Steve Richards: There is a quiet revolution afoot, but the Government is not rising to the challenge

Tony Blair and Angela Merkel seek a firm deal on climate change. President Bush wants one that is not as firm as it seems, the equivalent of a third way in climate change deals. The intense negotiations at the G8 go on, and will do so until the last possible moment.

But while the powerful gather for a high-profile international conference, I detect an understated revolution from below, one that is only indirectly connected with decisions taken by elected leaders in this country or anywhere else. The revolution is in its early days. I predict confidently that it will lead to a dramatic decline in car usage and holidays in far-flung places.

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Indeed I wonder whether we are seeing the beginning of the end of cars, at least in cities. People have had enough of cars and planes and are starting to have a good time again without them. There has been no overt prompting from political leaders. Instead, of their own accord, some people are deciding to act differently. They do so for selfish reasons, not out of some hair-shirted environmental altruism. The most sustainable revolutions depend on selfish motives rather than a bleak sense of sacrifice.

My sense of the beginnings of a revolution is based on disparate conversations and my own lifestyle decisions. I have had too many conversations and taken too many decisions for these to be a coincidence. Admittedly there is a danger of assuming that anything that happens to you is somehow representative of broader trends. Still I take the risk and make the assumption. Something big is happening.

First there is a friend who enjoyed driving fast cars. He used to get up early, avoid the traffic, and whizz to places at mind-blowing speeds. But the speeding fines started to pile up. Those cameras clicked wherever he went. He has given up with the fast car. There is no point in it. If he goes fast it costs him a fortune in fines, on top of the wild expense of running a speed machine.

I can relate to his frustrations. I could never resist going fast on empty roads. A speedy journey almost defied time. But those bloody fines flowed in to such an extent that I have given up driving long distances. The cameras seem to get you in the end, however vaguely resolved you might be about keeping to what seem like increasingly erratic speed limits. Trains are cheaper, even with the extortionate fares.

Now take several people I know in London who have given up with cars altogether. They have had enough of the congestion, the cost and another range of fines. These days it is impossible to park even briefly to get money out of a cash machine in most parts of London. Another camera clicks and the driver is sent a big parking penalty. I know of one chap who drove out on five successive days and got different fines on each of them. He dumped his car after that. These friends cycle, hire cars or take taxis when they need them. None of them regret the loss of the car.

I have a car, but for similar reasons hardly use it. There is too much hassle involved in even the simplest of journeys. For selfish reasons I cycle to most places or take a deep breath and risk Britain's frail public transport system. After all, I can cycle to a cash machine and park the bike right next to it. No camera clicks.

On a slightly grander scale, a taxi driver told me the other day that he had never been busier partly because bigger firms had given up offering company cars. Instead they offer high-fliers taxi accounts. The star workers do not want their own cars. There is nowhere to park them near their homes and nowhere to park them when they drive to places in order to spend their vast salaries. For selfish reasons the high-fliers have given up on owning cars.

I was interested to note that this particular taxi driver approved of the speed cameras. He owned a fleet of cabs and said that the vehicles were rarely involved in accidents any more. Before the introduction of the cameras they were smashed up regularly. My taxi driver was convinced that high speeds in cars are gone forever. Forget about green issues, the statistics in relation to safety are definitive. The cameras are here to stay. Forget about driving fast in a city. From now on and forever it will be quicker to cycle in built-up areas even when the traffic is light.

Separately I have other disparate conversations about holidays. I bump into people all the time who have decided not to fly abroad this summer. Some of them have pots of money. They could afford to do so. But they cannot face the airports. Andrew Marr wrote recently that the two ugliest words in the English language were "Heathrow Airport". He speaks for many.

Again, I do not detect acts of selfless environmental altruism from those who have decided against taking a cheap flight this summer. They cannot face the crowds, the security before entering an airless plane for hours only to face the same squalid nightmare at the other end. With selfish relief, they contemplate a holiday in Britain.

Before long, statistics will show people are giving up buying expensive fast cars. There is no point in having them. Jeremy Clarkson may fantasise still about whizzing from London to Edinburgh in 10 minutes in a sports car, but it is not going to happen. The Clarkson dream is over. Soon I am sure we will hear also about a drop in the number of flights taken at peak times. Even if flights get cheaper, which is unlikely, airport security will not be lighter in our lifetimes. People have had enough of them. We will be getting on our bikes instead, listening to music as we cycle and enjoying doing so. The enjoyment is central. The politics of green issues will only work if they are presented in a positive light, not as a terrible series of sacrifices that people have to endure.

Will the Government rise to the understated revolution? It could easily do so. Britain needs more cycle lanes. Trains must take more bikes. Stations should have secure bike parks. Trains must be faster, more reliable, frequent, comfortable and affordable, as they are in other parts of Europe. At the moment there are few signs of the Government meeting the challenge. Cycle lanes start and end with a weird abruptness. You need to be a genius to get a bike on some trains. As for the trains, well we know how bad they are.

There is Tony Blair at the G8 summit trying to achieve the near-impossible in persuading President Bush to agree carbon emission targets. He deserves credit for making the attempt. In the great scheme of things the leadership of the EU, US, China and India will determine whether the world has much of a future. Blair has applied pressure on them all, a daunting task. And yet perversely, here in his own country a quiet revolution is taking place, and we await with growing impatience the straightforward measures that should accompany it.

s.richards@independent.co.uk

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