Maybe it's the weather, but the near lack of heavy machinery flying around the skies and streets seems to make life a hell of a lot more pleasant. On my ride today, I was astonished by the amount of people on bikes, even with little tiny kids cycling around with their parents. I don't remember seeing that on roads before, in parks maybe.
So assuming they could still restart the economy, would you support continuing restrictions on non-essential driving (in urban areas, such as making two-lane roads into one-ways with bicycle lanes and increased social/walking space, etc.), while maybe encouraging tax breaks to companies who continue to WFH? Would you be happy with seeing the end of mass air travel to reduce emissions?
Yup, although traffic levels have definitely risen over the past week already.
First fortnight I couldnt hear the main road even at rush hour, today I can still hear it now at 9pm.
Yes. Much more pleasant, healthy and sustainable with less traffic around.
Yes.
Like everyone else you'll support the restrictions right up to the point when it impacts on your cheap holiday to Europe...
The lack of aircraft isn't responsible for the current good weather, it's just coincidence.
Even the people who have embraced bikes will promptly forget about it the next time one gets in their way in a car. I'd like to think that it might provoke infrastructure improvements like in Europe but it's extremely unlikely.
Yes but....I have no doubt there is a significant proportion of the population who would say no, I'm reverting to pre-covid; disappointing.
Will be interesting to see how the gov attempts to swerve this; powerful transport lobbies with access to ministerial ears v Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Caroline Lucas.
Of course. I self limit anyway
If it had rained for the last 3 weeks no-one would even notice the difference.
I’d welcome it with open arms. It’s so much more pleasant and calm despite the circumstances. Only been on two planes in my life and one of those was for work. I’d sell the car in a heartbeat, but Mrs F is a tad lazy and comes from a family who think a car is a necessity for pretty much every journey. I on the other hand am the only person from my family with a driving licence and prefer to walk or cycle where possible.
Things will pretty much just return to exactly as they were before at the first opportunity I think though.
I would but then I like bikes and only drive once or twice a week
The standard response will be yes, much better as is from that perspective - as long as my car journey and my plane are ok to carry on as they were.
Smaller scale, but I hope many more will find the necessity to commute substantial distances each and every day and fly out for 'essential' meetings might dwindle a little now we have all had some forced CPD in virtual platforms.
Absolutely yes!
I would but then I like bikes and only drive once or twice a week
Pretty much that. I have a return flight every third year or so (last one was Barra so not exactly long haul). Don't commute by car. Mostly ride/walk close to home. I have a campervan that we head off in a few times a year, never more than a couple of hundred miles each time. I suspect it's not me you'd have to convince 😉
My wife needs a car for work, so that wouldn't change regardless.
It's something that has needed to happen for ages. I'd happily support it. Hopefully this little glimpse of what life would be like will help gather a bit of support. Probably too much to ask.
Unfortunately the cost of all this pleasant environment is the economy collapsing, so I suspect most people won’t be willing to pay the price.
I'd happily accept it.
Was interesting on the "will I get a holiday this year" thread how many people couldn't wait to get in a plane again
Imnotverygood. there is absolutely no reason why a lower carbon economy would be negative economically - there would be winners and losers but it does not take money out of the economy overall. We are also going to have to reset the economy hugely - why not reset it along low carbon lines?
some stuff can be done overnight, some would take years to generations
Sadly, what is going to happen is that there is going to be a rush to get people back working again. I suspect any thoughts of 'greening' the economy will just get steamrollered. There may be a few cosmetic changes, but by and large this won't lead to people giving up their cars for example. On the contrary, I suspect there will be a mass move away from public transport.
Why would you expect any change? Most people will still need to drive to work, will need to drive buy things they are temporarily not buying, kids will need ferrying to school. This is blip, all we've done is temporarily stopped doing things that necessitate travel, when they restart so will the travel.
It will take some proper effort to change things properly which given the double whammy of Covid-19 and Brexit on the economy is even less likely.
