Wheeling dealing
A change of attitude pertaining to the I of transportation is currently mg moo European countries. The lb ww on giving a boost to the ,, somiport system, rather than No* an using individual cars for IMOr this looks good on paper, qown obstacle yet would be in JV dw mindset of the people who od so the cosy comfort of their personal cars.
George Young, UK's transport secretary Mwrr is considerable pres1ppot higher priority to public ML' He has chalked out a nationMmom campaign to draw the Wa4dw people to the depressing Mb 4d car-driving kpmim poflution, Mr sawd tune. 6@dW i ; of enviMd concerns has wbwK motivating Got dw call to M P-- g habits. V pordections on to dhoom can do to rmbot Awtage of Onownts for the commuter are Ed ~ the Psv- k people. The sawid options is q an effect on ow a wbok. It is now undertyllons to build more motorW&V abandoned in a hurry. w message is that the large bg prognmmes of the '80s Mb or no longer felt environ states Young emphatically.
At a recent transport conference llor dw Observer and the mW Country Planning wom LAwdon. European transb4a%d for a stringent tax - mVm pollute' tax in place of 1%d mad road tax, which is M&M bw the European Commission. The tax should go a long way in greater monitoring of the pollution, argued some of them. Says Christopher Boyd, a member of the European transport commission office that if congestion was to be reduced, then the drivers had to also pay for using their cars and not simply f6i owning them. For the first time, pollution in the countryside is also being looked into with a different aspect and suggestions include different road taxes for motorists using clear rural roads while travelling in the night and during rush-hour traffic.
Another twist to the whole affair would be the spinoffs on the automobile industry. Analysts paint a bleak scenario for the international truck industry in the coming years. Germany has set the ball rolling in downgrading the industry by charging three times more from trucks which use its motorways. Behind its move is the decision to switch freight more onto railways and inland water- ways. This could endanger European dominance of the world's heavy truck production for some time to come.
While this is the scene in western Europe, in parts of eastern Europe, the outlook is just the opposite. For instance, with Hungary's transition to market economy, its roads are increasingly going the western Europe way. With the parking system yet to be developed, increasing numbers of private cars have made even walking unpleasant with their haphazard parkings. Strangely, the government is bent on continuing the heavy subsidy for the domestic automobile industry. Such is the demand for the ownership of cars that by the year 2000, there would be 500 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, according to official estimates: a limit which is higher than many west European cities. While public transport was once a favoured choice of the Hungarians, it is now the private cars which rule the roost.
While Hungarians want to use their cars, they are wary of paying for them fully, in the form of road tax. Paradoxically, the international banking institutions - primarily the European Bank for Reconstuction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the World Bank (WB) - are bailing them out by pitching in billions of dollars for new road construction in the country. This is not all. These institutions have also put undue pressure on the government to increase the public transport and the railway fare charges and also curtail a few of these services. All this to encourage the fledgling automobile industry and undermine the country's transport system. The result: public transit use in Hungary fell by 12 per cent in the last two years alone.
The new motorways have been planned in such a way so as to wreak maximum havoc on the fragile eco-system of areas like the Buda hills. For the Hungarians, the threat of growing motorisation has led to the formation of the Hungarian Clean Air Action Group, which is seeking more careful environmental impact assessments on road projects and other eco-friendly measures. But the major banking players including the WB are also funding highways in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, an act which is inconsistent with the Bank's policy on environmental sustainability.