The rumors have it that in the near future we will be able to claim a subsidy for purchasing an electrically powered motor vehicle. Wow! Great idea? First we have to have the infrastructure in place to service them; next we have to realise that if everybody changed over we will have to have extra power supplied to make up for the demand and most importantly the money to pay for the change. Granted we have to find a way of reducing our energy use and pollution to try and conserve finite resources but we also need to take a look at the way we live and ask the question: do we really need the motor car?

Is it possible to channel the proposed electric revolution into a comprehensice transport system that will enable us all to travel at costs we can afford? We are used to travelling at will in cars often as sole occupants on journeys that could be better served by frequent, cheap and efficient public transport.

The knee jerk reaction to the dire situation of the car market by the government is silly. Without thinking the situation through the idea is daft because what is needed is an integrated system that will employ the minds of engineers and systems designers to produce a solution that has not just had money thrown at it.

For a person in my situation an electric car, a new car or even a better car is not a viable proposition - in other words I cannot afford it so it will be on the bus or foot using a rail card or perhaps a bike.

The proposed few thousand pounds for an electric car could be better used making public transport work The car makers can do what other manufacturers have had to do in the past - change to another product.