The cars are winning against the 15 Minute Cities in the UK

Pouring concrete in bollard anchor holes.

Late night road protestor pouring concrete in a former bollard-hole | Youtube

By Jo Nova

Build Back Worse suffers a set-back

It’s hard to believe someone thought that adding artificial blockages to roads would free people from their vehicle-addiction. As if making car trips artificially long, circuitous and inconvenient would teach people to love walking?

It’s part of the 15 minute city plan, where everything was supposed to be within a heavenly short walk from home, so we could give up cars, save the planet, change the atmosphere and get fit too. But the Deplorables didn’t like it.

The idea of a Low Traffic Network (LTN) sounded so apple-pie. Everyone wants fewer cars on the road. So when pollsters asked deliberately ambiguous questions, people would say “yes” they liked the idea. But living with LTN’s wasn’t much fun when it turned out it was their car the overlords wanted to get rid of. And so the protests and petitions began. Under the cover of darkness, people set bollards on fire, attacked them with chainsaws, and even poured concrete in the anchor holes so it was harder to replace them.

But what really seems to have got the attention of politicians is when their own party splits and the renegades win. As Tim Abrahams at UnHerd describes it, politicians are backing away quickly now after a couple of safe Labor council seats went to Labor rebels who left the party and ran on “pro-motorist” platforms.

The revenge of Britain’s motorists

Tim Abrahams at UnHerd

There is a sense that politicians are increasingly waging a “war on cars”. Measures include road filtering, to give priority to low-carbon methods of transport, and placing extra charges on polluting vehicles, in a push towards net zero. The shift is prompting anguished debate and splits within parties.

Earlier this month, Labour lost one of its safest council seats in the country to a former party member-turned-independent who stood opposed to the imposition of LTNs across Newham, in East London. Last autumn, former Labour politician Lutfur Rahman was returned as mayor of Tower Hamlets, also in East London, deposing the party’s chosen incumbent, on a pro-motorist platform; one of his first acts was to axe a newly installed LTN and demand a review of the others across his borough.

In Oxford City, large swathes of Labour’s local party have defected to an independent group fighting the LTNs and the traffic schemes that will supersede them; in March, its official candidate in the Littlemore ward came within an inch of being beaten by such an independent.

The idea is gathering a bad smell so fast one Liberal Democrat in Oxford (the “Cabinet Member for Highway Management“) is now telling Tim Abrahams that the LTN’s weren’t his idea and it’s “not a core scheme”. As Abrahams tells it, the Liberal Democrats are part of the “rainbow coalition of progressive parties” who are in charge at Oxford — and it was something they once promoted. It’s quite the backflip.

Perhaps the best news is that bollards are going at Oxford:

Three years after traffic filtering was trialled, the bollards and planters are to be replaced by other forms of traffic calming, such as bus gates monitored by traffic cameras and a workplace car parking levy.

The message has got through to the top. On a Federal level the Transport Secretary even called last week for councils to “review unpopular anti-car schemes“. Mark Harper said he had stopped government funding for project “that are about… banning cars or making it difficult for motorists”.

Higher costs, less spare time, more gridlock and less equity: Who could have seen that coming?

What seems the most astonishing is that the whole plan worked like organised government-vandalism — the tyrants were Building Back Worse. They weren’t building new infrastructure, they were ruining perfectly good roads. They  reduced options, curtailed freedoms, and somehow our lives were supposed to get better? But people could always have walked from point A to B, they just preferred to drive. There were no efficiency gains, no better choices or new rail lines, there was just less.

And not surprisingly, longer trips meant more gridlock not less, more emissions, and the costs of extra travel meant even getting a tradie to do a house-call became much more expensive:

At a political level, there is some irony in the fact that europhile supporters of LTNs have not heeded the lesson of the gilets jaunes protests in France — namely, that blue-collar workers will not be made sacrificial lambs to environmental policies. Idrees Mohammed, managing director of Oxford Lettings, a property management agency, told me that electricians now charge 60% more for a call-out into the Cowley LTN because it takes so long to get to it. Amir Steve Ali, who works in a takeaway in East Oxford, recently delivered a petition against LTNs to Downing Street with more than 30,000 signatures. “You’re trying to keep some of the roads clean-air, pollution-free — but you’ve just chucked your rubbish next door, where others are now facing gridlock,” he says. “Where’s the justice in this?”

