Remember real-life, you know, physically leaving your home to go shopping? Walking into a retail store, not queuing, not trying to win at “you’re it”? It seems forever ago. Is the new reality of not going shopping here to stay – are we all going to be even more reliant on delivery services?  Are cities going to survive?

Well, we may not have a choice for some of the goods we need – many of the bricks and mortar stores are, at the moment, on the brink of tumbling out of control into the abyss of COVID19 financial ruin – either that, or they’re going online – operating out of warehouses, storage units, or maybe their grandmother’s garage!

Here in the UK, all be it at different rates depending on exactly where you live, the shops are slowly coming back to life, the public are crawling out into the new found reality blinking and scratching their heads at some of the sensible, and some of the not so sensible (read ludicrous) measures in place for the safety of all.

Some cities in the UK are taking the bold move to kill off a good portion of the retail trade and block off city streets to regular cars, trying to force people onto public transport. Fools! Seriously, what deranged collective of mad people comes up with that idea? (Yes, blah environment, blah)… You can have an idealistic outlook, or you can have real life.

In idealistic fantasy land:

• There is enough public transport for everyone
• A 20 minute car journey doesn’t take 90 minutes on public transport
• You don’t need to walk 3 miles to your nearest train station
• Trains work, aren’t late, don’t smell, and aren’t standing room only (not to mention virus spreading machines)
• In the winter when the average conditions rival a sunny day on Neptune, everyone is OK getting frozen and soaked
• All people, regardless of physical condition, age etc can get around, walk three miles, cycle around
• Nobody ever wants to transport a load of goods themselves, you know, like a weekly shop in the pouring rain, on a push bike.
• All holidays, including all your luggage, and the kids luggage are easily accommodated on public transport.
• All tourist attractions are easily, comfortably, and efficiently accessible via public transport – and they don’t take three or more times longer than a private car journey
• Drive-throughs are a thing of the past, everyone can walk to their choice of fast-food outlets, and don’t have to get COVID19 at the same time
• Every single fast food outlet delivers…  yeah, right.

In real life:

• Public transport is under COVID19 Social Distancing and running at 25% capacity, not even close to a workable solution
• The already crowded services are broken beyond belief
• It takes three times longer on public transport to get anywhere
• Public transport is not comfortable
• Go on holiday using public transport, and want to be independent – not a snowball’s in Hell
• Transport your goods on public transport? You’re having a laugh!
• Be warm, dry, and well cared for in the Winter? Bwhahahahaaha!

… You get the idea – the fantasy land version of life doesn’t exist.

Idealistic city planners only see to the tip of their collective noses. Banning traffic from large cities may work for some, those some will be the young adults (who probably can’t afford a car anyhow), the students, and those who never need to go anywhere outside of said cities. Those people aren’t the golden, the blessed – they’re the cursed. They’re controlled, they have reduced options in life, reduced will.

“What?” I hear you cry? What about living in a city with everything on your doorstep could possibly be a bad idea?

Rip off Britain, that’s what! (I’m sure it applies elsewhere too!)

• Reduction in choice, unless going online more and more
• Rip off prices – they’re stuck in the trap of shops in town being charged high rents and passing those prices on to the shoppers
• Inability to use an out of town shopping centre (How are they going to carry their goods back on a bike!)
• Constant taxi rides in the winter, when public transport sucks arse
• Constant taxi use for when public transport is just unavailable
• Have you seen how much taxi’s cost in the UK?
• UBER?  Don’t get me started!
• Getting stabbed / mugged whilst walking to and from public transport / cycling

Britain is not a nation where the idealistic future will be seen any time soon – Britain is a nation on the brink of city-apocalypse on a grand scale – this is where the green-idiots and politically correct have somehow taken the reigns of power, and are embarking on the mass destruction of cities, undoing the work of the previous planners (not that they’re geniuses either), and generally fucking things up.

Cities will become giant suburban fly-traps for those who think it’s a good idea. Cities will become retail deserts, business deserts in some cases. Surprisingly (sic), people actually want the ability to travel around in comfort, taking as little time as required, transporting their goods around when and how they like. People want to have freedom to come and go when and where they like, not governed by a transport schedule thought off by some twisted environmentalist. Car ownership is a requirement for every day life and liberty for a massive proportion of the population.

… And don’t even get me started on the pipe-dreams of electric cars everywhere in 10 years! (I’ll leave that for another rant)