PRESS RELEASE OCTOBER 2004
The Keep Leicester Cool campaign aims to encourage people to take action to reduce the effects of global warming on our city. This month the focus is on transport and using alternatives to the car.
The campaign, run in partnership by Environ and Leicester City Council, encourages residents to take ten simple steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they produce every year.
This campaign has been launched to support The City of Leicester Climate Change Strategy, developed by Leicester Environment Partnership. Climate change is being caused by an excess of greenhouse gases, released by human activity, trapping heat around the earth and increasing the temperature.
One of the biggest contributors to this is the thousands of cars that are on Leicester roads. A huge 344,000 car journeys are made in and out of the city each day. That’s 33 million journeys in the city per year – a 6.8% rise since 2001.
This increase is a not just a local pattern. In Europe, the largest increase in greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2001 was from transport with a 20% increase in emissions from domestic transport.
We are all using our cars more and the latest Leicester Transport Plan has identified too much traffic, causing congestion and pollution, as one of the biggest problems faced by the city.
So, what can be done to encourage people to leave the car at home? We are very dependent upon our four wheels yet in a surprising 77% of car journeys are under ten miles and 25% are under 2 miles.
It is these short journeys that are causing the most pollution. The city’s 264,000 short trips each day produce 60% more pollution than longer ones because catalytic converters don’t start to work until after 10 minutes of travelling.
It is these journeys that should be thought about more as they could be either cycled or walked. By using a bicycle or walking the shorter trips, you will not only be producing no pollution but will also be improving your own health.
This can particularly apply to children on the school run – by walking to school a child will have become physically fitter, more aware of road safety and will be more alert for the first lessons of the morning.
An added benefit of cycling and walking is the money you will save on fuel. However, affording a bicycle is not always easy, which is where Environ’s Bikes 4 All project can help. The project takes unwanted bicycles, refurbishes them and offers them to people who could not otherwise afford one.
Safety on roads was another issue identified by the Leicester Transport Plan. Bikes 4 All is offering free cycle safety training to anyone who receives a bicycle through the scheme.
A qualified instructor will run the sessions with the first session being held on Saturday December 18th at St Saviours Community Centre on Winchat Road, between 9am and 12pm.
If more people are encouraged to cycle, it will mean less traffic congestion and therefore less pollution into the atmosphere. It’s something to consider next time you to take a short journey.
Local government will work to improve the problems identified in the Transport Plan but in the meantime, there are ten simple steps that we can all take, including cycling or walking, to reduce out contribution to climate change:
1/ Insulate your home to reduce the amount of fossil fuels used for heating.
2/ Switch to renewable energy by installing solar panels or choosing a green tariff from your electricity supplier.
3/ Switch everything off. Reduce your energy use by turning heating, lights and appliances off when you do not need them.
4/ Recycle your household waste so it does not need to be transported to landfill sites and will not give off greenhouse gases as it decompo