Moving sustainably from A-B and beyond

Brighton & Hove has the honourable reputation of having the lowest car ownership, per capita, of any town or city in the South East. Hoorah! But having said that, we still struggle to accommodate 100,000 motor vehicles, with twice as many car seats as there are people living here. These take up a square kilometre of the city when parked (as they are for 95% of the time) and contribute to our chronic levels of air pollution.

So halving our car dependency feels like a worthwhile goal. It would liberate thousands of square metres of our city for other uses, ease congestion, cut carbon emissions and noise pollution, and improve air quality - with the added bonus of more exercise, better health, financial savings and all sorts of other lovely things that would create a more civilized place to live.

Sharing what we have is one option for saving money and reducing our impact. Car-sharing schemes like City Car Clubs and lift-sharing services like Catch a Ride make this easy and convenient.

Brighton & Hove’s bus services are among the best-used and fastest growing in the UK and The Big Lemon have shown how low-carbon a bus service can go, powering their vehicles on used chip oil.

However, the humble bike-human combi easily wins gold medal as the most efficient urban transport option available. Brighton & Hove’s vibrant cycling culture celebrates and agitates in equal measure. You can be kept posted by subscribing to the excellent Bricycles Newsletter, you can join a safety-in-numbers flock of cycles up the Lewes Road with Bike Train or on an outing with CTC or, if you are feeling especially passionate on the subject, you can bare all for the cause and join the World Naked Bike Ride on its festive city tour each June.

If the hills are just too much for you to bear or if you have a health condition which limits you, the growing market in electric bikes may be just the answer – available increasingly at cycle shops at less than a typical year’s car insurance.

There has never been an easier or better time to make the transition, and thanks

to projects such as those listed in these pages, we are succeeding in becoming a more fun, friendly and affordable city as we journey together to a low carbon future.