London Underground goes greener by signing up to 10:10 campaign
Liverpool Street, Victoria and Bank among 10 tube stations to cut carbon emissions through energy efficiency measures
Scenes of passengers travelling on the London Underground, the down escalator. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Ashleigh Searle
Squeezing on to a packed underground train in the morning rush may not be everyone's idea of green living, but the tube has today committed to make 10 of its most high-profile stations greener by cutting their carbon emissions.
London Underground has signed up the 10 stations, plus its headquarters, to the 10:10 climate change campaign which commits them to a 10% cut in carbon emissions over the next 12 months. The stations, including Liverpool Street, Victoria and Bank will reduce energy use by using lighting and escalators more efficiently, for example.
Since launching in September last year, over 70,000 individuals have signed up to the 10:10 campaign, as well as major companies such as Royal Mail and B&Q. Shortly after the election, the coalition government committed central government to a 10% emissions cut.
Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "Despite the Tube being one of the most environmentally friendly ways to travel in London, more can still be done to help protect the environment. Signing up to 10:10 is just one of the ways in which London Underground is changing the way we operate, helping to make London a greener and more pleasant place to live."
The underground has already cut emissions by 5,500 tonnes in the last three years by measures such as installing energy efficient lighting and fitting the Northern Line's control centre with a "green" energy efficient roof.
The 10:10 pledge means extra changes at some of the largest on the network - Bank, Liverpool Street, Moorgate, Earls Court, Holborn, Charing Cross, Green Park, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park Corner and Victoria. Each station will have an environment champion who along with overseeing the progress of the campaign will also encourage staff to sign up to 10:10 and make the changes in their own lives.
The underground will implement a range of energy-saving initiatives including switching off escalators during non-peak times and turning off unnecessary lighting. In total, the measures should save around £70,000 and over 500 tonnes of CO2 per year. Overall, the tube network is responsible for around 640,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
Another measure being deployed on the network is regenerative breaking, which feeds electric power back into the electricity supply that would otherwise be lost as the trains slow down. This provides a 25% saving of electricity and will be introduced to more services during the campaign. London Underground also has a long-term aim to source at least 30% of its electricity from low and zero carbon sources of electricity.
"The London Underground is a crucial part of life in London," said campaign director Eugenie Harvey. "Ferrying millions of people around the city every day. We're so happy to have them on board – reducing carbon emissions is, literally, as everyday as catching the Tube."
• This article originally stated that London Underground would make £700,000 of savings. This has been corrected to £70,000.
Festivals like Glastonbury and Leeds need to curb their carbon emissions
They may promote green values, but summer music gatherings are often the biggest culprits in terms of carbon emissions and waste
One of the many tents left abandoned on a litter-strewn Worthy Farm following the 2009 Glastonbury Festival. Photograph: Martin Godwin
For an event that usually takes place in a field, the average festival is far from a green affair. Emissions from travel to and from the sites, the mounds of litter and those diesel-guzzling on-site generators mean that, while a lot of major festivals promote a green ethos in principle, their actual carbon footprints tell a different story.
Oxford university researchers have analysed the environmental impact of 500 UK festivals and found that, combined, they emit around 84,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Research from campaign group A Greener Festival shows that the green issue is a high priority for some music fans, with 48% of respondents saying they would pay more for greener events and 36% stating that green issues were an important factor when buying a ticket. So what are festivals doing to respond to this demand?
The experts are in unanimous agreement when assessing which part of a festival has the biggest impact on the environment: transport. According to Julie's Bicycle, an organisation set up to help the music industry reduce its carbon footprint, moving people to and from festivals contributes 68% of the festival sector's total emissions – around 45,000 tonnes.
In response to this, lift-sharing initiatives such as the Glastonbury Car Share Schemehave been set up across most of the major festivals. Latitude places a strong emphasis on sustainable travel by offering people who lift-share the chance to win a VIP upgrade. However, it is clear that festivals still need to do more to make public transport to the sites widely available, and to encourage people to use it.
A major headache for the big festivals is the question of how to deal with the major side-effect of having a party with a 100,000-strong guest list – namely, the heaps of litter. Most provide recycling facilities on-site that make it easy for people to separate their rubbish. Interestingly, Festival Republic – responsible for promoting Glastonbury, Reading and Latitude – tailors its wast-management schemes to different audiences, so that younger crowds like those seen at Reading and Leeds are offered incentives to dispose of rubbish properly in the form of beer and money. Forty nine per cent of the rubbish at Glastonbury was recycled last year through the use of clearly labelled recycling facilities. Even so, an army of litter pickers is deployed every year for a week following the festival to clean up after messy guests, proving that there is still much to be done.
