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By 2025 London could be the cycling capital of the world. Around £4 million will see cycling become a fully-funded part of the public transport network. Plans include a new free bike lending scheme (offering 6,000 bikes every 300 m) and 12 cycle highways to make pedal power a real travel choice for everyone.

Flexible working can reduce the need to commute – working from home one day a week can cut transport emissions by 20 per cent. A study by BT into the impact of home working found that, on average, employees working from home reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by 15.2 kg per week. Even assuming that some savings would be lost by increases in home energy use, the study found total emissions for 5,000 employees were reduced by some 3,663 tonnes per year.

Cycling and walking can be easy alternatives for short car trips, but longer journeys and city-wide travel need better public transport. Good bus services, light rail and trams can provide alternatives to driving, substantially reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The city of Curitiba in Brazil has been held up as a model of what public transport can achieve if investment and urban planning keep the needs of people in mind. The city, which has a growing population of more than 1.6 million people, invested in buses as its main public transport, creating special bus-only avenues. The system, which is cheap to use, carries some 2.14 million passengers a day despite high levels of car ownership. The result has been cleaner city air and some of lowest rates of fuel consumption per person in Brazil.

Freiburg in Germany (see also pp.94-95) is one of many European cities to have developed a low-carbon approach to getting about. The city has 160 km of sign-posted cycle paths, cycle-only streets and special access on one-way routes. Buses and trams carry 67 million people a year, with cheap tickets for families.

In France the Mayor of Paris has introduced a low-cost bike rental scheme in the capital, providing bicycles at 750 stations around the city. Users of the Velib bike scheme can buy either an annual pass (priced at £20) or a one-day pass (less than £1), with short journeys completely free. Paris has some 230 miles of cycle paths and the number of cyclists in the city has increased by 50 per cent in the past ten years.

A charge on drivers entering the city centre, combined with investment in public transport, has cut the level of traffic in inner London, with increases in the numbers of people travelling by tube and bus. One opinion survey found that 1 in 5 drivers would leave their car at home and use public transport if road charging schemes were introduced across the UK.

Improvements to public transport can tempt drivers out of their cars for longer distance trips, with both coach and rail travel offering lower carbon dioxide emissions per passenger mile. Planning policies can also have an impact – for instance local development plans can ensure new shops are accessible by public transport or by foot.

A UK government study found that with the right policies, emissions from road transport could be reduced by 60 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030. Some of these savings depend on using hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels, but measures such as road pricing, energy-efficient driving and changes to freight distribution systems also had a role to play.