Active travel can help tackle the climate crisis earlier than electric vehicles – even if you swap the car for a bike for just one trip a day.

Globally, only one in 50 new cars were fully electric in 2020, and one in 14 in the UK. Sounds impressive, but even if all new cars were electric now, it would still take 15-20 years to replace the world’s fossil fuel car fleet.

The emission savings from replacing all those internal combustion engines with zero-carbon alternatives will not feed in fast enough to make the necessary difference in the time we can spare: the next five years. Tackling the climate and air pollution crises requires curbing all motorised transport, particularly private cars, as quickly as possible. Focusing solely on electric vehicles is slowing down the race to zero emissions.

  • Showroom7561
    172·
    10 months ago

    Cycling is great for short commuter trips. But it doesn’t replace long trips at all, not practically anyway.

    Depends on what “long trip” means. 20km? 50km? 500km?

    Sure, a bike isn’t ideal for “long trips”, but it’s easily integrated into other forms of public transportation, which is also better for society than having more EVs.

    • n2burns
      10·
      10 months ago

      Sure, a bike isn’t ideal for “long trips”, but it’s easily integrated into other forms of public transportation, which is also better for society than having more EVs.

      You nailed it. I’m mostly WFH, but twice a week, I have to go into the office which is ~110km away. Fortunately, there’s a train between the two cities and the station is 750m from the office, so it’s a nice 10min walk. My home, on the other hand, is 3.5km from the station and that walk takes 45min even if I’m booking it. On a bike, it’s a reasonable 12min ride.