Shortages and panic buying of petrol are currently gripping the media and London’s drivers. How do we avoid such a chaotic future?
Dodge the queue
We’ve seen the queues, heard the honks and dodged the traffic jams (hopefully). For car-dependent Londoners, it’s chaos out there and now with talk of bringing in the Army to help manage the fuel shortage, it doesn’t take an expert to see that our transport system is deeply flawed.
This crisis reveals an increasingly fragile system and the extent to which we are reliant on fossil fuels to keep London moving even when there are easily accessible alternatives. Low-traffic neighbourhoods and cycle tracks can’t continue to be the scapegoat for chaos on our roads when it’s so clearly our over-reliance on cars causing the problems.
Norfolk transport plan delayed by government decarbonisation | Eastern Daily Press
A blueprint for Norfolk’s transport links over the next 15 years has been delayed after the council was forced to re-examine its proposals.
The fourth local transport plan (LTP) was due to be examined by Norfolk County Council on Monday but was pulled by the council leader.
The LTP covers Norfolk-wide plans, such as improving highway conditions, encouraging walking and cycling and delivering major projects like the Norwich Western Link, Long Stratton bypass and Great Yarmouth third river crossing.
Andrew Proctor, the Conservative leader of the council, said he was no longer moving the recommendations forward after the government published a transport decarbonisation plan.
The government’s plans require councils to set out how their LTPs will deliver carbon reductions in transport in line with national carbon budgets.
Denmark is repurposing discarded wind turbine blades as bike shelters – Design Boom
wind turbine blades as bike sheds?
Fuel tax lobbyist blames ‘militant cyclist’ for listing home as petrol station | The Guardian
Jim Waterson
As the longstanding boss of the FairFuelUK organisation, which campaigns against tax rises on petrol, Howard Cox is used to criticism from environmentalists and cyclists.
What he did not expect was someone listing his home address in Kent as a petrol station on Google Maps in the middle of a fuel crisis.
“I got 70 phone calls with people saying: ‘Have you got any petrol for sale?’” he said. “I was panicking because my phone didn’t stop ringing and it’s my private home address. They typed in ‘petrol stations near me’ and it came up with a little flag over my house saying ‘petrol station’.”
Do not squander cycling gains made during pandemic, Labour says | Transport policy | The Guardian
Government urged to invest in active travel as motor traffic returns to pre-civid levels
Labour has called for rapid extra spending on safe cycling and walking, saying that as motor traffic levels return to pre-Covid levels the gains in active travel made during the pandemic could soon be squandered.
This is seen as particularly an issue for cycling: the number of bike trips rose notably during lockdown, but there is concern that many new or returning cyclists could stop now that the roads are busier.
Revised €165bn national infrastructure plan to include funding for extra roads – Irish Times
National Development Plan, to be published on Monday, will include more than 50 projects with a price tag of more than €100m
Jack Horgan-Jones Sat, Oct 2, 2021
Tense negotiations over the level of investment in roads projects saw talks on the National Development Plan (NDP) go down to the wire, it is understood.
Government sources said significant investment in roads had been approved as part of the NDP process, which sources said had now been signed off.
The €165 billion plan, to be published on Monday, will include a swathe of heavy-spending schemes which will see more than 50 projects with a price tag of more than €100 million included.
Transport boss tells drivers: “If you’re in a car you’re part of the problem” | road.cc
Oxfordshire county councillor says motorists need to take ownership of congestion – and encourages them to use the bus instead
People driving into Oxford have been told that if they’re in a car, they are “part of the problem” of the city’s congestion and that they need to take ownership of the issue – by a councillor in charge of the county’s highways.
Like so many other towns and cities throughout the country, Oxford experiences horrendous congestion at peak times, with traffic regularly queueing from the city centre to beyond the ring road.
But despite park and rides located at key approaches to the city, many commuters drive all the way into the centre, resulting in long tailbacks and holding up buses.
Divert Lower Thames Crossing cash to active travel and public transport
Divert Lower Thames Crossing cash to active travel and public transport Plans for the multi-billion Lower Thames Crossing are completely at odds with the Government’s pledge to tackle climate change, argues Chris Todd
In the foreword to Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan, transport secretary Grant Shapps acknowledges that, “we cannot, of course, simply rely on the electrification of road transport, or believe that zero emission cars and lorries will solve all our problems, particularly for meeting our medium-term carbon reduction targets to 2035.”
This scheme will offer nothing in terms of improved accessibility for local communities either side of the Thames
Trees, trams and tricycles: no place left behind? – transportxtra
Trees, trams and tricycles: no place left behind?The Commission into Community Prosperity and Placemaking seeks to identify and develop policy and practice that enables regenerative development in ‘left behind places’
The No Place Left Behind: the Commission into Community Prosperity and Placemaking has launched its new report at the House of Commons. Toby Lloyd, former Head of Policy at Shelter and Housing Adviser to the Prime Minister, chairs the Commission.
The Commission seeks to identify and develop policy and practice that enables regenerative development in ‘left behind places’. It aims to ensure that the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda is deliverable and meaningful for those who live and work in these places. The commission’s mantra is that no place should be left behind
Welsh plan for cycleways and public transport in every village – transportxtra
Welsh plan for cycleways and public Infrastructure
Rhodri Clark18 September 2021
Every village in Wales will have a safe cycle route to the nearest town and hourly public transport, if an ambitious Welsh Government plan comes to fruition. Details of the “rural offer” are due to be revealed next year, in the delivery plan for the Llwybr Newydd transport strategy. LTT has seen a list of rural proposals which was presented to the cabinet last spring, shortly before the transport strategy’s publication.
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