Environment Audit CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Local Government Technical Advisers Group, the Planning Officers Society and the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation
1. Summary
1.1 The concept of transport deprivation or difficulty causing people to have restricted access to a wide range of activities is not new. Studies since the 1970s have shown that people without access to a car could reach fewer activities and services. The move to edge of town locations has made access disproportionately more difficult for people without a car.
1.2 For nearly two decades planning policies have aimed to curtail edge-of-town and out-of-town developments, but these developments have continued. An indication of the extent to which local services and facilities have been reduced is that since 1985 the number of journeys by all modes of transport that are shorter than 1 mile has halved from 335 to 187 per person per year.
1.3 The main anticipated policy that would affect the provision and cost of local bus services is the reduction in revenue support for tendered services. To date, central government spending on local public transport in real terms has been relatively flat and local government spending increased between 2005–06 and 2008–09. However, since 2009/10 there are reports of the kind of reductions in bus services that would be expected if funding was being cut.
1.4 Older people are disproportionately likely to live in low-density areas where they are more likely to be car dependent. The proportion of people of retirement age falls from over 30% in some low-density areas to about 10% in high-density inner city areas. As people age, past seventy they reduce the amount they drive and progressively give up driving licences, which causes difficulties accessing services.
1.5 The paper concludes with a number of suggested recommendations in the following areas:
Access difficulties and the consequential risk of social exclusion caused at least as much by land-use planning as by the transport system.
Design layouts for new development to make travel by sustainable means easier and more convenient than by car.
Additional incentives to encourage the reuse of previously-developed sites in sustainable locations.
Government policies and decisions on the provision and management of public services.
2. Introduction
2.1 The concept of transport deprivation or difficulty causing people to have restricted access to a wide range of activities, including public services, is not new. In the 1970s and early 1980s Transport and Road Research Laboratory and Policy Studies Institute each published a number of studies which showed how transport difficulties, and particularly lack of access to a car, affected access to a range of activities. These included employment, education, health care and recreation (see bibliography). The studies also examined particular issues for children and for elderly people. All these studies showed that people without access to a car could reach a smaller number of opportunities for activities and services. They also showed that the move to edge of town locations for activities and services, such as shopping, leisure and offices, as well as secondary schools, hospitals and even town halls, has made access disproportionately more difficult for people who did not have a car available.
2.2 Since the 1980s, car ownership has increased, as has the holding of car driving licences (see Figures 1 and 2 from National Travel Survey, an invaluable source of information on topics such as this). These will be discussed later.
2.3 It is necessary to distinguish between access, which is the ability to reach and make use of a service or facility, and mobility, which is the ability to move. They are inter-related, but separate concepts. Increasing mobility, as by becoming a car driver, enables a person to reach more opportunities. It will almost certainly lead to the person travelling further, in search of greater choice and higher quality. Access may not require physical movement, as in the case of shopping on-line, but in general requires a person to travel to the location of the service or facility. Improved mobility makes access easier, but better locations for services and facilities improves access without requiring better mobility. Operational decisions on aspects such as opening times, car parks and prices, and the behaviour of staff towards clients or customers, can affect access.
2.4 Policies that affect access to services, particularly for those without a car, are those which influence the distribution and location of activities and services, including housing, and those which affect the provision and cost of local bus services. While other forms of public transport are important in some areas, in 2010–11 local buses in Britain carried 5,160 million passenger journeys compared with 1,107 million by London Underground and 210 million by light rail and tram systems. In addition, the local bus route network is much denser than the light rail network and serves many more destinations.
2.5 The Social Exclusion Unit study “Making the Connections” (Social Exclusion Unit 2003) concluded that problems with transport provision and the location of services can reinforce social exclusion. These problems prevent people from accessing key local services or activities, such as jobs, learning, healthcare, food shopping or leisure. The effects of road traffic also disproportionately impact on socially excluded areas and individuals through pedestrian accidents, air pollution, noise and the effect on local communities of busy roads cutting through residential areas.
2.6 The study commented that historically, nobody has been responsible for ensuring that people can get to key services and employment sites. As a result, services have been developed with insufficient attention to accessibility. Before 2000, the social costs of poor transport were not given any real weight in transport project appraisal. Land-use planning policies in the 1980s and early 1990s allowed more dispersed patterns of development. People with access to a car did not find this difficult, but people’s travel needs became more complex and public transport did not adapt. Thus people without access to a car were disproportionately adversely affected.
3. Policies that Affect Access
3.1 Location policies
3.1.1 For nearly two decades planning policies have sought to encourage more sustainable patterns of development and the location of activities and services in town centres and at hubs served by public transport by encouraging:
the reuse of previously-developed land, especially for new housing;
locating developments that generate a large number of trips in places, such as town centres and close to public transport, that encourage access on foot, by bicycle and by public transport, rather than by car; and
local centres as the focus for the provision of local services for maintaining or creating more sustainable neighbourhoods or walkable communities.
