Warwick Payne: Driven to distraction by promise of jams tomorrow (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Warwick Payne: Driven to distraction by promise of jams tomorrow

3:21pm Wednesday 31st October 2007

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WHEN Wintonians were named last week as Britain's biggest polluters, friends from far away eagerly pointed out why. "It's mums in massive 4x4s taking one tiny kid with a bobble hat to school."

Driving is certainly less green than walking, but Winchester is hardly unique in terms of the school run. It is a national trend that more parents are worried about axe murderers stalking our pavements than having a car crash. After all, we seldom reflect on how dangerous driving can be until having an accident.

My most recent - and so far only - crash occurred near Winchester in April, and the culprit was on a 25-mile school run. Thankfully, there were no casualties except his no-claims discount - and, as on every other day, the atmosphere.

But while he was responsible for the crash, it is harder to blame the school run for Winchester's carbon footprint being larger than a gorilla's rugby boot. Visit any cathedral city and there's no shortage of gas-guzzling earthmovers on the roads. Yet our near neighbour, Salisbury, was named as Britain's third-greenest city in the report that shamed Winchester.

So what is the difference?

The survey points to commuting, rare in Wiltshire, but common in Hampshire. Thousands leave Winchester each day, while thousands more surge in to replace them. Many travel by car, which looks sensible at first, given the road network.

Wiltshire has one motorway, as does West Sussex, while Dorset and the Isle of Wight have none. Hampshire boasts five, so travelling by road should be speedy and efficient.

But it's never that simple, with traffic queues stretching into the distance. Sometimes, the delays are avoidable, such as when dustmen collect bins from a main road in rush hour.

Another gripe is when delivery drivers discard their vehicles in peak traffic and block half the street.

Whenever following a van in Winchester, I live in constant fear that it will slow with its hazard lights blinking. When this happens, scores of motorists soon want the delivery driver dead. Call me a hippy, but I'd settle for them being deported to a nuclear testing outpost.

However, there are times when you cannot blame milk floats, dustmen, abandoned vans, or accidents. Some days, there are just too many cars on Hampshire's roads. And with more housing on the way, we are facing further jams and even more pollution.

Unless we want a society where nothing moves quickly except the clocks on our dashboards, changes will be needed. Some are already being proposed at Winchester City Council, which will allow more staff to work from home or outside office hours.

Other employers are exploring this route, which could reduce the number of jams in Hampshire. If nothing else, it would allow the kid with the bobble hat to reach school a bit quicker.

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