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Are world leaders "delusional" when it comes to active travel? COP26 discussed, plus how to layer up for winter riding on episode 12 of the road.cc Podcast

On the dozenth road.cc Podcast... why was cycling and walking not even on the main agenda at COP26? Carlton Reid talks to Simon about the recent UN climate summit

“Out of the galaxy delusional”… that’s a flavour of what Bike Biz founder and current Forbes and Guardian contributor Carlton Reid thought of the conversations being had at COP26 about eco-friendly transport. So just why were so many electric car brands allowed to flaunt their wares and “openly tout for business” at the world’s biggest climate summit, when the CEO of Britain’s foremost folding bike brand was reportedly refused a pass to even attend the event?

 

We already knew there was a fair bit of perceived hypocrisy happening outside COP26, held in Glasgow earlier this month. Who can forget the sight of the US president's gas-guzzling motorcade arriving, or the story of the cycling advocate who wasn't allowed to cycle through a barrier on a permitted route near the COP26 site? It turns out things were not much better, if not worse, on the inside, as Carlton Reid explained. 

"Cycling advocates were lining the streets saying "car, car car", and that was incredibly accurate," he said. 

"Once you got past the barriers... and certainly on the transport day... there was a little bit of aviation, a little bit of shipping in the morning, but the rest of the day was just cars. 

"The UCI had an event there, but it was all fringe. It was not an agenda item. 

"Considering we have a transport cyclist as a prime minister, it just beggars belief that cycling was missed off. 

"If this event was in Amsterdam then cycling would have been top of the agenda. 

"Heaven help us when it's in Egypt next year." 

Even more remarkably, Carlton claims that Will Butler-Adams, the CEO of Britain's biggest folding bike brand Brompton, was actually refused a pass to get into the main event at COP26, making way for numerous car manufacturers to exhibit and discuss money-making schemes for the future. 

"Not only were bike executives not invited to be on the same top table as auto car industry executives; bike industry executives were actually physically shunned, which I find completely shocking. 

"That focus on electric cars being the saviour of everything is just so delusional. It's out of the galaxy delusional that electric cars are going to save us.

"If that's genuinely what they [world leaders] are thinking, they've got no idea."

in action night 1 altura-nightvision-electron-mens-jacket-p400-134138_image

We also have cycling apparel experts Altura on board for the next four episodes, and to welcome them George caught up with the brand's head of design and development Amy Spencer. How do you layer up properly for winter riding, and what materials are best for keeping you warm and dry without getting that boil in the bag feeling? Amy tells you everything you need to know. 

The road.cc Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music, and if you have an Alexa you can just tell it to play the road.cc Podcast – it's also embedded further up the page, so you can just press play.

What do you think of the road.cc Podcast so far, and what would you like us to discuss in future episodes? Comment below and/or drop us a line at podcast [at] road.cc

Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story). 

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73 comments

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chrisonabike replied to Rich_cb | 2 years ago
4 likes
Rich_cb wrote:

I think we should see electric cars as a transition technology. How long did it take the Netherlands to move from a car centric society to its current situation? Decades I believe. We are much further down the road of car dependency than they were when they started the transition to active travel. It will take a long time to wean society off cars and some degree of car dependency is now likely permanent. This is even more true in the US. As we begin the transition away from cars we need to rapidly minimise the carbon intensity of car use in the interim. Electrification is one part of that.

Transition to what?

So we're going to replace cars with cars. Maybe they have more lights / are quieter / are "smarter" - but still cars with current tech in the next 5 - 10 years I'd say.

Then what? "You had cars before and over the last 20 years you switched to cars. So now we'd like you not to have cars"?

I do agree that we seem to be stuck ATM. Electric cars is sort of harm minimization - or at least changing a few of the problem domains (now we need lots of rare earth metals / have to fix what we do when they're old etc.) It's frustrating because there are examples from the continent (and not just the Dutch) of how we might start to make changes towards a reduced car future. But it may just not be possible to move UK society much from where we are. (Yes - our leaders definitely did push us further and faster down the path of cars before so it seems they can have some effect).

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Rich_cb replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
2 likes

Personally I think driverless cars will render the whole discussion moot.

Prior to the invention of the car horse manure was one of the most pressing problems for urban planners. Many felt it almost insurmountable.

I think we'll look back on all the problems associated with private car ownership in the same way.

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hawkinspeter replied to Rich_cb | 2 years ago
3 likes
Rich_cb wrote:

Personally I think driverless cars will render the whole discussion moot. Prior to the invention of the car horse manure was one of the most pressing problems for urban planners. Many felt it almost insurmountable. I think we'll look back on all the problems associated with private car ownership in the same way.

Well, if you're comparing private car ownership with piles of horse manure, then I'd have to agree.

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wycombewheeler replied to Rich_cb | 2 years ago
2 likes
Rich_cb wrote:

Personally I think driverless cars will render the whole discussion moot. Prior to the invention of the car horse manure was one of the most pressing problems for urban planners. Many felt it almost insurmountable. I think we'll look back on all the problems associated with private car ownership in the same way.

I hope so, but if we aren't doing anything until they sort out the issues with driverless cars, it will be far too late.

Ho do driverless cars reduce congestion if everyone currently driving switches to a driverless car? The reduce the need for parking and the amount of resources going into car manufacture but they don't reduce journeys, in fact they likely increase journeys as the driverless car goes from a to b to c to d instaead of car 1 going a to b and car 2 going c to d.

Then there is the issue of where they go during off peak times, do they trundle off to some massive yard, or just spend the day circuling the city awaiting customers?

Additionally self driving cars will be so much cheaper than taxis that they will increase the number of people willing and able to pay for singe occupancy tansport.

