The internal combustion engine, an invention of the eighteenth century is still our primary mode of transport today in the twenty first, I still do not understand why.

With recent popularity of car review programmes such as Fifth Gear and Top Gear, we have been edutained with loud noises and wheel spin every Sunday evening and whilst the car is taking a good bashing by the environmentalists, it seems to be surprisingly robust in nature – but is it all changing?

I live on a main road where eighteen wheelers to horses ride up and down at all hours of the day. There is no rush hour, or peak period and Sunday is rarely quiet. At first, I branded it as “the buzz” of the city but now as the black dust collects on my plants outside and my windows have started to tint, I’ve noticed the damage caused by a method of transport that seems so normal to us. I am a hypocrite myself, I drive my car 100 meters down the road because I am too lazy to carry more than a heavy load of groceries home and yet I can sympathies with the environmentalists. I really think it is time to make the switch to electric cars and it isn’t the pollution that has swayed me.

Everyone would know the ambience of a library. Even if no-one is there, if there are stacks of shelves filled with books, you whisper. Every student will know how irritating it is when someone sneakily crunches on their packet of crisps hidden underneath their desk or violently turns the page of their textbook. Now think of the complete opposite of this. Unimaginable chaos of noise, stench and organization on a cold rainy day. Cars and trucks racing in opposite directions, too selfish about returning home themselves then anything they are passing by as pedestrians pray that they survive when crossing the road and keep an ear afloat for the screeching and overly-alarming noise of a police car as it bullies its way through the streets. There is an easy solution – electric cars.

They are the next step in our modes of transport. Nobody needs to reach 200mph in their car, or even has the nerve to. Nobody needs to reach 0-60mph in under 5 seconds and nobody needs to make so much noise when commuting. The reason why I am not promoting hybrid cars because it far too down the line to even waste time contemplating over it whilst electric cars are current. The eagle-eyed of you will have noticed the electric charge stands which offer you superior parking and with an easy oyster card like payment option – and the cars? Cheap. The G-Wiz has slowed the electric car campaign a tad but the new hybrid 2010 cars have entered the market without anybody noticing.

Don’t listen to the dribble that Clarkson exaggerates about the practicalities if an electric car to a petrol car, it is merely a new system to learn and the older generations will moan about how it was “different it was in their day”. Soon London will become a cycle city which will compliment the soon to be noise-free electric motors, giving the pedestrians (the ones who cause no damage at all) a more pleasant day.

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