Investing in cycling and walking to achieve net zero

The City of Yarra has declared a climate emergency – recognising that we all need to do more to reduce our collective carbon emissions.

The UK Parliament has an All-Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking, which hosted a webinar on investing in cycling and walking to help achieve net zero emissions.

Presenters in webinar made many points, including:

  • Many journeys are short, and can be made by cycling or walking
  • E-bikes can help attract people to cycling
  • COVID showed that people are able to change
  • Solutions include congestion charging, parking restrictions, 30 km/h (or 20 mph) zones, street space reallocation, parking levies, 20-minute neighbourhoods
  • We need to move from a “vicious circle” to a “virtuous circle” of infrastructure, participation and political support
Image credit: All-Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking webinar
Image credit: All-Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking webinar
Image credit: All-Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking webinar

Our view

It’s great to see further evidence supporting the changes that Streets Alive Yarra are advocating for, including:

We urge local and state government to follow this evidence an invest to kick-start a virtuous circle.

Published 9th November 2020