“However well we think we are doing, we aren’t doing well enough”. This quote from Stephen Elderkin captures for me the essence of our Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) national conference yesterday focused on ‘Roads to Net Zero’.

Given the political headwinds “don’t shit in your own nest” (a latin phrase Steve assured us) hit the mark too (underlined by an international space station costing $150bn which “if this was a house on earth, it would have been condemned”).

We were at capacity and there was a real buzz. Sue Percy conversed with Lilian Greenwood at the start. We welcomed the Minister’s confession: “I’m a bit of a transport nerd”. She’s never understood why the transport brief for a politician is a stepping stone when transport is so integral to people’s lives. She said “I’m interested, I’m listening”; I believed her. And having had this experience last week, when she said “travelling along on a bus bouncing through potholes – not a great experience”, it resonated.

Louis Worthington from the Climate Change Committee gave us a reminder of the disciplined approach they are helping to provide when it comes to pursuing a legally binding commitment to Net Zero. He said electric cars are fast approaching the tipping point where in terms of price and performance they have parity with petrol and diesel cars.

We had a four nations view on the policymaking approach to decarbonising transport with excellent input from Emma Ward, Andy Falleyn, David Porter and Fiona Brown.

Anne Shaw, OBE FCIHT informed us that the West Midlands chose last Friday to become the sixth combined authority to pursue bus franchising in the face of a failing bus market. Meanwhile Ann Carruthers spoke passionately and candidly about the progress and challenges of the local roads to net zero.

Our audience and presenters (thanks Rupert Clubb) reminded us of the difficulties of a political environment nationally and globally that is facing worrying headwinds in terms of Net Zero. Back to that nest quote.

Matt Tompsett opened our eyes to the pervasiveness of microplastics reminding us that plastic can be a wonder product but not when it is ‘single use’ (which seemed to me to have parallels to a car and ‘single occupancy use’). He also gave a shout out for seagrass that is x40 more effective than trees at removing CO2.

Donna James confessed “I’m an asphalt nerd” and opened our minds to the prospect of cashew nut shells and binders nature can produce that offer a new lower carbon outlook for road surfacing.

Our session with Robert Singleton MRTPI, MCIHT, Kim Yates and Steve Gooding explored ‘how to deliver growth with decarbonisation?’ It is possible. But surely zero-emission traffic jams can’t be the answer. The future is ours to shape, so long as we don’t drill baby drill.

Did the audience think we’re doing enough on the roads to net zero? An emphatic ‘no’. We’re doing a lot but doubling down in this challenging territory is now key.

💚 💙 🤘