Biking is a sustainable type of transport, however that does not routinely imply all cyclists have ‘performed their bit’. We requested ultra-distance bicycle owner and sustainability skilled Dr Ian Walker how bikes can greatest assist the planet.
How can a bicycle owner make their driving extra sustainable?
It’s nice we’re discussing transportation’s environmental impression, the place emissions are nonetheless rising. For cyclists, avoiding automobile possession is a key step, because the embodied emissions from manufacturing a automobile are important. An e-bike can usually exchange a second automobile, serving to cut back our carbon footprint. In our family, we use one automobile and depend on an e-bike for a lot of our transportation, which has considerably lowered our environmental impression.
Electrical vehicles are sometimes hailed as the answer to environmental points, however you disagree?
Whereas electrical vehicles cut back operational emissions, they don’t deal with the underlying points with our car-dominated society. They nonetheless require substantial sources to provide, they usually don’t deal with the issues of site visitors, highway security, or the house vehicles take up in cities. In that sense, they’re a ‘motonormative non-solution’ – they allow us to hold residing in an inefficient and dangerous method with out addressing the true points.
What’s ‘motonormativity’?
It’s the cultural assumption that driving is the default, regular technique to journey, whereas options like biking and public transport are dismissed or uncared for. This mindset is deeply embedded in our infrastructure, media, and even legal guidelines, making automobile use appear inevitable and unquestionable. We depend on vehicles, although most automobile journeys in Britain are brief and could possibly be changed with lively journey, benefitting public well being in addition to the setting.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, critiques and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
May you clarify embodied versus operational emissions?
Embodied emissions are the carbon emissions produced throughout an merchandise’s creation, just like the vitality used to fabricate a automobile or bike. Operational emissions happen throughout use, akin to emissions from driving. Evaluating environmental impacts might be deceptive if solely operational emissions are counted, ignoring excessive embodied emissions – we have to think about each.
(Picture credit score: Future)
How large a job can biking play in decreasing our collective environmental impression?
Changing brief automobile journeys with biking is house environment friendly, more healthy, and fosters sustainability. Cyclists additionally change into extra conscious of their environment, which may encourage different eco-friendly decisions. Constructing a tradition of lively, sustainable journey can create optimistic ripple results, encouraging extra environmentally aware behaviours.
As an ultra-cyclist, are there private habits you’ve adopted to minimise your impression on the planet?
One of the impactful adjustments I’ve made to scale back my carbon footprint is slicing out meat, and I’m additionally engaged on decreasing dairy. In biking, I attempt to decide on gear from manufacturers utilizing recycled supplies, although the trade nonetheless has work to do, particularly with end-of-life disposal for gadgets like carbon bikes. It will be nice to see extra recycling choices for parts like chains and interior tubes, which regularly pile up. Each small step helps in transferring towards a extra sustainable way of life.
May self-driving vehicles be the answer?
I’m sceptical about self-driving vehicles occurring any time quickly. However even when we had excellent self-driving vehicles that by no means crash and haven’t any environmental impression, the issues wouldn’t disappear. If something, they could worsen. Extra individuals would drive, city sprawl would enhance, and other people would spend much more time remoted of their automobiles. As with electrical automobiles, self-driving vehicles don’t resolve the social and public well being points linked to over-reliance on vehicles. Somebody as soon as mentioned: ‘Electrical vehicles are the way forward for vehicles, however vehicles aren’t the way forward for transport,’ and I feel that sums it up properly.
This text was initially revealed in Biking Weekly journal. Subscribe now and by no means miss a difficulty.
