When in a hole stop digging. All local road schemes promoted by local authorities must be cancelled
Professor John Whitelegg, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Integrated Transport
- On 2nd February 2021, Herefordshire Council cancelled the Hereford Bypass on climate change, cost and the availability of more effective non-road building alternatives to achieve wider Council objectives including the reduction of congestion in Hereford.
- The Herefordshire recognition that building new roads does not pass climate change, cost and the availability of alternatives test is not evident across all local authorities. In reply to a Freedom of Information request dated 4thAugust 2020 the DfT supplied a list of all the approved Large Local Major (LLM) road schemes. The total cost of these schemes was £6.986 billion (Note 1).
- New roads are recognised as a significant source of additional carbon emissions (Sloman and Hopkinson, 2020; Mottschall and Bergmann, 2013, Chester and Horvath, 2009).
Open letter to the Rt Hon Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport on urgent measures to deal with climate change
Dear Mr Shapps,
The government of the United Kingdom is fully committed to do as much as possible to maximise our contribution to carbon reduction and make a significant contribution to eliminating the threats posed by climate change.
Space: the final frontier. To boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before.
John Whitelegg
When I was a student in the late 1960s studying economic geography as part of an excellent degree programme in the Department of Geography at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth we were told that land was a valuable commodity and also finite. It was also a factor of production and great care was needed to optimise its use and factor in land costs as part of a wider optimisation and the creation of an economic system that made best use of all inputs. The cost of land was an important consideration in public and private decision-taking.
Are councils’ plans for local road schemes compatible with the declaration of a climate emergency?
John Whitelegg
More than 100 local road schemes are currently being promoted and, in most cases, part-funded by local authorities. These are included in a Department for Transport (DfT) list of Major Road Network and Large Local Majors schemes, provided in a response to a Freedom of Information request.
Electric vehicles will not deliver net zero carbon targets
by John Whitelegg, FIT’s Transport and Climate Change Fellow
The discussion around transport decarbonisation and the importance of reducing transport’s CO2 emissions is increasingly focussed on electric vehicles, the provision of charging infrastructure and substantial public funds to encourage the switch from petrol and diesel to zero carbon alternatives.
Banning the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 is not good enough to deal with climate change
by John Whitelegg, FIT’s Transport and Climate Change Fellow
The Prime Minister wants to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.
Overlooking for a moment the impact this will have on the fleet as a whole in 2030 and the degree to which sales of non-fossil fuel vehicles after 2030 will contribute to decarbonisation, it still misses what is needed to decarbonise transport. It is not fast enough, early enough and big enough to help achieve our climate ambitions.
Lund sets a very high standard on its approach to transport decarbonisation
John Whitelegg, November 2020
Lund (population 114,000) is a city in southern Sweden that is home to some of Sweden’s most famous companies e.g. Ikea and Tetra Pak. It is a famous university town and has pursued a detailed sustainable transport policy with an emphasis on reducing transport’s carbon emissions. This is known as the “Lund Environmentally Adjusted Transport System” or LundaMaTs. It was adopted in 2006 and was revised and updated in 2013 and is now referred to as LundaMaTs III. Download in English here.
Trends in car use, travel demand and policy thinking
Phil Goodwin, October 2020, Discussion Paper for International Transport Forum
This paper discusses the main trends of car use and travel demand, as well as changes in policy responses and attitudes to managing the growth in urban traffic.
Social media, disappearing traffic, and social justice
Phil Goodwin’s column in Local Transport Today.