Good news for carfree choosers - in London, Manchester, Liverpool…and Brighton

The Campaign for Better Transport has produced its report on the best places in the UK to be carfree. The Car Dependency Scorecard 2014 shows that London, Manchester, Liverpool…and Brighton are the most carfree friendly cities in the UK. Tough luck if you live in Peterborough, Colchester or Milton Keynes, designated as the hardest places in England to live if you don't have access to a car.

This is important because, to quote the CfBT,

“the way people travel is affected by what councils and the Government do, and if it’s made easier to use public transport and to walk and cycle, at least some people now stuck in their cars will change. If action isn’t taken, people become car dependent – those with cars use them more, because they feel they have no choice, and those without cars get isolated and excluded.”



Picture shows city-by-city rankings. Full report here.

“Carbie” - new word for car dependent person

Neologism. Sounds like ‘Newbie.’ Associated sounds: carbs, short for carbohydrates – q.v. obesity.  Sometimes used as shorthand for carburettor. Carbie. You read it here first.

Report of the Week

It seems that barely a week goes by without some august body producing a report full of evidence supporting the case for more exercise, less car dependency and more “active travel” – which doesn’t mean going on long walks, or lengthy cycle rides, but simply building more activity into our lives. Which can even mean the walk to the bus stop.
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But despite the ever-growing piles of evidence, and the declarations of support from politicians for “evidence-based policy,” most of the talk is lip service, the reports get filed, and progress is minimal. To add to the long line of reports already on the shelf, here’s one produced by the Active Transport for Healthy Living Coalition, ten organisations ranging from Sustrans to the Association of Directors of Public Health. Full of good stuff, but don’t hold your breath….

The Other Men Who Made Us Fat

Guardian journalist Jacques Peretti is currently fronting a three part tv series on BBC2 called “The Men Who Made Us Fat.” He names the men working in the food and agriculture industry, principally in the US, responsible for policy and practices that have made us fat. Peretti names food industry overlords like Earl Butz, who, working for US President Nixon, pushed farmers into industrialised production of corn, which became the feedstock for US cattle and the US food processing industry – it now pops up everywhere in the form of fattening high fructose corn syrup. Others include David Wallerstein, who invented Supersizing. But surely men like Butz and Wallerstein are only part of the story? The food we eat is one side of the equation calories consumed vs calories burned.

The calories burned side of the equation also deserves some attention – our lives are increasingly sedentary and exercise-free. This was something considered in the UK Government’s Foresight Report on our obesogenic environment in 2007. Not getting enough exercise, particularly through car dependency, has to be part of the story: on which, see this paper by Davis et al. So I’m looking forward to the follow up series: The Other Men Who Made Us Fat, featuring the likes of Nikolaus Otto, Gottlieb Daimler, Carl Benz, and Henry Ford.

Outside The Box in Ireland: World Social Marketing Conference, Dublin, April 2011

Just got back from speaking about behavioural economics, social marketing and car dependency at the World Social Marketing Conference in Dublin. So how are things in a bailed-out state? Truthfully, it didn’t seem much different from any other European capital. Maybe it was the sunshine (climate change hits Ireland?) Or the crowds in the shops. Or the drinkers rammed in Temple Bar on Saturday night. But there didn’t seem to be much in the way of protests. There wasn’t even much street art. Which was all a bit surprising. Conversations indicate that people think that things are “not as bad as the 1980s recession," but there’s a long way to go before this one is over. Joseph Stiglitz, under an article in The Irish Times headed “ECB-IMF deal is a noose that will strangle economic recovery,” went on to say that “what the ECB and IMF have forced on Ireland is fundamentally corrupt and doomed to failure.”  Even more trenchant, an article by David McWilliams in the Irish Independent concludes, that, as a result of the banks deleveraging to the tune of € 500m a week, growth will collapse - “we are in a cul de sac and only truly radical thinking will save us.”   Probably not the kind of thinking being undertaken by Patrick Bartholomew "Bertie" Ahern, An Taoiseach (aka “An Tree Shock”) of Ireland from 26 June 1997 to 7 May 2008 - and now featuring on many a Dublin wall and lamppost.