Right-sizing delivery vehicles

By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance

Cargo bikes can replace far heavier vehicles for a substantial share of urban deliveries. But should you buy a cargo bike for personal use? Probably not.

European sleeper trains are waking up

By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance

After a slow and steady decline, the sleeper train – a vital link to more sustainable, connected transport systems – is waking-up and getting back on track in Europe

Can a major city go car-free? Berlin might know soon enough

By Patrick Maynad, YES! magazine

A group of activists in the German capital are pushing an ambitious plan to eliminate private vehicles in the city center, an area twice as big as Manhattan.

‘Zero crashes, zero congestion, zero emissions’ – the perennial myths of autonomous vehicles

By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance

For a hundred years the auto industry has held out visions of a trouble-free future for drive-everywhere society – and that future is always about 20 years away. Peter Norton urges us to see the current hype about automated vehicles in the cold light of the failed promises of the past.

Taking (democratic) control of one’s own traffic

By Russell Arben Fox, In media res

The fundamental focus in this book is traffic, meaning the movement of people and goods along streets and roads, which is literally the lifeblood, the circulatory system, of any urbanized space.

Your gas tank is not an oil well. Your battery will not be a power plant.

By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance

But if we’re ready for a serious response to the climate emergency, we should be rapidly curtailing both the manufacture and use of cars, and making the remaining vehicles only as big and heavy as they actually need to be.

Large-tired and tested: how Europe’s cargo bike roll-out is delivering

By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance

Across Europe, as cities get to grips with road congestion, air pollution and meeting climate targets, the manual and electric cargo bike is rapidly delivering.

Mapping journeys to net zero transport

By Andrew Curry, thenextwave

Reduction and removal of direct emissions from across all modes cannot be addressed by considering individual modes in isolation. A whole system view is critical—and this report offers an important contribution to this.

Urban Walkability Gains a Foothold in the U.S.

By Andy Hirschfield, YES! magazine

Only time will tell, but a city built around 15-minute travel via nonmotorized transportation is one that can upend the way planners think about neighborhoods and mobility, and may ultimately render cars unnecessary in all aspects of personal transportation.

How to design a sailing ship for the 21st century?

By Kris De Decker, Low-Tech Magazine

If we want to keep travelling and trading globally in a low carbon society, sailing ships are the obvious alternative to container ships, bulk carriers, and airplanes.

Low traffic neighbourhoods: Making fairer, safer, cities

By Rachel Aldred, Red Pepper

Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) involve using planters, camera gates, bollards or other measures to restrict motor vehicle use in residential streets.

Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

By Christian Brand, The Conversation

One way to reduce transport emissions relatively quickly, and potentially globally, is to swap cars for cycling, e-biking and walking – active travel, as it’s called.