In the time that I was in London, I found that the city was doing a lot to become environmentally friendly when it came to public transport. I found that public transport was most often closely located to wherever I was going. Many of the busses I rode on were either electric or had ecofriendly features installed, like shutting off when stopped. According to the Mayor of London, all busses in London will be zero emissions by 2037 or sooner. However, if the city expects to get more people using public transport, they need to make it less crowded and more accessible. According to The Guardian, as of 2017, only 50 of 270 tube stations of fully accessible to people with disabilities. Another problem with public transport is the fact that could get very expensive for a family to travel one, and most likely is unaffordable for lower-income families who are less likely to have a vehicle. Of course, there are even more sustainable options for getting somewhere than taking public transport, and that is walking or cycling.

I found that walking in London was very easy for me to do. There were always sidewalks and paths that I felt safe enough walking on alone. Compared to before I was in London I walked much more than I normally did in Iowa. If I was going to catch a train at Barnes, I usually skipped the bus and walked to the station. I also found that I would much rather take my time walking through Richmond Park to get to Richmond than taking the 493. However, I could see it being very difficult for someone with a disability to walk around London. Although there are sidewalks, they are very rough and sometimes narrow, which could cause trouble for someone who uses a wheelchair or who has poor balance.

As for cycling, I never did get time to ride a bike in London; however, I found it very intimidating. Once out of the center of London, there seem to be very few bike lanes available. This leaves cyclists riding on the road with cars that drive very aggressively. Of course, London has been adding more bike lanes; however, many of the streets are already very narrow and if a lane were to be added, it would cause even more congestion to the roadways.

One point that I have yet to mention is the air quality in London that must clearly be affected by the vehicles on the roads. During my time in London, I never noticed the city to be smoggy. I believe this may have to do with the fact that most vehicles I saw on the roads were compact. Whereas, in Iowa, a lot of people drive large SUVs or pickups. I believe that these cars release less emissions than larger cars and are therefore reducing the possibility of smog in London.

In all, I think that London is providing many sustainable transport options and is doing a much better job of being sustainable than cities in Iowa. However, if the city can’t find a way to add more government funding into public transport to fix problems such as traveler’s cost and accessibility, they will not see the reduction in personal transportation. Which, personal transportation is a large amount of transportation emissions being released.

Van Mead, N. Symons, H. & Adzkia, A. (2017, September 21). Access denied: wheelchair metro maps versus everyone else’s. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/sep/21/access-denied-disabled-metro-maps-versus-everyone-elses