Veteran journalist Peter Hitchens and leading behavioural scientist Rory Sutherland debate cars, railways, HS2, road building and the future of transport in a “omnibus edition” of Highways Voices today which brings their complete conversation together from this week’s series of special podcasts.
Mr Hitchens, Mail on Sunday columnist and author of the forthcoming book “The Madness of Cars”, argues that Britain made a historic mistake by allowing the motor car to dominate its transport system and dismantling much of the railway network which preceded it. Mr Sutherland, vice-chairman of Ogilvy UK and co-author of “Transport for Humans”, is equally enthusiastic about rail but strongly rejects the idea that the car itself was a mistake, arguing that it has delivered enormous gains in freedom, accessibility and economic opportunity.
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What follows is a wide-ranging and often good-humoured argument about almost every major question in modern transport. They discuss the railway closures of the 1960s, whether HS2 represents an obsession with speed at the expense of connectivity, the value of trams and bicycles, electric vehicles and e-bikes, plus induced traffic, road pricing, safety, land values and the relationship between transport and where people choose to live and work.
Some of the most revealing moments come when apparent disagreement gives way to common ground. Both question the logic behind spending vast sums to save a relatively small amount of time on occasional long-distance journeys. Both believe Britain's railways could be made far more attractive. And both accept that people need credible alternatives to the car rather than simply being punished for using one when no practical alternative exists.
Mr Sutherland argues for better information, easier interchange and a much more experimental approach to transport policy, including improved parkway facilities, micromobility and better integration between cars, bicycles and trains. Mr Hitchens goes further, saying policymakers first need to accept that the transport system built around mass car ownership may itself have been a wrong turn.
Their disagreement is at times philosophical as much as technical: does the car represent individual freedom, or has mass car ownership created a system in which people are effectively forced to drive? Is a collectively efficient transport system necessarily less free? And should policymakers trust economic models and theoretical time savings, or simply look much harder at what passengers actually value?
Listen to the full special edition of Highways Voices to hear Peter Hitchens and Rory Sutherland debate those questions in depth – with remarkably little intervention required from the host – and decide for yourself whether the future of British transport lies in defending the flexibility of the car, rebuilding the alternatives to it, or finding a much better way of combining the two.
Highways Voices is brought to you with our podcast partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ITS UK and ADEPT.
