Autocalypse

I'm sure I'm not the only one faced with this vision of drudgery of a morning. This is the Edinburgh City bypass at about 09:40 this morning. I usually share the drive in with Craig but he was ill this morning and, rather than driving in in his car I took the courtesy car I'd been provided with when the garage broke my car and had to take it in almost four weeks ago. The courtesy car didn't start this morning as the radio had drained the battery and once I had got it going I set off straight into this.

It's difficult to articulate my contempt for the car. We're bombarded by so many images of sunshine and freedom in relation to cars, but the scenario above is far more familiar to me. Financial, environmental - every way you look at a car it's a bad thing.

Have we really come up with no better solution over the past century of human innovation?