Low Carbon Active Travel
What is low carbon active travel?
Promoting opportunities for low carbon active travel is all about encouraging people to get from A to B without the use of fossil fuels. This is not only good for the planet by reducing our carbon use, but is also good for your health, your happiness and your pocket. But there are wider benefits too. . . it reduces congestion and car numbers, making roads safer, quieter and altogether more pleasant places to use. It encourages the use of locally based businesses and facilities. Air pollution is reduced with multiple benefits to nature and people. And finally road rage frustration is eliminated along with the annoyance of not being able to find your car keys :) What is there not to like!
When we have safe, active travel links to the places we want to get to, communities and individuals can start to make sustainable travel choices on a daily basis - to work, to school, to the shops and any destination in between.
What can we do about it?
Firstly, we need to understand what the barriers are. With so many wonderful benefits why aren’t we all getting on our bikes or donning our walking shoes? This where YOU come in. We want to hear from you about WHERE and WHAT the problems are? Are the roads too narrow? Is the visibility poor? Are the speed limits inappropriate? Are the junctions unsafe? Is there a lack of pavements? Is the the surfacing not suitable? Does you bike need fixing? Are electric bikes unaffordable? Or has it been too long since your cycling proficiency badge? Whatever your barrier is, let us know.
Secondly, we want your thoughts about possible parish improvements to encourage us to leave the car at home more often. Don’t be shy - every idea is valuable from simple changes to pie in the sky ideas (and everything in between), so get creative and be bold in your suggestions. What about community e-bikes? Charge points? Car free routes? A cycle repair cafe? Bike safety sessions? Better signage? Traffic calming measures?
Please email any thoughts to Greener.lb.travel@gmail.com
Your comments will help to shape the upcoming Active Travel Feasibility Study to be undertaken later this year.
The "did you know?" section
Every mile you travel not using a car saves 10 balloons of CO2 (Energy Saving Trust)
Reducing car use by a quarter could save up to £379 pounds a year (Energy Saving Trust).
20 minutes of excercise a day reduces risk of depression by 30% (Gear Change, DoT, 2020)
In the UK, 49% of car journeys are less than 3 miles, 41% of these could be undertaken by bike or foot. (Sustrans website).
If everyone walked 10 minutes a day in a city of 150,000, 31 lives would be saved with a health benefit valued at 30 million (Sustrans, website).
Transport accounts for 21% of UK domestic CO2 emissions. Cars account for 58% of this. (Department of Transport)
It is only 2.7 miles from LB and Chipley to The Iron duke. This is only 7 mins on the bike, and only 2 miles and 6 mins from Runnington
Active Travel Feasibity Study
As part of the SCC Climate Emergency bid the Greener Langford Budville Project has secured just under £5,000 to identify possible options for developing safe low carbon active travel options within the Parish. This will include looking at both improvements to existing infrastructure and the potential to develop new routes within the Parish.
The study will be undertaken by a Taunton based Company, Stantec, who will bring together national datasets on road use and spatial mapping tools alongside locally gathered information to inform the study. To keep a local focus, the study will use the data collected within the biodiversity audit to ensure that our important local habitats and species are included. It will also take into account parishioner thoughts and opinions about opportunities for improving active travel options. Local opinions will be gathered through responses submitted by email or through the website and the travel related questions in the community surveys (link to survey Download). We are also hoping, Covid allowing, to undertake a community meeting or survey to gather local opinion.
The study will identify a range of measures and options which can then be considered by the community to hopefully identify a number of key priority projects that can then be progressed.
Juliet Shrimpton
