Rebecca Morley 3rd April 2020
The DfT has announced a shift towards public transport and active travel as the “natural first choice” for daily activities.
Decarbonising Transport: Setting the Challenge is the latest document to be published by the DfT late last week, describing how the Government intends to work with others to develop a transport decarbonisation plan.
This is to reduce transport emissions and ensure the challenge to reach net-zero transport emissions by 2050 is met. The document also reviews existing climate policies in transport as well as existing forecasts of future transport emissions from each mode of transport, plus as a whole.
“Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities,” stated transport secretary Grant Shapps in the foreword. “We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network.”
The document goes on to list “Accelerating modal shift to public and active transport” as the first of six strategic priorities for the plan, which seeks to deliver a net-zero emissions transport system.
To achieve that, the DfT has said it aims to:
– Help make public transport and active travel the natural first choice for daily activities
– Support fewer car trips through a coherent, convenient and cost-effective public network; and explore how we might use cars differently in future
– Encourage cycling and walking for short journeys
– Explore how to best support the behaviour change requiredShapps said the shift in emphasis away from driving, where possible, could improve people’s health, create better places to live and travel in, and also promote clean economic growth.