Covid measures to encourage cycling and walking in UK cities should have been a victory for the environment and wellbeing. So why are communities so divided?

On a rainy Tuesday evening, a couple of weeks ago, Tom – not his real name, for reasons that will become clear – took his 12-year-old son to football practice. Training is two miles away, and usually they would travel by car. But, over the summer, the area where they live in Ealing, west London, was designated a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN). This meant that its streets would be altered to encourage “active transport” such as cycling and walking, typically by placing planters and bollards across key intersections. The introduction of the LTN scheme in Ealing had created confusion among motorists and congestion on the main roads. It also led Tom to dig out his bicycle, which he bought when he moved to London in 2003 but which had been gathering dust for 15 years.

They’re big, they ooze status appeal and they carry with them an unmistakable sense of entitlement – even the driver’s elevated seating is called a “command” position. So is it any wonder that SUVs have transfixed motorists since they started to emerge in the US in the brash 1980s and self-serving 1990s?
Rugged off-roaders, built like tanks and boasting all the subtlety of a Donald Trump meet-and-greet, are hardly new to our roads. It was only a couple of years ago that Land Rover’s bestselling and much-cherished Defender celebrated its 70th birthday. But these are 4x4s that were built to do a proper job of work. A real 4×4 is a prodigious feat of automotive engineering that ensures you can drive into the teeth of the most inhospitable environment on the planet and stay warm, dry and safe.

Rob PennSun 1 Nov 2020 07.00 GMT

From the top of Tan Hill, in the milky light at the end of an impeccable autumn day, Wiltshire rolled away beneath our feet, into deep history. The views of this quintessential English downland – a landscape that inspired Richard Jeffries, Edward Thomas and Thomas Hardy – were outstanding.
Representing our ancient relationship with these chalk hills were hillforts, burial mounds, embankments and stone circles. A hobby hovered below us, then banked and accelerated, shadowing the shape of the hill. We were only two days into our journey along King Alfred’s Way. Already, I couldn’t remember the beginning.

What is being widely termed a second lockdown is due to run until Wednesday 2 December, although few would be surprised if it were extended belong that, with the government underlining that “the single most important action we can all take, in fighting coronavirus, is to stay at home, to protect the NHS and save lives.”

According to the government’s own figures, motor traffic is already back to almost 100 per cent of levels before lockdown, despite 28 per cent of the workforce still working remotely.

While the prospect of a second national lockdown currently looms large, Rachel Aldred, Professor of Transport at the University of Westminster, has predicted that ultimately up to 2.7m more people who had previously commuted by public transport could switch to travelling by car when measures are eventually lifted.

Believe it or not, a cash-for-clunkers plan helped get old and polluting cars off the road, replacing them with efficient and traffic-reducing personal electric vehicles like e-bikes and e-scooters.

Shocking, right?
Trading in old cars for new electric bikes
Perhaps it’s not so shocking for Lithuanians, who jumped at the opportunity to swap their old cars for new e-bikes.
The program was developed by Lithuania‘s Environmental Project Management Agency (APVA), part of the country’s Ministry of Environment.
The program began this summer with a budget of €8 million.
To qualify, citizens can apply for and then receive a subsidy of up to €1,000 (nearly US$1,200) for the purchase of a new electric bicycle, bicycle, e-scooter, e-moped, e-motorcycle or even public transportation credits, after exchanging their old vehicle, according to LRT.