Better Transport

2 July: Boris Johnson is running out of time. Consultation on changes to the London Plan (PDF 46K) has just finished and he's still trying to please everyone, pedestrians, cyclists, bus passengers and motorists alike.

But signs about what will be in the plan itself and in the Mayor's transport strategy are ominous. Boris has not yet recognised that traffic volumes have to go down to tackle carbon emissions. Meanwhile he's considering relaxing restrictions on new roads and allowing more parking because he claims it will help town centres. In the autumn he'll have to reveal his real plans when the draft strategies are published.

Campaign for Better Transport has told the Mayor that carbon emissions from transport will have to be cut and that planning for traffic avoidance and reduction is essential to do this.

30 June: The Government published its "national plan" yesterday (Monday 29 June) setting out its plans for legislation and a range of commitments to tackle long-term problems. Building Britain's Future has welcome commitments to publishing a national cycle plan and an active travel strategy to be launched in the autumn. It also reaffirmed a commitment to improving further rail and buses' advantage over cars and planes when it comes to CO2 emissions, through plans for more electrification of the railways and incentives for low-carbon buses.

But the plan also sets out how the Government will continue to spend billions on roads and the Department for Transport is about to decide on regional funding bids which include almost £4bn for new roads. If Ministers accept these bids and continue to widen motorways, then cycling, public transport and active travel will continue to be undermined and starved of the funds needed.

We're callling on Lord Adonis to commit to building a low-carbon transport future for Britain and not to accept spending scarce public spending on yet more road building.

23 June: For the past couple of years, Campaign for Better Transport has been working with a range of other environmental organisations to make sure that changes to the planning system won't shut people out from decisions on new roads, airports and power stations.

A particular concern has been the creation of a new Infrasructure Planning Commission to speed up decisions on major infrastructure like power stations, airports and major roads. The Government have just consulted on some of the regulations for the new Commission, and on how local authorities and others should consult local communities on proposals for big infrastructure.

Our response sets out why we think the proposed guidance doesn't go far enough in giving a voice to local communities.

27 May: We're holding a workshop in June to help councils create good local transport plans. The workshop is the latest in a series of events over the year to help councils develop transport policies that result in better communities. The event is sponsored by the Department for Transport and features a speech by Paul Clark, the local transport minister.

We're holding these events in partnership with the Local Government Information Unit. Sign up today or find our more on the information unit's website. 

27 May: We’ve just told the London mayor how he could improve the suburbs.  With the London Cycling Campaign and Living Streets, we submitted evidence to the mayor’s Outer London Commission, which is considering the specific needs of the suburbs.

Our recommendations for creating sustainable suburbs (pdf) – which also apply outside London – include low-cost measures to make better use of the public transport network, emphasising the role of neighbourhood centres which people can reach on foot and by bike, and taking various steps to make walking and cycling more convenient than travel by car.

This commission is important. Most travel in London is done in outer London and most of it is done by car. If transport in London is going to change substantially, travel in outer London will have to change first. Let’s hope the commission understands that.

1 May: Boris Johnson may be celebrating a year in office but are Londoners celebrating too?

On the plus side, he has cancelled the Thames Gateway Road Bridge and opposed the expansion of Heathrow and is promoting a new bike hire scheme. But he has also withdrawn the £25 congestion charge for gas guzzlers, abolished the Western Extension of the Congestion Charge Zone and decided not to go ahead with the third phase of the Low Emission Zone.

The real test of whether Boris is serious about transport in London will be what he says in his transport strategy later this year. In the meantime, he has just set out his initial ideas for what should go in the London Plan, which sets the planning framework for London and how the city will develop over the next 20 years. My colleague Richard Bourn will be telling him that the plan needs to be effective at reducing the need to travel, and supporting alternatives to the car.

24 April: Ever since the concept of eco-towns was first announced by the Government, we’ve been concerned that they would become car-dependent commuter towns. We’ve just responded to the draft planning policy guidance which would do little to encourage or enable people to use their cars less.

As they’re currently envisaged, eco-towns will be islands of traffic-generating development in the middle of the countryside. Campaign for Better Transport and other groups have told the Government how to change its eco-town policy to create communities that are sustainable in transport as in other respects. In particular, we’re calling for eco-towns to be adjacent to, if not actually within, existing urban centres and for them to be connected to by rail and not just by bus. You can read what we’ve got to say on the guidance.

