Time to use our roads to reduce our carbon emissions – West Country Bylines

02/11/2021

We’ve seen Insulate Britain emerge onto their M25 stage in the last couple of weeks with their brave and dangerous protests. They are prepared to go to prison as campaigners try to wake the population up to the fact we are careering headlong into the worst crisis humanity has ever faced.

The M25 is an obvious target for campaigners. Like many roads, it is frequently congested in the same areas at the same times. Completed in 1986, within six years it was carrying more than twice the volume of traffic for which it was designed!
Transport is the largest carbon-emitting sector in the UK. This isn’t surprising when you consider that 62 per cent of car journeys are ‘single occupancy’. This doesn’t take into account taxi and private hire journeys, which are worse than single occupancy. Taking a one or two tonne vehicle with you for every trip is going to use a massive amount of energy that could easily be put to better use: heating homes, for example