We all rely on transport infrastructure to do everything we love. Travel to holidays, travel to friends, travel to family, travel to the countryside, travel to work. The more I learn about it, the more I realise the private vehicle is the most inequality-promoting mode of transport at our disposal. We have designed our cities to promote use of the private car at the expense of other modes. Cars are bad news for cities. The noise, smell, emissions and safety hazards caused by them are so often overlooked and accepted as a part of life. The amount of invaluable land dedicated to moving and storing them is disgraceful, and the impacts on efficiency of urban life are making the UK fall behind our European counterparts.

We have the answers. Public transport (trains, trams and buses) and active travel are the solutions and promote healthier, more liveable cities. These are the sustainable transport modes, and they work together to promote equality. You should not have priority just because you can afford a car. You should not be essentially forced to own a private vehicle to participate in society. The costs of running a car are exorbitant for anyone on a low wage, and this is where the drag on equality really presses home.

Our transport infrastructure is what it is because of unbridled and unopposed lobbying from private interests representing the ever-powerful fossil fuel conglomerates and car manufacturers. The opposing voice for sustainable transport modes is very poorly funded, and if you believe we should have freedom of choice of transport modes, you believe in sustainable transport. The Campaign for Better Transport is the charity that represents that voice in front of our lawmakers, and they need your support. Their current campaigns include Rail Fare Reform and Fairer Motoring Taxation, and they have been nominated for an award for their campaign to save the TfL Travelcard last year.

I’m riding from Ben Nevis to London to raise awareness of their cause and funds for their important work. Climbing Ben Nevis on Saturday morning, climbing Scafell Pike on Monday and arriving in London on Friday morning. It’s over 1000km on the bike in 6 days, plus 2 mountains to climb/descend on foot. I may make it, may not, there’s only one way to find out.

If you don’t believe in the cause itself, please talk to me about it. This is where charity very well represents our interests and promotes a fairer, more just society.

http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/campaign-for-better-transport/about/