By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels 4:16PM BST 28 Mar 2011
The European Commission on Monday unveiled a “single European transport area” aimed at enforcing “a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers” by 2050.
The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.
Top of the EU’s list to cut climate change emissions is a target of “zero” for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU’s future cities.
Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto “alternative” means of transport.
“That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres,” he said. “Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour.”
The Association of British Drivers rejected the proposal to ban cars as economically disastrous and as a “crazy” restriction on mobility.
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Gee, ya think? And the greens/labor wonder why they just got booted out of power in Australia and why the American public no longer gives a rodents posterior about global warming.
I think it will the EU that’s banned by 2050, not the automobile. Why? The automobile actually provides a useful function for people.
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Here’s the plan:
A new European transport plan 
aims to increase mobility and further integrate the EU’s transport networks – while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the bloc’s dependence on imported oil.
Measures to encourage major infrastructure investments, change the way freight moves and people travel would boost economic competitiveness and create jobs.
The plan – with goals to be met by 2050 – focuses on travel within cities and between cities, and on long distance journeys. It includes calls for:
- cities to completely phase out petrol cars
- shifting to rail or water 50% of all passenger and freight road transport currently making intercity journeys of more than 300km
- airlines to increase their use of sustainable low-carbon fuels to 40%
- shipping to cut 40% off its carbon emissions.
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UPDATE: Per my comment above:
I think it will the EU that’s banned by 2050, not the automobile. Why? The automobile actually provides a useful function for people.
It seems to mirror the thinking of many:
A MASSIVE wave of public support was last night surging behind the Daily Express’s crusade to liberate Britain from the stranglehold of Brussels.
An exclusive poll conducted on the first day of our crusade showed an astonishing 99 per cent of people agree we should quit the European Union.
In an indication of the strength of public feeling on the issue, the poll saw the biggest ever response to a Daily Express phone survey, with tens of thousands of people swamping our switchboards.
Read more and sign the petition: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/213821/21382199-of-you-say-Get-us-out-of-Europe#ixzz1HztMDhJN
h/t to Fred Berple for the update
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“To dream, the impossible dream…”
I don’t think this is going to work so well. And were are they going to get all of those horses that they will need? That and the cities are bigger than can easily be supported by horse transport.
Comrades!
Behold the many villages and towns being constructed as we speak.
We will call them the Потёмкинские деревни.
Sincerely, Grigory Potemkin.
Killing the economy is what the greens are really good at…
Ah, I’m so excited to see next year’s electric car models, especially the ones powered by rainbows and unicorns.
Seriously, the mere thought that ANYONE in this world thinks that this sounds like a good idea is frightening. Next up: banning breathing in public places!
Harrods, Fortnum and Mason, and other posh stores will have to move out to the suburbs. I can’t imaging wealthy elderly Ladies riding public transport and walking to Harrods. And how will they get their packages home? Not going to be good for downtown business. Maybe horse drawn carriages? And how about the sick getting to their docs? Musicians? How about catching public transport with a ‘cello or a bass viol and a case of music? Maybe that will be enough to start the revolt against the EU!
“I think it will the EU that’s banned by 2050…”
One of my greatest wishes.
“Backwards to the future . . .”
Arabian horses instead of Arabian oil.
After a few years they could even bring back the plague, well manured streets and cold, cold winters. It’ll be just like a Dickens novel, like living in a Christmas card.
The old hand-pump fire trucks, the whiskey wagons, the street corner bobbies walking around armed with whistles, steam engines to Southampton to catch the liner over to the Americas.
Feed the birds, tupence a bag…
It will be wonderful
So if you want to get from point A to point B, the government has to allow it or you have to walk. No going where you want, when you want. You go where the train goes, when the train goes. So once a train departs City A, it is now a “route assisted target” and you know exactly where each individual who got on the train is. No buzzing off for an unaccounted for side trip.
My guess is what they really mean is that the “masses” will not be allowed to have cars. The ruling elite will likely keep theirs. I doubt you would see anyone “important” milling around rubbing elbows with the riffraff.
Time to get a patent on Mr. Fusion and a slick looking hover board for off duty play time?
Currently the way our Glorious Leaders are attempting to enact these ludicrous EU Targets is by stealth, via the local Town Hall who have powers to raise and implement local town and city “congestion” charges, e.g. London City , Durham, Oxford. But there are gleams of sense in all the for of EU madness where the majority of UK Councils are putting said “rules” to the people in referenda and are getting a resounding “NO!” back from the populace.
