Professor John WhiteleggThe Stockholm Environment Institute

Fine words butter no parsnips:3 actions

European Mobility Week, Camden Town Hall15th April, 2015

Words

• European Commission White paper• DfT low carbon strategy• Shropshire Council Core Strategy

Actions

• Freiburg• Berlin• Tübingen

A tale of 2 cities

Tübingen• 84,496• 10% by car• 47% by bike• 31% on foot• 13% by bus

Shrewsbury• 72,000• 68% by car• 2% by bike• 20% on foot• 10% by bus

3 Actions

• Zero deaths and injuries in the road traffic environment

• Zero carbon land transport• Zero air pollution from vehicles in cities

Why?

• Change mind-sets• Harness the energy and common sense of

citizens• Focus on what can be done given the critical

mass

Vision Zero

• A new national campaign group to advocate the adoption of Vision Zero has been formed and will be formally launched in this building on 15th October 2015

• www.visionzero.org.uk• johnwhitelegg@phonecoop.coop• info@cuttingyourcaruse.co.uk

430,000 deaths in EU-28

Helmut Holzapfel: Urbanism and Transport (Routledge, 2015)

“Large areas in cities could soon function successfully without automobiles”• Each new pedestrian crossing a street, each

tree growing where a car was once parked, each place where children can once again play safely on a city street is important

• Mind-sets matter• Let’s start buttering the parsnips

Words are but wind that do from men proceed;None but Chamelions on bare Air can feed;Great men large hopeful promises may utter;But words did never Fish or Parsnips butter..