Department for Transport apologises over usable cycle lane

Funny story from the satirical newspaper Newsbiscuit.com:

The Rt Hon. Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Transport, issued a full apology today after it transpired that a cycle lane in Wilmslow, Cheshire, did not contain substantial fragments of broken glass, abandoned vehicles or a telephone box placed right in the middle...

‘This places us in an impossible position’ said one local cyclist. ‘We were already as self-righteous as it was possible to be. This new outrage against our healthy and carbon neutral form of sustainable transport has left us unable to be any more self righteous.’

Read the whole story here.

Cartoon from Climate Cartoons. Click on the panel to read the whole strip.

Are 4x4s Evil?

I noticed a story over on Eco Street blog about a group who have deflated the tyres of thousands of 4x4s as a protest against climate change. Because everybody knows that 4x4 drivers are the bad guys. Why is that?

The argument goes that 4x4s consume more petrol than smaller cars and so release more carbon and contribute more to climate change. Is that true? Well, it depends on what you are comparing with what. Some modern 4x4s are actually more fuel efficient than some older smaller cars. So if the protesters were targeting fuel-inefficient cars they would probably attack N-reg Ford Escorts and leave the 2005/6/7 4x4s alone.

But, the anti-4x4 people argue, 4x4s are not necessary in cities, they're not needed for the school run, they're just conspicuous consumption. OK, fair point. But some people do really need to drive a 4x4. Fellow blogger Stonehead, for example, lives on a croft in the Scottish highlands. A Prius wouldn't make it up the lane, much less pull a trailer with a pig in it. But he occasionally gets stick for driving a 4x4. I also know people who have huge customised wheelchairs, and need a large car to fit the chair in. Some of them find a 4x4 fits the bill. A Golf simply wouldn't.

Conversely I know people who have little cars which would escape the wrath of the activists, but who could easily fulfil all their transport needs by walking, cycling and using public transport. And I also know paid-up eco hippies who drive around town in an ancient VW camper van. It certainly looks the part, but it's guzzling fuel as it goes. Funny sort of eco hippy if you ask me, who cares more about their image than about the environment.

So if the activists could really target people guilty of conspicuous consumption, why don't they attack Bentleys and Porsches, pimped Fiestas and those little 2-seater MGs that probably have a great mpg and inspire envy even in total non-petrol-heads like me?

It's just all too simplistic. If these activists could have their wish come true, maybe they would wish all 4x4s would vanish off the roads forever. But that would leave farmers, disabled people and maybe other groups I haven't thought of, in an impossible position, probably without having much impact at all on climate change. A better wish might be to wish that it would suddenly become very unfashionable to drive an over-specified car. It would be considered terribly crass to take your kids to school in a 4x4 unless you live on the side of a mountain. And everyone would be proud of their 2-seaters and their 2-doors and their hybrids, or even better if they could get rid of the car and cycle everywhere instead, that would be très chic. Stonehead would still have his Land Rover. He needs it after all and doesn't give a damn about what's fashionable anyway. But most of the Chelsea tractors would vanish when they no longer won cachet for their owners, replaced by little sports cars that are more fuel efficient and probably heaps more fun to drive anyway.

So if we could agree that's what we really want - for people to voluntarily choose to drive the lowest-impact vehicle they can - how can we bring it about? Well certainly not by deflating the tyres of thousands of 4x4s. We need to think this through. The future of the human race is at stake and we can't rely on sound bites and quick-and-dirty analysis to figure out what to do. What is actually causing the damage? Is it vehicles whose drivetrain sends power to all four wheels simultaneously? Or is it humans whose carbon footprint is outsize? I hope this post is not misunderstood. I am not trying to defend 4x4s in particular. I am trying to attack simplistic approaches to environmental activism. Because I care very deeply about environmental activism and it p*sses me off when we're made to look stupid by our own side.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

So what happened to the plans for cycling to school?

Ed and I spent many hours this summer running up and down the crescent pushing the kids on their bikes. Sam, the youngest, cracked it first, and now he jumps on his bike as soon as he gets home and tears up and down the street.

