If you haven’t heard about The Plan for Drivers then you must have been asleep this week under a pavement-parked super-sized vehicle.

To end this farcical few days in transport planning in the UK (England), I have had the privilege of being asked by The Planner RTPI to write an opinion piece on this vote-chasing fodder that has struck at the heart of the transport and planning professions. This has just gone up on their website.

You may have seen my posts on this earlier in the week and if you haven’t, please take a look because between them they have passed across people’s screens more than 115,000 times already – reflective of the audacious politicisation of transport planning that has lit up the professional sphere of social media. Take a look at the many comments and you’ll get a sense of how professionals are feeling.

Having gone back into the document for my opinion piece I noted the following in my article:

“It’s only 25 pages long (including cover, preamble and lots of pictures – check out the one on page 22 which shows a built environment overrun with cars, almost inviting a caption competition) so you could read it yourself over a quick cup of tea or coffee. Amazing when you think about it – this document can be rushed out but we’re still waiting for the new local transport planning guidance (unless this is it) and the presumably now cancelled (or to be weaponised) response due on feedback to the consultation on Managing Pavement Parking in England (which closed nearly three years ago).”

I go on to say that:

“Some commentators this week have, reasonably, looked past their exasperation to provide balanced accounts of what the document has to say and pointed to some helpful things on offer, as well as critiquing other aspects. I’m afraid balancing reminds me of news interviews that have a climate change denier alongside the environmentally-concerned expert. The vast majority of you reading this piece will know that the car symbolises having too much of a good thing, rather than not enough of it.

Plan for Car Drivers? It seems more like a Plan for Survival to me.

#cardependence#rishisunak#politics#waroncars