LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Not printed to August 4 2017.

CAR CRAZY is right. (H/S 28/7/2017) Melbourne is one giant smelly traffic jam.

Good on the Herald Sun for printing the ABS figures  showing 500,000 more vehicles on our roads in five years. Too many cars are bad for productivity and bad for health.

The ABS figures do not show that more than half the cars on our streets are oversized 4WDs/SUVs. They don’t show that three quarters of all private cars carry just one person. They don’t show that many trips are unnecessary. This car boom is as nonsensical as the “yank tank” madness in the 1960s.

Solutions include more people walking, bicycling, riding motorcycles & scooters and travelling by tram, train or bus.

Part of these solutions must be a reform of the Transport Accident Commission (TAC). Compulsory third party (CTP) insurance premiums don't reflect the efficiency of privately owned vehicles or the space they take up. So bicycles no premium, motorbikes & scooters 20% of the current rate and cars according to size, efficiency the largest and dirtiest paying a lot more than they do now.

Damien Codognotto

Independent Riders Group

Melbourne

www.facebook.com/independentridersgroup 

Just an after thought. If they can find stats on which houses, where, have 4 or more cars, why can't they find out how many motorcycle & scooter riders have paid the unfair TAC tax more than once?

Damien

IRG