The eldest, Tom, took a bit longer, but in the end he managed to ride up and down the street unaided. At that point he declared "I know how to ride a bike", and refused to practice any more.

Eleanor, the middle child and the only girl, has taken the longest and is still very unsteady. She can't get herself started and can only stop by falling off.

So obviously we're not yet ready to cycle 2 miles to school. But I am determined to do it (and Ed is keen to have access to the family car occasionally), so I'm sure we'll get there in the end.

More on the Trail-Gator

I've taken my bike for a spin with the Trail-Gator attached. A quick explanation - the Trail-Gator is a telescoping pole that fixes to the seat-post of the adult's bike. It can then be extended and quickly attached to a mounting that you fix to the front of the child's bike. The adult can then tow the child and the whole thing pivots, kind of like an articulated lorry, when you go round corners.

The process of hooking the two bikes together, or unhooking them, is very quick and simple and requires no tools. When the bikes are unhooked, the pole telescopes down and clips to the frame of the adult bike, out of the way. So on a long journey you could tow the child a while, then let them cycle a while, then tow them a little more, hooking and unhooking when necessary without too much trouble.

If you have a look at the Trail-Gator website hopefully all will become clear, or just look at the pictures with this post which show it in action.

Getting the thing fixed onto your bike in the first place is a bit trickier. The explanations are extremely clear - in retrospect. Beforehand there is much scratching of the head and peering at the photos on the box to figure out what it all means. I am no mechanical genius, but I'm not a total numpty either, and I managed it. It also involves taking apart parts of the bikes I had never considered taking apart before. For example, I had to remove Sam's front wheel entirely, and disassemble my rear brake assembly. If you're a bike nut, it'll probably be no trouble at all. I'm not a bike nut and I found it a bit daunting, but I got there in the end.

So how does it ride? I've only taken it up and down the crescent a few times, but it seems OK under those circumstances. It's heavier than cycling alone, obviously, and getting underway from a standing start is harder. The child has to sit fairly still - if they sway from side to side, or waggle the handlebars violently, the whole apparatus wobbles and the adult has to use their weight to keep it all upright and going in a straight line. And you have to drum it into them not to apply the brakes, because that gets really annoying.

I've also found it a problem that it's attached to the seat post because I'm a stumpy little thing and I had my seat in the lowest position. Now it's slightly too high for me, which exacerbates the "starting from a standstill" problem because my toes are at full reach at the bottom of the stroke.

I'm not ready to take it out into traffic yet, I want to practice a bit more in a traffic-free environment, first.

Trailgator

I spent yesterday afternoon fixing a Trail-gator to mine and Sam's bikes. It's a device that allows an adult to tow a child's bike, but the connection can easily and quickly be unhooked. For example the adult can tow the child's bike to school and then cycle home unhindered. Or the adult and child can set out on a ride together, but the adult can tow the child when he becomes tired.

I need to build up my own cycling skill before I'll feel confident doing this on proper trips, but getting it fixed up already gives me the impetus I need to actually get my a**e in gear and get cycling.

Review: You Can Save The Planet

My daughter, Eleanor, has decided that she is an eco-princess after reading You Can Save The Planet by Jacqui Wines. It's a book for children that explains about energy saving, water conservation, pollution, reduce reuse recycle and so on. It focuses on things children can do, or encourage their parents to do.

For example, there is a checklist to see whether the house is energy efficient:

• I have taken a look and our loft is/is not insulated
• I tested each window in our house for drafts by holding a feather in front of it and seeing whether it fluttered. ___ windows had drafts.
• We have ___ lightbulbs in this house. ___ of them are low-energy bulbs.

... and so on. Eleanor has made a poster saying "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." and stuck it up in the loo. Lovely.

