Nice book but could do with a bit more advice and information on cycling !

The second edition of Chris Goodall's book, How to live a low-carbon life, is now available and has been described by the 10:10 campaign as one of "the most detailed guide to low-carbon living, helping you get to 10% and beyond."

There is certainly a lot of very useful information packed into the books' 300 pages.  But it would have been nice if the author could have included a little more detail about the role that increased levels of cycling could play in reducing transport sector CO2 emissions and helping (re)build human scale and healthier communities. 

In response to requests from readers of the first edition for more information on cycling, page 171 of the 2nd edition manages the following.... "After the first edition of this book was published I got several letters from people complaining about the lack of attention paid to cycling. Cycling enables a person to get around a town or city faster than in a car or a bus, and almost as fast as a train in some circumstances. A well-maintained cycle needs only about a third as much energy as a persn walking for every mile covered. So even though a cycling commuter will generally need to eat more to replace the energy lost when on a bike, it still makes excellent sense to ride everywhere you can. Of course, cycling is great for improving basic fitness and, I suspect, helps make people more mentally alert when at work. I've never met a lazy cyclist."

And thats it.... six whole sentences to describe one of the most efficient forms of transport available for commuter and utility journeys up to 5 miles - a journey distance that accounts for approximately 50% of all the journeys currently made by car in Greater Manchester. No references, no "where to go for more information" section, just six relatively short sentences.

So if you are looking for helpful information on how to encourage more people to cycle to have fun, save money, get around quicker, feel healthier, reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions we suggest you buy another book.

Meanwhile, if you cycle to work twice a month that would reduce your travel to work related CO2 emissions by 10% (assuming you don't already commute to work by bike !)

Happy cycling!