A growing trend among some festivals is clean energy generation. The Croissant Neuf Summer Party in Wales runs entirely on power from renewable sources, but larger festivals will struggle to generate enough electricity to power themselves in this way.
One thing is for sure: there is a world of difference between possessing good green intentions and having the resources and organisation to put them into practice – especially for the larger gatherings. Ben Challis, from A Greener Festival, says: "We have noticed that the smaller festivals are better for dealing with environmental concerns but the big festivals do have a lot to consider. A proposal to put recycling bins everywhere could clash with health and safety or crowd regulations, for example."
In 2009, Bestival and the Isle of Wight were the only big UK festivals to receive an "outstanding" award from A Greener Festival for their commitments to reducing their impact on the environment. Let's hope that more of the big festivals can clean up their acts this year.
Love your tent is a campaign created by Eco-Action Partnership in association with A Greener Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival.
The campaign is designed to bond people with their portable homes and encourage them to reuse instead of discarding them. Left behind tents causes a huge problem for many festivals each year – not to mention the environmental impact.
The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future. Pete Postlethwaite is the main character in this film, he plays a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from our time and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
The Age of Stupid led to the 10:10 carbon reduction campaign, which asks everyone to cut their emissions by 10% in a year, and which is now operating in 45 countries. This campaign gets individuals, companies and institutions to reduce their carbon footprints by 10%.
When the middle class tourists come to London, most of them have:
NO CAR, so they rely on Public Transport or their reliable legs.
*What do there want?*
More enjoyable view.
Interactive with the city.(Nobody come to London because the want to sit in the Tube, they want to see some view, chat with friend, find something interesting on the street, when they find some good shops, they could just stopped and pop into them.)
Low Price Journey, this means
spend less money in travelling
or
live in Zone 2/3/4 then travel to central London by public
If a tourist come to London, one use a tube map would miss a lot of fun by waste the time in the tube.
For short journeys, walking is quick and reliable, with very few interruptions. It will always take the same amount of time.
Half of London car journeys are less than 2km, which is just 25 minutes' walk.
If you're out in London, you can use our Legible London maps and signs to get where you're going quickly. Legible London in the Bond Street area has sped up the average walking journey by 16 per cent.
Walking is good for your health
Brisk walking is a great way to clear your head, reduce stress and release those mood-boosting endorphins.
It's the nearest thing to 'perfect' exercise in terms of a safe, all-round workout. And it doesn't cost a penny or need any special equipment.
If you walk an extra 20 minutes a day, you'll burn off 7lb of body fat a year
A single step uses up to 200 muscles. So you're not only doing a little cardio, but toning your muscles too
Walking can halve your risk of coronary heart disease and help prevent some cancers
Walking may slow cognitive decline in adults, especially those with existing conditions such as Alzheimer's
Walking can help to prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes
If you'd like to start walking with a support programme, where you can walk with others, visit Get Walking, Keep Walking.
To find out more about the thousands of great walking opportunities in London, visit Walk4Life.
Walking makes a greener planet
You can breathe in more pollution inside your car than walking the same route.
The average two-way school run emits 800g of carbon dioxide into the air. That's enough to inflate more than 60 balloons.
For every young person walking (instead of being driven) one mile to school and back, we'd save 57kg of carbon per year.
Get a little exercise into your working day, by walking to work or between meetings.
If you want to know how long it would take to walk somewhere, visit Walking Journey Planner or Walkit.com.
Walking is good for London's economy
Walking supports local shops and businesses. Here's the evidence:
Walking is the second most popular way for Londoners to visit town centres, after taking the bus. It's more popular than the car, train or Tube
People who walk to town centres spend more per head per month than other shoppers. It's because they linger longer
Pedestrians are the most frequent visitors to town centres each month. So not only do they spend more money per trip, they visit more often too
Government research shows that making town centres better for walking can boost trading by up to 40 per cent
London's annual West End Very Important Pedestrian (VIP) Day in December, when Oxford and Regent Streets close to traffic, increases footfall by up to 40 per cent. Some stores achieve their best sales figures of the year
Past exhibition at london transport museum Mind the map: this exhibition drew on the existing map collection to explore the themes of journeys, identity and publicity. It was the largest exhibition of its kind and included new works from Stephen Walter (please se below) Susan Stockwell, Jeremy Wood, Claire Brewster and many more. The display explored geographical, diagrammatical an decorative transport maps. It explored the influence of the icon London underground map on cartography and the public imagination. These maps have shaped the city and influenced th rest of the world. The exhibition explored the impact maps have on our understanding of London and how it influences the way we navigate and interact with our surroundings. A book supporting the exhibition is still available: London Underground Maps: Inspiring Art, Design and Cartography.
