I like these ideas in theory, but the reality is very different, because there is so much corruption. I think we have to tackle this first. 20 years ago, I didn't own a car, and I lived in a rented cottage on a farm. I worked from home and used to cycle to the local village for my groceries. I'd travel a lot by train - to visit friends and relatives and to go hillwalking and for days out.
I can't do that now - because I can't afford to take the train, or even the bus! It's cheaper for me to run a car than to take the train, or even the bus. And I live in the UK, where railways were invented! Our railways were privatised in the 1990s. The privatisation was so badly mishandled - or well handled, if you were one of the small number of well-connected investors who made instant fortunes out of it. It was a theft from the taxpayer, acknowledged by the government that handled it at the time - but what can be done about it now? I'm sure there were a few government ministers who got lucrative consultancies out of the botch-up.
It now costs more for one person to travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh and back by train than the cost of petrol for a saloon car to make the same journey carrying FOUR people. No wonder the city streets are more choked up with cars than ever before.
In the early 2000s I did a lovely hillwalk, travelling by train there and back. Today that journey would cost me £30 ($40) by train; about £5 cheaper by bus. By car, it would cost £11.52 in petrol.
The railways in Scotland are handled by a company known as Scotrail, but it's actually run by a Dutch firm. Since they took over, the service has deteriorated so badly that public protests led to intervention by politicians, and some significant refunds to commuters.
Where I live, ground floor accommodation is popular, especially for elderly people who can't manage stairs. My mother is in her 80s and is no longer able to drive. She is relatively fit, but needs to use a walker, which is manageable on buses and at some railway stations, but not on subway trains - there is only ONE subway in Glasgow that has a lift. This also affects disabled people. Therefore I often have to drive Mum about in my car.
Politicians will pay lip-service to fluffy ideas that make them appear "green" on the surface, but in my opinion most of them are more answerable to business lobbyists than public opinion. My local MP answers all my communications with exactly the same standard letter, saying that he's too busy to answer correspondence (from the people he's meant to represent). I have considered running for a council position, if only to see how the system works from the inside. I think politics can work better from the ground up. Insiders have told me that in a nearby city council, Catholics have been given preference for long-term jobs - this goes back decades. In other areas it's probably Protestants. This is the level of mentality that we have to work with.