The following debate is taking place on Thursday. Details are below.

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Commuting: the life sentence?

Museums & Galleries Month 2004: "Travel and the Art of Travelling"

20th May, 7pm

Terrace Room, Museum of London

Nearest tube: Moorgate, Barbican or St. Paul's

Tickets: £8.00 (£6.00 concessions)

The one aspect of the daily grind that is guaranteed to provoke an opinion
is the commute to work. Congested roads, overcrowded trains, packed buses
and sweaty tubes - it's been said that if travel broadens the mind,
commuting shrinks it back. At 46 minutes, on average, Britain has the
longest commute times in Europe. So why do so many of us continue to do it?
These days drivers are often condemned as selfish cloggers of the urban
anxieties and public transport is portrayed as a more responsible
alternative. But is commuting by public transport better by commuting by car
or is commuting itself a problem? This debate investigates whether commuting
is a symbol of our anxious times, conveying images of time-poverty,
pollution, selfishness and stress, and asks how we can envisage things
getting better.

Speakers include:

Dea Birkett, Guardian columnist

Tony Grayling, Associate Director (Sustainability), Institute for Public
Policy Research

David Young, Project Co-ordinator, Sustrans South-East

Timandra Harkness, Science writer

Nicky Gavron, Official candidate for Deputy Mayor

Chair: Austin Williams, Transport Research Group

Please make cheques payable to 'Transport Research Group' and send to:
Austin Williams, c/o AJ, 151 Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4GB

Because there are limited places available, Please book in advance where
possible.

Email: or phone 07957 534909 / 020 7505 6711