Some of the maps displayed in the exhibition
Mind the map: Time for a change? As London Underground celebrates its 150th anniversary, Graham Satchell traces the history of the service A report of the history of the London underground map.<http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/uk-20982436>
Stephen Walters The Island This is a historical spoof map with celebrity trivia, local knowledge, his memories, stereotypes and historical information. It maps in intricate detail where Hendrix died, birthplaces of Alfred Hitchcock etc.
Little Book of Tube Etiquette This a humerous book observing tube etiquette on the London Underground by Laura King. It shows the annoying behaviour she has encountered on her daily commute on London's underground system.
An ex commuter has also developed military style tactics to enable them to get a seat on the tube, Brendan Nelson has devised an online guide complete with graphics.
His tactics uses the ancient Chinese battle Sun Tzu to the daily fight to get a sat. In his guide he lays out the theatre of conflicts (the tube) the passengers are colour coded and split into different categories. 'Get into position but act casual' 'all warfare is based on deception) He says knowing you enemy and misdirecting passengers are key skills when trying to fight for a seat!
Natalie Bhinder
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
+ ADVANTAGES
Benefits for environment ( A train or bus can carry far more people than a single car, using only one tank of gas / energy source in the process. Lots of trains and trams run on electricity which reduces the effect of carbon emissions even further. Until the electric carbecomes more common, public transport will always be the greener option.Public transport is at least twice as energy efficient as private cars; a full bus produces 377 times less carbon monoxide than a full car. Each full standard bus can take more than 50 cars off the road while a full train can take more than 600 cars off the road. )
Accessibility (Accessible public transport benefits everyone involved – it is easy and quicker to use, can reduce dwell times of vehicles and can assist with managing traffic congestion in shared road environments - and takes account of the interaction between land use and transport planning.)
Costs (Catching public transport may be up to four times cheaper than travelling in your car (according to RACQ research using a journey of 12km to the Brisbane CBD). It can also save you the cost of buying, maintaining and running additional vehicles.)
- DISADVANTAGES
Routing (Public transportation, whether you are talking about a train system or buses, follow a preset route. The preset route travels from station to station taking on and letting off passengers at set stops. This can be a serious disadvantage for many travelers. The public transportation may not come out into the suburbs far enough to pick them up, or may not stop at the exact address that they are traveling to. Many travelers may need a secondary source of transportation to arrive at their final destination, or will have to walk some distance to their home or office.)
Convenience (Public transportation runs on a set schedule. These times may not mesh with the travel demands of those using public transportation. This can result in a serious loss of time for travels who must arrive at their destination early to avoid being late. It may also mean waiting for the next bus or train after their business is concluded, slowing their return home.)
Privacy (There is no privacy in public transportation. Travelers are crowded in and don't have much personal space. There is nothing to prevent the person sitting next to you from reading documents or the screen of your laptop, listening in on your phone conversations or looking at the contents of your handbag. This also means that you have no protection from what others choose to do in that public space. Travelers may hear language and topics of conversation that make them uncomfortable or may be exposed to the germs of other passengers who are coughing, sneezing or showing symptoms of contagious illnesses.)
Space (There is a limited amount of space aboard public transportation systems, which makes them inappropriate for some errands. This is a concern if you are traveling with children who have specialized needs, like strollers, or are going on a major shopping venture which could result in excessive luggage on the return trip. You may not be allowed to take these items onto public transportation with you if they will not fit under your seat or in your lap.)
SAVING MONEY TROUGH PUBLIC TRANSPORT
In today’s modern world there are several “green” movements that are attempting to enrich the planet and make it a better, more sustainable place to live. Activities ranging from planting trees to using biodegradable or reusable grocery bags are among the ways that people are helping the environment, but one of the most vitally important ways to help involves getting from Point A to Point B: carpooling and public transportation.
Infographic outlines the positive impact that increased public transportation has made in the past few years. Thanks to so many people opting not to use their cars, as much as 37 million tons of CO2 are not released and 340 million gallons of fuel aren’t used annually. That’s a lot of saved money on gas!
If you live in a metropolitan area, public transportation is a great way to not only dip less into our natural resources but also to help potentially save a good deal of money on the cost of getting around, and carpooling can be equally as helpful for those that don’t live near public means of transportation.
