Former Climate Change Committee vice chair Baroness Brown of Cambridge Julia King addressed the first day of the virtual conference. She noted that demand reduction and cutting total vehicle miles driven must be an important part of the sector’s route to net zero.

She later suggested that replacing vehicle and fuel taxes with a system of road pricing considering factors including time, location and distance of travel in addition to emissions and vehicle occupancy “could be an enormously fair way to treat people”.

“It could mean that a grandmother who needs to drive to a hospital appointment in the middle of the day from a village where there is no bus service would be able to do so almost for free in terms of road pricing,” she said.

“Whereas someone who wants to drive their very fancy executive car into the office in London at 8am on a Monday morning – when the roads are absolutely jam packed and it would be so much better if he or she used public transport – they can pay ‘through the nose’ for it.”

She added that public acceptance on the possibility of road pricing has “moved a long way” over the last 10 to 15 years.

The Baroness also emphasised the need for many more cycling and walking facilities and welcomed the introduction of electric bicycles and scooters to help support modal shift. She added that, post-Covid, “we have got to find ways of giving people confidence again that public transport can be safe”.

In addition, she told the event that the economic recovery from the pandemic must be driven by sustainability. “Let’s not perpetuate the way we used to be; let’s take this opportunity to start how we need to be in the future.”

She also highlighted the urgency of rolling out charging and refuelling infrastructure for electric and other low carbon vehicles, with an estimated 150,000 public charging points needed by 2025, up from just 25,000 today.

“Within the next four years we have got to see some really quite dramatic changes if we are going to be on track to get to net zero.”

Today, the conference is focusing on the theme ‘Future of our Communities’ while the final day tomorrow will explore innovation. Further coverage of the conference will feature in the May issue of Transportation Professional.

(Photograph: UK Parliament)