It’s almost like the aim was never to serve, nor to change the weather, just to keep the riff-raff off the road.

The battle is far from over, but it’s nice to get a win. It is worth protesting.

Read it all at UnHerd.

 

9.9 out of 10 based on 109 ratings

84 comments to The cars are winning against the 15 Minute Cities in the UK

  • #
    Still Interested

    Fantastic

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    David Maddison

    Meanwhile in Australia, whose multitude of governmemts are possibly the world’s most fanatical believers in the anthropogenic global warming fraud, the war on cars continues with parking places constantly being removed by local councils, unreasonable parking restrictions, footpaths being widened at the expense of car parking, little-used bicycle lanes being added at the expense of parking and/or traffic lanes, the woke fantasy that everyone can walk or ride bicycles (including elderly, emergency services, professional service providers, etc.). continues. And even motorists organisations such as the RACV and NRMA have been infiltrated by anti-car activists.

    The Left’s ultimate objective is to remove all the wonderful technologies liberating ordinary people from hard labour and restrictions on travel developed since the Industrial Revolution. In this case the liberating effect of the personal motor car.

    The idea of the “15 min city” was already trialled in Australia during the covid lockups. In Vicdanistan, non-Elites were restricted to travel no more than 10km or about 15 mins at typical suburban travel speed of 40kph and only for essential shopping and only for one hour per day (with extremely limited exceptions).

    We are returning to a state of medieval serfdom where a serf (partial slave) would live their entire life without ever leaving their village, their own “15 min city”.

    Note that deviously, in Australia the 15 min city concept is variously called 15/20 min city, suburb or neighbourhood.

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    • #
      MP

      Sadly David, with the lock downs we restricted ourselves, we complied and even sadder, we will continue to comply.
      What’s happening in the UK is a small group of persons have stopped complying, there may be a large group against the New World road management, but it is a small group willing to put the rubber on the road and actually take the risks.
      We are complying our way into tyranny, you cannot comply your way out of what you complied your way into.

      United noncompliance is the only peaceful solution to what is being done too us. We are doomed to serfdom unless a majority stand up against all their immoral acts, and I have very little faith in my fellow countryman complying with this.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        We are complying our way into tyranny, you cannot comply your way out of what you complied your way into. MP

        Love it, MP!

        If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

        Sir Winston Churchill

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        “I have very little faith in my fellow countryman complying with this.”

        O.K.

        Show us how it’s done.

        You must be aware that with “peaceful group rebellion” they will just pick off people one by one: just another lesson and no doubt a bit of hurt.

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        • #
          MP

          O.K. you need instructions on how not to do something do you?

          There will be hurt either way, but dying on your knees is also your choice.

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          • #
            Kalm Keith

            The way of the disincentive.

            ” Chinese Communist Party has placed an eye-watering $200,000 bounty on two former Hong Kong residents now living in Australia for their capture.”

            Publicly pick em off one by one.

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        • #
          Adellad

          On that logic no protest, uprising or revolution has ever worked anywhere at any time.

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        Philip

        Important to note that Australia is the most complaint country in the world. This has its negatives, but also some positives. We don’t have coups and disorder. The negative is we just accept what “the experts” tell us.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          And yet Australia used to mythologise itself as being anti-authority.

          It’s difficult to imagine a more willingly subservient population today.

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          • #
            Adellad

            Once we were – resilient, anti-authority and hard-edged. Nearly 80 years of plenty have changed the country’s parameters in many ways.

