Noise pollution from roads is a serious and under-reported environmental problem. The din created by cars and motorbike exhausts with excessively loud exhausts isn’t just illegal, it’s a blight on countless communities up and down the country. And yet very little action is taken to curb this anti-social behaviour. Police can issue a modest £50 on-the-spot fine, but this kind…
Running a car is the single largest household expense (excluding mortgage repayments) for rural families, and the second largest for urban ones. As a result, transport costs have pushed over 5 million people into poverty according to research by the Social Market Foundation. The average British household spends £5,740 on driving, but only £87 on bus travel. Poorer regions are…
Everyone wants to stay safe on the roads. Unfortunately, there are wildly different ideas about how that’s best achieved. Beaonisation is a digital version of the red flag they waved ahead of early cars* – except this time it’s for cyclists. If you think fitting pedestrians and cyclists with transponders to prevent them being run over in the brave new…
20mph limits only work if they’re stuck to. A vocal minority of drivers have unusual ideas about why lower speeds in the areas people live, work and go to school are a bad idea, but what can be done to help those who are supportive of traffic calming measures? After all, everyone benefits from safer roads – however they travel.…
The UK has already tried year-round BST – once during the war to maximise daylight working hours, and again between 1968-1971. The most recent trial saw an 11 per cent reduction in road traffic deaths and injuries thanks to lighter evenings, but was ended following pressure from the farming lobby and its objections to darker mornings in the north. It’s…
