Author name: Steven Edwards

News from Elsewhere

Climate Action’s Next Frontier Is Parking Reform – Bloomberg

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California is finally poised to lift parking requirements across the state. Here’s why that would be a huge win for the climate.

22 September 2022

The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and its historic investments in technologies that will reduce climate pollution, are a harbinger of a possibly more hopeful climate future. But there’s a giant climate task left on the table, and it’s one where Congress doesn’t hold much sway: urban land use.
The built environment plays a substantial role in climate pollution, both in terms of energy use in our homes and businesses, and in the transportation systems we use to get around. While the IRA’s historic investment in “electrifying everything” — from vehicles to household heating and cooling — will make a huge difference, there’s still a large gap between the climate ambition of our electric future and the reality of how our cities set incentives for low-carbon lifestyles.

News from Elsewhere

‘This is what a river should look like’: Dutch rewilding project turns back the clock 500 years | Rewilding | The Guardian

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“On the way to being one of the most beautiful nature areas in Europe,” reads a sign overlooking a construction site near the village of Grevenbicht on the Meuse River in the southern Netherlands. Looking at the diggers, other bits of large machinery and bare soil, this is a stretch of the imagination. “You have to sell your story,” says Frans Schepers, managing director of Rewilding Europe, who was leading the largest river-restoration project in Europe.

Construction work has already been completed along 50km of the Meuse River floodplain as part of the Border Meuse project to undo 500 years of world-renowned Dutch water engineering. Big infrastructure is at the heart of the Dutch “offensive” – as opposed to “defensive” – approach to sorting out rivers, which involves relandscaping entire catchments, rather than rewetting specific at-risk areas. This approach is particularly revolutionary given that the seed for this project was planted decades ago. By contrast, the UK has only started thinking about implementing natural solutions at scale in the past few years.

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The case for reforming vehicle taxation – Transport Xtra

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Campaign for Better Transport report reveals public support for pay-as-you-drive scheme as fuel duty and VED replacement

Half of people in Britain support replacing fuel duty and vehicle excise duty with a pay-as-you-drive scheme, according to a report from Campaign for Better Transport that explores the best ways to frame the case for reform and to implement a new system with fairness at its heart.
Pay-as-you-drive: the British public’s views on vehicle taxation reform examined over 3,000 UK adults’ views on road pricing. It found that three out of five people (60%) believe vehicle taxation…

News from Elsewhere

Inside the New Plan to Make Paris ‘100% Cyclable’ – bloomberg.com

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Feargus O’Sullivan
This week, Paris announced a major upgrade of its cycling infrastructure that could make it one of the most bike-friendly major cities in the world.
Between now and 2026, the city announced, Paris will gain 180 kilometers (112 miles) of new permanent segregated bike lanes. As part of the city’s new Bike Plan, the number of bike parking spots will more than triple, with 180,000 more added to the current total of 60,000. The city will pay particular attention to bike lanes and infrastructure around the connection points between the neighboring suburbs and the city to create better integration across the wider metro area.

News from Elsewhere

How to cycle to Iceland, part one: pedalling through Denmark | Denmark holidays | The Guardian

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Kevin Rushby

It feels good to be under way. Planning a no-fly international trip by bike is a lot more difficult than it ought to be. Ferry routes have been slashed in recent years – the trip would be far simpler if any ferry between the UK and Scandinavia still existed. Not only that but taking bikes on international trains can be frustratingly tricky (regional services are far easier). Our transport systems are hopeless when it comes to doing right by the planet.

News from Elsewhere

The @TowerHamletsNow website states the Antill Rd traffic filter was removed after feedback from residents. This FOI reveals there were 6 objections – Save Antill Road – Twitter

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Save Antill Road @SaveAntillRoad
The @TowerHamletsNow website states the Antill Road traffic filter was removed after feedback from residents. This FOI reveals there were 6 objections. Zero objections from emergency services & zero from local businesses. By contrast, 713 residents signed a petition to keep it.
Save Antill Road @SaveAntillRoad
The @TowerHamletsNow
website states the Antill Road traffic filter was removed after feedback from residents. This FOI reveals there were 6 objections. Zero objections from emergency services & zero from local businesses. By contrast, 713 residents signed a petition to keep it.

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Do you recognise these bikes that were recovered in Bushey? – herts.police.uk

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Officers are looking to trace the owners of a number of bicycles that are suspected to have been stolen.
Forty-five bikes were seized in Bushey following an investigation into a theft of a bicycle that took place in Islington, London.
The victim was able to trace the location of his stolen bicycle thanks to a security tracking device that had been fitted to it, which showed the bicycle as being in Harriet Way, Bushey.
Officers were alerted and attended the property, where they discovered a further 44 bicycles inside a garage. 
A 53 year old man from Bushey was arrested on suspicion of theft. He has since been released under investigation whilst enquiries continue.

News from Elsewhere

Tower Hamlets: Lutfur Rahman’s bid to end traffic calming hits the buffers | Evening Standard

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Ross Lydall

Campaigners have claimed an early victory in a battle to prevent a mayor from ripping out traffic-calming measures across an east London borough.
Lutfur Rahman had launched a consultation on his “reopening the roads” pledge in the summer after being re-elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in May.
It would have been one of the biggest reversals of the trend to favour “active travel” over motor vehicles in the capital.
Many residents feared this would “destroy four years of street improvements” in the London borough with the lowest car ownership and make walking and cycling more dangerous by reopening residential roads to through traffic.

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The Amazon will reach tipping point if current trend of deforestation continues – news.mongabay.com

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Alexandrapopescu
• A report by the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) claims that 26% of Amazon forests have transformed irreversibly and show high levels of degradation.

• The savannization of the Amazon is already visible in Brazil and Bolivia, while Ecuador, Colombia and Peru seem to be heading in the same direction.
• The report also seeks to make visible the role of Indigenous peoples in protecting the Amazon, and to ensure that Indigenous people are at the center of the fight against climate change.

Across the entire 847 million hectares of Amazonian territory, some 26% of its forests are showing evidence of deforestation and degradation — 20% have suffered irreversible loss and 6% are highly degraded. The tipping point for the Amazon is no longer a distant scenario, but a present reality in some parts of the region. Of the nine countries that make up the Amazon basin, Brazil and Bolivia have the largest amounts of destruction and, as a result, “savannization is already taking place in both countries.”

News from Elsewhere

This is embarrassing! 60% of asphalt imported from Russia – archyde.com

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This is embarrassing! 60% of asphalt imported from Russia
After Putin was sanctioned, the UK could not even repair the roads. (Illustration/Dazhi/Associated Press)
[周刊王CTWANT] The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents more than 350 councils in England and Wales, pointed out on 31 August that since about 60% of the bitumen in the European market comes from Russia, the Moscow authorities implemented bitumen exports after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The embargo has caused the cost of road maintenance in the UK to continue to soar, with some sections of the road taking up to 10 years to repair successfully, in addition to an extra £12bn.

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