Decarbonising Transport

The DfT's publication Decarbonising Transport: a Better, Greener Britain sets out the Government's strategy to deliver transport's contribution to legally binding carbon budgets and delivering net zero by 2050.

Secretary of Transport Grant Schapps says "Because transport is not just how you get around. It is something that fundamentally shapes our towns, our cities, our countryside, our living standards, our health, and our whole quality of life. It can shape all these things for good – or for bad." He goes on to say "For most of us, changing how we travel may be a blend, not a binary – it's about using cars less, not giving them up completely. You'll still keep a car for some journeys – or maybe borrow one from a car club – but you'll also have an electric bike to get you to the station, perhaps take it on the train and ride it off the other end, doing the door-to-door journey in a different way. If your commute isn't possible at all by public transport, you might instead use a new app to find someone in the same industrial estate you can share a car with, cutting costs and parking hassle. Some big employers are already doing this to save hundreds of car journeys a day." This seems to be confirmation of existing policy rather than any thing new.

With regards to planning he says "We must also do better at joining up our transport, decarbonisation, and planning goals in both urban and rural areas. Too many new developments – not just by housebuilders, but by public-sector bodies – are difficult to reach without a car. But if we do development in a greener way, and if we join it to existing places, we can make it lower-carbon, lower-emission and lower-traffic – and more acceptable to local communities. We will also support local areas to decarbonise by linking local infrastructure funding to solutions that cut emissions – aligning billions of pounds of investment to our net zero mission." This also appears to chime with existing policies in NPPF; however, there is clearly a great deal more that can be done in aligning land allocation policies with sustainable travel objectives.

Decarbonising Transport – A Better, Greener Britain (publishing.service.gov.uk)