Stephen Potter, Professor of Transport Strategy at the OU, on why adapting your transport habits to aid the environment really isn’t that difficult…
Transport is one of the most challenging areas to cut our carbon footprint because it is so ingrained in all we do. At the OU we are taking part in research looking at radically cleaner transport technologies, such as our work with Milton Keynes Council on electric cars and studies on innovative public transport systems. But is there something more immediate people could do in Climate Week?
Sometime ago an AA survey suggested that 20 per cent of car miles were largely due to motorists not planning trips efficiently. Because driving is easy, people tend to do lots of separate trips rather than work out how trips can be linked to save fuel and time – or to phone a shop first to check that it is open.
Equally, how many times have you been to an event to find that 10 people you know have all turned up separately in their own cars?
One of the best ways to cut carbon is to find a non-travelling way to do some things: for example, Skype, teleconferencing and the like are really viable alternatives to that two-hour motorway trip.
But even if driving is inevitable, that’s not the end of cutting carbon. Obviously when you change your car there are models around now with really good fuel economy, but how you drive your existing car is also crucial. Ecodriving is attracting increasing attention; this involves more gentle acceleration and anticipating where you have to slow down to avoid sharp braking. So, for example, on Milton Keynes grid roads, the sequence of fast acceleration to 70mph and then braking fast for the next roundabout results in awful fuel consumption. Compensate for this by slower accelerating and braking, with running at only 40mph in between. Journeys may take a couple of minutes longer, but you’ll save 10 per cent or more in fuel.
Explore and try things out in Climate Week. You may surprise yourself.
Take it further
- The AA has produced a guide on ecodriving
- Read more environment-related content on OpenLearn’s Climate Week special
