How Our Travel and Transport Choices Impact Climate Change
Moving Towards a Sustainable Future
Transportation choices play a major role in contributing to carbon emissions and climate change. This page explores the impact of our community’s travel habits, ways to reduce emissions, and practical change targets we can work towards to create a sustainable and resilient future.
How Do Our Travel Choices Affect Climate Change?
Our daily travel decisions—whether by car, public transport, or air—add up to a significant share of household emissions. Here’s how it looks in our villages:
With these emissions levels, shifting to more sustainable travel habits is essential to reduce our carbon footprint and achieve climate goals.
Change Targets: Reducing Our Transport Emissions
To help create a sustainable travel network and reduce emissions, our community can work towards the following targets:
By reaching these targets, we can contribute to a more sustainable transportation future, reduce emissions, and improve community health and air quality.
Self-Reflection: How Does Our Community Measure Up?
Consider these questions to reflect on our community’s transportation habits and opportunities to make greener choices:
Can community initiatives support a shift in transport habits?
Programmes like electric bike hire, subsidised purchase schemes, or carpooling incentives can help residents move toward active and public transport options. How can we create and build on these type of initiatives?
What’s the availability of walking and cycling routes?
Assess accessibility to local services and facilities—can most households reach what they need without using a car? How can we collect this evidence of what is needed and intact change that benefits all?
Is there scope to improve public transport provision?
Can changes in routes, frequency, fares, or the introduction of low-carbon buses make public transport more accessible and attractive to residents? How could we collectively make this happen?
What are the key reasons for air travel within our community?
Air travel has a disproportionate impact on emissions. Since about 10% of England’s population takes over half of all international flights, efforts to reduce emissions could focus on frequent flyers. How can we as a village address this?
If you’d like more information about the above ideas, get in touch today.
Taking Action: Building a Low-Emissions Travel Network
Transitioning to a sustainable transport model will take community action, from shifting to EVs and improving public transit to creating safe, accessible routes for walking and cycling. By reducing car and air travel and promoting greener transport options, we can collectively reduce our carbon footprint, contributing to a cleaner, healthier, and more connected community.
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Together, we can redefine travel and achieve our shared goal of Net Zero emissions by 2050.