Pro-bypass letters published in the Hereford Times to my recollection omit reference to the writer’s car-driving status.

Perhaps they connote non-car-driver status with a form of criminal underclass deviance?

For the record, I am a lifelong 67-year-old non-car driver, now living in Belmont, Hereford, as a senior bus pass-holding one-person householder.

I recognise that in parts of Herefordshire and some trades, car use is essential to wellbeing, including mental health, but I ask commercial TV viewers among the We Were Promised A Bypass 50 Years Ago Brigade to consider:

  1. The impact upon their expectations induced by an intervening barrage of “an English person’s car is their bountiful desert island” portrayals via televised car industry adverts.
  2. Why televised adverts for mobility aids, including car boot-friendly collapsible wheelchairs costing hundreds of pounds, are predominantly targeted at older prospective users rather than those who require mobility aids from birth?
  3. The impact of loss of greenery to a prospective bypass would have on noise levels and prospective stressing impacts of loss of sleep would have on long-term health.
  4. Why Netherlands governments have treated the rising tides risk of flooding more vitally in its transport policies than UK governments have done? 
  5. Whether this county’s continued private car dominated infrastructure is fit for addressing climate change tipping point issues?
     

On a day-to-day level, I say that a long walk is essential for getting my brain into gear to really start each day as the first day of the rest of my life.

Alan Wheatley
Hereford