Effective road and traffic management

Written evidence from Sustrans (ETM 46)

1. Introduction

1.1 Sustrans is the charity that’s enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more of the journeys we make every day. Our work makes it possible for people to choose healthier, cleaner and cheaper journeys, with better places and spaces to move through and live in.

1.2 We welcome the opportunity to respond to this Transport Committee Inquiry into Effective Road and Traffic Management. Our response will focus on the potential of modal shift as an effective intervention within a wider package of measures which can improve road and traffic management and result in the alleviation of congestion and its associated by-products. Although the potential for change is perhaps most evident within the urban context around short trips, there is a growing move towards trip substitution on longer journeys and it is widely accepted that the medium length journey should be reconsidered within the contexts of modal shift and the end to end

1.3 Financial costs to our wider economy of excess delays are widely agreed to be significant, while the cost-effectiveness of increasing people’s travel choices and implementing alternatives to car travel are known to be high with a number of additional resulting benefits.

1.4 Research undertaken by Sustrans in the three Sustainable Travel Towns (STTs) showed the significant potential that exists for changing travel behaviour – from car travel to travel by foot, by bike or by public transport. One of the most important overall findings was that on average nearly half of all car trips within the towns could be replaced by these modes using existing facilities.

1.5 Additionally, the great majority of traffic on motorways has an origin or a destination (and usually both) in the cities and other urban areas at each end, and en route. A significant proportion of the traffic, especially in the sections close to the urban areas, is not inter-urban: it is using the motorway as a section of the urban or suburban road network. There is also the impact of increased strategic traffic flow on the local roads which feed into the national network.

1.6 As the road network sees an increase in demand alongside a growth in the number and length of trips, a wider range of interventions and a focus on less traditional approaches through land-use planning and smarter choices will need to become mainstream policy approaches.

2. Congestion reduction benefits.

2.1 The Cabinet Office values excess delays to journeys caused by congestion at £10.9 billion per year in English urban areas alone.

2.2 Congestion is one of the main ways in which transport imposes wider costs to our economy through the delays to journeys. This additional delay can be significant, particularly in dense urban areas where heavy traffic and congestion are common occurrences.

2.3 In the Cycling Demonstration Towns, decongestion benefits were estimated by assuming that a proportion of new cycling journeys would have been made by car and applying a unit decongestion rate taken from WebTAG. The decongestion benefit of the programme over a ten year period was estimated at £7 million (2007 prices and values). [1] [1]

2.4 Reducing congestion would have the following broad benefits:

· Financial savings to the wider economy

· Improvements to people’s qualify of life.

· Decrease in pollution from motor vehicles.

· Improving the opportunity for public transport to travel without delay.

· Benefits to tourism as travel is made easier and destinations become more attractive.

3. Road Building

3.1 Sustrans believes that new road building and enlarging existing roads does not in general solve traffic problems and usually promotes car dependency. So long as more road space is made available for cars, then it is inevitable that more car trips will be made. Sustrans considers that re-allocation of road space away from the car, combined with improvements to public transport provision, active travel infrastructure, and information about how to change travel behaviour and the benefits this brings, is a more forward-thinking direction to take than building more roads.

3.2 Road building of any sort, including bypasses, should only be considered as a last resort, once a full range of other measures to solve traffic problems have been fully examined.

3.3 These measures include:

· Traffic restraint and demand management

· Measures to improve public transport

· ‘Smarter Choices’, such as Personalised Travel Plans, Workplace Travel Plans and Safe Routes to School

· Better land use planning

· Expansion of the National Cycle Network

3.4 When new bypass schemes do progress, investment in traffic calming, walking and cycling in the town centre should be planned, costed and endorsed before building starts. Without such planning and delivery for travel behaviour change, the bypassed streets will simple fill with traffic again over time. Planning for the provision of traffic-free walking and cycling routes near the alignment of any new roads, but not directly alongside them, should always be included as part of the overall plan.

