How many school kids are there? About 750,000. How many get taken or drive themselves to school? Two thirds, or half a million.

New statistic that once again show, and/or prove,the way we run our lives and the way the social engineers want to run our lives are two completely different  things.

Why do kids go school in cars? Several reasons, distance, convenience, safety, and because they’ve grown up in a world where they have been shown conclusively that the alternatives don’t work.

As we reach the climax, if that’s the right word of the local body elections, I note the early voter turn out in Wellington is up. Why? Because people are exercised and energised. Why? Because the public transport system has reached Guinness Book of Record levels of ineptness.

My kids, those old enough to drive, all drive. They drive to school and work every day. Why? Because they don't trust buses, they can't go from point to point. And buses don't go when they want them to.

It's easier and they're happy to pay to turn the key, listen to the radio, and do it in the comfort of their own vehicle.

On a side note just yesterday, I sold a car, which meant I had to get home from work without wheels. I momentarily thought through whether I could do it on public transport.

I wasn’t going to actually do it of course. Because, you know me.

But I worked out I'd need to walk a fair way to a bus stop, then wait lord knows how long for a bus, that may or may not take me directly to the train, and then wait lord knows how long for that to arrive, and then walk some more to my house. I didn't know what it would cost, but most importantly I had no idea how long it would take, or whether any of it would actually work.

But I bet you anything you want, it would have taken longer than a cab which is what i got.

And in that, my kids example, and the school drop off example, is the simple truth of life these days and the lives we lead. It's all about time and convenience. Life is too short, too disparate, too distant to even consider not relying on the simplicity of our cars.

They might tax them ,make life hard for them, invent lanes against them, but still we drive, and our kids still use them.

And what I've discovered as a parent is if the next generation can't see past a car, then cars are here to stay.