DECARBONIZING TRANSPORT : SETTING THE CHALLENGE (UK 2050)

Climate crisis: UK Government unveils ‘unprecedented’ vision of future travel with focus on walking, cycling and public transport, targeting  ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

UK MINISTERIAL FOREWORD

Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP

Secretary of State for Sustainable Transport

 

Climate change is the most pressing environmental challenge of our time. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that we need to take action, and doing so is a clear priority for the Government.

That is why in June 2019 we became the first major global economy to pass a law that requires us to achieve ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Transport has a huge role to play in the economy reaching net zero. The scale of the challenge demands a step change in both the breadth and scale of ambition and we have a duty to act quickly and decisively to reduce emissions.

 

The associated benefits of bold and ambitious action to tackle transport emissions are also significant. We can improve people’s health, create better places to live and travel in, and drive clean economic growth. The UK is a global centre for world leading science, technology, business and innovation and we are perfectly placed to seize the economic opportunities that being in the vanguard of this change presents. The faster we act, the greater the benefits.

 

Through the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, 2020 will be the year we set out the policies and plans needed to tackle transport emissions.

WORTHY MOUSE FAMILY TRAGICALLY LOSES HOME: SLEEPS IN CAR

– – – – – – – – > by Eric the Crow, Reportng for World Streets, from Reykjavik Iceland

Someone a lot wiser than me, once told me many years ago: when you are facing a really difficult problem, why don’t you see if you can step back a few paces and put it in a form that you can discuss with children and hear what they may have to say.

I recalled this in the early nineties when in the face of the many mind-bending complications of sustainability and mobility — such as we are facing here today — I decided to write a Haiku which gradually expanded from seventeen syllabes into a wandering draft scenario for a children’s story on the topic, which eventually became, with the great shaping inputs of two of my friends (Wolfgang Zuckermann for the words, and Roget Tweet for the music (artwork) ).  After much thrashing around we decided to call it  Family Mouse behind the Wheel (Wolfgang’s candidate).

Want to check it out?

To read this tragedi-environmental tale with backstrory all you have to do is click here – – > https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/family-mouse-behind-the-wheel/

Carfree Times now indefinitely parked: (But the future lies ahead)

Founding editor, Joel Crawford, announces final issue of Carfree Times  

I have decided to suspend my online creative efforts indefinitely. This will probably be the last Carfree Times. I don’t plan to shoot stills or video except incidentally, and there will probably be few or no new videos.

In a sense, what I’m doing is giving up virtual presence in favor of actual presence. I am looking at screens far too much. I enjoy face-to-face interaction, particularly with an audience. I am available for these kinds of events within railing distance of Amsterdam.

We are going to have carfree cities, one way or another, I’m pretty sure. Money, ecology, and happiness all optimize at one and the same point: carfree cities. There is no cheaper way to build decent cities. No other urban form has smaller environmental impacts. Urban quality of life is always improved by removing cars.

DECONGESTION – 7 Steps for Mayors and other City Leaders to cut traffic congestion without the expense of new roads or annoyed residents’

Houston, we have a problem

Our cities are in crisis because they revolve around the car. It’s killing us, our communities and our economy.

Traffic congestion is one of the most significant problems and issues facing Governments, Councils and businesses around the world. In Australia, more than 80% of all trips are made by car and in New Zealander 83% of trips less than 2km are made by car. A British Social Attitudes Survey found that 71% of adults never cycle. Only 3% of Brits cycle every day or nearly every day. There are as many as 38 million empty car seats on the UK’s roads every rush hour.

“The problem is we’re all doing the same things – commuting, business trips and the school run – making the same trips by car at the same time, creating gridlock, congestion, queuing and travel delays’ says Transport Planner and Behaviour Change expert Rachel Smith.

SECRET WEAPON?