Highways Voices 7 June - Richard Hammond and Chris Boardman on the future of the car

“People… buy a new football strip every six months because of the team they support," says motoring journalist Richard Hammond on this week's Highways Voices, "Or a new pair of trainers made on the other side of the world by somebody else’s children out of fossil fuels-derived oil-derived materials and then shipped around the world where you’ll use them for six months before putting them in landfill where they’ll sit for 100 years."

Speaking at a Rees Jeffreys Road Fund debate on the future of the car in society, the Grand Tour presenter gives a passionate defence of the private car on this week's podcast as he tells host Paul Hutton that the car will have to be with us, "because it's what it does for us, and what it's done, and what it continues to do is too important for it not to be. It's shaped our world. It won't go away, it will change, but it will be here."

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The debate held at the RAC in London also featured Active Travel England Commissioner Chris Boardman, who agreed the car will have to continue to be a key part of the transport mix because it's so useful. "Its utility is the problem, because it is so useful and so effective, the Olympic Gold Medallist, “The question I asked before, what happens if we don’t reduce car use? Every bit of data I’ve seen from both nationally and regionally [shows] we have to drive 30% less, and electrify, and shrink everything else. And that’s the only way you’re going to meet your carbon emissions targets. The only way to do that equitably and fairly is to give people an attractive choice and that’s what I’m in the business of.”

The Rees Jeffreys Road Fund exists to foster improvements in the engineering, management, design and use of roads to deliver safer, more environmentally sensitive, more aesthetically pleasing and more enjoyable outcomes. It does this by funding projects, research and events; and awarding bursaries to individuals pursuing relevant professional qualifications, and on the podcast you'll also hear from three of those indivuals.

On top of that, we have news of a partnership between Highways News and the leading conference and exhibition Highways UK, news from our partners LCRIG, ADEPT, the Transport Technology Forum and ITS UK, and why VESOS Solutions win "Adrian's Accolade" this week.