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    • #
      John Connor II

      DM for PM!
      😎

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  • #

    The fight back continues. Group wearing “Just stop pissing everyone off t shirts ” kettles just stop oil Eco fanatics in London

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12319161/Eco-zealots-kettled-Just-Stop-P-ing-counter-protesters-form-human-chain-bid-foil-slow-march.html

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    • #
      MrGrimNasty

      It was a JSO stunt, they are all JSO, just like they always have a few plants in the passersby to applaud their megaphone speeches. This was just a way of getting people to listen to their delusional self- justification.

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    • #
      Ross

      You really cant believe a lot of the raw video etc that comes across either MSM or social media. There was a vid yesterday of a JSO protest ( presume London , UK etc) and an irate motorist belted a JSO person because he believed it caused an accident involving his pregnant wife. Maybe it was real, but I had the thought it could also have been staged. The JSO could be promoting those violent reprisals in an effort to get police protection.

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      • #
        MP

        It’s all deception, there is no truth anymore. We have entered the times of the great deception brought to you by the great deceiver.

        NZ had another shooting by an individual, luckily the cameras were rolling and the police on the scean when it occurred, and you could hear a semi auto rifle rapid firing. A pump action shotgun was recovered.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          And you have to wonder why they allowed the alleged shooter, Matu Tangi Matua Reid, out. He had a history of violence, was meant to be under house arrest, was mentally unstable and did not possess a firearm license and would not qualify for one.

          I wonder what the next collective punishment will be for New Zimbabwe’s law abiding firearm owners?

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        • #
          Ronin

          I heard that on the radio, no one could pump shots through a pump shotgun that fast.

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  • #

    LOL. I like the heading of “Build Back Worse”. How appropriate indeed.

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    • #
      John Connor II

      There’s no intention of building anything back until after it all collapses, and the brainless WEF and their kind are gone.

      https://imgbox.com/cztwIgem

      Can I mention the 15% factor yet or does the above picture still apply?😎

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  • #
    Lawrie

    The elites are communists pure and simple. When communism reared it’s ugly head last century the peasants were the main targets to get the job done. They had nothing and lived miserable lives at the whim of their wealthy masters so communism for them was advancement. But now the communists are trying to herd people who have generally very good lives and are relatively rich back to a poorer lifestyle. It ain’t going to work. Once people have tasted freedom they do not want to give it back to a bunch of self righteous busy bodies who deem to say that they know better. They don’t and while ever people still have a vote they will reject their crazy ideas.

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  • #
    Derek Cook

    And yet in the “Socialist republic of Wales” the madness continues. In the absurd amount of money that is being spent to turn thousands of 30mph zones to 20MPH zones. Despite it being well proven that 20 zones are more dangerous as drivers get fixated on the speedo inside their car compared to what is going on outside.

    Don’t get me wrong; ask me to do 20 outside of a school and you will have no quarrel with me. Ask me to 20 in a place where you never see anybody walking…..

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      Plain Jane

      That is bad. At 20 mph you can use a horse instead of a car. Then there will be the problem of too much horse poo on the streets again.

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    Old Goat

    They wouldn’t want to make the barriers out of wood – that would end up in someones heater. We have to use their own weapons against them . Hit them with their own stick or logic (whatever works).

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    • #

      Well they cannot be made from concrete or plastic as they are not eco friendly,
      ..and steel is not “green” either ?
      Running out of options !

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    • #
      bobn

      In Oxford they made them out of plastic. They all got demolished by irate drivers. They’ve replaced them with steel bollards now, so you need an angle grinder in the car.

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  • #
    Dave in the States

    That’s why the MSM and the Gov class are so intolerant of free speech. They don’t have time for push back.

    Since 2016 it’s been the people saying: “We don’t want that and we voted for this.” and the bureaucrats and the establishment politicians saying: “Too bad you’re getting it anyway.”

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  • #
    Saighdear

    Yes, Build Back means DEMOLISH First – but we were too naïve to think like that, would you have ?