I had an ulterior motive in buying this book for the kids. Often they thwart my attempts to be green - they can't be bothered to turn lights off, they can't be bothered to separate the recycling, they'd rather take the car than walk or cycle places. When you've got an eco-mum, this is how you rebel, I suppose. But this book makes being green seem like subversive fun. The back of the book says "Your parents' generation have wrecked the planet. Now it's up to you to make them fix it again". It seems to be working, on Eleanor at least. If I want Tom to read it I'll have to slip it inside an Artemis Fowl cover.

Let the Train Take the Strain

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of so called "green taxes", but I'm in favour of the Liberal Democratic party's plans to put an extra £10 tax per ticket on internal flights in Britain to help fund improvements to the rail network.

I was interested in this because I've just been researching the cost of taking my family to London for a two-day break. If we travelled by train, the cheapest tickets I could find cost a whopping £787. But we could all fly for £79.10.

Is it just me, or is that stark-raving utterly totally bonkers? Just how dedicated a greenie do you think I am, that I could afford to pay almost £700 extra to travel by train compared to flying? A £10 tax per ticket on the flights wouldn't be enough to swing the balance though. It seems to me that train ticket prices need to come down considerably - like by a factor of ten - to encourage people to let the train take the strain.

Roadwitch

I've come across a wonderful website called Roadwitch. It's about DIY traffic calming - people in a quiet residential street got fed up with traffic speeding dangerously along the road, and fed up waiting for the local authority to do something about it, so they took matters into their own hands in a creative, whimsical, and very effective way. For example, they set up a living room in the street which created a physical barrier to fast-moving traffic and a psychological reminder that the street is there primarily for people to live in, not primarily for cars to race along.

I love this. I sympathise deeply with the people v. cars dimension. I love the "power to the people" element. And the humour and whimsy of it is also very appealing.

Bicycle Ride

Yesterday I took my first bicycle ride for a genuine errand, rather than just practicing how to stop and start and not fall off. I went to the village and back for a bottle of wine, about a 4 mile round trip.

All was going well until I tried to cycle over a railway bridge. I made it over the bridge (barely) but it took everything I had, and afterwards I had jelly legs. I had to get off and push for the last mile, but even then my legs kept giving out on me.

I'm familiar with this phenomenon from when I used to do distance running. Your legs don't hurt, they just won't hold you up. It happens when you push too hard. I used to get it doing speed work (when you sprint for a while, then jog for a while, then sprint, then jog etc.) So I understood why the railway bridge had done for me. When I got back home I sat down, ate a banana and drank some water and I was right as rain in a few minutes, so don't worry. I didn't do any damage, I just tried to do something my legs aren't strong enough for yet.

More practice required, I think. I'm determined to get the family cycling to school next September. I've just won an auction for a pink girls' bike on eBay for Eleanor, so now we all have bikes. The summer holiday has just begun so daily cycling trips are in order - avoiding bridges.

Drive Slower Challenge Results

42 people voted in the Drive Slower Challenge poll, which I think equals our most popular poll so far, the January 2007 Green and Clean challenge. The results this time were:

• I've gone green! I pledge to drive slower! 14 votes
• I was already green! I always drive slowly! 12 votes
• I don't want to! I'm a screaming speed demon! 5 votes (shame on you!)
• I'm greener than thou! I cycle everywhere! 11 votes

A new challenge for July will be posted soon.

Happy birthday to my dad, Bill, by the way, who is visiting us for a few weeks. And one last thing - Rustle the Leaf appears to be on hiatus, so our Sunday comic strips are coming instead from Throbgoblins.

I've Got a Bike

Isn't Freecycle wonderful? It's the network of local groups where people post adverts offering stuff they don't need anymore and other people come and take it away. It was first described to me as "like eBay, but free". I love it.

At the weekend I collected bikes for me and Tom. Many thanks to Kate from Levenshulme and Mary from Whalley Range (fab house, by the way!) Sam can have Tom's old bike, and I'm still looking out for a bike for Ellie. If I can't find one on Freecycle before the summer holidays I'll have to buy one, but I don't mind. We've done very well to get so many bikes for nothing. Come to think of it, Ed's bike was a Freecycle find as well.