3.5 Where local road-building is needed for new industrial sites and housing developments, the design should consider opportunities for prioritising non-car modes, and set speed limits of 20mph or less. [2]

4. Potential for Change: Short Trips

4.1 Our city centres have been transformed in recent years with waves of public and private sector investment that have made them far more attractive places to live, work and visit. That economic vibrancy needs to be maintained and enhanced and transport has a key role to play in providing the high quality commuter networks our cities need to thrive. At the same time there are other urban centres within our conurbations that are still in the process of redefinition and change – and which need good transport links to support these changes.

4.2 All this needs to be achieved within the context of ensuring that transport systems continue to make their contribution to carbon reduction, air quality improvements and to reducing social exclusion. [3]

4.3 Despite national trends towards increasing distances travelled, the majority of people’s day-to-day trips are local in nature. There is substantial potential to change travel behaviour for journeys under five miles, which comprise over two thirds of all journeys. In Britain more than half (55%) of all such journeys are made by car, compared with around a third (34%) on foot, seven per cent by bus and just two per cent by bike. [4] A quarter of journeys made by car are of less than two miles. Previous Sustrans work in partnership with GMPTE demonstrated similar trends: in Greater Manchester over half of car trips were under 3km in 2007. [5]

4.4 Research undertaken by Sustrans in the three Sustainable Travel Towns (STTs) showed the significant potential that exists for changing travel behaviour by addressing the subjective barriers that currently prevent people from making more trips on foot, by bike or by public transport. One of the most important overall findings was that on average nearly half of all car trips within the towns could be replaced by these modes using existing facilities. The research showed that people are swayed in their travel choice by severe misperceptions about the alternatives to the car (especially relating to relative travel times) and a lack of information. [6]

4.5 Overall, the research showed that while 35% of all people’s trips were already made by sustainable means, there was potential for a further 29% of trips to be shifted from car to walking, cycling or public transport without any infrastructure changes or restrictions on car use. As a result of the programme, car use fell substantially. Bus trips per person grew by 10% (to 22%) and the number of walking trips grew substantially, by 10%-13%, compared to a national decline in similar towns of 17%. The number of cycle trips grew substantially in all three towns, by 26%-30%. Despite this growth, the potential for change actually increased during the course of the programme, with the proportion of people who felt there were alternatives to car use rising from 47% to 54% from 2004 to 2008.

4.6 Research also showed that the greatest potential for changing travel behaviour lay in increasing cycling, providing a viable alternative to nearly one in three local car journeys. In the STTs in 2008, of those 54% of journeys for which cars were used solely for subjective reasons and for which alternatives were available, people said 41% were in principle replaceable by cycling, 21% by public transport use, and 15% by walking. Through effective measures to change travel behaviour, use of sustainable modes could be easily doubled in the short term without substantial capital investment. In the longer-term targeted investment in infrastructure – such as 20mph zones, cycling infrastructure and integration with public transport - could increase this further to nine out of ten journeys on foot, by bike or using public transport.

4.7 Although levels of cycling are low at around 2% of journeys in the UK (compared to over 27% in the Netherlands), the potential to change this is substantial. The last few years have seen a growing awareness among national and local policy makers of the need for a step change in cycling levels, and of the need for cycling to play a much bigger role in local transport. The last government’s Active Travel Strategy aimed for ‘cycling to be the preferred mode of local transport in England in the 21st Century’, [7] while the Chief Medical Officer’s last annual report called for ‘national targets … to increase travel by bicycle eightfold’. [8]

4.8 The potential for increasing cycling is greatest in the city regions. Attempts have been made to calculate the specific cycling potential of particular cities, based on factors such as the terrain, demographics and travel patterns. [9] Although this approach is overly simplistic (as it ignores variations in cycling between similar cities, and assumes that existing levels are innate), it nevertheless highlights the substantial underlying and unfulfilled potential which exists to increase cycling in the UK as a whole, and particularly in the city regions. Sustrans has called for a doubling of the number of journeys under five miles made by foot, bike and public transport to four out of five by 2020, a level of change which we believe is necessary and possible to achieve by 2020. [10]

5. Potential for Change: Medium Length Trips

5.1 Data from the Department for Transport (DfT) shows that the average distance travelled per trip is increasing.

5.2 Average trip length increased by 9 per cent from 6.4 miles in 1995/97 to 7.0 miles in 2008. Over the same period, the average time taken to make a trip increased by 11 per cent (from 20 to 23 minutes).