PROXIMITY TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Hong Kong's residents are the best-connected, with over 40% living within a 500m radius of a rapid transit station. The city also scores highest for commuting, with over half its places of work less than half a kilometre from a station.
Stockholm scores second highest in both categories, while New York and London are third for residents and commuters respectively. Los Angeles scores lowest for each category, with less than 5% of its residents living within 500m of a station.
HOW PEOPLE TRAVEL
Of the six cities shown, London has the highest proportion of trips made by car, at 39.8%. Public transport accounts for 34% of journeys, while walking (23.7%), cycling (2%) and motorcycle trips (0.8%) make up the remainder.
New York scores highest for public transport, with almost three in every five commuter trips made by taxi, bus, rail or metro.
Hong Kong fares best for walking, with 44.7% of journeys made on foot. Copenhagen leads the way for cycling, with one in five trips powered by pedals.
HOW CITIES CHANGE
Portland's CO2 emissions per capita have halved since 1993.
Copenhagen's energy consumption per capita has fallen by around 20% since 1993, with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita dropping at a slightly faster rate.
Singapore's population has risen steadily, and TransMilenio, its public transport system, has seen passenger numbers double since its 2001 launch. Despite its growing population, traffic incident fatalities have more than halved since the late 1990s.
Cycling in Hong Kong has been booming in the last 20 years, and is one of the factors that have contributed to its falling CO2 emissions per capita.
Around the year 2000 London's technology sector really took off, and employment in the digital economy has increased by almost 50% since 1997. Taking inner East London as a standalone region, high tech employment has nearly doubled in 15 years.
Mumbai's rapid population growth is symptomatic of nationwide trends, and has come at an environmental cost, with CO2 emissions per capita for India as a whole increasing at a faster rate than the port city's population. Peak electricity demand in Mumbai has also rocketed upwards, increasing by over 75% in ten years.
Berlin's population has remained relatively constant since 1993, but a decreasing reliance on non-renewable energy across Germany as a whole has improved its environmental credentials. The capital's CO2 emissions per capita have dropped by over 30% in 18 years.
Vehicle ownership in Sao Paulo is booming, but traffic speeds during evening rush hour have fallen since 1993, suggesting its road network is struggling to cope with congestion.
UNPACKING LONDON: ENERGY AND POLLUTION
Three quarters of London's energy consumption is fueled directly by oil and gas, with the vast majority of the remainder generated by fossil-fuel-powered electricity. Just 2.1% comes either direct from waste and renewables or from renewably-generated electricity.
London's CO2 emissions per capita are higher than the world average, but lower than those of comparable developed cities New York and Portland, as well as Singapore.
Landfill is gradually being phased out as a method of solid waste management, but still accounted for roughly one third of the total in 2011/12. Incineration and recycling/composting also make up around a third each.
London's air contains more than 2.5 times as much NO2 than the EU standard - still slightly less than Paris - but is well below the EU's recommended ceiling for particulate matter. PM10 counts in Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam are all higher than that of London.
NO2 levels closely follow London's road network, with Heathrow Airport and the M4 standing out as particularly high.
UNPACKING LONDON: TRANSPORT, TECH AND PLANNING
Since 1993 car travel has decreased faster in London than across the UK as a whole, and average annual distance traveled per person in 2011 was roughly half of that for the country overall. Bus, tube and overground travel continues to grow, with distance traveled on public transport approaching the same level as car miles.
Cycling has taken off in London, with the number of cyclists in the capital trebling since 1985, and overtaking that of both New York and Stockholm. Berlin remains ahead of London on this nominal measure, and at 13% has one of the highest proportions of cycle trips a share of all journeys.
London's office space is well served by public transport links: almost 1m cubic metres was built between 2004 and 2011 within 500m of a station, with no new office construction more than 2km from a public transport hub.
The City of London has seen more new office space than any other part of the capital, while the bulk of retail and leisure floorspace has gone to the Olympic Park and surrounding area.
Shoreditch has the highest density of IT jobs in the city, followed by Holborn and parts of the City of London. Despite its strong performance in the digital economy, London has slower broadband speeds (both download and upload) than European neighbours including Berlin, Paris and Copenhagen, as well as Tokyo and Seoul, whose speeds are several times faster.
FUTURE FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Car sized passenger capsules travel in 1.5m (5') diameter tubes on frictionless maglev. Air is permanently removed from the two-way tubes that are built along a travel route. Airlocks at stations allow transfer of capsules without admitting air. Linear electric motors accelerate the capsules, which then coast through the vacuum for the remainder of the trip using no additional power. Most of the energy is regenerated as the capsules slow down.
