I like the Dutch approach to road junction design as it stems from their Sustainable Safety approach. Perhaps the most exotic and lesser known junctions is the wonderfully named “voorrangsplein”, which translates as “priority square”. It’s for use in situations where there are quieter side roads which need connecting to busier main roads where the use of traffic signals and roundabouts are avoided.

The freeze in fuel duty since 2010 means the UK’s CO2 emissions are as much as 5% higher than they would have been, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

The analysis comes amid widespread lobbying and speculation over the future of fuel duty in the UK’s next budget, due to be announced by the new chancellor Rishi Sunak on 11 March.
Fuel duty is currently applied to petrol and diesel sales in the UK at a rate of 58 pence per litre, plus VAT. Instead of rising with inflation, this rate has been frozen since 2010, meaning motorists have enjoyed a large price cut in real terms, even as public transport fares have risen faster than inflation.
If fuel duty had increased each year as planned in the June budget 2010, then pump prices would have been a fifth higher than they are today. Higher prices would have cut CO2 in 2019 by 2-18 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2), some 0.5-5.0% of overall UK carbon emissions, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

By Roger Harrabin BBC environment analyst
The world will heat by more than 1.5C unless nations produce tougher policies, a global stocktake has confirmed.
Governments must halve emissions by 2030 if they intend the Earth to stay within the 1.5C “safe” threshold.
But the latest set of national policies submitted to the UN shows emissions will merely be stabilised by 2030.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, called it a red alert for our planet.
He said: “It shows governments are nowhere close to the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees and meet the goals of the Paris (Climate) Agreement.
“The major emitters must step up with much more ambitious emissions reductions targets.”

Gloucestershire lost out on funding in the latest round of DfT active travel grants. Instead of wasting everyone’s time appealing the decision, they should reflect on why.
So the Department for Transport (DfT) have been delivering on their promise to withdraw funding from any council-led active travel projects that don’t meet minimum design standards. Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) are reportedly appealing against one such decision. But the DfT were absolutely right to turn Glos down, and GCC should instead try to learn why. Let’s have a go at that together — there might be something we can all learn from their experience.

The world has only a few months to prevent the energy industry’s carbon emissions from surpassing pre-pandemic levels this year as economies begin to rebound from Covid-19 restrictions, according to the International Energy Agency.
New figures from the global energy watchdog found that fossil fuel emissions climbed steadily over the second half of the year as major economies began to recover. By December 2020, carbon emissions were 2% higher than in the same month the year before.
The return of rising emissions began only months after Covid-19 triggered the deepest slump in carbon dioxide output since the end of the second world war, and threatens to dash hopes that the world’s emissions might have peaked in 2019.

Air pollution varies dramatically across London, which means not all schoolchildren have the same start in life.
Using a powerful new dataset, we found that pollution is significantly higher at primary schools with more students from deprived areas, as well as at schools with a higher proportion of students of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. With vehicles a major contributor, pollution is also unsurprisingly elevated closest to the cities’ main roads.
Damaging health
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) pollution is a toxic chemical cocktail that includes nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Road transport – especially diesel vehicles – is a major source of NOx, which can inflame airways and aggravate existing heart and lung conditions.
In fact, recent research shows living near busy roads in London, where NOx pollution is high, may stunt lung growth in children by 12.5%.
Stark inequity
New data from the Breathe London pilot project has allowed us to look at the estimated level of NOx pollution at every London state primary school in 2019.
Our analysis reveals that air pollution does not affect all schoolchildren equally, with children from deprived neighbourhoods exposed to more pollution. When examining the deprivation level (a measure that incorporates a broad range of living conditions, including income, health and access to resources), we found that average NOx levels at schools with pupils attending from the most deprived areas were 27% higher than those at schools with pupils attending from the least deprived areas.

Managing the growth of urban traffic is vital for improving the liveability of our cities. This report examines how governments can encourage citizens to use alternatives to private cars in order to reduce car dependency, regardless of how they are powered or who drives them. The report analyses fiscal policies and other instruments for managing urban traffic and correcting current policy biases that favour automobile travel over more sustainable and affordable transport options. It also reviews international experience in co-ordinating transport planning with land-use development and in allocating space to walking and cycling in order to make transport more efficient and streets less congested.

Car use harms health, the environment, and society in many ways. In 2019, 1752 people were killed by vehicle collisions in Great Britain, with another 25 945 seriously injured.1 Motor traffic is also a major contributor to air pollution, which is estimated to cause 28 000-36 000 deaths in the UK annually.2Traffic noise pollution is an under-recognised health harm, associated with increased risk of stroke and premature death.3 Car travel increases sedentary time and is a major opportunity cost in terms of the physical and mental health gains that could have been achieved by walking or cycling instead. This is before we consider the urgent need to decarbonise our transport system to mitigate climate crisis.
Reallocating road space
The covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have substantially disrupted travel patterns. With public transport capacity considerably reduced, and seeking to avoid a car based recovery, the UK government in May 2020 announced £250m (€290m; $350m) in emergency active travel funding and encouraged local authorities to reallocate road space from cars to walking and cycling.