Democracy in action. Australian Labor seeing it in Real Time. ;->
who’s next…..?
All those objecting to the proposed High Speed 2 rail link between London and Birmingham have just lost the battle before the hearings even start. I wonder if they know that the result has already been mandated by the Eurocrats.
Finally, a stupid rule that will affect the average-man-in-the-street and hopefully mobilize the population to see this sham for what it is.
And where pray tell will the funds for the additional infratructure come from? After we spend it on useless windmills and other equally useless power sources and people are unemployed because all the jobs have gone to Chindia what will be left? A Europe and Gillard’s Australia will be using hose and carts just like the old days. Can we put the pollies who led us to this in the stocks just like the old days too?
Where do these people get off from constantly telling other people what to do?
A prerelease of a April Fool’s prank?
First we have the UK declaring to the citizens that they should not assume that power will always be available in the future.
Then we have Germany’s knee-jerk reaction to the accident in Fukushima, declaring that they will dismantle their nuclear power plants, leaving everyone to rely upon wind and solar power, like the Brits.
Now we have this declaration from from the EU. I’m sure all of the lazy overpaid bureaucrats will continue flying first class, staying at 5 star hotels and enjoying fine food and premier cru bordeaux, but all of the regular people can take the train.
This will be a good test for the people of Europe. Are you sheep or men? If you’re men, then throw these lunatics out of office now before they ruin your lives.
“Whom the gods would destroy …”
This kind of madness was well depicted in Paul Tabori’s book of the 50s, “The Natural Science of Stupidity”, were he tells about sheer idiots in the British and American bureaucracies, as the war amputee that in 1943 was allowed an extra ration of soap in London –but had to check every week with the official for showing he had’nt grow a leg!
Or the guy who worked in the Ministry of Defense and asked for extra gasoline coupons because the train to London passing by his city near London would arrive too late for him to punch his card on time at the job. He was given just half the coupons asked with the final ruling: “You will come to London in your car, but you must return home by train.”
The EU does not have the power to enforce unpopular laws in practice. To pass the laws the officials, national governments, and the directly elected MEP have to support it. Then in practice the people or elected national governments can just not execute it in practice. The EU is just too close to various countries seeding from the union for it be heavy handed. For example the UK has increasing strong border controls – see Eborders, and various countries has retained visa/work permit requirements for some other EU countries’s nationals. If you want to see athe EU fudging to avoid confrontation look at personnally importing cigarettes in to the UK for your own use.
How about a “high speed rail” system that uses individual vehicles rather than long trains of cars? You have one track in one direction, one track in the other direction. You want to go somewhere, you go to the station, hop into the next available “pod” on the track in the direction in which you want to go, and it takes off down the rails at 200+ MPH. Want to get off at the next station? Push a button and off you go to the station siding and the car waits for someone else needing a ride down the line. Instead of having these large trains, have “caravans” of individual vehicles, electric powered of course, but with individuals themselves deciding where they will stop or if they will take a branch off the track to get onto a different track. People can then go where they please, when they please and you only have as many pods on the road as needed to actually move people around. No hauling of mostly empty cars around all day.
Actually, the vision of only electric cars in inner cities doesn’t disturb me that much (Americans should remember that there are no European cities that are anything like LA ;)). I’m much more worried about “low-carbon sustainable fuels in aviation” which I guess means that they’re going to force airlines to burn more food…
The EU has pEUtrid ideas. The UK must ignore any EU directive [France and Germany have been for years] and disengage from the EU as soon as David Cameron has the guts to allow us a referendum on the subject.
Ok, petrol and diesel is bad, so lets have cars that get their energy from the power grid. Brilliant idea, however despite the well known foibles of the electric car there’s a huge problem here.
Coal, Gas and Nuclear is apparently bad too. Where are we supposed to get all this energy to run these cars as well as the rest of the country runs on? Power need will be greater in 40 years. Do they really think they can supply enough electricity for everything from bloody wind power?
I suspect this is their way of making sure energy is a lot more expensive than it need be. All them rich Al Gore and EU beurocrat types will be able to afford it, but what about the common man?
They keep going on about our children and granchildren lives in their AGW propaganda, but it looks like they’re the ones threatning next generations’ futures.
This is normal fare from our rulers in the EU. Worse is to come.
If we had a vote on this (which won’t happen) the vast majority of UK citizens would vote leave the EU immediately.
We don’t need their single currency or their overbearing, undemocratic political institutions.
We want to return to the days when we use to trade mostly with the English speaking world, with which we have far more in common.