3.1.2 These policies were set out in the following Planning Policy Guidance notes, some of which have been superceded by Planning Policy Statements:
Planning Policy Guidance 13 Transport;
PPG 6 Town centres, followed by PPS6: Planning for Town Centres and then PPS4: Planning for Economic Development;
PPG 3 Housing (and then Planning Policy Statement 3);
PPG1/PPS1 which sets out the general principles for planning for sustainable development.; and
PPG 12 (then PPS12) Development Plans which advise local planning authorities on how to draw up their local plans.
3.1.3 In March 2012, all of these documents were replaced by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This new document, in seeking to simplify and shorten national policy, does not spell out the principles as clearly or fully as the original planning policy documents, and may lead developers to deduce that policy has changed. It has not, but it is no longer clearly set out, and it is now even more important than before that local plans spell out the principles and policies they adopt for pursuing more sustainable patterns of development and guiding the location of development. In doing so, local authorities, in the absence of further guidance, will need to draw upon advice in the documents that the NPPF has replaced, such as PPG13.
3.1.4 Despite policy aiming to curtail edge-of-town and out-of-town developments, these have continued. There are several main reasons for this. Major shopping developments and business parks seek sites with space for car parking and relatively low land cost. Activities such as hospitals, secondary schools and local authority offices often need larger single sites than are usually available in town centres. Both health authorities and education authorities can fund the redevelopment by selling an original central site for development, whilst off-loading both the increased cost and difficulty of access onto their clients. These pressures have substantially reduced the effects of central government planning policies to support central locations. Indeed other central as well as local government strategies for other services including transport have not been wholly supportive of the planning policies.
3.1.5 An indication of the extent to which local services and facilities have been reduced is the number of journeys people make that are shorter than one mile (Figure 3). Since 1985 the number of journeys by all modes of transport that are shorter than one mile has halved from 335 to 187 per person per year. This shows clearly that people now have to travel further to reach a variety of facilities, services and activities. Figure 4 shows the trends in the average lengths of trips by purpose.
3.2 Policies for public transport
3.2.1 The main anticipated policy that would affect the provision and cost of local bus services is the reduction in revenue support for tendered services. This would lead to routes being cut short, operating hours reduced (fewer or no evening and weekend services) and fare increases. To date, central government spending on local public transport in real terms has been relatively flat and local government spending has increased between 2005–06 and 2008–09 though dropping slightly in 2009–10 (Table 1). Table 1 also shows public spending on the Bus Service Operators Grant and concessionary fares. However, since 2009–10 there are reports of the kind of reductions in bus services that would be expected if funding was being cut.
Table 1
REVENUE SUPPORT FOR LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN REAL TERMS
£ million 2010 prices
|
Year |
Central government |
Local government |
Bus Service |
Concessionary |
|
2005–06 |
517 |
1,691 |
505 |
539 |
|
2006–07 |
780 |
1,781 |
489 |
571 |
|
2007–08 |
830 |
1,891 |
520 |
600 |
|
2008–09 |
730 |
2,301 |
520 |
650 |
|
2009–10 |
767 |
2,139 |
541 |
637 |
Source: Transport Statistics Great Britain 2011 Table tsgb0117
4. What the Travel Patterns tell us
4.1 The reduction in the number of journeys shorter than 1 mile shows clearly that people are choosing to satisfy fewer of their requirements at local facilities. This is largely due to the move to larger facilities—whether for shopping, leisure, education or health—which have been developed in out-of-centre locations that are considerably less well served by public transport. As a result of this increasing concentration of larger facilities in out-of-centre locations, there are fewer local facilities available within a 1 mile radius. Increasing mobility by car has enabled this move.
4.2 This is the main reason for the reduction in the number of walk trips people make. Since walking is the mode of transport available to almost everybody regardless of income, this is a significant aspect of the process by which transport difficulties limit access to opportunities. For people who do not have a car available, if a journey is much longer than 1 mile it cannot reasonably be made on foot and travel by public transport, almost always a local bus, becomes necessary.
4.3 If a required destination, whether a hospital, school, shopping centre or leisure complex, is at the edge of town, the only bus route that will serve it is the radial one from the town centre to the edge-of-town location. Anyone who does not live on that radial will have to travel to the town centre and then out to the edge-of-town location, using two buses. This will greatly increase travel time and cost, and may well mean that travel is not possible in the evening or at the weekend. This has implications for low-paid staff who are required to work shifts, evenings or weekends.
4.4 Figure 4 shows that the average journey length for a variety of purposes have all been increasing, except for journeys to entertainment since 1990. This trend in increasing journey length is caused by two factors. One is that as more people get cars they are choosing to travel further, but take no longer than they would by bus, to increase the number of opportunities they can reach. This is to obtain greater choice and better quality. But it may also indicate that there are fewer opportunities nearby that can be reached by a shorter journey. In the case of shopping, it could reflect the closing of local and town centre shops as well as the wider range of goods and lower prices offered by many out-of-town supermarkets. The same has happened with cinemas.