5.3 Between 1995/97 and 2008, the average length of a trip to work increased from 8.2 to 8.6 miles, and the average time taken increased from 24 to 28 minutes. The length of business trips increased from 19.0 to 20.8 miles on average, while the average time taken increased from 36 to 41 minutes. The average trip made for education purposes went up from 2.9 to 3.3 miles, and average time taken increased from 18 to 22 minutes.

5.4 Over the same period, the average shopping trip increased from 3.9 to 4.4 miles, although the average time taken increased only by 1.2 minutes, reflecting the increased use of cars instead of walking. The average trip length for leisure trips went up from 8.4 to 9.1 miles, and average time taken increased by 2 minutes. [11]

5.5 As the number and length of trips continues to grow and congestion increasingly dictates transport and wider policy direction [12] , a wider range of interventions will need to become the ‘norm’. Interventions focusing on smarter choices and land use planning will need to move from test-beds to mainstream transport policy.

6. Potential for Change: Long Distance Trips

6.1 The most recent comparison of delays caused by congestion showed that Britain has the worst congestion in Europe [13] .Almost a quarter of the most well used links in the UK suffered delays lasting an hour or more whilst such delays were suffered on less than one in ten links in Germany and France. Several countries had no links at all with delays of an hour or more.That study concluded that the UK's poor performance was a result of persistent under-investment 

6.2 Although not a perfect measure, it is possible to assess congestion by comparing distance travelled with road length. Even after allowing for the impact of differential levels of GDP, Britain's roads are among the most heavily used in Europe. Measured in terms of vehicle kilometres per kilometre of road, Britain has the second most intensely used roads in the EU, after Spain.

6.3 It is unsurprising, therefore, that British workers spend more time commuting each day than their European counterparts. This is despite having relatively high population densities, which ought to reduce distance to work and hence commuting time[. The average British worker spends 46 minutes each day commuting - 10 minutes more each day than their French counterpart, and double the time spent commuting by Italian workers.

6.4 A central cause of these high congestion levels is that British people make more use of cars than any other European country, despite having below average car ownership. Almost nine out of ten motorised journeys (car, bus, motorbike) in the UK are by car, compared with an EU average of just over eight out of ten

6.5 The creation of an Integrated Transport System (ITS) - linking modes and enabling each mode to use its strengths to deliver the most sustainable journey is key in achieving modal shift.

6.6 In order to achieve this, the transport industry needs to work cross-modally alongside with transport and local authorities to improve the quality of the ‘whole journey’ in response to customer needs. This requires both a continuing focus on cutomer experience, and also greater understanding of sustainable and acceptable ways of completing all legs of the journey.

6.7 Whilst integrated thinking for the physical journey is the prime consideration, the provision of information for planning a journey and signage and service information throughout a journey is of great importance. As well as improved inter-modal information, this is likely to require a greater range of partnerships or collaborations on issues.

6.8 ‘Hard’ issues such as better station and depot facilities and access need to be combined with ‘soft’ issues such as good journey information about interconnection, integrated timetables and through ticketing, to improve the overall travel experience. The industry needs to gain a better understanding of the experience of ‘the last mile’ after the station or depot. These issues are beginning to be addressed through initiatives such as Station Travel Plans and smart cards. Beyond that, it is likely to require partnership and collaboration with complementary providers (whether these relate to walking facilities, buses, metros, trams, bikes and bike schemes or ‘pay as you go’ car services).