Drive Slower, Cut Carbon Emissions

How are you getting on with the Drive Slower Challenge? 33 people have voted so far and there are still 5 days left until the poll closes. If you want to vote, the poll is in the right-hand sidebar.

Why do I want you to drive slower anyway? Well, it's safer, and it saves fuel which saves you money, but mainly because it reduces carbon emissions. Some of you may be well-versed in the whole carbon issue, but I suspect many people are still kind of fuzzy on what it's all about. So here is:

A (VERY) BRIEF HISTORY OF CARBON

Carbon dioxide is a natural part of earth's atmosphere, even though only in tiny amounts (4 parts in every 10,000). But it's the second most important greenhouse gas. That means it has a huge effect on the atmosphere's capacity to retain heat, trapping energy in our atmosphere.

It's not the most important greenhouse gas - that would be water vapour. The amount of water vapour in our atmosphere isn't changing. But the amount of carbon dioxide is, because in recent human history we have burnt off massive amounts of coal and oil and natural gas - fossil fuels. I'm sure you remember from school science lessons that fossil fuels are formed from prehistoric living organisms, such as animals and plants, that got trapped under rock and buried deep under the earth. This sealed away enormous amounts of carbon and stored it up for millions of years. But in just the last hundred years we have dug most of it up and burned it, releasing it into the atmosphere again.

GLOBAL WARMING? BUT I FEEL COLD!

All this extra carbon dioxide increases our atmosphere's capacity to store energy. Overall, this means global temperatures are rising. But locally it can mean warming or cooling, more rain, or drought. It means the disruption of familiar patterns and weather chaos. Some sceptics gets their knickers in a twist about this, but it makes sense. My friend Jim Finnis once explained that the climate is a bit like a child's swing. If you put more energy into it, say by giving it a hard shove to the left, you don't expect it to just move over to the left and stay there. You expect it to swing about more, both more left and more right. More energy means more everything. Just more weather.

SO WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?

Good question. I feel really strongly that we can't dither about and wait for someone else to fix this for us. I hope that governments will do something to fix it, but that will only happen if the voters demand it. I hope that businesses will do something, but that will only happen if stockholders demand it. I hope that scientists will find more solutions to it, and they are doing that. But we already know the solution - every one of us has to take responsibility for emitting less carbon dioxide.

Driving slower is one way to start.

New Car

This week we found out just how bad our big gas-guzzling MPV really is for the environment. But what car should we choose instead? We'd love a hybrid, not only because they have much lower impact on the environment, but also because they cost about 4p per mile in fuel rather than the 10p per mile we're currently paying. But sadly they're way out of our price range. What are the alternatives?

The http://www.whatgreencar.com/ website came to our rescue again, with it's green car selector. You enter your requirements - in our case we wanted a petrol-driven small family car (but you can choose sports cares or SUVs or executive cars amongst other choices, and you can have diesels, hybrids, electric or LPG as fuel choices). It gave us a list of possible cars, but the greenest of the choices it presented was a VW Polo. So that's what we've bought, a little red green car, to replace our old road hog.

I've included the Environmental Impact charts so you can see how much "greener" the Polo is compared to our old MPV.

How Green Is Your Car?

I want to confess to one of my worst eco sins. I drive a big, gas-guzzling car.

At the time we bought it, it seemed to make sense. We weren't as aware of the damage to the environment caused by thirsty cars. And we needed a big car to fit three baby seats when the kids were all small. A saloon car just wouldn't do it.

But now the kids just need booster seats rather than baby seats, so they can fit in a much smaller car. And we have realised we can always hire a big car on the one or two occasions a year we really need it, such as going on holiday. It's time to trade down to a smaller car.

How environmentally friendly is your car? You can type its details into http://www.whatgreencar.com/ and get a rough-and-ready eco-rating. Ours scored 68% overall rating (confusingly, high numbers are worse, so that's quite a poor score), with 89% climate change score (a dire score) and 37% air quality (not a bad score). We're hoping to improve on that considerably with our next purchase, and save ourselves money on fuel, road tax and running costs as well.