Miles in car: -179 (having to use the car to commute)Miles being driven: 0
Miles by train: +240
Miles by bike: 0
Miles by coach/bus: 0
Miles on foot: +52
Total: +113 (running total -306)

It's a small world. We think nothing of eating lamb or apples from the other side of the world or jetting across a quarter of it for a weekend.

The same goes with commuting. People don't like being stuck in traffic jams but they still do it, preferring to live wherever they want and rely on their cars or a train to take them to work.

We are now a very mobile nation and gone are the days where the majority of the population would grow up, work and retire within a few miles of where they were born.

When the M62 was built, it opened up a vast area of West Yorkshire to those who suddenly found they could live in a picturesque town or village on the moors or dales and still work in Manchester - not only increasing emissions but raising property prices astronomically and increasing development.

As well as allowing a boom in food miles, just-in-time deliveries and the destruction of many industries and shops because of regional economics, motorways meant commuting boomed to London levels but without that city's train and underground infrastructure. Now the motorways are jammed every morning and evening and the CO2 that adds to climate change belches out of exhaust pipes.

Travelling to work by train or bus is a great way to cut down on your car use but those systems are struggling to cope now, let alone if hundreds of drivers made the switch. What we need to do is encourage people to live closer to their work, move their work closer to them and change our working hours considerably.

My situation is typical. Living in Skipton to be close to my girlfriend and to be in a wonderful part of the world means I choose to commute to Bradford to the T&A - although my shifts mean I miss the rush hours and get off-peak train fares.

But my job means occasional in-at-the-crack-of-dawn days and Sunday and Bank Holiday working and then, as last week, I have to drive because there aren't the trains to get me in or back home.

If we are to radically change our working practices and ease the commuting burden then improved rail and bus services are vital with them running earlier in the day and later into the night, Sundays and Bank Holidays too.

People will have to make hard choices too about their work - what they do, how they do it and where. Last week's National Work from Home Day is a great example, showing how many jobs could be done away from an office with all the benefits of quality of life and CO2 reduction that this brings.

With the spread of broadband, employers and employees will have the confidence to plan for a future when saving carbon will be vital, after all the Climate Change Bill will put an onus on all of us to cut CO2 production by 60 or 70 per cent.