Mark Sutton15 July, 2021

16.07.2021 | Silviya Barret
While launching the Plan the Transport Secretary was at pains to say that people’s lives won’t change much: “We will still fly but in more efficient aircraft, using sustainable fuel. We will still drive, but increasingly in zero emission cars”. The good news is that – by contrast – the Plan itself recognises the need for modal shift and to reduce how much we travel, as well as how we travel. It reiterates the government’s ambition for public transport, cycling and walking to be “the natural first choice” for people.

Outline plans for a proposed workplace parking levy (WPL) have been put out to public consultation by Leicester City Council.

The plans form part of the draft Leicester Transport Plan that focuses on the key themes and schemes that the city council proposes to deliver by 2036.   
The city council says the WPL, which could start in 2023, would support delivery of the overall transport plan, alongside other funding opportunities. 

During the first lockdown in March 2020, there was a massive increase in cycling as the roads emptied of motorised vehicles and people turned to their bikes. Pop-up cycle lanes appeared in many towns and cities and the BBC ran articles on how the pandemic had sparked a “European cycling revolution”. As lockdowns have eased and road traffic is generally back to pre-Covid levels, what has happened to that cycling revolution?

Joe Dunkley July 14, 2021

April 22, 2021
James Dyke, Robert Watson, Wolfgang Knorr 
Sometimes realisation comes in a blinding flash. Blurred outlines snap into shape and suddenly it all makes sense. Underneath such revelations is typically a much slower-dawning process. Doubts at the back of the mind grow. The sense of confusion that things cannot be made to fit together increases until something clicks. Or perhaps snaps. Collectively we three authors of this article must have spent more than 80 years thinking about climate change. Why has it taken us so long to speak out about the obvious dangers of the concept of net zero? In our defence, the premise of net zero is deceptively simple – and we admit that it deceived us. The threats of climate change are the direct result of there being too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So it follows that we must stop emitting more and even remove some of it. This idea is central to the world’s current plan to avoid catastrophe. In fact, there are many suggestions as to how to actually do this, from mass tree planting, to high tech direct air capture devices that suck out CO2 from the air.

Will Bolton Wed, Jul 14, 2021
The DfT has updated its response to a petition calling for a public awareness campaign to address driver aggression towards cyclists. While a paragraph has been added to the top to say the DfT “doesn’t consider that a campaign along the lines specifically requested by this petition is necessary”, it does now say that the departments THINK! campaign will be developing a behavioural change campaign. 
The petition, started by Helen-Louise Smith, said: “The attitude that cyclists should not be on the roads needs to end.”
It called for motorists to be educated about ‘dangerous, inappropriate and aggressive behaviours that can lead to the injury and even death of cyclists.’

Licensing would deter many from cycling, and costs and complexity of system would outweigh benefits, says Baroness Vere

:excerptstartCarlton Reid Jul 14, 2021U.K. transport secretary Grant Shapps has hailed his government’s much-delayed transport decarbonisation plan as “revolutionary” and a “world first”.  However, the plan does not envisage cutting the £27 billion road building program and instead relies on future technologies for aviation and converting the country’s car and truck fleets from petrol engines to electric ones. A