    210

  • #
    Neville

    Great to have a win, but the next big battle is to stop these L W loonies forcing up the price of a reasonable midrange SUV ICE cars while they also provide subsidies to purchase their TOXIC EV rubbish.
    China has cheap small TOXIC EV rubbish to sell to the fools who think they are saving the planet, yet many will regret their purchase when things start to go wrong.
    The devious ones will then sell on to other LW idiots and let them pay for battery replacement etc.

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    • #
      Klem

      Any time the government has to pay you to buy something, you can be sure it sucks.

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      Froggy

      Neville, I only ask one question of people when talking of EV’s……where do all the 2nd hand ICE vehicles go…………Mojave desert with the Aircraft or what ???? They have absolutley no answers and if they mandate ICE’s away (they can’t I reckon) then the sh####$%@t will really hit the fan.

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  • #
    Neville

    Let’s hope that Spain votes for some sanity and follows many other sensible countries like Italy, Sweden etc at the coming election.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/07/20/in-the-heat-of-climate-change-drama-spain-may-choose-its-own-path/

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  • #
    Neville

    This morning their ABC has been yapping about Melbourne reaching temps of 50 c soon or whenever that may be or how it is measured.
    But I’m sure there will be plenty of stupid lefties who’ll roll over and BELIEVE anything these ABC extremists throw at them.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Yes, just use a contact or infrared thermometer to measure the temperature of an asphalt or concrete surface.

      You will be able to find whatever temperature is required for political purposes.

      And to believe this nonsense is exactly why they first had to dumb down the education system and then impose massive censorship of alternative and/or factually correct opinions.

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    • #
      Ross

      I think what you touched on Neville is the inaccurate reporting of temps in the current summer in Spain. Instead of using 2m atmospheric readings, some of the reporting is based on surface temperatures. So you have to ask why and by whom? Is this being done on purpose or are media outlets just trying to outcompete each other with every increasing alarmist reporting. Maybe it’s the second and is due in general to the decline in the standards of legacy media as a result of social media.

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      • #
        Adellad

        As I understand it, the “record” in Rome was similarly based on bovine excretia. Apparently it was recorded at ground level near the main railway station.

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        Lawrie

        Why are they creating highest ever temps? Simple. They know that the Earth is not warming as fast as they predicted and they also know that more and more people are ignoring the hype and have stopped listening to BS reports. Tell the Spaniards it is so very hot and many will just say “well every summer is hot and this one is about the same as last”. Very few people that I talk to are concerned about the temperature but they are very concerned about the cost of electricity. I recently drove past the Cullerin Range wind farm and not a single blade was turning. Bowen can see this from his office if he cared to look but reality is frightening to a zealot.

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    • #
      Richard C (NZ)

      Neville >”ABC has been yapping about Melbourne reaching temps of 50 c soon”

      When is “soon”? I read just the opposite this morning:

      Exceptional Cold Grips Australia
      https://electroverse.info/cold-grips-australia-new-york-post-pours-water-its-a-scam/

      The Bureau of Meteorology issued ‘severe weather warnings’ for for parts of Victoria and Tasmania on Thursday, as the cold front combines with a high pressure system to deliver strong, biting winds.

      10C in Melbourne, only 40 to go.

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    • #
      Ronin

      More state-sponsored propaganda.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    And getting rid of cars is not a “far right tin-foil-hat wearer conspiracy theory”.

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/goodbye-car-ownership-hello-clean-air-this-is-the-future-of-transport/

    Goodbye car ownership, hello clean air: welcome to the future of transport
    Dec 16, 2016

    And neither are 15 min cities.

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/15-minute-city-stickiness/

    For longtime urbanists, the 15-minute city seemed to merely repackage the historic urban pattern of development: walkable, mixed-used districts. Old wine, new bottle, as the saying goes. But for a new framing to ignite a global urbanism movement, clearly there’s more going on.