7. Wider Benefits of Effective Traffic Management through Modal Shift

7.1 Effective implementation of traffic management has been proven to enable journeys to shift from car to more sustainable forms of travel with a number of resulting benefits:

· Employer benefits: Transport for London (TfL) has estimated that removing one car parking space could save up to £2,000 per year in high-density urban areas such as Central London. [14] Employers involved in the Bikes for Business scheme estimated the average savings to the organisation at £25-80 per month per bike. [15] There are also significant benefits to employers from promoting active travel, including reduced absenteeism, lower turnover rates, improved productivity and employee morale, and lower health care costs. [16] A 1% increase in regular commuting by bicycle would translate into savings of approximately 27 million Euro (£24m) per annum for employers. [17]

· Tourism benefits: The economic value of cycle tourism in the UK is 1.43 billion Euros. [18] Sustrans routes in South Wales generated an annual £75m expenditure and £9.9m pa net income to Wales, generating or securing 1399 jobs, 183 in tourism. [19] Users contributed £9.6 million in direct expenditure to the North East economy in 2006 and £13.4 million to the wider regional economy, supporting over 300 jobs. [20]

· Retail benefits: Evidence demonstrates that cyclists and walkers contribute more to retail vitality than motorists, although retailers consistently overestimate the importance of car users and parking to their businesses. A survey for TfL in Kingston found that those who arrived on foot or by bike spent more per week than those who arrived by car. [21]

· Climate benefits: In 2009, the potential carbon saving from the 407 million journeys on the National Cycle Network alone was worth £32 million (SPC = £52 per tonne CO2 equivalent). [22]

8. Making it Work: Case Study Examples

8.1 Leading on existing best practice and expertise is essential: A wide range of practical interventions exist with a proven potential to increase levels of cycling quickly and cost-effectively, and there is a substantial body of evidence on the most effective approaches. [23] Sustrans own approach is based on this evidence, and has shown that it is possible to overcome many of the barriers to active travel, for example through targeted environmental improvements and promoting these options to specific audiences such as school children, older people, employees and families at home. In order to optimise the benefits of individual measures, both hard and soft interventions are implemented as part of an integrated package, for example, promoting new infrastructure and locking in behaviour change through traffic and speed restraint by reallocating road space from private motorised transport to walking and cycling. [24]

8.2 Packages of behavioural and environmental measures are highly effective: Demonstration programmes have shown the effectiveness of integrated low cost travel behaviour change programmes, including both behavioural measures and environmental improvements, in increasing cycling. In the STTs, car driver trips per resident fell by 9% between 2004 and 2008, whilst cycle trips increased by 26-30% and walking by 10-13%. In the CDTs, cycling levels increased by 27% from 2005 to 2009. In Darlington, where the two approaches were combined, cycling levels increased by 117%, albeit from a very low base.

8.3 The evidence shows that measures to promote walking and cycling are also more effective when they are integrated as part of a wider programme to change travel behaviour, particularly for journeys of under five miles, and with public transport use for longer journeys. It appears likely that, once targeted behaviour change programmes have encouraged people to consider alternatives to the car, people are then more likely to use the most appropriate alternative mode for their journey. Environmental measures such as traffic restraint are also useful in locking in travel behaviour change.

8.4 Focusing on key destinations and trip generators delivers high levels of change: Facilities such as schools, workplaces and public transport interchanges are key to both individual journeys and wider travel habits, and the evidence suggests that focusing on journeys to and from such destinations is the most effective and efficient approach to changing travel behaviour and increasing levels of cycling. Sustrans’ own projects in schools and workplaces demonstrate the impact of this approach: for instance the Bike It project has typically doubled levels of regular cycling in over 800 schools. The benefits of this change for children’s levels of physical activity and lifelong travel habits are also clear. [25]

8.5 High profile projects can act as catalysts for change: Several cycle hire schemes are now in operation in the UK. The London cycle hire scheme is by far the largest, with 6,000 bikes available from 400 docking stations across London. Northern Rail’s provision of new cycling facilities at over 100 rail stations on all the routes into Leeds will be completed in full by June 2011. While evidence from UK programmes is still limited, findings from elsewhere in Europe suggest that high profile schemes (such as Velib in Paris) may play an important role in raising the profile of and changing attitudes to cycling, but their ability to deliver modal shift is limited to small areas, and may impact more on public transport than car use.

