Focus of work
Phil and John will be working on separate agendas of work while collaborating with each other and interested researchers and agencies between 2020-22.
John plans:
- A meta-review on measures and interventions with CO2 reduction results
- Collaboration with leading policy institutes including Wuppertal, Lund University, and Tyndall
- Best practice case studies e.g. Oslo, Freiburg, Lund
- Contacts with climate emergency centres in unitary and county councils
- A workshop on measures and best practice
- Short summaries based on the EU Evidence project in accessible style
John Whitelegg, BA PhD LLB, is visiting professor, School of the Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University and was formerly professor of geography and head of department at Lancaster University and a staff member of the global science policy organisation, the Stockholm Environment Institute.
He has worked with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy and the Environment (Germany) and is an associate of the Kassel Centre for Mobility Culture (Germany) and a board member of the Californian organisation “Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities”.
John has edited the journal “World Transport Policy and Practice for 25 years and has written 10 books. In the most recent book Mobility, he presents an evidence-based case for a transformation of the totality of transport and mobility policy to achieve three zeroes (zero carbon, zero deaths and injuries and zero air pollution).
He has worked extensively on practical measures to achieve 100% decarbonisation of land transport.
Selected publications
Towards a zero carbon vision for UK transport
John Whitelegg, Gary Haq, Howard Cambridge and Harry Vallack, Stockholm Environment Institute, 2010
How much transport can landscape tolerate: new ways of thinking about traffic, landscape and nature?
Koerner, S, Holzapfel, H and Bellin-Harder, F (eds) Landschaft und Verkeher, University of Kassel, Germany, ISBN 978-3-86219-358-5, pp 93-114 (2012)
Mobility: A New Urban Design and Transport Planning Philosophy for a Sustainable Future
Straw Barnes Press. ISBN 13: 978-1530227877 (2015)
Key research themes on regulation, pricing, and sustainable urban mobility
Nash, C and Whitelegg, J (2016), International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 10,1,33-39
Cars and climate change: the need for more ambition
Responsible Science (2019)
Safety, risk and road traffic danger: towards a transformational approach to the dominant ideology
The Politics of Cycling Infrastructure. Spaces and (in)equality edited by Peter Cox and Till Koglin, Policy Press, University of Bristol, 95-112 (2020)
Recent blog posts
Ludlow sets out a net zero carbon transport future
The Ludlow net zero carbon project has shown that if its main recommendations are accepted by Shropshire Council and implemented by ...
The time is right for free fare local public transport
The UK national government and approximately 300 councils have declared a climate emergency (Note 1). But while most local authorities are enthusiastic about electric vehicles and charging points, few have the same enthusiasm for buses. Very few have taken bold steps to increase the quantity and quality of buses, or developed clear plans to transfer […]
When in a hole stop digging. All local road schemes promoted by local authorities must be cancelled
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 […]
Space: the final frontier. To boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before
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 […]
Are councils’ plans for local road schemes compatible with the declaration of a climate emergency?
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. Download the full list Many of these councils […]
Electric vehicles will not deliver net zero carbon targets
The focus on EVs is misplaced and will not deliver the degree of decarbonisation we require to achieve net zero carbon targets.
Banning the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 is not good enough to deal with climate change
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 […]
Lund sets a very high standard on its approach to transport decarbonisation
Lund sets a very high standard on its approach to transport decarbonisation.