Radical new climate change commitments will set the UK on course to cut carbon emissions by 78% by 2035, the UK government has announced.
Hitting the targets would require more electric cars, low-carbon heating, renewable electricity and, for many, cutting down on meat and dairy.
For the first time, climate law will be extended to cover international aviation and shipping.
But Labour said the government had to match “rhetoric with reality”.
It urged Boris Johnson to treat “the climate emergency as the emergency it is” and show “greater ambition”.
The prime minister’s commitments, which are to become law, bring forward the current target for reducing carbon emissions by 15 years. This would be a world-leading position.
Homes will need to be much better insulated, and people will be encouraged to drive less and walk and cycle more. Aviation is likely to become more expensive for frequent fliers.
• Tax fliers and get rid of SUVs, government told
Cycling campaign to lead with unsustainable stat: “60% of 1 to 2 mile journeys are driven” – Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton20 April, 2021
The bike industry-backed Cycling Marketing Board will lead a spring/summer campaign with the shock tactic message that 60% of short journeys (between 1 and 2 miles) are driven, calling on people to consider doing their bit to collectively address congestion, pollution and climate issues.
Having already put the DfT data finding to focus groups with the help of qualitative research expert Terry Watkins of TWResearch, the feedback is one of surprise and horror, according to the CMB. Five online focus group sessions were held in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Norwich.
Set to launch later in April, the campaign will ask consumers are you using “the best tool for the job”, using illustrations to demonstrate how society at large is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut by habitually turning to the car for journeys that very often do not require such a large nor polluting vehicle. There will be emphasis that any bike is suitable for short journeys and that specialist gear is not essential to get started.
#LDNCycleSafari Goes Solo: A Trip To Thamesmead – Part 2 – The Ranty Highwayman
The Ranty Highwayman at Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Last week, I visited Thamesmead in southeast London, a place I worked in the late 1990s/ early 2000s. My cycle around the town ended at Southmere Lake and so this week, I continue the journey.
Most of what you saw last week was on the Greenwich side of Thamesmead whereas this week, I’m just over the border in Bexley. This split between the two boroughs has always added a layer of complexity with two planning departments and two highways departments which certainly had very different approaches during my time there.
If you go about 1km east from here, you will find yourself at Crossness Sewage Treatment Works which deals with a huge part of the southeast London’s sewage. The complex also houses the Crossness Engines housed in the original Crossness Pumping Station which pumped effluent into the Thames as the tide ebbed (way before anyone was living in the area). The sewer and pumping station were built under the supervision of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, my civil engineering hero.
1I went under the junction and turned south onto Harrow Manorway (well the residential street called the same running next to the elevated road). This area again has housing (mainly low rise) from different decades with that flanking the main road being more recent additions (below).
Opponents of LTNs claim they delay emergency services – but look at the facts | The Guardian
One thing is clear: there is virtually no evidence that low-traffic neighbourhood schemes hold up emergency vehicles
Peter Walker Fri 23 Apr 2021 07.00 BST
If you were to read certain newspapers for long enough, the message would seem clear: the main cause of traffic congestion is measures to boost walking and cycling – that is, separated cycle lanes, and so-called low-traffic neighbourhoods, or LTNs.
LTNs, schemes to dissuade through traffic on smaller residential streets by filters permeable to people travelling by foot or cycle, but not by private motor vehicle – whether camera-enforced or in the physical form of planters or bollards – are at the centre of a particularly fierce transport-based culture war.
The regular focus for this is access for emergency vehicles. Stories about ambulances or fire crews supposedly held up by badly implemented or not consulted-on planters are a near-daily staple of some news outlets.
This article is an attempt to get to the facts, and in turn to use the row about emergency access as a microcosm for the wider, and often depressingly toxic, debate on LTNs. The examples and studies cited will, I’m afraid, come from London, given the recent spread of LTNs in the capital, and the resultant fact that the research tends to be focused there.
School kids call for more cycling as 59% see “too many cars” at school gates – Cycle Industry News
Liberty Sheldon19 April, 2021
Of those surveyed, just over three fifths (62%) don’t think adults are doing enough to tackle climate change, with 71% of the pupils admitting to feeling worried about climate change, and just over half (53%) believing that adults don’t listen to children’s concerns about the topic.
40% of pupils thought that encouraging more people to walk, cycle or scoot to school was the best way to bring down levels of air pollution near their school, and 38% thought that walking and cycling for local journeys was the most important thing that adults should be doing to tackle climate change overall.
London cycle lanes have “little impact” on congestion, finds data study – Cycle Industry News
Mark Sutton16 April, 2021
Researchers with Imperial College London’s Department of Mathematics, among other academic institutions, have found that London’s Cycle Superhighway lanes do not negatively impact traffic speed.
In unwelcome news to a handful of mayoral candidates touting that myth that cycle lanes worsen traffic at present, the findings are based on data analysis stretching back further than the existence of even the blue painted schemes first laid down when Boris Johnson was London’s Mayor. The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has likewise previously suggested he may believe the myth of cycle lanes “causing congestion”, though has likewise shown some support for their improvement.
Two killed in huge blaze after driverless Tesla crashes into tree – New York Post
Two men perished inside a Tesla Model S that authorities believe was set to autopilot with no one behind the wheel — when the car crashed into a tree in Texas and sparked a massive fire.
The deadly smash-up happened aroudn 11:30 p.m. Saturday night in The Woodlands, a neighborhood in Houston.
“Our preliminary investigation is determining — but it’s not complete yet — that there was no one at the wheel of that vehicle,” he said. “We’re almost 99.9 percent sure.”
The blaze continued to burn for hours, with firefighters pumping more than 30,000 gallons of water onto the flames before they were put out.
June ’20) Saying goodbye to the household car: two families tell their story – Healthy Streets Scorecard
Alice Roberts June 15, 2020
Adrian: “Our car was quite old and we found we weren’t using it very much so we decided we’d try to manage without it when it was no longer road worthy, which actually happened a lot sooner than we’d hoped! But going car-free has been much easier than we expected. In fact, it’s relieved us of quite a bit of expense and stress.
Reclaim our cities from the SUV army – Financial Times
These tanks of the urban road are environmentally harmful and entirely unnecessary
Henry Mance 16/4/21
The pandemic has given us a chance to reclaim outdoor space, with cafés spilling on to pavements. Why is so much of our cities dedicated to cars?
Finally, spring is here. The sun is out. The pubs are open. The cars are . . . absolutely huge?
Seriously, did I shrink in lockdown, or did the vehicles get bigger? Amid London’s cherry blossom, the SUVs have taken over. They patrol the roads like an occupying army. Whose tanks are these? It’s the school run, not the Battle of Kursk.
Cars Will Take the Streets Back Unless Cities Act Quickly – Janette Sadik-Khan & Seth Solomonow – The Atlantic
Surrendering Our Cities to Cars Would Be a Historic Blunder
Communities shouldn’t give back the street space that they reclaimed during the pandemic.
April 16, 2021The Biden administration can help to some degree, and it is saying the right things. “You should not have to own a car to prosper in this country,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted last month, “no matter what kind of community you’re living in.” President Joe Biden recently unveiled a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that would double federal spending on public transportation systems in cities, to $85 billion, and devote another $20 billion to improving roadway safety. It also includes $20 billion to undo the damage highways have inflicted on cities, particularly in Black neighbourhoods.