8.6 Sustrans’ high profile projects, including Connect 2 and the National Cycle Network, act as catalysts for communities and individuals to start cycling again and enable people to make local journeys to local facilities using alternatives to the car. A number of the schemes focus on improving traffic-free access to public transport links.

8.7 Including cycling provision in public transport investment benefits both modes: The evidence suggests that intermodality is a key factor in the attractiveness of public transport. In the Netherlands, all main train stations (67) have guarded facilities for storing bikes, and offer additional services like maintenance and repair. At smaller stations, lockers are provided for safe storage. 35% of all train clients use the bike to get to the station in the Netherlands, compared with 25% in Denmark, 9% in Sweden, but 35% in the south Swedish region of Malmö. [26]

8.8 In the West Midlands, only 2.5% of journeys to work are by cycling. To improve this, cycle and ride is being promoted for the local rail and metro network, and 30 suburban rail stations will get covered cycle parking, including lockers. To date, cycle parking is provided at all stops on the Midland Metro system and at some bus stations. Experience so far suggests that improving cycle access and parking facilities does increase cycle and ride.

9. Conclusion

9.1 The Cabinet Office values excess delays to journeys caused by congestion at £10.9 billion per year in English urban areas alone. In the CDT work, decongestion benefits were estimated by assuming that a proportion of new cycling journeys would have been made by car and applying a unit decongestion rate taken from WebTAG. The decongestion benefit of the programme over a ten year period was estimated at £7 million (2007 prices and values). [27]

9.2 Sustrans believes that new road building and enlarging existing roads does not in general solve traffic problems and usually promotes car dependency. So long as more road space is made available for cars, then it is inevitable that more car trips will be made. Sustrans considers that re-allocation of road space away from the car, combined with improvements to public transport provision, active travel infrastructure, and information about how to change travel behaviour and the benefits this brings, is a more forward-thinking direction to take than building more roads.

9.3 A wide range of practical interventions exist with a proven potential to increase levels of cycling quickly and cost-effectively, and there is a substantial body of evidence on the most effective approaches. [28] Sustrans own approach is based on this evidence, and has shown that it is possible to overcome many of the barriers to active travel, for example through targeted environmental improvements and promoting these options to specific audiences such as school children, older people, employees and families at home. In order to optimise the benefits of individual measures, both hard and soft interventions are implemented as part of an integrated package, for example, promoting new infrastructure and locking in behaviour change through traffic and speed restraint by reallocating road space from private motorised transport to walking and cycling. [29]

9.4 British workers spend more time commuting each day than their European counterparts. This is despite having relatively high population densities, which ought to reduce distance to work and hence commuting time[. The average British worker spends 46 minutes each day commuting - 10 minutes more each day than their French counterpart, and double the time spent commuting by Italian workers.

9.5 A central cause of these high congestion levels is that British people make more use of cars than any other European country, despite having below average car ownership. Almost nine out of ten motorised journeys (car, bus, motorbike) in the UK are by car, compared with an EU average of just over eight out of ten

9.6 The creation of an Integrated Transport System (ITS) - linking modes and enabling each mode to use its strengths to deliver the most sustainable journey is key in achieving modal shift.

9.7 In order to achieve this, the transport industry needs to work cross-modally alongside with transport and local authorities to improve the quality of the ‘whole journey’ in response to customer needs. This requires both a continuing focus on cutomer experience, and also greater understanding of sustainable and acceptable ways of completing all legs of the journey.

9.8 Whilst integrated thinking for the physical journey is the prime consideration, the provision of information for planning a journey and signage and service information throughout a journey is of great importance. As well as improved inter-modal information, this is likely to require a greater range of partnerships or collaborations on issues.

9.9 ‘Hard’ issues such as better station and depot facilities and access need to be combined with ‘soft’ issues such as good journey information about interconnection, integrated timetables and through ticketing, to improve the overall travel experience.

9.10 As the road network sees an increase in demand alongside a growth in the number and length of trips, a wider range of interventions and a focus on less traditional approaches through land-use planning and smarter choices will need to become mainstream policy approaches.

March 2011