9 April: I just finished telling the Government how I thought it should help local councils to create good transport plans.

Local decisions matter. Although central Government determines much of our transport system, local councils are able do things like improve bus services, tackle traffic and make it easier for journeys to be made by walking and cycling.

The councils put together local transport plans and are about to create plans to cover 2011-2016. The Government gives the councils guidance – I’ve just responded to that draft guidance.

Our work will continue, of course. We’ve arranged meetings with the Department for Transport and local government about how to help local councils create strong sustainable transport plans -- particularly important because, with an increasing emphasis on localism, local councils will be given much more freedom to set their own priorities and plans for delivery. 

13 March: Today I told Gordon Brown that putting money into local transport projects would help the economy. 

Investing in local projects is a much better idea than his current one of investing in large-scale national projects, not least because local projects would provide green jobs quickly.

My comments were in a letter jointly written by us, Unison and PTEG. 

2 March: We all know of beauty spots that are blighted by traffic, noise and parked cars. The problem is, it's often very difficult to visit rural attractions without driving. A new network that we helped to initiate is setting out to change that. The Sustainable Leisure Travel Network will help local authorities to make it easier for people to visit special places by public transport, on foot or by bike. The network was born from the Car-Free Leisure Network which we used to run.

10 February: Last week the London Borough of Brent voted unanimously against a huge new commercial and residential development at Brent Cross (actually in Barnet) which we've been opposing.

It's estimated that the development would attract 29,000 cars a day, mostly to roads in Brent. Exactly the sort of scheme, you might think, where new public transport is needed. But the developer is planning only a small bus service. It has been left to the local Campaign for Better Transport group to come up with a detailed proposal for a new light rail project that could serve this and other major developments while mostly using existing, under-used rail lines. The group presented its proposal to Brent council last week. Councillors were impressed and have told us they'll take our idea up with Transport for London.

6 February: New Government statistics show that traffic levels have fallen for the first time in 30 years. I don't think this fall is a blip; around the country, more and more people are finding ways to live and work that don't require long drives in cars. As I said in a recent Times article about the fall, future economic growth is going to be much less dependent on car and air travel.

5 February: Today I went to a meeting of TravelWatch NorthWest in Preston. The meeting was well-attended, showing the strength of feeling about traffic and transport in the area. I briefed delegates from local rail and bus user groups on current Government transport policy and the opportunities for campaigning in the future, especially on fares. There was real interest in the work we've been doing on safeguarding land for rail reopenings, and in getting councils to use the new Local Transport Act powers on buses.

30 January: This month we responded to Boris Johnson's 'Way to Go', a precursor to the revision of the Mayor's Transport Strategy. Boris's views on transport are inconsistent. On the one hand he's keen on cycling and claims to favour 'the cleaner, greener and more efficient' modes; on the other he says that people can be tempted out of their cars merely by persuasion and plans to increase capacity for cars on the roads.

If Boris is serious about improving air quality and the public realm while reducing carbon emissions and improving alternatives to the car as he says, he will need to focus on reducing traffic. Otherwise he's simply facing both ways at once: recognising environmental imperatives while appealing to the more diehard motorist.

12 January 2009: We're helping a great community group in Cumbria to spread the word about its ground-breaking project to cut local traffic.

South Lakeland Action on Climate Change has been awarded funding to help villagers in Staveley to cut their car use. The group will survey villagers on their current travel habits, then offer individual, targeted advice to enable people to use public transport, walking and cycling instead of driving. They'll also run a series of fun events as well as free cycle training and cycle maintenance. Through their page on our website, they'll be sharing what they learn with other groups keen to launch similar projects.

This is the first time I've written our traffic blog, and I'm pleased to kick off with such a positive story. Usually, projects like this one in Staveley are run by local authorities, so I'm excited to see what happens when a community is given the money and empowered to solve its own traffic problems.

12 December: It should have been the opportunity of a lifetime: £3 billion to rejuvenate Manchester’s transport system. Instead the opponents have condemned the city to a nightmare of ever-increasing gridlock.

It’s very easy to say no to everything, but a lot harder to come up with sensible and innovative proposals. No one wants to be forced out of their cars, but neither do they want to live in a city dominated by traffic jams. Campaign groups often accuse the Government of being too timid, but when they put forward a real solution which would give people genuine travel choices they were rebuffed by a short-sighted campaign that failed to offer any solutions.

