Choose greener travel
Transport is another large contributor of carbon emissions in the UK, particularly in cities where traffic builds up. Switching your daily commute from a private car journey to a bus or train ride is one way to make a big reduction in your carbon footprint, especially if you can’t work from home. Browse the tabs below to read more about how your travel choices can become greener.
It’s widely known that air travel vastly contributes to carbon being released into the atmosphere. Taking just one flight is enough to wipe out the savings made by positive changes over a year!
We recommend considering alternative ways of travelling, such as by train or by sea. It’s much more environmentally friendly to travel between London and Paris by train, for example, and you might find options for low-carbon sailing between destinations as well.
On a day-to-day level, research shows that a fifth of car journeys are shorter than five miles. Driving these short distances in private vehicles creates carbon emissions that could potentially be avoided by using public transport, cycling or walking instead. Car sharing and consolidating trips are also good ways of reducing the number of cars on the road.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining popularity and are more environmentally-friendly than petrol and diesel cars.
EVs are best suited to short trips (30-80 miles per day) because of their limited range. An all-electric vehicle can cover about 100-200 miles on a single charge, depending on the make and model.
EV charging points are becoming more available now, and many people are also able to charge their car at home. Check out Zap-Map, Open Charge or others to find the ones closest to you.
Government grants are also available to help with the cost of installing smart charging points at UK homes.
Using public transport can be an easy way of reducing the number of cars on the road. The collection of My Journey resources across Southampton, Hampshire and Portsmouth are full of ideas for planning short trips around our region.
‘Active travel’ is the collective term used for walking, cycling, scooting and other ways to move around while being physically active.
The collection of My Journey resources across Southampton, Hampshire and Portsmouth provide plenty of information about cycle networks and walk routes in our region.
