Many councils have acknowledged that their policies must address the climate emergency. Making far-reaching decisions on transport could make a substantial contribution to cutting carbon emissions but some decisions are easier than others.
From cars to bikes and buses
A key challenge councils must answer is just how much and how quickly should they get people out of their cars and onto bikes and buses? Especially since electric cars will soon become the norm and will be making significant contributions to cutting carbon emissions and some types of air pollution1. Undoubtedly some transport planners will be hoping that this means they won’t have to tackle car use. Unfortunately for them even conservative estimates of what is needed point to the need for some modal shift – a switch towards a more sustainable and less polluting form of transport.
Low-traffic neighbourhood plans step up a gear despite court ruling | The Times
Graeme Paton 2 Feb 2021
The prime minister has vowed to “crack on” with road schemes designed to reduce the dominance of cars, despite a critical High Court ruling.
Last night Boris Johnson said that the government would push ahead with the expansion of “low-traffic neighbourhoods” while Greater Manchester’s “cycling tsar” said opposition to the schemes was driven by a “negative minority” and many concerns were either “unfounded or proven to be surmountable”.
Dozens of permanent schemes are now in development after the award of £175 million from the government in November. This includes wider pavements, new segregated cycle lanes and the closure of residential streets to through traffic. It followed £250 million in May for temporary changes to roads during the pandemic.
The New Road Rage Trailer | Sarah Berry (podcast)
FEBRUARY 1ST, 2021 | 01:36 | TRAILER
Episode Summary
The New Road Rage is a podcast asking what’s got people so worked up about street changes benefiting pedestrians and cyclists.</p> <p>Each week, host Sarah Berry will be interviewing a different expert or individual with a stake in the game — from journalists to historians, and cyclists to black cab drivers — to try and find out where the new road rage comes from.</p> <p>Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow along on Twitter by following @NewRoadRage and @SarahJ_Berry Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sarah-berry3/message
Could Amsterdam’s New Economic Theory Replace Capitalism? | Time
One evening in December, after a long day working from home, Jennifer Drouin, 30, headed out to buy groceries in central Amsterdam. Once inside, she noticed new price tags. The label by the zucchini said they cost a little more than normal: 6¢ extra per kilo for their carbon footprint, 5¢ for the toll the farming takes on the land, and 4¢ to fairly pay workers. “There are all these extra costs to our daily life that normally no one would pay for, or even be aware of,” she says.
Decathlon to launch “Second Life Marketplace” selling refurbished bikes in stores | road.cc
Firm is also set to offer customers a buy-back option on its old bikes
Decathlon has announced plans for a “Second Life Marketplace,” in its stores where refurbished second-hand bikes will be available for purchase. “Nothing will go to waste,” said the firm’s appropriately-named UK cycling leader, Pete Lazarus, when outlining the plans.
UK mayors urge Boris Johnson to commit to tougher air pollution targets | The Guardian
Cross-party group sign joint letter after inquest into death of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah
Matthew Taylor
Wed 27 Jan 2021
City mayors representing more than 17 million people across the UK are urging Boris Johnson to commit to tougher air pollution targets after the inquest into the death of nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah.
The cross-party group, including the Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Conservative mayor of the West of England combined authority, Tim Bowles, have signed a joint letter along with city leaders from Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and the North of Tyne to urge Boris Johnson to enshrine in law a commitment to achieve World Health Organization air pollution guidelines by 2030.
(US) What We Learned from Tracking Cycling Deaths for a Year | Outside Online
With the help of the nonprofit BikeMaps.org, we analyzed the data we collected on bicyclists killed by drivers in 2020 and found some surprising takeaways
Move More With “The Miracle Pill” Author Peter Walker – Hosted by David Bernstein & Carlton Reid since 2006
Friday 29th January 2021
The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast
EPISODE 266: Move More With The Miracle Pill Author Peter Walker
SPONSOR: Jenson USA
HOST: Carlton Reid
GUEST: Peter Walker
TOPICS: A one-hour long conversation with Guardian political journalist Peter Walker talking about his new book, “The Miracle Pill.”
Highway engineer on bike lanes: “The street is not too narrow, your imagination is” – Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton 26 January, 2021
Our highway law has developed in a way which indirectly favours driving and any change to that must be modified either at a national or local level.
Climate crisis: world now at its hottest for 12,000 years | The Guardian
Scientists say temperatures globally at highest level since start of human civilisation
Damian Carrington Wed 27 Jan 2021
The planet is now hotter than it has been for at least 12,000 years, a period spanning the entire development of human civilisation, according to new research.
The analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows human-driven climate change has put the world in “uncharted territory”, the scientists say. The planet may even be at its warmest for 125,000 years, although data from that period is less certain.
The research, published in the journal Nature, reached these conclusions by solving a longstanding puzzle dubbed the “Holocene temperature conundrum”. Climate models have indicated continuous warming since the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago and the Holocene period bega
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