    The obvious, yet incomplete, answer is the pandemic. Would Paris’s Mayor Anne Hidalgo have pushed for progressive urban design without this framing? Undoubtedly. But with COVID-19 and its variants keeping everyone home (or closer to home than usual), the 15-minute city went from a “nice-to-have” to a rallying cry. Meeting all of one’s needs within a walking, biking or transit distance was suddenly a matter of life and death. The pandemic created an urgency around equitable urbanism that sidelined arguments about bike lanes and other “amenities” that have roiled communities for years.

    See how their plan is coming together, covid and 15 min cities?

    We must not let the Rlites/Left/Regressives have their way.

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  • #

    The 15 Minute City Plans, like Net Zero and the Climate Emergency, derive from socialist thinking. That is, if a collective of “intellectuals” believe in something then it should be held as a fundamental belief. There is no due diligence in looking at the arguments for and against the proposals on a “level playing field”. There is no thought of the impact on the climate problem, nor of the direct impact of the people involved. A clue. The alleged problems of climate change are alleviated by cutting global emissions. The Cities of Oxford or Canterbury have less than 0.01% of the global emissions, so 15 minute city plans will have a small impact on emissions within those cities. But it will have a huge impact on the lives of many people within the cities.
    Local Councils (or even whole countries) should realise that “climate” policies within their jurisdictions are at the margin. But the costs of those policies have a direct are those governed and not on those outside. The UN effort to reduce global emissions has failed (emissions this decade will rise, not fall dramatically) so emissions reductions in some areas are not part of a global scheme to save the planet. The political class should answer as to why they are promoting harmful and useless policies.

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    • #
      MP

      This is being driven through local councils, the UN moto is “think globally, act locally” the locally part is driven by a UN off chute called Iclei
      You will find these scum sitting in the CEO seats of your local councils. un elected and un accountable, yet control the money. Get rid of the council and the scum remain to infect the next council.
      Ever wonder where Oceania came from, aside from Orwell’s 1984, remember the South Pacific games, morphed into the Iclei Oceania games. Next local elections, vote the sitting councilors out!

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      • #
        Froggy

        MP, ICLEI, They look especially dangerous……all Labour or greens luminaries. their reach is vast !! they used to chain themselves to logging trucks and trees back in the day…..they then worked out that get a degree and get a Guvvy job, Local or State and destroy from within…..seems to be working by and large. National Parks, local Councils, marine parks, sea level rise (not happening) etc etc.

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      • #
        Richard C (NZ)

        MP >”Get rid of the council and the scum remain to infect the next council”

        It was done a little differently in my city Tauranga NZ:

        Commissioners appointed to Tauranga council

        Local Government Minister, Nanaia Mahuta has announced four commissioners to act in place of elected representatives at the Tauranga City Council.

        https://insidegovernment.co.nz/commissioners-appointed-to-tauranga-council/

        There was discord among the council which led to their dismissal so out went democracy, in went dictatorship.

        The commissioners are paid handsomely, far more than the Councillors were and have been reappointed to 2024. That had to be done now because present government is on the verge of being dumped in this year’s election.

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        • #
          GreatAuntJanet

          I read that as ‘Commissars’. I wonder who the next Stalin will be?

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        • #
          MP

          Yeah voting, probably worked once upon a time along with horse and carts.
          Remember they’re locals, they live amongst you, shop where you shop. Ridicule is our greatest weapon.

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          • #
            Richard C (NZ)

            >”Remember they’re locals”

            Except Commission (Commissar) Chair Anne Tolley is not local. She’s a ring-in from another city and lives there. Commutes 1 hr+ 87 km to and from meetings.

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          Lawrie

          Will NZ change government? If they do will the socialist programmes of Saint Jacinda be rescinded?

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    Richard C (NZ)

    German Woman Drags Radical Climactivist By Hair For Blocking Traffic [Twice]
    Videos:
    https://climatechangedispatch.com/german-woman-drags-radical-climactivist-by-hair-for-blocking-traffic/

    A woman in Germany was dubbed a “brutal blonde” by European media after she dragged a climate change activist from blocking traffic as the public’s patience wears thin with the frequent protests on roadways.

