1. Foot. Still wins for me. For those of you that don't do it, it's like cycling except the equipment's cheaper, you don't arrive at your destination as sweaty, and you are less often required to have the dangerous experience of mingling with cars.
2. Train. If you've brought your own food and your MP3 player is charged, is there a finer way to get from A to a reasonably distant B? The views are excellent, and no other form of transport reasonably allows you to work on the move. If I could take the train every time I left Edinburgh that'd be fine by me. Especially if it was a TGV.
3. Tram. When Edinburgh's trams arrive, they will mysteriously cease to be unpopular even with SNP candidates. Instead they will be revealed to be just as comfortable, smooth, affordable and clean as they are everywhere else in the world. Unless the Liberal/SNP local authority botches it all up.
4. Bus. Edinburgh is blessed with buses, and I love them. Apparently even Maggie didn't hate them as much as had been thought. They lose some points for fossil fuel use, though, and it'll be a while before we get electric ones.
5. Electric car. So many to choose from. Personally I'm more interested in a Tesla Roadster than a G-Wiz, but the EV-02 sounds promising too. They all lose a lot of points because of the energy it takes to build them, and obviously we need to scale our renewables ambitions up even further if this is going to be practical. But if something's going to kill the internal combustion engine, it's probably the battery.
6. Bike. I would really have to be pressed to use a bike. See the section on walking. Also, you can't ride a bike and safely listen to music, so that's a big black mark for me. I know I should be more keen: perhaps a recumbent or a multi-person bike (left) might persuade me otherwise? Or the Solo-Duo, which fuses the electric car and the bike, and which looks like something from Woody Allen's Sleeper? No, that'd be cheating.
This is just my list, for me. I know the embodied energy calculation makes bikes greener than electric cars: in fact, I'm sure they're #2 in any objective list that goes just on green-ness.
I understand that Neil Lennon was indulging in your number #1 Green way to get about but got thumped.
Apparently, only some parts of Glasgow like Greens...
I bet deep down you'd love to charge around in a helicopter all day though....
What, the Tesla Roadster ain't Jeremy Clarkson enough for you?
Perhaps I could go for mucking about in a glider, towed by an electric car..
Isn't there a moral compulsion on Greens to, unless they are physically prevented from doing so, ride a bike....or certainly have it above any form of carbon-intrinsic transport in a list of top ways to get about. We bang on to others to change their ways, yet....apologies if I'm getting greeny-meany on your saddle-hugger.
Ah, but foot wins above all, surely?
correct, but don't Tucker me: http://tinyurl.com/6ymwwy
A car needs to do 250,000 miles to justify the environmental costs of its manufacture.
My twenty year old Yugo has another 189,000 to go, then.
:)
Everyone has to make indiviudal choices, so if a bike is not for you - and you'd rather walk - then so be it. Many greens will still rather drive but with some compromises such as less polluting cars.
And getting prioroties right isn't easy. Over in Brussels on Monday night (Sep 1) Members of the European Parliament voted to delay (by three years, until 2015) proposals to force car makers to reduce fuel consumption of new cars, despite overwhelming public support for more fuel efficient vehicles. However, although the Industry Committee have bent to pressure from the car industry, there is still time for the Environment Committee to get the priorities right when they vote this coming Tuesday (Sep 9). Their input could see the proposed reductions not being delayed, but in fact reduced even further, meaning a quicker and greater step toward less polluting cars throughout Europe. Visit http://www.forlesspollutingcars.com to let relevant MEPs know your view. Click on the 'Let's Act' tab to quickly and easily send them an email. Please do gt 'on your bike' and do it now!