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On his visit to our
club, District Governor Ewan Cameron spoke of his challenge to the 78
clubs in District 1040 and the Environmental Award for the best Club
Project. We decided that we had just the man to push this forward.
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Our newest member
John Walker, who specialises in Transportation Planning, enlisted the aid of
Professor Mary Bell from Leeds University. After her talk to us on vehicle
pollution, and further collaboration with John in setting up the statistical
model, Pudsey club's Green Travel Plan swung into action.
As
a result of our observations on our present methods of travel and the data
sheets we completed, John Walker was able to report the following: Development
of our Green Travel Plan got off to a good start with over 85% of us filling
in and returning the 'before' week travel diaries. Preliminary analysis is
complete and summaries will be issued in the middle of January. The results
show just how dependant we are on the motor car. Collectively, participants
made 615 journies during that week, of which over 90% were by car (85% as
driver and only 10% as passenger). Other than David Robbins, no one used a
bike, Malcolm Healey appears to be the only train user and only three of us
seem to know about bus services. Analysis is ongoing and we should know soon
our individual and collective contribution to air pollution. With nearly 500
cold engine starts and almost 200 hours of car running time, our contribution
may be surprising. When
individual contributions are seen, it is hoped that many of us will be able to
identify travel savings which we could make without too much inconvenience.
Our 'after' week is the seven days beginning Monday 3rd February and new diary
forms will be distributed from 16th January. Don't forget to implement your
travel savings such as car sharing, more walking or perhaps travelling at
slightly different times so as to avoid peak congestion and thereby reduce
travel time (engine running time)". |
