The Right to Mobility

Details: Published on Monday, 02 December 2019 03:18; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1947 ... December 2, 2019
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The Right to Mobility

Lynsey Hanley

The idea of mobility as a human right has come to be synonymous with private transport. For decades, the car has come first: what right does any government have to encroach on the freedom and autonomy of individual motorists? Labour governments have done little to challenge this notion since mass car ownership took off in the 1960s, and it’s only now, embracing the challenge of achieving zero carbon emissions as soon as is practicable, that Labour has recommitted itself to decent public transport.

Its 2019 manifesto states that “Labour will build a sustainable, affordable, accessible and integrated transport system, founded on the principle that transport is an essential public service.” While it may be an essential service for millions of people -- whether or not they have a car at home -- public transport has been treated as the cranks’ option since 2010 by a Conservative government that has built more roads than at any point since the early 1990s while permitting the desecration of the bus network.
Relative to this country’s wealth and population density, public transport cannot afford to get worse. Three thousand bus routes have been lost since 2010 as local authority subsidies to services dropped by 45 per cent. The number of miles travelled by bus fell by nearly five per cent between 2017 and 2018 alone, while car and van traffic, which started falling after the 2008 crash, has risen steadily since 2010.