January 30, 2002

Dear Sir,

I must admit that, in theory, I like Government's "master plan" for integrating public transport, but I have to question the practicality of some of their ideas on how it should be done.

First, I think the only sector of the community who would benefit from the scrapping of the secondhand car market would be the automobile dealers: I see absolutely nothing wrong with, say, a contract worker on two-year contract buying a wee second-hand car that's still in good working order, especially if he has a wife and young family with him. Why scrap perfectly good secondhand cars simply to put new cars on the road?

Second, WHO were the ones who simply HAD to have even bigger cars than the legal Class `G' ones? Right: Government. WHY? Are Mercs and BMWs not good enough or big enough? I seriously think that Government should a) return all their oversized Peugeot 406s and get smaller ones, b) cut back drastically on the number of GP-registered cars currently in use (and by no means always during working hours, I should add!), and c) give serious consideration to reducing our private cars to dimensions no bigger than the current Class `E', and forbid the import of Class `F' and `G' cars altogether after the current stocks thereof have all been sold.

Third, whose brilliant idea was it that people shouldn't drive past age 65? Don't be daft: many over-65s are much safer drivers than many of today's under-25s. If anything, RAISE the lower driving age limit! Seriously, though, I think that driving tests should be made much harder, and anyone losing his or her licence should have to sit another test to prove that he or she is still competent.

Fourth, to prove I do sometimes say nice things about Government, I like the move to phase out two-stroke motorcycles in favour of four-strokes, and I'm also in favour of upping the permissible four-stroke engine size. How many people remember the year, 1973 I think it was, when the Government of the day dropped the permissible engine size from 150cc to 100cc in a vain attempt to cut down on both speeding and speed-related accidents? The theory was fine; unfortunately, nobody in power at the time seemed to appreciate that a 100cc two-stroke could outsprint a 125 or 150cc four-stroke, so all that that achieved was the banning of several motorcycles (including what I consider to be one of the best motorcycles on the island at the time, namely the Honda CD 125 with the single seat, massive carrier and snap-off pillion seat; it was economical, comfortable, powerful without being too fast, and an excellent load carrier: the only drawback that I found with it was the paper-thin Honda mufflers, which I believe is still a problem with Hondas nearly 30 years later).

DAVIE KERR

St. George's