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Dutch design student George Barratt-Jones has a novel approach to keeping rail commuters warm while they wait on a draughty platform. He has built a pedal-powered knitting machine that can conjure up a scarf in five minutes. According to Barratt-Jones, "It gets you warm by moving, you are making something while you wait and in the end you...

As the government promises yet another consultation into pavement parking, we're left wondering whether this anti-social and dangerous behaviour will ever be dealt with. As well as being a menace for the disabled, elderly and vulnerable, pavement parking is a downright nuisance for everyone. On top of that, it damages footways and is a...

Outdoor air pollution is responsible for 8.8m early deaths a year - higher even than the figure for smoking. It means that humans are losing three years of their lives on average, German researchers have found. Here in Britain the figure is 1.5 years. The study measured PM2.5 - atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that has a diameter of less...

As the world's cities wake up to the fact that they need to dramatically reduce the amount of pollution, danger and congestion caused by cars, motor manufacturers are scrabbling to reinterpret the idea of personal transport. For its part, Citroën is launching the Ami - a quirky electric vehicle that will cost less to run than a mobile...

The Coronavirus global death toll has just topped 3,000. When it reaches 3,561 it will equal the number of people killed on the roads in a single day. Clearly Coronavirus is a serious threat that is entirely deserving of all efforts to bring it under control, but why do we show such apathy towards another source of danger that kills 1.3...

Zach Shiefflen used to sell Vespa scooters in New York for a living, but a desire to sell a more environmentally form of urban transport lead him to launch Civilized Cycles. Starting with a blank piece of paper, Zach set himself the following brief: "It had to be social (capable of carrying an adult pillion), because we don't live and...

Road safety experts and ministers from 130 countries have resolved to tackle road danger, air pollution and the climate emergency by adopting 20mph limits wherever vulnerable road users and vehicles mix. Last week's global road safety conference resulted in the adoption of a 'Stockholm Declaration' – a list of 18 resolutions linking road...

On especially cold mornings, why not swap your bidon for a freshly made coffee? We have a Commuter Javapress worth £30 to give away. The 15fl oz Commuter Javapress offers freshly pressed coffee in an easily transportable travel mug that fits in a standard water bottle cage. A sliding inner carafe presses the coffee to the bottom of the mug,...

The air in Britain is now so polluted that many building interiors are unable to offer sanctuary. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has carried out a wide-ranging survey of buildings that shows indoor air can be many times more polluted than external air. This is due to a...

Close passes by motorists are as much a part of cycling on British roads as potholes, but there can be only two possible explanations for why a motorist overtakes dangerously close to a cyclist – incompetence or malice. So how best to deal with this scourge of the roads? Two years ago, there were changes to the practical element of the...