Globally, only one in 50 new cars were fully electric in 2020, and one in 14 in the UK. Sounds impressive, but even if all new cars were electric now, it would still take 15-20 years to replace the world’s fossil fuel car fleet.
The emission savings from replacing all those internal combustion engines with zero-carbon alternatives will not feed in fast enough to make the necessary difference in the time we can spare: the next five years. Tackling the climate and air pollution crises requires curbing all motorised transport, particularly private cars, as quickly as possible. Focusing solely on electric vehicles is slowing down the race to zero emissions.
Infrastructure is only half of it. There’s also weather conditions that you really can’t ride in. Which happen quite a bit.
In ten+ years of winter cycling, I have found very few. The only thing that made me stop is freezing rain, and that happens rather rarely. There are conditions that would make me not what to drive too anyway. It’s not an actually valid point.
How often do you get freezing rain where you are? Once a year? Twice a year? You’re basing an entire transportation policy on unlikely events isn’t particularly helpful nor insightful.