And all this with them being so far away from making them able to function in anything but the most simple environments.

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Rich_cb replied to wycombewheeler | 2 years ago
1 like

They reduce congestion by increasing car occupancy.

Average car occupancy is about 1.1 I believe. Get that to 2 and you've virtually halved the cars on the road.

If the cars are designed as several private pods there will be little incentive to pay more for exclusive use. Taxation could also be used to make this option much more expensive.

When not in use they can go to the same places cars go now, the only difference is there will be far fewer of them so a greater percentage can be parked in multistories etc freeing up road space even further.

They're really not that far away from readiness. A completely driverless taxi service is in operation in Phoenix, Arizona and in trial stages in San Francisco. Munich is slated for a launch next year. By 2030 I expect them to be a common sight in most major cities.

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TheBillder replied to Rich_cb | 2 years ago
2 likes
Rich_cb wrote:

Average car occupancy is about 1.1 I believe. Get that to 2 and you've virtually halved the cars on the road.

If the cars are designed as several private pods there will be little incentive to pay more for exclusive use. Taxation could also be used to make this option much more expensive.

The private pod thing is a good idea. Some people I know, who have had a bad experience of COVID, have refused to use public transport since and just drive for all journeys above about a mile. This would help them.

Nothing we can do on climate change will be a silver bullet and so we have to use a range of mitigants. Personally, I'd suggest making urban bus and train travel free, with major investment in electrification or hydrogen for the buses. I'd also like to see a big expansion of e-bike usage and legalised e-scooters, which could be more practical than folding bikes for a lot of people.

Many people who are unable or unwilling to use their feet (walk or cycle) for local transport could reduce car usage with such measures.

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Philh68 replied to Rich_cb | 2 years ago
1 like

The rate of car ownership in the Netherlands is on par with other nations, and they have the most dense road network in Europe.They are still quite car centric, but not car dependent. What I see that separated them is the policy of making roads safety-centric not on personal convenience. They weren't seeking to substitute cars but make it possible to walk or cycle safely in an environment dominated by cars; but in doing so they make alternatives to cars an attractive and convenient option.

Having compact cities and towns with mixed use developments also played a role in that success. Countries like the USA and Australia which adopted Euclidean zoning and low density housing resulting in massive urban sprawl will have a much harder time trying to adapt and will be far more difficult to get citizens to give up car dependency.

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MattieKempy | 2 years ago
2 likes

Not specifically. World leaders are just delusional.

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eburtthebike | 2 years ago
4 likes

I consider the behaviour of the UK government at COP26 to be corrupt, a sell out to the electric car industry, and I've written to my MP stating that; no response.

The UK government has the chair of COP for the next year, Alok Sharma, so perhaps we should all be writing to him to both get an explanation of the barefaced corruption and what he intends to do in the next year to address the situation.

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Owd Big 'Ead replied to eburtthebike | 2 years ago
1 like

Unfortunately, the bicycle industry doesn't create the high number of well paying jobs that the automotive industry does.

That is all that our government and every other government globally will be concerned about. That the environment loses out is of little concern to them.

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TheBillder replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
1 like
Owd Big 'Ead wrote:

Unfortunately, the bicycle industry doesn't create the high number of well paying jobs that the automotive industry does.

That is all that our government and every other government globally will be concerned about. That the environment loses out is of little concern to them.

You're exactly right. Yet 25,000 new jobs in London alone by 2030: https://road.cc/content/news/report-london-bicycle-economy-could-hit-ps5....

I know that the opportunities for dung shovellers have reduced since Karl Benz unleashed his car in 1885, but there are an awful lot of other things that need doing and whilst we will need to be better at the transition than we have been in the past (e.g. ex coal mining villages), we can't not do it.

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chrisonabike replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
1 like
Owd Big 'Ead wrote:

Unfortunately, the bicycle industry doesn't create the high number of well paying jobs that the automotive industry does.

That is all that our government and every other government globally will be concerned about. That the environment loses out is of little concern to them.

I keep looking at the departure point for other countries that have done a bit better on mass cycling *. There are of course lots of factors, but in The Netherlands (aside from still having lots of cyclists) fatalities affecting the families of influential people and fuel shortages plus the other manifest problems of cars e.g. congestion. Not so sure on the others but Copenhagen also seems to have been inspired by fuel issues and widespread environmental protests. Seville is a bit different and seems to owe this to some political horse-trading.

A cynical opinion that the main way things happen (top down) is via money. Cycling and walking are cheap. The fact that they are and use a fraction of the resources needed for motor vehicles is the attaction. I think that this is also the reason why they have little political / organisational support. Backing bikes - even though they may be overall a better financial choice than cars (also here)- is going to look like voting against money. Or at least telling lots of people they can't have the big sum of money now.

So I think one of the better hopes is for for more ministers, MPs and councillors to be stuck in traffic regularly, to be told their loved ones have been "in an accident" while cycling / walking, for their children to be asthmatic. For us all to have an interruption in the fuel supplies.  It needs to be a long one too as the traffic changes during of the Covid lockdown seem to have been forgotten.

* I'm assuming most others think that would be a good idea - after all it's low-cost widely useable private individual door-to-door transport which ticks lots of other positive boxes. Apart from a couple of posters of course who for reasons of contrarianism, car-fancying or cyclist elitism express the opposite.

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Rome73 | 2 years ago
11 likes

Who could forget, following his speech, Johnson flying by private jet to London to attend a function at the male only Garrick club hosted by climate denier Charles Moore? Tells u all you need to know - it's all pomp and ceremony, sound and fury . . . . . Johnson is the biggest liar and fraud in the West following the demise of Trump.

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