to buy new cars when there’s nowhere to drive the wretched things? By the time I got to work my new car would have lost a thousand quid value anyway. Why not buy us all a new Ferrari so we get there quicker and save the environment from choking fumes of stationary motorists? Does logic not apply in life any more?’”