We can't build cities around cars, even if they are electric

The solar revolution has come on so fast in recent years, along with the battery technology that enables electric vehicles, that not even the lead transport author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted it.

Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, Peter Newman, has been part of the transport and cities team for the IPCC for the last 12 years. For the last 5 he’s been the team’s lead author.

Professor Newman told the SwitchedOn podcast that in contrast to the grim scenarios of climate disaster the IPCC has painted for some years, he is now hopeful, even excited by what we can do to turn things around.

“The price of [solar, wind and batteries] has dropped to such an extent that solar and wind power is now the cheapest the world has ever seen, and all the other factors are lining up.”

“The IPCC did not see this happening so quickly…. once the Paris Agreement was set in place, we realised that the changes were coming as much from the world of finance, business and industry, and from ordinary households and small businesses, who were getting on and doing this change much quicker than anything governments were trying to help us with.”

Transport accounts for about a fifth of the world’s carbon emissions, and except for aviation and shipping which he says will need hydrogen-based fuels, Newman says that all other forms of transport can be electrified.

However, he cautions that the transport transition shouldn’t only be about swapping our internal combustion cars for electric versions – that will just perpetuate the social and equity issues already endemic in our car-dependent towns and cities.

“We can't make cities built around a car even if they're electric. We will ruin our cities. We have to have places that are people oriented and walkable, with lots of electric bikes and electric micro mobility in general.”

“The problem is not the car or the automobile … it is automobile dependence. We should not have to depend on a car for our daily and local or regional transport needs.”

Newman points to some of the large Asian cities that are now embracing electric mobility options that provide faster transport at a microlevel.

Scooters, two wheelers, motorbikes, skateboards, three wheelers, etc provide opportunities to move around locally, to transport people to train and bus stations quickly, or even get across town.

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“If you go to China, every motorbike, every electric scooter, every treadly, as well as the three wheelers, the rickshaws are all electric now, and they work very much better. Electric buses are now very dominant right through China and India.”

However, Newman says many cities are not ready for micro-mobility options, which need safe spaces to avoid accidents, and are creating challenges for cities that have embraced them prematurely.

“There are cities like Barcelona filled with these electric scooters, and that it is ruining the walkability of these gorgeous streets. So it's not solved, but it's not beyond us. It isn't as if we can't solve that one.”

Along with micro-mobility options, Newman says electrification can help us do public transport better, and that process needs to be occurring at the same time as the electrification of private transport.

Newman’s big hope for electric public transport is the trackless tram, what he calls a mid-tier transit system that’s neither a train nor a bus. It uses technologies developed from high-speed rail such as steering, autonomous driving, and the capacity for a very steady ride, and transfers them into a bus design that doesn’t need tracks.

“This bus is only a bus because it has rubber wheels. Everything else in it is electric and smart, and rail like.”

The city of Perth has been chosen to trial a trackless tram now being built in China, on a route from Glendalough Train Station to Scarborough Beach. The first vehicle will arrive in Australia in October.

It’s not just the trackless tram as a mode of transport that interests Newman though. It’s the potential to establish a net-zero corridor along the route of the tram which could bring about a whole lot of beneficial outcomes in terms of medium density development. This could include micro grids around each station, charging facilities for cars and micro mobility, as well as aged housing needs, open space, community facilities, etc.

“You bring in a trackless tram down a corridor and in the process of getting that trackless train, you work with the community, with the local government and with developers to show where you can develop around stations along that corridor.”

Newman calls the process ‘Greening the Greyfields’ and he’s convinced it will make our cities better and more liveable.

Other transit vehicles like trams, buses and trains, as well as trucks, can also play a major part in the transport transition. Putting solar on all the roofs of recharging depots for instance, will help support the grid and the growing electricity demand.

“Warehouses and big businesses that have massive amounts of roof space, need to see this is an incredible investment opportunity. They can be part of this solution to enabling the grid to work and every one of their vehicles in the future will need a place to recharge.”

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You can hear the full interview with Peter Newman on the SwitchedOn Australia podcast here.