CO2

EU Commission seeks car ban

Published on 29 March 2011 at 09:37

“EU to ban cars from cities by 2050,” headlines the Daily Telegraph, after transport commissioner Siim Kallas unveiled a series of proposals for a Single European Transport Area on 28 March. Top of the commissioner’s list for the coming decades is a target of zero for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in EU cities. This as part of a bid to cut CO2 emissions, to persuade people out of their cars, and to use "alternative" means of transport. “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 [299km] should be by rail,” the London daily notes. According to the EUobserver, environmentalist campaigners believe the measures don’t go far enough because they “delay the vast majority of transport emission cuts until after 2030.” The automobile industry and transport groups are extremely sceptical, however, with one spokesman from the Association of British Drivers describing the measures as “economically disastrous”. "If he [Kallas] wants to bring everywhere to a grinding halt and to plunge us into a new dark age, he is on the right track. We have to keep things moving. The man is off his rocker."

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