I ride to work most days and unless I need to go to site the non cycling days would be public transport anyway.
We generally don't fly on our hols if it's UK or Europe based we drive. Winter and summer.
I'd be happy with restrictions or paying differently. VED based on mileage and flight prices levelled out so there's no longer silly cheap ones, or really expensive at certain times of the year.
I don't think anything will change though....
Of course. I self limit anyway
Arghhj. That's twice in one day. Got to agree with that
This is an ideal opportunity with bailouts to apply eco related constraints on airlines such as paying vat on fuel. But almost no countries are doing it. Again it's somewhere where the EU should be able to lead but can't 🙁
Sadly, as soon as the restrictions are lifted it’ll go back to how it was.. for a week or so it’ll be worse while people get all excited about making all their pointless car trips again.
Most definitely
Interesting.
Unfortunately the cost of all this pleasant environment is the economy collapsing, so I suspect most people won’t be willing to pay the price.
I'm not sure economically productive activity has to be polluting, indeed for all the businesses folding and laying staff off, others have rolled with the punches and managed to maintained some level of operation.
The industry helped most by the British love of motors is oddly enough finance, according to This article I just skimmed the average UK household spends £388 a month on car ownership. I'm sure in The aftermath of CV19 that's a cost lots of families facing a recession will be reconsidering.
My car hasn't left the drive in over a month and there is barely a vapour trail in the sky, covid has done more for the environment in a couple of months than all the world's politicians fobbing of St Greta...
I'd be happy to reduce car/plane use personally. But I also get that there is an air of "let them aleat cake" to such things, I'm middleclass and middle income and can probably afford the thing you tend to trade in exchange for the convenience of a car which is time. It will take longer to get places and do things in a lower carbon economy, and not all jobs can be done from home.
I’m all for towns being more pedestrian / cycle friendly and would be happy if more went that way. As long as there is the public transport / infrastructure to support it.
I’d like all the planes to start flying again though please as I’d like to still be employed when this is over.
Despite working* in the oil and gas industry, I'd happily introduce heavy restrictions on anything that burns the black stuff.
Unfortunately, society as a whole is selfish and lazy, so it's not going to happen.
*probably not for much longer, given the state its in
Whilst i don't think there will be any ideological or policy shift, in all the misery there will hopefully have been some 'natural wastage' of unsustainable companies, practices and behaviours that won't come back. Commuting by plane, second homes, a few less airlines. We can hope.
Yep, I would. People fly way too much and people, rely on cars way too much. One thing that I would implement after this is working at home. All companies that can work at home (as proved during the current period) need to continue to have a 50%+ work at home policy. That would remove a lot of traffic.
Yes, I’d accept (in fact, prefer) ongoing restrictions on car and aviation use.
However, like others have said above, this is a temporary blip, the day that restrictions are lifted it will be full throttle back to trashing the planet.
Any political party that advocates anything like it will be voted out at the earliest opportunity.
People (in general) like cars, flying to nice places, and buying random pointless shit off the ‘net.
I HOPE that there may be a change in people’s attitudes: namely, some of us will re-evaluate what we need to live, but I believe any such changes will be small/by a minority of people.
We are our own worst enemies.
I think you have to be very careful with the word restrictions here. It's potentially an easy slide into eroding some very basic and fundamental freedoms.
I would absolutely support giving more space to pedestrians and encouraging people to work local or from home. That's something I've felt quite strongly about for some time anyway and it's great to see everybody out, but it's quite a complex problem and requires a huge cultural shift. Hopefully we can make use of the opportunities and create positive change.
Given the climate crisis, the question should really be "why wouldn't you accept...", no?
No objections from me anyway.
Haven’t had a car since 2004. So I’m unlikely to change.
I agree with the attitude that it will go straight back to how it was, and as has been posted above traffic volumes over the last couple of days are creeping up. Everyone seems to be thinking we’ve got this beat.
