Slaying the green dragon

Efforts to curtail driving in cities are provoking debate in countries across Europe, with urban driving decried as harmful or held up as a sacred right. In Britain, defending cars has risen to the top of the agenda of the ruling conservatives, who have vowed to end “the war on motorists”.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak seemingly shares political instincts with the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) group when it comes to environmental laws.

Both have sensed (rightly or wrongly) that citizens’ commitment to fighting climate change is waning as environmental laws bite, leading them to loudly announce their intention to rein in the green agenda.

In the UK, Sunak has made a series of startling promises that include banning taxes on meat, ruling out compulsory car-sharing, and scrapping new taxes to discourage flying.

That these were highly unlikely to ever actually become laws doesn’t seem to matter. It is merely a symbol to voters that the Tories are taking their foot off the accelerator on climate action.

Sunak has also vowed to make life easier for drivers, announcing he will end “anti-car measures” like mandatory speed limits, new bus lanes, and low-traffic neighbourhoods.

In reality, measures such as bus lanes can actually help traffic flows. But sitting in traffic with an empty bus lane next to you does feel oppressive. And politics is as much about feeling and perception as it is about reality.

One of the more bizarre stances of the British Conservative Party is the movement against “15-minute cities”.

The idea behind 15-minute cities is that most amenities can be reached within a 15-minute walk, removing the need for a car to reach necessities. You can stroll to the pharmacy or the supermarket or your child’s school, for example.

This seemingly innocuous concept has been latched on to by the British right wing, who see 15-minute cities as brutal government overreach. The more extreme end believe that people will be locked into their neighbourhoods, unable to leave without government permission.

“What is sinister and what we shouldn’t tolerate is the idea that local councils can decide how often you go to the shops and that they ration who uses the roads and when, and they police it all with CCTV,” said British Transport Secretary Mark Harper, speaking at the Conservative Party conference on Monday (2 October).

Harper’s remarks go beyond alluding to conspiracy theories, they embrace them with open arms.

In practice, 15-minute cities are about creating a new, easier way of living that means people aren’t required to own a car, Dr Maria Tsavachidis, CEO of EIT Urban Mobility, told Euractiv.

“There are so many people today that actually don’t have a choice but to use their cars to go to work, for instance. The 15-minute city is actually giving them more freedom,” she said.

The outlandish reaction from some quarters is not driven by an aversion to the actual concept, but is rooted in a lack of trust in public institutions, Tsavachidis believes.

“They fear loss, they fear that they are being controlled or will be controlled by the government,” she explained. “And I think also what’s behind this is a mistrust in public institutions. They think: ‘Now they’re coming with this 15-minute city concept, I don’t really understand what it is but surely it is something to take away my freedom’”. 

Rather, the concept is about better integrating urban planning with city transport systems. 

“It’s going to make the life of citizens better, regardless of whether they own a car or not,” said Tsavachidis.

Of course, the bellicose rhetoric from the Conservative Party, which flirts with conspiracy theory, isn’t about neutering the threat posed by 15-minute cities or ensuring that freedom for motorists endures. 

This is Sunak and his cabinet shouting from the rooftop that they are going to slay the green dragon – what does it matter if dragons are fictitious?

– Sean Goulding Carroll