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    • #
      wal1957

      She’s my hero!
      I think the retaliation against the activists is only going to be more frequent and more brutal.
      When the inevitable does happen, what will the pollies/police say in their defence of their reluctance to police the activists?
      Poor Joe public who removes the activists from the road will end up being prosecuted.
      Meanwhile the activists have numerous “avoid the consequences” cards.

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      • #
        yarpos

        Me too! all hail Brunhilda the blonde Amazon!!

        If you watch closely when she drags the lady off the second time, she looks like she is shaping up to give her a smack, just as the truck moves into frame.

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  • #
    Serge Wright

    I’m ok with the concept of a 15 minute city, provided they build fast autobahn styled freeways with no speed limits, so I can drive my ICE turbo vehicle from one side to the other within 15 minutes.

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  • #
    John in Oz

    If anyone is on a road then they are in danger of being struck by a vehicle which is a danger to themselves.

    Why are the police not removing JSO f’wits for their own safety? Is this not a prime responsibility for police services?

    The SA police recently had a jaywalking blitz in Adelaide, ostensibly for safety reasons. Plenty of fines for workers but not for protesters, apparently.

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  • #

    I’m of an opinion that it was always going to come down to the ordinary people saying ….. “Hey, wait a minute, we’ve just about had enough of this!”

    Then, slowly, more and more people say just that.

    Then, politicians, thinking ….. umm, this might backfire on me/us ‘collectively’, and I might lose my comfortable well paid position here in politics if I keep supporting all this.

    They then, as politicians, will come round, (as is already happening, evidently) and ever so slowly, walk back from all this madness, coming to a realisation that maybe, just maybe, the people really DON’T want all of this stuffed upon them, no matter how little power they think they really have as just plain ordinary people.

    When people find out what actually IS happening, the grumbling will start, privately at first, and then slowly becoming more and more out into the open.

    It was always going to take time, and that time might be getting closer and closer.

    Tony.

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      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      G’day Tony,
      Perhaps this is an example of a significant backlash ?

      ” Polarising British political figure Nigel Farage has received a personal apology from one of the UK’s biggest banks after allegations it closed the leading Brexit antagonist’s account because his views were at odds with the organisation’s corporate values.

      The saga has sparked a growing political furore over Farage’s treatment by the private bank Coutts, owned by NatWest Group, whose biggest shareholder has been the UK government since a taxpayer bailout at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. ”

      https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/deeply-inappropriate-bank-apologises-to-top-brexit-figure-nigel-farage-for-dropping-him/ar-AA1e8B0K

      Cheers
      Dave B

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      GreatAuntJanet

      Tony, you sound as optimistic as the invariably sunny man I live with (OK, we have a license). I hope you two are correct.

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    • #
      John PAK

      Tony,
      When the next big coal unit dies in NSW we will enter an era of rolling 4 hr power outages. We will become like South Africa where you have to look up on the ‘net when your outages are scheduled for. Meanwhile Au continues to sell over $100 billion p.a. of coal to China and they are building more than one new power station a month to burn the stuff. I keep telling my greenie contacts but they may as well have a vacuum between the ears. Ultimately they will land back in reality with a massive thump.

      90

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      Lawrie

      I have always believed that eventually a line will be crossed. The elite have been intoxicated by some recent wins and spurred on by a fear that the great unwashed are getting fed up have been rushing to institute more draconian laws stirring the populace even more. Sri Lanka was such an example; global leader in saving the planet one minute, running to save his own life the next.

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    Richard C (NZ)

    The Democrats have turned downtown San Francisco into a 15 minute city:

    Video Of Deserted Mall And Streets In Downtown San Fran Reveals Democrats Destroyed City
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/video-deserted-mall-and-streets-downtown-san-fran-reveals-democrats-destroyed-city

    It’s actually very easy – just make inner city business completely unattractive.