It has been pointed out in a few places that a more general return to work would see traffic problems as folk will still want to avoid public transport. Without alternatives that will see a huge increase in private car use leading to congestion and a lack of available parking. Some cities are already implementing additional cycle lanes to help cope with this. Maybe, just maybe, they might become permanent.
You realise that on such criteria driving to a trail centre to hurtle down a hill on a bike or dragging a tin box 400 miles to sleep in it would probably also not meet any "essential" criteria.
If you want people to walk and cycle more - you probably need to fix the weather though. Great just now. Not so much in November.
On a different but slightly related note, we've noticed, unsurprisingly that there has been an increase in on-line food shopping. What seems totally disjointed is that Tesco can deliver to my house today. Then my neighbour tomorrow, then another neighbour later the same day, and someone else the day after. Thats 4 journeys, it would surely be much more efficient to find a way to synchronise the collections. Not only would it save fuel/planet it would mean the driver spent less time moving between deliveries.
What seems totally disjointed is that Tesco can deliver to my house today. Then my neighbour tomorrow, then another neighbour later the same day, and someone else the day after. Thats 4 journeys, it would surely be much more efficient to find a way to synchronise the collections. Not only would it save fuel/planet it would mean the driver spent less time moving between deliveries.
In an urban area (large customer base / density of population) it probably makes little difference. In (some) rural areas deliveries only happen on set days for the reasons you point out.
However, like others have said above, this is a temporary blip, the day that restrictions are lifted it will be full throttle back to trashing the planet.
They say habits are formed after 21 times of doing something consistently. I doubt we will be back to "normal" within 21 weeks of the whole thing... so thats a lot of daily and weekly habits reformed. Yes some restrictions will be lifted sooner but with the exception of a few crack pot US states nobody is suggesting we go from near total lockdown to total freedom overnight. Scot Gov were quite clear yesterday (and have been throughout) that we may see relaxation - further relaxation - tighten - relaxation - tighten cycles throughout.
The only way you can get back to "full throttle" is an effective, reasonably long term, vaccine, available to everyone -- bearing in mind that globally the UK population may not even be the number 1 priority... I'd say thats more like 21 months than 21 weeks or 21 days. There is no certainty its possible at all. Obviously its not sustainable to operate like this for 2 years...
On my ride today, I was astonished by the amount of people on bikes, even with little tiny kids cycling around with their parents. I don’t remember seeing that on roads before, in parks maybe.
I would guess a lot of this is due to the amount of time available to the parents and children. When things get back to normal time will be stretched again and a 5 minute drive to the shops will be much more appealing than a 30 minute bike ride.
And all the kids will be back to their after school activities - and normal dad/mum taxi duty will be resumed.
People that fly need to be punished. It has to be beyond basic taxation.
I like driving so a different approach for cars.
Yep
What seems totally disjointed is that Tesco can deliver to my house today. Then my neighbour tomorrow, then another neighbour later the same day, and someone else the day after. Thats 4 journeys, it would surely be much more efficient to find a way to synchronise the collections. Not only would it save fuel/planet it would mean the driver spent less time moving between deliveries.
I'd be very surprised if Tesco or Amazon or whoever wasn't studying this very closely, it's certainly not in their interest to do this.
Anway some change will happen: we've just been told that the bank I work for is planning on making WFH a far more common thing, no doubt to save costs on office space etc rather than any other motive, but the end result will be a net drop in traffic it generates.
