Mott MacDonald Professor

Walking (and wheeling for those in wheelchairs) is the most fundamental mode of transport. While being the default means of embarking on a journey, walking is, simultaneously, so ordinary and ubiquitous that providing for pedestrians is possibly also the most overlooked element of the transport system. Walking is strangely invisible and, apart from notable exceptions, it is generally squeezed out by attention-seeking and space-grabbing (usually motor) technology.

I'm a metal-head. I understand it can be good to start an article like that - to connect with your base. Especially if my fellow metal-heads felt I might be looking to encroach on their/our beloved music (asking them to tone and turn it down, or worse still subjecting them to Radio 1). In fact, I hold no hope of (m)any metal-heads reading this. However, the predicament for Government parallels this, once you move from metal-head to petrol-head and to the topic of decarbonising transport.

Climate emergency declarations are like a rash. There was a pre-COVID sense of urgency developing, energised by the movement led by Greta Thunberg. According to a 2019 survey, 79% of EU citizens saw climate change as a very serious problem (up from 74% in 2017). The transport sector is the tough nut to crack if we are to hope to tackle this and achieve a net zero CO2 emissions economy in 30 years' time. Intentions to address climate change are mounting. Attitudes are changing.