Cars are reaching the end of the road | Letters

The decline in the UK of young people taking to the wheel is encouraging, says Bruce Ross-Smith, cars are blighting everything, says Susan Woodford, and David Halley sees an urgent need to get rid of themI hope George Monbiot (Cars ruin our lives. Within 10 years we must phase then out, 7 March) will be encouraged by the decline in the UK of young people taking to the wheel. In 1992-94, nearly half of 17- to 20-year-olds had a driving licence. By 1994 that figure had fallen to 29% - and many of those young people without a licence will remain non-drivers for life, just as families will also adapt to non-private-car existence. Of course for some, car and vehicle use will be essential for employment, but this will also reduce.And Monbiot is right to warn of the depredations of lithium mining for electric vehicle supply. Electric cars are not the answer; rather, non-vehicular travel must again become the norm, no matter how absurd such a suggestion must seem. We don't need to travel vast distances: home, work and school should be "close- clustered", landscapes revived. Pie in he sky? No, essential if Homo sapiens is to have any kind of future. As for expressways, they really aren't good for the birds, or for any other living thing. Bruce Ross-Smith Oxford Continue reading...