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”.
Biggest shake-up of Cambridge road network for 40 years I cambridgeindependent.co.uk
Transport bosses are exploring the dramatic shift away from car use to “improve public transport and active travel” and “reduce traffic and vehicle emissions”.
Cargobike Taxi Firm Bans Helmets For Staff Riders Citing Safety Concerns – forbes.com
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.
Cycling charity launches ambitious plan to boost UK-wide path network | Cycling | The Guardian
Sustrans wants to link most towns with safe routes accessible for walking as well as bikes and wheelchairs
Laura Laker
A masterplan for a UK-wide traffic and barrier-free national cycling and walking network (NCN) suitable for “a sensible 12-year-old travelling alone” is to be launched on Wednesday.
The ambitious plan would link most settlements of 10,000 people or more, and would make travel easier for wheelchair users, who can face multiple hurdles, while growing and improving the existing 12,786-mile network to reach all corners of the UK.
However, there are concerns that at the current rate of progress – Sustrans, the charity that manages the network, will complete 416 miles of improvements by 2023, and has removed just 315 of 16,000 barriers – the goal of a barrier-free network could take another 150 years.
The charity owns only 2% of the network, much of which is on public roads, and its latest report into the state of the current NCN shows how far there is still to go. Only a third of the NCN is currently traffic-free. A third (33%) is classed by Sustrans as very poor, 61% good and only 2% very good.
Xavier Brice, Sustrans’ CEO, told the Guardian: “The idea of the National Cycle Network isn’t to, for example, replace the need for fully segregated high-volume cycle lanes in cities and towns, or to replace the need for neighbourhoods that are pleasant and easy to move around without a car. This is a strategic arterial core network.
Shapps urged to ‘re-open’ RIS2 as project delays and enforced pauses cause uncertainty | New Civil Engineer
newcivilengineer.com
15 Feb, 2022 By Rob Horgan
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has been urged to “re-open the Second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2)” in light of enforced changes to the pipeline of work during the last year.
Transport Action Network director Chris Todd has written to Shapps, urging the transport secretary to take action now as “it is overwhelmingly clear […] the current RIS2 cannot continue”.
It comes following planning delays to flagship projects, as well as enforced changes due to safety concerns with National Highways’ smart motorways programme.
U.S. driving soars in 2021 to 3.23 trillion miles, up 11.2% – reuters.com
Vehicles stack up in traffic on their way towards Washington, D.C., via I-395 N in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis
WASHINGTON, Feb 18 2022 – U.S. drivers are back on the road in force.
Travel on U.S. roads rose 11.2% in December 2021 compared with December 2020, the second straight month that driving surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels, the U.S. Department of Transportation said on Friday.
The figures reflect more Americans traveling for leisure, more returning to offices and rising deliveries on U.S. roads, experts said.
U.S. driving also rose 11.2% for all of 2021, to 3.23 trillion vehicle miles, up from 2020’s 2.9 trillion. That was the lowest yearly total since 2003 as COVID shutdowns drastically reduced road use.
For all of 2021, drivers drove 325 billion more miles than they did in 2020. Overall 2021 driving was just 1% lower than 2019’s 3.26 trillion miles.
The Transportation Department said drivers logged 268.4 billion vehicle miles in December 2021, up 26.9 billion vehicle miles from the same month in 2020.
Sloman’s Welsh roads panel review leaves more schemes in doubt transportxtra.com
Rhodri Clark
Rhodri Clark 14 February 2022
Lynn Sloman: Heading panel that is to review 55 road schemes in Wales
The Roads Review Panel set up by the Welsh Government has advised against proceeding with a second road scheme in North Wales, and revealed yesterday that it will review 55 other schemes. It will also consider a sample of new roads related to housing, health and schools projects, in order to provide general advice to the government on such roads.
A North Wales Transport Commission will be formed as a consequence of the panel’s advice that grade separation to replace two roundabouts on the…
Nottingham lays the Workplace Parking Levy tracks – transportxtra.com
Cities curious about the workplace parking levy should talk to Nottingham City Council, says Nigel Hallam
08 February 2022
Local authorities are currently facing the huge challenge of improving air quality and many have declared climate emergencies. The challenge is how do they raise the finance to do so? One solution is to create a workplace parking levy (WPL) scheme, which enables a local authority to raise funds that can be invested in better public transport and active travel schemes.
World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds | Environment | The Guardian
Patrick Greenfield
An electoral poster objecting to a proposed ban on subsidies for Swiss farms. A 2021 report found almost 90% of global farming subsidies are harmful. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty
The world is spending at least $1.8tn (£1.3tn) every year on subsidies driving the annihilation of wildlife and a rise in global heating, according to a new study, prompting warnings that humanity is financing its own extinction.
From tax breaks for beef production in the Amazon to financial support for unsustainable groundwater pumping in the Middle East, billions of pounds of government spending and other subsidies are harming the environment, says the first cross-sector assessment for more than a decade.
This government support, equivalent to 2% of global GDP, is directly working against the goals of the Paris agreement and draft targets on reversing biodiversity loss, the research on explicit subsidies found, effectively financing water pollution, land subsidence and deforestation with state money.
The authors, who are leading subsidies experts, say a significant portion of the $1.8tn could be repurposed to support policies that are beneficial for nature and a transition to net zero, amid growing political division about the cost of decarbonising the global economy.
Klaus Staeck, the provocative artist who challenged postwar Germany’s love of the car – theguardian.com
The green tree dominates the image’s centre, towering over a tangle of highways, which are themselves rendered in shades of dull, newsprint grey. Printed along the bottom in red is a poetic message: Und Neues Leben Blüht aus den Ruinen – “And new life blooms from the ruins.” Created in 1979, this is just one of many anti-car posters created by the German political activist and graphic designer Klaus Staeck.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2022/feb/14/klaus-staecks-posters-attacking-car-culture-in-pictures#img-10
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