Sharing London
Casual Automotive Observations @RJZeiler I’m an avid car enthusiast. Anything that uses at least two wheels to move around is alright in my book, and I’m always looking for ways to learn more about the industry and its technical details. Naturally, a visit to the United Kingdom would be a perfect opportunity to get an all-new perspective on automobiles. Cars and transportation are far different in Europe than what we know in the United States. Roads are smaller, fuel is more expensive, and emissions aren’t as heavily regulated, to name just a few major differences. But spending a week in London and its surrounding communities really opened my eyes to some pleasant surprises, namely the respect that Europeans have for America and our cars. England is known for a small handful of worldwide automobiles. Most are quite stately vehicles, the likes of Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Rolls-Royce. Others are high-performance sports cars, such as Ariel, Caterham, Lotus, and McLaren. Similar to America, many cars on British roads were these domestic marques, but countless others were imports from foreign countries. Especially around the wealthy London area, many German and Italian luxury and sports cars took to the streets; BMWs, Mercedes’, Audis, Maseratis, Lamborghinis, and, my favorite, Ferraris. Although these expensive vehicles were surprisingly abundant, they weren’t much more than one would see in a wealthy American metropolis like Los Angeles. Most common folk made their way about town by means of other, more affordable European and Asian cars, including Peugeots, Fiats, Škodas, Vauxhalls, Hyundais, Kias, Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans. Although many of these makes are unfamiliar on American roads, their market segment was very familiar to
me. By and large, however, the most common vehicle on the roads of London was the ubiquitous black London Taxi. Produced by the London Taxi Company, the vehicles are similar in concept to America’s Ford Crown Victoria, which, until recently, was used almost unanimously by fleet taxi companies and police departments nationwide. The London Taxi Company has been producing black taxis for the city since the 1930s, and the vehicle in production today, although thoroughly modern, bears a resemblance to the original. Initially taken aback by the car’s polarizing styling, the tradition and history behind it gained my respect over the course of our week in London. Though many connections can be drawn between Great Britain’s roads and America’s, numerous more differences can be spotted as well. The most obvious is the country’s use of public transportation. Transport for London is a government agency responsible for maintaining public transit systems in the city, including the most commonly used, buses and the Underground Tube subway. Millions of residents in London use these modes of transport every day to get to and from work and run errands around the city. In our time in London, we used the Tube daily to get around to our different sight-seeing excursions. Though America has seen success in some areas with public transportation
systems, none of ours are as successful as London’s; we simply can’t match the efficiency, cleanliness, and low-cost of London’s impressive Tube. This, however, is not a shock to most. Because America is far wider and spread-out than Great Britain, it is difficult for us to implement public transportation successfully. There are other reasons that contribute to our differences in public transit, as well, though. As we know, the cost of gasoline and diesel fuels is far higher in Europe than in America, a result of higher fuel taxes. Furthermore, the roads are typically not well-suited to automotive travel, some being too small to fit even a fullsize sedan. This, in my opinion, indicates the root of our biggest automotive differences with England, and all of Europe, in fact: America is young, and our country grew up around the automobile, while all of Europe was already well established when the car was invented, and thus had to modify their plans to make it fit in. As a result, roads are cramped, towns were already close together and conducive to public transportation, and big cities were so overcrowded that fuel usage needed to decrease to maintain air quality, so the heavy fuel tax was put into effect.
London Review 2014
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