The TIF scheme may have been derailed, but Manchester’s traffic problems show no sign of going away. Now it’s time for those who opposed the scheme to come forward and show how they would tackle rising traffic and congestion; unless, that is, they are happy for the city to be condemned to a future of traffic fumes and gridlock.

15 November: We met with Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon recently to explain to him how his department could do a better job improving people’s lives.

We organised this meeting on behalf of several green groups. If you want a peek into what we discussed, you can read the letter we sent to him after the meeting.

24 November: BBC's Breakfast programme highlighted some research we published that shows the Government how to cut transport emissions by a quarter.

The policies would also boost the green economy, increase energy security, support healthier lifestyles and create stronger communities. We’ll be working hard to ensure the Government pays close attention to the research.

29 October: We’ve just published a report, the Masterplanning Checklist, setting out for the first time a comprehensive list, based on worldwide research, of planning measures needed to reduce car use. This covers location, density, local facilities, street design, public transport, parking, restraining car use and behaviour change programmes.

Unfortunately, as the report shows, there are signs that even in the so-called ‘eco-regions’ of the Thames Gateway areas of Kent and Essex this may not be the way that things are going. Almost three-quarters of transport expenditure there is still directed to road projects.

16 September: A recent announcement by the Government for £61 million of new rail freight grants is a step in the right direction but dwarfed by costs of new road-building.

The extra money, which will be rolled out over three years comes after years of concerted lobbying by us. Lasting ‘til 2014, the grants are a real, long-term boost for rail freight, which is great news because an average freight train can remove 50 HGVs from our roads, greatly reducing CO2 emissions.

All good news, but the recent announcment for further rail freight investment is put into perspective when you consider how much the Government is considering spending on expanding just one road scheme - the A14, estimated at £1.2 billion. In addition to the A14 many other roads are being considered for construction with a huge price tag that will generate extra traffic and further reveal the disproportionate levels of investment that go into our road network rather than our rail network. For a truly low carbon economy the Government must invest more into enabling rail freight to be a real choice and compete on an equal footing with road freight.

3 September: What makes traffic grow? One of the answers, as we’ve just discovered, is the amount of car parking in new developments. Over 62,000 additional parking spaces are planned for London, which will cause congestion chaos.

Our research found an average of almost 8,000 parking spaces in each of eight major London development areas, ensuring that they will act as powerful magnets that will attract car travel from miles around. Though the Olympics themselves will be car-free, at least for spectators, Stratford City next door will have an 11,000 space car park, half for a vast new shopping centre. If the object is to promote walking, cycling and public transport as governments claim, this isn’t the way to do it.

If the Mayor is serious about London leading the way in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, he must cut traffic in outer London. Last year we identified measures that boroughs must put in place to tackle traffic growth… and surprise, surprise a massive increase in parking provision isn’t on the list

24 July: The Government statement on ecotowns today at least starts to respond to our campaigning. We want to ensure that the ecotowns that do get built have good public transport and good local services and employment, so people can live there without relying on cars. What we need now is for fine words to be turned into action. We want to see firm plans for new and improved rail or light rail links for these towns, which can be implemented right from the start.

The Government statement

15 July: One in four people say that traffic has a serious impact on their quality of life. And people living in deprived areas are the worst affected – by pedestrian accidents, pollution, noise and busy roads cutting through their communities.

These findings come out of the Government's research into public attitudes to transport, released recently. We say this situation is simply unacceptable: our lives are seriously blighted by the Government’s failure to cut traffic.

The research also found that people are in favour of measures that cut the impact of traffic, including priority for pedestrians, cyclists and buses in towns and cities, and lower speed limits in residential areas. The good news is that local people all over the country are fighting to get these measures implemented in their neighbourhoods – and many of them are succeeding. We've collected some of their inspiring stories.

If you want to cut traffic in your neighbourhood, our local campaigning guides will take you step-by-step through the process.

9 June: The Manchester congestion charge will improve life in the city by cutting traffic and providing for some radical public transport improvements. We've consistently told Government that congestion charging will only work if alternatives to driving are greatly improved, and it seems they've listened: in Manchester, bus, tram and rail services will all get a huge boost.

If similarly well-thought-out schemes are introduced in other places it will be good news for communities, the environment, and traveller choice.