Memorandum by Sustrans (OB 25)
1. Sustrans is a civil engineering charity,
which works to change the environment so that sustainable, physically
active ways of travelling are more accessible. Sustrans has over
25 years experience in creating environments for physical activity,
such as the National Cycle Network programme, and changing the
transport culture to make it possible, as with Safe Routes to
Schools (SRS).
2. Our Active Travel programme was established
in 2001 to collaborate with the health sector. We work with the
Department of Health, NHS Estates, the Department for Transport,
NHS trusts and other bodies to encourage and assist the development
of travel plans within the NHS. This programme of work is in line
with the Department's policies and strategies including the National
Service Framework on Coronary Heart Disease. Active Travel also
researches the health impact of measures to facilitate active
forms of travel, promotes cycling and walking as health enhancing
physical activity, and is now addressing the role of the NHS in
accessibility and social inclusion.
3. Sustrans believes that more of the money
spent on transport, and much more of that spent treating the consequences
of an insufficiently active lifestyle, including obesity, should
go to practical projects encouraging people to incorporate physical
activity into their daily routine—by travelling actively.
4. Sustrans' flagship project, the National
Cycle Network, currently provides over 7,000 miles of cycling
and walking routes throughout the UK. By 2005 this will be extended
to 10,000 miles. The creation of the Network has considerably
increased opportunities for people to make journeys by bike and
on foot, and as with other long-distance transport networks, the
majority of its usage is local. During 2001 the Network carried
60 million journeys. 2002 data soon to be released will show usage
to have risen to over 95 million journeys[17].
5. Safe Routes to Schools was originated
by Sustrans in the 1980s, at which time it was entirely orthodox
for a school to ban cycling and discourage walking for the school
journey. All English highway authorities now have a SRS component
in their Local Transport Plan and the Department for Transport
has established the travel plan co-ordinators, bursary scheme.
We are currently supporting 841 schools implementing SRS schemes
throughout the UK, as well as a further 738 who have requested
information on how to begin the process of implementation. Children
who travel actively to school are also more active than their
car-borne peers throughout the rest of the day, and Sustrans believes
that both healthy and unhealthy travel patterns can be established
for adult life. The health implications of school travel are clearly
significant.
6. A Home Zone is a street or group of streets
designed and laid out so that car users don't have priority over
other users, with cars travelling at little more than walking
pace. The design enables people to use the streets as social space,
meaning that children can play outside, neighbours can socialise
and the local community can take control over its own environment.
Sustrans is working in partnership with the Children's Play Council
and Transport 2000 to encourage the development of Home Zones
in the UK, both in existing communities and in new housing developments.
7. Sustrans managed the UK pilots of TravelSmart,
individualised travel marketing which helps to overcome real and
perceived impediments to cycling, walking and public transport,
in partnership with Socialdata GmbH. Results from the first two
pilots, in Gloucester and Frome, showed car trips reduced by around
9% with three quarters of these journeys being substituted by
walking and cycling. This shift from short car journeys to walking
could make a significant contribution to health promotion objectives[18].
8. Sustrans believes that obesity is a symptom
of the way we have planned our physical environment and transport
system to encourage sedentary lifestyles. Significant benefits
to health could be achieved by interventions that encourage people
to participate regularly in physical activity—especially
in their travel choices. We welcome this inquiry and would like
to see the closest integration of policy and strategy on obesity
with those on social inclusion, accessibility and sustainable
development. Not only is it possible, in our view, to achieve
gains across this range of policy objectives; it is important
to recognise that only by combining the efforts of people in sectors
such as planning, development and transport with those of the
health sector can the problem of obesity be effectively addressed.
9. We have not commented on issues relating
to the health implications of obesity, the trends in obesity or
the cause in the rise of obesity in recent decades as this is
not our area of expertise. Our response is to what can be done
about the problem we now face.
10. In the forthcoming inquiry, Sustrans
would like to see emphasis on environmental changes to encourage
and facilitate active forms of travel, such as additional and
improved routes for cycling and walking, for leisure, journeys
to work, school, shops and other services. The National Cycle
Network is, like other long-distance transport routes, primarily
used for local trips. It considerably increased opportunities
for people to make journeys by bicycle and on foot. Network routes
make a significant contribution to users' levels of physical activity.
In a study carried as part of Sustrans' user monitoring programme,
70% of users stated that the presence of the route had helped
them to increase their level of physical activity. During 2001
the Network carried 60 million journeys. 2002 data soon to be
released will show usage to have risen to over 95 million journeys17.
11. The removal of barriers to active travel,
such as the location of services in out-of-town sites is equally
important. People need access to key services including healthcare,
shops, work, schools and social activities[19].
The location of services where access is only easy by car promotes
a sedentary lifestyle and helps to "lock in" car dependence.
This also promotes social exclusion.
12. It is important in our view to deliver
on the targets in the National Cycling Strategy, to increase cycling
levels in the UK. Cycling in the UK has been in decline in recent
years. Levels of cycling in comparable European countries are
significantly higher than in the UK whilst levels of obesity are
relatively lower[20][21].
Our own figures show that high quality provision can reverse this
trend. The graph overleaf (fig 1) illustrates that there may be
a causal relationship between cycling levels and obesity.
13. There are currently a number of incentives
to unnecessary use of sedentary forms of travel, such as financial
support for car use, free car parking etc. It is still, unfortunately,
quite conventional for a hospital or school to provide free or
subsidised car parking for staff or other visitors, while offering
no comparable benefit to people who travel actively. The costs
of this to the business may not be identified, no management decision
may ever have been taken, and no one may have considered how inequitable
or unhealthy is the situation. This problem needs to be addressed.
14. More stringent traffic law enforcement
is long overdue. Illegal and inappropriate speed, drink driving
and the use of mobile phones, pavement parking and a still widespread
disregard of vulnerable road users combine to dissuade all but
the hardiest from cycling, in particular[22].
15. Measures are needed to make the street
environment safer and more pleasant for pedestrians and cyclists
and a place for children to play. The development of Home Zones
in residential areas and other such urban redesign should be made
a priority. The perception of traffic risk is a major impediment
to cycling, in particular, for many people, and our failure as
a society to reduce the incidence of death and injury among cyclists
and pedestrians suggests that the individual risk assessment is
well founded. Not only the danger, but also the noise and hostile
atmosphere engendered by fast-moving traffic discourage physical
activity by inhibiting cycling and walking in both urban and rural
areas22.
16. A good example (of cycling and walking)
should be set by leaders in politics, the health sector and other
areas.
17. Active, on-going promotion is needed
of healthy and active behaviour, using promotional and media campaigns
and individualised marketing techniques.
18. Intensive and transparent health impact
assessment should be demanded on all transport project proposals
and policies. All new projects should demonstrate real health
benefits, taking into account not only the pollution, traffic
danger etc they will cause but also their impact on the habits
and lifestyle of affected people, both travellers and neighbours.
19. Sustrans wishes the committee well in
its deliberations and would be happy to provide any additional
information required, in whatever form.
17 National Cycle Network Route Usage. Sustrans,
2002. Back
18
TravelSmart: Changing the way we travel. Sustrans, 2002. Back
19
Making the Connection: Final Report on Transport and Social
Exclusion, Social Exclusion Unit, 2003. Back
20
Obesity in Europe: The Case for Action; IOTF and EASO,
2002. Back
21
Department for Transport: National Cycling Strategy. DfT,
1996. Back
22
House of Commons Transport, Local Government and the Regions Committee:
Ninth Report of Session 2001-02, Vol. 1, on Road Traffic Speed. Back
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