    …some building owners have stopped payments on malls and hotels

    The video ‘every store is CLOSED in Embarcadero San Francisco’ (12:17) is astonishing:

    The video is an eye-opener of the economic collapse of the downtown area as it has transformed into a “ghost town” overnight. The exodus of companies and people is a vote of confidence that Breed’s progressive administration has failed. There are attempts to rebuild the downtown district, but that could take many years, meaning the city’s economic recovery won’t happen anytime soon.

    Democrat run Baltimore much the same:

    CRE Panic Hits Baltimore As Second Office Tower Dumped At 69% Discount
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/baltimore-hit-office-tower-price-crash-firesale-erupts

    Yes you read that right “69% discount”. 30 stories, 10 stories, these are huge buildings – no workers – no supporting businesses – no cars – mission accomplished.

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      Richard C (NZ)

      Map of major San Fran retail closures:

      Downtown San Francisco Becomes a Ghost Town as Major Retailers Flee
      https://mishtalk.com/economics/downtown-san-francisco-becomes-a-ghost-town-as-major-retailers-flee/

      In NZ there’s a ram-raid craze going on. Police recorded 516 ram raids across New Zealand in 2022, in two years there has been a 465 percent increase in ram raids.

      New police figures show average of two ram-raids a day for six month period
      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/07/crime-new-police-figures-show-average-of-two-ram-raids-a-day-for-six-month-period.html

      “There was an incident where offenders in a stolen car went to rob a store and the worker activated the emergency alarm and fog cannon so they were only able to grab some confectionary on their run back out the door,” De Wattignar said.

      “They drove to a subsequent store where they stole cigarettes but again fled once a fog cannon was activated.

      No news of getting ram-raid cars off the road in 15 minute plan.

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        Richard C (NZ)

        In Tauranga, 15 minute city can mean something quite different:

        Worst city in New Zealand for traffic (and it’s not Auckland)
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/300909599/worst-city-in-new-zealand-for-traffic-and-its-not-auckland

        Business owner Glenn Wilson missed his son’s specialist hospital appointment that he’d waited six months for because it took two hours to drive a 12km route that should take ten minutes.

        Another day he missed a 6.30am flight, despite leaving his Ōmokoroa home at 4.45am. His worker Jony leaves his mum’s house at 6.20am to travel just 7.5km to the office. It takes him more than an hour to get to work.

        And,

        Tauranga teacher Ebony Kahukura is so over a two-hour drive to school on traffic-clogged State Highway 2 that she’s put her house up to rent.

        “This will be at a loss to me as the rent will not cover mortgage payments and rentals in town are dearer than here and the houses of poorer quality. To be honest it’s shit. I made huge sacrifice to get myself and my kids out here, bought an electric car to help balance out the travel cost and while it’s a beautiful community, the traffic is just too much for my kids.”

        She’s had to leave home with her two young children at 6am, getting them changed in the car and feeding them breakfast at school.

        One of the reasons:

        Empty cycle lanes were frustrating

        “Tolling road users to fund bus and cycle lanes that have less than 5% of Tauranga’s total trips has little support from businesses.”

        Empty cycle lanes everywhere. And they just have to concrete everything. Signs on the dunes saying “Care” for the dunes. Council bulldozed through kms of dunes to make a concrete path – grass space gone too.

        Planners just cannot understand the value of open grass space to people.

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    John Hultquist

    everything was supposed to be within a heavenly short walk from home

    Should the plan have been tested by building such a place and then allowing willing folks to move in?
    https://dsm-llc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/cart-before-the-horse1.jpg

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  • #
    Zigmaster

    The interesting thing is that 15 minute cities is also the death knell for EVs. As was shown by the comparison of the VW Golf E and the VW Golf diesel the emissions benefit will vary depending on the mix of power to the grid and the expected kilometers driven. In the VW example , the US and Germany power mix showed that even after 200000 km the electric car created more emissions. What you realise is that if you live in a 15 minute city the kilometres driven over the cars life would be far less than 200000 and the emissions deficit would be far higher.
    VW must have realised how damning their analysis is following Jo’s blog a few weeks ago because even though I have downloaded the graphs you can’t see the article any more via the link.

