‘Hyperlocal neighbourhoods’ can promote sustainable travel, help decarbonise transport sector: Report

What is the News?

Imperial College, London has released a paper on smart and sustainable urban transport.

What are the key suggestions given by the paper to decarbonize the Transport Sector?

Create Hyper-local Neighbourhoods: Hyper-local neighbourhoods that provide every necessary service within a walking distance will help people avoid using transport for their daily needs. This can help reduce Green House Gas emissions(GHG) from the transport sector.

Shifting Activities Online: Lockdowns due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic forced a range of activities to shift online. Many of these changes can be recommended for permanent adoption.

Use of Low Carbon Fuels: Alternative low-carbon fuels involve the production of fuels using renewable or other low-carbon sources. The most well-developed fuel for production is hydrogen, but the use of hydrogen as fuel involves more substantive infrastructural changes.

Electrification: Electrification in the transport sector is the process of replacing fossil-fuel based engines with electric motors. However, the challenge is to combine modern innovations and engineering alongside low-carbon electricity to ensure it is the cheapest and most sustainable option. 

Shifting mode of transport: Some modes of transport — public transport and cycling — are highly energy efficient. Using technology, policies, the built environment and behavioural interventions one can switch from less efficient modes to high energy-efficient modes like cycling and public transport. 

Source: This post is based on the article “‘Hyperlocal neighbourhoods’ can promote sustainable travel, help decarbonise transport sector: Report” published in Down To Earth on 27th October 2021.