08 Jul 2022 Available for over a year
The battle between gas-guzzlers and environmentalists. Motorists have been staging go-slow protests on motorways over how expensive it is to get everywhere. Meanwhile, environmental protestors have been letting down the tyres of the biggest gas-guzzlers to stop them going anywhere. They want people to give up their cars, but drivers don’t like being told what to do. It’s getting people angry on social media. Presenter: Adam Fleming Producers: Simon Maybin & Lucy Proctor
What I Mean When I Say ‘Ban Cars’ – Doug Gordon – jalopnik
Somehow, every discussion about reducing our automobile dependency gets turned into a “war on cars.” The only option left is to reclaim the language.
Doug Gordon
Perhaps you’ve seen the slogan float by on social media. Maybe you’ve spotted it on a sticker on someone’s bike. It has even flashed up on a hacked traffic alert sign: Ban cars.
Depending on your point of view, this two-word declarative statement is either enticing or alienating, opening up a conversation or shutting it down before it can begin. Some find it perfectly distills the many problems with automobiles; others believe it’s an absurdly reductive position, one that naively ignores the lives and needs of real Americans.
The truth is, outside of some very narrow circles — mainly urbanist scholars and those who pay attention to “bike twitter” — very few everyday people had ever given much thought to the concept of banning cars. That is, until cable news commentators, who process everything through the lens of the culture wars, latched onto it, spinning a niche sentiment into a vague but terrifying threat that someone, somewhere, is conspiring to take away your car and replace it with a bus pass. I promise, that’s not what we talk about at the meetings.
‘Let’s be mindful of car use, and instead, walk, cycle and share rides’ – Ham & High
Debbie Bourne, Camden eco-worrier July 4, 2022
It’s eco-worrier travel quiz time, dear reader!
Here are four questions for you:
i) How many car owners do you think there are in Camden?
ii) What percentage of car driven trips in London are for one passenger only?
iii) What percentage of London car trips are shorter than 2km?
iv) How many daily journeys to TfL estimate which are currently made by cars could be walked or cycled?
And…er…four staggering answers:
i) There are 35,000 cars in Camden. Evidence suggests that these cars are parked 94% of the time.
ii) 60% are solo journeys.
iii) 33% of journeys are less than 2km. And a further 32% 2-5km.
iv) TfL estimates that 6 million daily journeys in London could be walked or cycled.
Cargo bike sales soar as UK petrol prices surge | Cycling | The Guardian
Higher costs in motoring, environmental concerns and ease of movement are spurring a boom
Sarah Butler
“It’s just fun,” says Killian O’Brien who bought a cargo bike a year ago as a way to go green and reduce costs by getting rid of the family car. “You feel good being out in the fresh air and getting exercise without consciously exercising.”
On his trips to do the shopping or take his daughters to gym classes near his home in Stretford, Greater Manchester, O’Brien now sees more and more folk riding similar set-ups while non-riders are always coming up to ask questions. “We get lots of conversations. Especially if the kids are in the front looking cute, or the dog.”
Cargo bikes usually feature a tub or platform that can be used to carry goods or people, balanced on two or more heavy-duty wheels. O’Brien is among several thousand private individuals who have bought one in the past year, helping almost double sales in the five months to the end of May, according to the Bicycle Association.
New tool calculates savings of switching to car clubs – Transport Xtra
New tool calculates savings of switching to car clubs
07 July 2022
Households can save more than £2,000-a-year by switching from a private vehicle to car club membership, according to new research by CoMoUK.
The charity has launched a new tool, which works on savings on both hourly trips and day trips. Analysis shows that the average annual cost of owning a new Ford Fiesta on a lease is £3,801, including fuel, insurance and tax while using the same vehicle through a car club cost £1,678.60 – an annual saving of £2,122.40.
Parking Fee Hike Will Fund Low-Income Transit Rides – wweek.com
Helen Huiskes
Motorists returning to downtown after the July 4 holiday will notice a change when they pay for street parking: The price went up 20 cents on every spot.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation says it’s a “climate fee,” intended to remind people of “the externalized costs of driving (including greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, and use of roadway space).”
Even by local measures, that’s an unusually pointed rebuke to drivers. But cities across the nation are shouldering the task of crafting policies to offset climate change, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court stripping the federal government of its tools, as The New York Times reported last week.
In the US, Could Taxing Heavy Cars Be a First Step toward Reducing Pedestrian Fatalities? | Urban Institute
The GMC Sierra 2500 HD pickup truck more closely resembles a battering ram or small tank than a commuter’s car. Weighing more than 6,000 pounds and standing more than six-and-a-half feet tall, the truck casts an imposing façade. It’s all part of its physical appeal, according to the truck’s designer.
“We spent a lot of time making sure that when you stand in front of this thing it looks like it’s going to come get you,” Karan Moorjani, the designer, told Muscle Cars and Trucks magazine. “It’s got that pissed-off feel.”
Moorjani compared the truck with the barrel of a gun for its strong body and powerful fenders, which feels apt given the inordinate danger the hulking vehicle poses to anyone outside the driver seat.
As American cars have ballooned in size over the past three decades, the menace cars like the GMC truck pose to pedestrians and cyclists has increased in lockstep. Those hit by the heaviest vehicles—cars weighing more than 4,000 pounds—are two to three times more likely to die than people hit by smaller cars, a major issue in the context of increasing US pedestrian fatalities. Big trucks also pollute more and do more damage to roads.
‘It’s people that change cities and generate the places in which we live – Transport Xtra
Six months after attending COP26, Martina Juvara admits to disappointment that the conference seems to have made little impact on prevailing attitudes. She hoped the stark warnings made in Glasgow would have been a catalyst for policy and behaviour change, including how we set objectives, travel and even shop.
“Glaring mismatch” in CWIS2 goals and funding, says Cycling UK – Cycle Industry News
Mark SuttonFriday, 8 July 2022
Cycling UK has followed Bikeability and Sustrans with a reaction to the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2), but cut a very different tone in the reaction to the contents.
Campaigns and Policy Director Roger Geffen MBE, never one sugarcoat a reaction, outlines his belief that there exists a “glaring mismatch between the increases in cycling and walking the Department for Transport (DfT) is aiming to achieve, and the funding available for doing so.”
In an analytical blog on the subject, Geffen dismantles what you may assume to be an increased funding pot (The figure of £3.784bn emerged in the CWIS2 document).
Cars = More Parking = More Cars — Transportation Alternatives
July 8, 2022
Our cities have been built around moving cars, not people — and New York is no exception.
From mandatory parking minimums to the 3 million free parking spots, New York City is home to countless policy and infrastructure decisions that create the perfect conditions to encourage car ownership, increase demand for parking, and build car dependency.
It’s a vicious cycle known as “induced demand” — the phenomenon of increased supply causing increased desire.
There is a better way.