News from Elsewhere

Niamh McIntyre
Conservative councillors, MPs and local associations have vocally opposed measures to clean up air pollution, often in opposition to government policy, a Guardian investigation has found.
Transport decarbonisation is one of the government’s “priority action areas” at the upcoming Cop26 global climate talks. However, cities in the UK have been slow to adopt clean air zones, schemes that deter the use of older, more polluting vehicles and incentivise cleaner forms of transport. Only three cities currently operate a CAZ.
There are 25 council areas covered by clean air zone proposals that also have more than one Conservative councillor. Tory councillors opposed schemes in about half of these (13).

By Thami Croeser and Georgia Garrard and Sarah Bekessy  02 Aug 2021 (Last Updated 4 Aug 2021)
There have been some truly inspiring, exemplar projects in recent years. The transformation of a Seoul freeway to Cheonggyecheon parkland, exposing the historical river that once flowed there, is one celebrated example.
Projects like this are commendable, as urban nature has considerable benefits including, for instance, improving mental health and boosting urban biodiversity.
Our new research looked at what’s holding back greening in our cities. And we found the issue is often internal – cities just aren’t really set up to deliver their plans. Fortunately, this is a very fixable problem.

While suffragettes like Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Wilding Davison are often lauded for their contributions, there were many other women who were instrumental to the campaign, including Annie Kenney.

A working-class woman from Greater Manchester, Kenney was arrested in 1905 after heckling a Liberal politician on the issue of women’s suffrage.

Our new report, Five Flaws: Failing Laws, highlights five laws which could be changed to ensure our road justice system takes dangerous drivers off the roads, and makes our roads safer for everyone.

As well as calling for a full review of traffic offences, the proposals include changes which would:
• Stop drivers routinely avoiding a driving ban after accruing 12 penalty points by claiming it would cause them ‘exceptional hardship’.

• Create a new offence for serious hit and runs, where a driver knows or ought to know someone has been seriously or fatally injured.

Jonny Ball
The price of British rail travel is a near-constant bugbear of daily commuters and occasional passengers alike. It’s not uncommon for travel between Britain’s largest cities to be cheaper by flight than by train. At the time of writing, a one-way ticket from London to Edinburgh, purchased on the day of travel, costs £126. The same one-way journey by plane, also purchased on the day, costs just £83.

The number of high heat days is increasing rapidly across the world, and the implications for businesses are profound.

By Patrick Scott  13 Aug 2021 (Last Updated 16 Aug 2021)
Heatwaves around the world are becoming more severe and more frequent, at a pace that surprises even climate scientists. Few expected the cities of Portland and Seattle, in the US’s temperate north-west, to experience sustained temperatures of well above 40°C this year. Cities are particularly susceptible to such weather events: highly built-up areas can absorb and retain more heat, sustaining temperatures that become dangerous to public health and do serious economic damage.

In weaning people from driving, speed can be risky.

August 31, 2021
Marc Herman and Paul Tullis    

The city built the tiny park in just a few weeks last autumn, at an estimated cost of €20,000 ($23,600). The strip of land had been a right-turn lane at the intersection of busy Via Sardegna and four residential streets, jammed every morning with honking commuters and every afternoon with parents double-parked to pick up their kids from school. Now, with cars forced to divert around the piazza, one of Milan’s myriad traffic nightmares has become a place where children play soccer, food delivery riders perch on their bikes awaiting calls, and residents of nearby apartment blocks face off at the pingpong table.

Neil Docking
Killer drivers could soon face life sentences if long-awaited new legislation is finally approved.
The punishments for the worst examples of dangerous driving have long caused outrage across Merseyside.
Three cases this past month infuriated ECHO readers, many of whom took to social media to brand the length of the prison sentences a “joke”.