I think we would be naive to think that some change will not happen, how much though will be determined by what different parts of society both domestically and internationally will tolerate. I suspect a majority will dive straight back to what the old normal was whilst others will embrace the opportunities to live differently. There are already drivers pushing us along to improve air quality before COVID-19 so I would like to see this as a marker as to what could be achieved, albeit at the extreme end of the scale, with some ambition. Everyone will have to play their part, however we will all have our caveats as to why something is important for us because of xyz. For example we don't fly on holidays, haven't done since our some was 1, before we had our daughter, so 13 years ago. We do however holiday in the UK and tow the tin box 300 miles, which has its own positives and negatives. But MrsSpud works from home anyway, we don't drive unless there is no alternative generally speaking and hope to go to one car when hers gives up the ghost. I cycle to the office or use trains for business travel. Being civil service our estate is already shrinking and there are a lot less desks to work at so that will drive less commuting, although some is necessary. I suspect though that any major change will be inequitable, and those that can't afford to change will be hardest hit, the less well off in our society, if they can afford a car for example might have an older more polluting one and can't change it, so when it comes to charging zones based on air pollution are adversely and disproportionally affected. The rich will continue to use their first class and private flights, hugely fuel-thirsty vehicles etc, because they can afford the cost implications.
Yes/no/maybe.
I think there may well be more working from home options available post Covid, as employers and employees will have got used to the idea and in no small part already invested in making it happen. It'll partially depend on how much employees have been extracting the weewee.
Hopefully (NB see lower down) there may well be less business jaunts too as people will have got used to the idea of not seeing each other face to face. My other half's cousin seems to spend 5 weeks in 6 abroad living in airport hotels across the globe presenting at IT security conferences, which seems utterly stupid. If IT types can't get used to the idea of video conferencing, how are the rest of us supposed to?
I can see it all going to pot once schools go back - summer holidays are always quieter for commuting traffic, but its unthinkable that precious offspring can walk or ride to school, so out comes the car. Hopefully some of the increased WFH will allow more parents more time to improve on this though.
There's a large amount of getting people to understand "practical biking". I'm seeing lots of people going out for nice jollies in the countryside on bikes - but can they join that up to doing the shopping by bike, or commuting, especially once the weather turns?
Speaking personally, I use my car a small fraction of what I used to, now I live 160miles from the office, than when i lived 5 miles from it - I used to knock up a solid 20k miles a year to ride my bike when I lived in London - 3 weekends in 4 we'd be away somewhere, and even a "local" ride, would be an hour trip each way to the Surrey Hills. So I'm winning there already (commute by bike/train combo).
However the first thing I want to do post-lockdown is to drive somewhere to ride my bike, despite living where there's great doorstep riding. Going to ride my bike in cool places is a large chunk of what I live for and that involves travel. Bollocks are you stopping me. (as an example, today would be perfect for a Lakes cheeky epic jaunt)
Moving further afield, again, no way am I prepared to give up my annual skiing trip, and once we've got the mortgage paid off in 18months, it'll be time to start on the bucket list trips, so there will be a a certain amount of flying going on, unless there's a sensible alternative - the last couple of years we've taken the overnight Eurostar to Les Arcs to ski - time and cost wise about the same as flying including transfers, less "luxurious" (term used very loosely), but gets us an extra day on the slopes, and is logistically easy for us from where we live. If I could get a train to where I want to go for low stress, similar time and cash as flying - great, but I'll struggle to do that to Iceland or Canada...
Workwise too - corporate events - the biggest, most profitable gigs we've done in the last few years have all been for American or Chinese clients coming over to the UK for a jolly, so actually, I kind of need that to continue to keep my job!
A lot of ^^^ no doubt comes across very selfish - I wouldn't argue otherwise, but being out in the wild is what I live for, and what makes me happy, so I'm going to figure out a way to make it happen, come what may. Day to day life, we're pretty good - I WFH, we commute by bike, shop on foot or by bike, buy local if we can type stuff, but yep, the big things - pretty crap on. However our footprint ends when we die, as haven't spawned more little consumers to carry on the bad work.
However our footprint ends when we die, as haven’t spawned more little consumers to carry on the bad work.
I’d like to know if our decision to not have kids has a greater positive impact on the environment than a family of 4 deciding to travel by train on holiday vs flying 🙂
I’m sure there’s some research been done, off to take a look.
No, flat no.