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    • #

      Zigmaster, if you send me a copy of the VW report I will back it up on my site so people can see it. Thanks for letting me know about the link. I’ll send you an email…

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  • #
    Philip

    Shows it is sometimes worth taking physical action. If you sit on your back side and do nothing, you won’t get anything.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    BTW, balaclavas and cordless angle grinders are great gift ideas and bound to be popular. 😄

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  • #
    Stanley

    Elon’s worth declines by 25 billion as Tesla says it might have to reduce prices further. Why buy a car whose retail price drops AND becomes less worth as the battery declines so that the car eventually has no value. Only for the woke and subsidy reapers.

    90

    • #
      Lawrie

      I met a fellow in Tasmania last week. He was driving a Tesla and uses it to go to work in Hobart and to go to his weekender in Southport. He had a small tractor to move his boat from house to bay and to prove he was not a fanatic he had a Ford Ranger for any jobs requiring lugging capacity such as getting the firewood. He did say he enjoyed driving the Tesla.

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  • #
    Philip

    Local councils are becoming a great mess. The hard leftists worked out this is where to aim their political efforts and they have been extremely successful at it. Not only councilors, but the CEOs and admin staff are all rabid leftists.

    We had an idiot Green mayor for a term. At the next election, a local identity stood against the Green and all the older more conservative members of the community rallied behind him, voted him in, and turns out he’s just as green as the Green. Makes statements about the climate emergency, tells us all to vote yes. Surprise surprise.

    These attitudes seem to be instilled in the types of people who run for council these days. I bet he would change his tune – like the Lib Dems have done in the story – should the tide turn. We have a terrible lack of leadership in politics, the best you can hope for is a flip flopper.

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    • #
      yarpos

      We have a local bridge that was knock out in the Oct 22 floods. Not on the highway but important locally. Here we are in July 23 and the Council is still putzing around discussing, meeting and hand wringing about what to do and how to fund.

      Meanwhile the Mayor is lecturing about “the voice” and they have time to worry about what flags they want to fly outside the Council offices to appear virtuous.

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  • #
    Philip

    I remember how shattered I was when Boris Johnson stood before a Build Back Better sign. It was when the Uni Party revealed itself publicly for the first time, they let their guard down. Made me go and listen to conspiracy theorists, perhaps they are right after all.

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    • #
      MP

      Well they have more runs on the board than the coincidence theorists.

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    • #
      Ross

      Same in Australia ( not sure where you are Philip?). I saw a presser with Scott Morrison ( Australian PM until 2022) holding a discussion paper titled” Fastest way for Australia to Net Zero”, then I knew we were cooked. This from a bloke who carried a lump of coal into parliament.

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  • #
    yarpos

    I lived in 15 minute (by car) 10 minute by foot (for basics) environment for a few years. It was quite enjoyable, but it was just the way things were and not mandated or enclosed.

    If all these fanboys built things so it was possible first they may find people adopt it quite naturally as we all like convenience. But of course that lacks the control aspect which seems to be the main game.

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    nb

    Local councils might try banning entry to their districts anyone arriving in the country, or traversing it, in a private jet – or first class commercial. So wasteful.

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  • #
    MM from Canada

    It’s part of the 15 minute city plan, where everything was supposed to be within a heavenly short walk from home, so we could give up cars, save the planet, change the atmosphere and get fit too. But the Deplorables didn’t like it.

    Try to imagine, all over your city and 30 minutes apart as you walk, multiple shopping districts, each with a ladies’ clothing store catering to all sizes and figure types, ditto for a men’s clothing store, a grocery store, a furniture/appliance store, a hardware store, several restaurants, etc. It simply isn’t going to happen.

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    • #
      StephenP

      Plus health centre, hospital with all modern facilities, pharmacy, undertaker, plumber, electrician, police station (?).

      20

  • #

    Clothing Store, all-sizes-one-style track-suit and head-wear,
    Mao Tsi Tung fashion.

    41