City must embrace pedal power
Birmingham has always been known as the UK’s motor city with landmarks like Spaghetti Junction defining its place at the centre of the UK’s transport network.
So it is apt a bid from Birmingham and Coventry has been chosen as one of the eight consortia to take part in a new programme to put low-carbon vehicles on UK roads.
The Coventry and Birmingham Low Emissions Demonstrators consortium, led by design and engineering consultant Arup, brings together Advantage West Midlands, E.ON, the two city’s councils and three academic institutions to run a programme whose ultimate aim is to get more people to buy low-emissions cars.
One hundred and ten low-carbon vehicles will be tested in Birmingham and Coventry, including four electric models and Land Rover’s Range_e hybrid vehicle.
The vehicles in the West Midland consortium represent the bulk of the UK programme so it testament to the quality of the bidding consortium to have pulled off this coup.
Not only is the region home to world-class automotive firms like Jaguar Land Rover but it also boasts a pioneering academic community with Professor Julia King at Aston University and world-leading hydrogen car research at the University of Birmingham. But there’s no time for complacency. Even London’s Lord Mayor Boris Johnson – who opposed the Kyoto treaty – has got behind electric cars.
Earlier this year he laid out plans to spend £60million to make London “the electric vehicle capital of Europe” with all new developments with more than five parking spaces to provide charging facilities and 25,000 charging points across the city by 2015.
And Mr Johnson has also got behind cycling whereas Birmingham is widely acknowledged as being one of the most hostile cities for cyclists in the country.
Winning the bid is a great start – but the city will have to peddle fast to keep up with Boris.
