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Car pollution, noise and accidents ‘cost every EU citizen £600 a year’

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article by Peter Walker at The Guardian.

Cars in traffic

The perennial complaint from drivers that they are excessively taxed has been challenged by a study which concludes that road accidents, pollution and noise connected to cars costs every EU citizen more than £600 a year.The report by transport academics at the Dresden Technical University in Germany calculated that even with drivers’ insurance contributions discounted these factors amounted to an annual total of €373bn (£303bn) across the 27 EU member states, or around 3% of the bloc’s entire yearly GDP. This breaks down as €750 per man, woman and child.

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Govt stats over-state the risks of cycling says new research (it’s pedestrians & young male drivers who have to worry)

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article by Tony Farrelly at road.cc

Cycling is not as risky as official statistics suggest says new research – in fact, for young  men it is safer than driving. In an odd coincidence, the research was published at the exact moment a controversial BBC documentary portraying cycling as a high risk mode of transport finished airing last night.

According to the research by a team from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL), official statistics consistently overstate the risks involved with cycling and underestimate those associated with walking and driving –  their most eye-catching findings is that cycling is a safer than driving for young men between 17-20 years old.

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Development Banks Invest Billions on Sustainable Transport

Monday, July 16th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article at www.slocat.net

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (20 June, 2012 )—The eight largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) announced today that they will invest US$175 billion to finance more sustainable transportation systems over the coming decade, boosting equitable economic development and protecting the environment and public health across the developing world. The pledge by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and six other MDBs was made at the start of United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (also known as Rio+20).

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World Vehicle Population Tops 1 Billion

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by John Sousanis – jsousanis@wardsauto.com
Wards Auto

The number of vehicles in operation worldwide surpassed the 1 billion-unit mark in 2010 for the first time ever. According to Ward’s research, which looked at government-reported registrations and historical vehicle-population trends, global registrations jumped from 980 million units in 2009 to 1.015 billion in 2010.  – By John Sousanis. WardsAuto.com, Aug 15, 2011 9:00 AM

The figures reflect the approximate number of cars, light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses registered worldwide, but that does not include off-road, heavy-duty vehicles.

The 3.6% rise in vehicle population was the largest percentage increase since 2000, while the 35.6 million year-to-year unit increase was the second-biggest increase in overall volume ever.

The market explosion in China played a major role in overall vehicle population growth in 2010, with registrations jumping 27.5%. Total vehicles in operation in the country climbed by more than 16.8 million units, to slightly more than 78 million, accounting for nearly half the year’s global increase.

The leap in registrations gave China the world’s second-largest vehicle population, pushing it ahead of Japan, with 73.9 million units, for the first time.

India’s vehicle population underwent the second-largest growth rate, up 8.9% to 20.8 million units, compared with 19.1 million in 2009.

Brazil experienced the second largest volume increase after China, with 2.5 million additional vehicle registrations in 2010.
China vehicle registrations jumped 27.5% last year, more than any other country.

U.S. registrations grew less than 1% last year, but the country’s 239.8 million units continued to constitute the largest vehicle population in the world.

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