Adam,That is indeed a very cynical view of your neighbours and the needs of people struggling to get to work or get their kids to school.I have linked in the original post to the ChiswickW4 article outlining the approach of all parties contesting the local elections to measures aimed at reducing air pollution around schools.Like most prospective councillors, I have no particular expertise in urban planning and traffic management, but I have been involved with a number of campaigns where air pollution has been a critical issue and read reams of reports on the topic over many years. Perhaps, more importantly, I am cognisant of the need for both expert advice and wide community consultation to develop a broadly acceptable strategy for tackling these kind of problems. Apathy and cynicism are the enemy of progress, Adam. If I find myself slipping into this way of thinking, I sometimes find it useful think back to the words of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Joseph Gerald Bourke ● 2665d