:excerptstart Reports from Colas and CoMoUK reflect positive trends in attitudes to, and uptake of, cycling Infrastructure provider Colas has conducted a survey with 2,000 people to assess the mood relating to cycling across the country.Says Colas: We wanted to find out how often UK adults cycle, as well as how they view cycling infrastructure in the UK, so we […]
Febriana Firdaus
A Guardian investigation into nickel mining and the electric vehicle industry has found evidence that a source of drinking water close to one of Indonesia’s largest nickel mines is contaminated with unsafe levels of hexavalent chromium (Cr6), the cancer-causing chemical more widely known for its role in the Erin Brockovich story and film.
The investigation also found evidence suggesting elevated levels of lung infections among people living close to the mine.
Recent years have seen a race between mining companies to gain control of the world’s largest nickel reserves in Indonesia.
Nickel, an essential component in electric vehicle (EV) batteries, could bring transformational wealth to a country where Covid has pushed the number of people in poverty up to 10.19%.
Josh Toussaint-Strauss Thu 24 Feb 2022
There’s no denying that electric vehicles are what most of us will be driving in the near-future. Countries around the world have pledged to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles over the next few decades, in an effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. But with lingering questions over the mining of rare metals, battery manufacturing and electricity consumption, Josh Toussaint-Strauss investigates whether electric vehicles are as green as we’ve been led to believe
Carlton Reid Feb 14, 2022
I have been writing about transport for 30 years.
Protesters riding London bike share bikes with BLM placards.
Thirty-nine bike-share schemes across the U.K. are reducing car mileage, finds the latest annual report from Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), which promotes the benefits of shared transport, including shared cars and bicycles e-scooters.
Bike share is a “catalyst” to getting people back on bicycles, said CoMoUK’s CEO Richard Dilks.
“Bike share supports health and wellbeing, triggers sustainable travel behaviors, cuts car miles, and works alongside bike ownership,” added Dilks.
Campaigners are calling for Scotland’s busiest motorway to be scrapped and replaced with people-friendly spaces.
The activists want to remove the M8 from Glasgow city centre and instead transform it into an urban boulevard to help promote public transport, walking and cycling.
Scott Galloway, Replace the M8 campaigner, described the stretch of motorway as a “concrete desert”.
He told STV News: “There’s nothing accessible about this space, it just feels like a completely sterile environment.
“I’d love to see a green corridor that exists all the way from the river, all the way up to the north of the city.
“That would include boulevardisation, lots of street trees, making it a very accessible and friendly environment for people to use.”
The Brussels Times
Friday, 18 February 2022
By Lauren Walker
Brussels during Car Free Sunday. Credit: Orlando Whitehead
The City of Brussels located within the small ring road will become a low traffic zone from 16 August in favour of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport with the ambition of creating a more livable environment in the heart of the region.
The Brussels College of Councillors approved the new circulation plan for the “Vijfhoek (Pentagon) and aims to use one-way streets and traffic filters to keep out unnecessary transit traffic (which accounts for 42% of today’s vehicles), without isolating the various neighbourhoods, including Sablon, the Royal quarter and the Marolles, among others.
“The circulation plan will have a positive impact on both traffic safety and the accessibility of the Vijfhoek,” Bart Dhondt, city councillor for mobility, who proposed the plan, said.
Roads
14 February 2022
Phil Goodwin: All road schemes need to be re-appraised
Many weak, incorrect or outdated assumptions in the appraisals that were carried out of currently programmed road schemes in England mean that the Government should pause the controversial and expensive programme, says Professor Phil Goodwin. This would provide the chance to reappraise the schemes properly, testing what contribution they make to carbon targets, their robustness to future climate conditions, and their correspondence with reasonable expectations on travel choices and needs, Goodwin argues in his latest LTT column.
Goodwin criticises the Government’s paper on ‘Planning Ahead for the Strategic Road Network’ issued at the beginning of December, which suggested “any enhancement schemes that had funding approved in an earlier RIS [Road Investment Strategy], whose development has shown that they remain deliverable and value for money, and where construction has not concluded by 31 March 2025 will continue to be funded in RIS3 without additional assessment in the RIS-setting process”.
The proposals will see the introduction of a city-wide workplace parking levy, traffic filters and a wider zero emission zone, together with improved public transport and cycle routes
Plans to create a sustainable and reliable transport system in Oxfordshire have been announced. The proposals would see the introduction of a city-wide workplace parking levy, traffic filters and a wider zero emission zone, together with improved public transport and cycle routes.
Also in Oxfordshire, it is being recommended by the Director of Growth and Economy “to make permanent the provisions of the current Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders for the Church Cowley, Florence Park and Temple Cowley area Low Traffic Neighbourhoods”.
Transport bosses are exploring the dramatic shift away from car use to “improve public transport and active travel” and “reduce traffic and vehicle emissions”.
Carlton Reid
Pedal Me cofounder Ben Knowles on one of his firm’s electric cargo bikes.
r staff experience injuries off the bike, not on the bike,” states Pedal Me cofounder Ben Knowles, who has been fielding comments on Twitter after he confirmed the London-based pedal-powered taxi service has long banned its riders from wearing bicycle helmets.
“People that are taking risks that are sufficient that they feel they need to wear helmets are not welcome to work for us,” Knowles tweeted on 4 February.
