Posts filed under 'green issues'
The government has recently announced that they are going to roll out the use of the hard-shoulder on motorways at peak driving times. After a year of testing on the M42 the scheme is going to be soon extended to other motorways including the M1, M4, M6, M25 and M40.
The announcement raises a few questions
including whether the use of these previously empty lanes will hinder the work of the emergency services (although The Highways Agency insists it won’t) and, as claimed by Friends of the Earth, whether this “motorway widening by stealth” will simply attract more cars and cause even more carbon dioxide emissions.
Can the two battles - one against gridlock, the other against environmental damage - both be won? And will lives be lost if, say, ambulances or helicopters aren’t able to reach an accident scene because of a blocked hard shoulder.
Whatever the government’s priorities one thing is for sure: allowing us to use the hard shoulder is a less expensive option than stumping up the money to add an extra new lane….
November 2nd, 2007
This week the Campaign for Better Transport highlighted figures from the Department of Transport which predicted by 2031 there will be some 5.7m more cars on the road than there are now. That’s 21% more or, apparently, enough cars parked end-to-end to fill a 52 lane motorway between London and Edinburgh. That’s quite a traffic jam…
…and it’s quite an apposite image because other forecasts predict that traffic overall will actually increase at an even greater rate, rising by 31% by 2025 alone.
If you’ve not heard of the Campaign for Better Transport, you won’t be too surprised to learn that it is a campaigning organisation that aims to not just improve public transport, but also reduce traffic and tackle climate change. You can read more about their campaigns on their site . It may seem odd that Swiftcover.com would promote these given that more drivers might mean more car insurance policies, but since it also follows that more cars and more traffic also mean more jams, longer journeys, more stress and more environmental damage, you can’t really quibble with their aims. Indeed, you might want to support them!
You may also like to visit www.travelometer.co.uk - a simple website powered by Swiftcover.com which will help you discover whether or not depending on where you live, you really could give up your car and rely on the public transport in your area. It might seem fanciful to leave the car at home for some journeys, but of course it can be quicker and less stressful sometimes to do so.
September 12th, 2007
They say you should never judge a book by its cover. I don’t know about never, though. I mean, what happens if you find yourself judging a book-cover contest?
Anyway, less tricky might be judging people by the car they drive - especially if you are armed with new research from from Swiftcover.com. The ‘Rich Car List 2007′-picks out the cars that high-earners are more - and also less - likely to drive.
Whilst it is no surprise perhaps to see that top of the Rich Car List are the likes of Porsche, Jaguar and Mercedes, what is interesting is that rich people are more likely to drive a Skoda than an MG or a Volvo. What’s more the wee Smart car has broken into the Top 10 for the first time, perhaps showing that - for some people at least - a big wallet doesn’t necessarily dictate having a big flashy car.
At the other end of the scale, the data - which was based on 2.7m recent car insurance quotes issued by Swiftcover.com last year - showed that a Proton was the least likely marque to be driven by the rich, with Daewoo, a close second bottom of the list. Somewhat surprisingly, Mini finished third bottom of the ‘least likely’ on the Rich List 2007, below marques such as Kia and Nissan and representing a dramatic reversal in fortunes from last year when it was sixth ‘most likely’ to be chosen by the rich. With green issues becoming a lifestyle choice for many - it will be interesting to see the gas-guzzlers get on next year, and whether more modest green-machines might make it on to the list of must-haves for the have-it-all generation.
September 3rd, 2007
An interesting report has just been published. Unveiled at the Royal Geographical Society, in a conference session on Transport and Sustainability, the research from the University of Exeter claims that we - as a nation - are addicted to cheap flights and confused about whether or not to undertake air travel.
When we open the newspapers we see, on one page, stories about the environmental damage caused by aviation, and then on the next page we see full-page advertisements offering cheaper flights to suit our lifestyle. The study reckons that even those living ‘generally green lives’ are reluctant to fly less and bargain flights are one thing they are reluctant to give up. Of course, one could suggest that at least all these flights heading off to sunnier climes are warming up the country for those who can’t afford to go jetting off abroad, meaning that in the long term, we’ll all need to take less flights abroad in search of the sun…but it’s a cheap gag really. The big question is, can the combined efforts of the scientific community and the Government change our attitudes further so as to encourage more responsible travel?
Equally important, how long will it be before there really is public appetite to break our cheap flight addiction? Right now, it seems only die-hard environmentalists are willing to reduce their short haul travel, and as the report concludes, even they do it reluctantly.
August 31st, 2007
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