The veteran journalist and author Peter Hitchens has told the latest Highways Voices podcast that Britain has destroyed its cities, its countryside and even the natural exercise of children “all for the sake of the motor car”.

The Mail on Sunday columnist appears on this week’s edition to talk about a book he is writing called “the madness of cars” which focusses on how the country wrongly, in his opinion, abandoned its network of railways and tramlines to focus on road transport.

“We turned our backs on the intelligent policy of steel wheel on steel rail for an irrational, high-friction policy of rubber tyres on tarmac,” he said, and added that now transport planners and managers are having to try to reverse these decisions as they encourage active travel, more use of public transport and the concept of the 15-minute city, all things that were commonplace before widespread car adoption.

Mr Hitchens discusses the decline of railways and the rise of car-centric urban planning, arguing that the decision to prioritise roads over rail was a costly mistake, noting that building roads exacerbates congestion. He also talks about the political and economic motivations behind transport decisions and advocates for a return to efficient public transport, emphasising the benefits of trams and efficient rail networks over high-speed rail projects like HS2.

However, when it comes to creating more liveable, sustainable cities, he also warns against introducing sticks to reduce car use without first offering the carrots: “Having compelled people into cars for 50 or 60 years and made the whole way of life which most people lead, especially outside London, utterly car dependent, you now start punishing those same people for driving their cars by introducing congestion charges and blocking off roads and lengthening their journeys. Well it’s stupid, isn’t it? The only way you could ever get people out of cars is to encourage them out of cars by making it pleasanter and safer and more economical to use public transport, or to bicycle or walk. Do that, and you’ll have my complete backing, but these ridiculous schemes for punishing motorists just seem to me to be spiteful, wrong and bound to fail.”

Hear his views on Highways Voices, out on Wednesday morning.

(Picture of a disused rail line – Yay Images)