4.5 In Figure 4, the category “Personal business” includes visits to medical facilities as well as visits to libraries, hair dressers, lawyers etc. It is noticeable how much the length of these journeys has increased and is still increasing.
5. What Car Availability tells us
5.1 Car availability is increasing for women, but has reached a plateau for men. Sixty-one per cent of men and 50% of women aged 17 and over are main car drivers in a car-owning household. There are still more women than men living in households without a car and non-drivers in a household with a car.
5.2 The reduction in the percentage of teenage men who hold a full car driving licence that started in 1992 is a profound change. It has now reduced licence holding by men in their 20s from 84% in 1993 to 66% in 2010, and is beginning to reduce holding by men in their 30s. A similar change is occurring in USA, where more young women than young men now hold driving licences. This change is probably the cause of the reduction in the percentage of men who are main drivers shown in Figure 1.
5.3 There is a growing, though probably still a minority, view among transport planners that car use is at or close to a peak. While household car ownership is still rising in small towns and rural areas, since 2005 it has not risen in larger towns, and has been falling in London since at least 1990. Car driver trips per driver per year by men up to age 50 have been falling since 1995, and for men in their 60s since 2005. Trips by female drivers have not reduced.
5.4 If peak car use is occurring, it is happening first in the larger cities where public transport is good and many services and activities are within walking distance. It is not yet happening in small towns and rural areas. So far, women are increasing their holding of car driver licences and are catching up with men in the distance they are travelling as car drivers. However, as with entering the housing market, young people are deferring car ownership due to rising costs of owning and using a car.
6. Issues for Older People
6.1 “Older People: their transport needs and requirements” (DETR, 2001) highlighted the particular problems faced by older people. One aspect of the difficulties experienced by this group is that older people are disproportionately likely to live in low-density areas. Figure 5 shows the proportion of people of retirement age plotted against the density of the local authority in which they live. The percentage falls from over 30% in some low-density areas to about 10% in high-density inner city areas.
6.2 People in low-density areas are more likely to be car dependent. In low-density areas it is more expensive and more difficult to provide transport and other support services. As people age past seventy they reduce the amount they drive and progressively give up driving licences. By age 80, 8% of women who held a licence at age 70 have ceased to hold it, as have 5% of men. By age 90, 43% of women and 25% of men who had held a licence at 70 have ceased to hold their licences.
6.3 The numbers of elderly people who have chosen to live in low-density areas will pose a growing access and exclusion problem as they age further and have to stop driving.
7. Suggested Recommendations for the Committee
7.1 Access difficulties and the consequential risk of social exclusion are caused at least as much by land-use planning and the choice of location and management of activities, facilities and services, as by the transport system. Location decisions should be tested for their effect on people with transport disadvantages. The policies developed in PPGs 6 and 13 should be reaffirmed and applied more firmly. Whilst the NPPF may appear silent or indeterminate on these key issues, local planning and transport authorities should be encouraged to interpret the NPPF in ways that will promote more sustainable patterns of and locations for development and maintain or create sustainable local communities which provide access for all to a wide range of everyday needs. Previous policy documents, such as PPG13, will be a major source of guidance.
7.2 Design layouts for new development should make travel by sustainable means easier and more convenient than by car.
7.3 Additional incentives to encourage the reuse of previously-developed sites in sustainable locations need to be put in place—perhaps by rating empty or derelict land or sites with planning permission
7.4 Government policies and decisions on the provision and management of public services (eg education, health and public transport) should be specifically tested for any negative impact they may have on people with transport difficulties and how they interact with other policies and strategies. This test should include input from any adversely affected group of users and from groups with related policy responsibilities.
7.5 All bodies with responsibilities for services should consider access implications at the earliest stage of planning changes to services (eg London hospitals have generally been merged in circumferential areas around London. Radial combinations following the major public transport routes would make accessibility better for all, make it easier for low-wage staff to commute for shift work and probably reduce costs).
7.6 Any negative costs from a strategy should be made explicit, identifying the costs and who bears them and the cost of mitigation measures that need to be funded.
7.7 Property and development incentives for local planning authorities to give permission for developments should be designed to include the transport and social consequences (the separation of Counties and Districts in two tier authorities creates a number of problems)
7.8 Incentives should as far as possible be aligned with policies by appropriate fiscal measures (eg rating systems should reflect the resulting congestion effects of extra traffic from parking). Financial/price signals should support the desired policy outcomes.
7.9 Businesses and tax systems should reflect the personal benefits of a car parking space to an individual (we encourage people to travel green but subsidise and don’t tax parking spaces but do tax bus fares).
Bibliography
Mayer Hillman with Irwin Henderson and Anne Whalley Personal Mobility and Transport Policy PEP Broadsheet 542, PEP (Political and Economic Planning), London, 1973
Mayer Hillman and Anne Whalley Fair Play for All—a study of access to sport and informal recreation PEP Broadsheet 571, PEP (Political and Economic Planning), London, 1977
C G B Mitchell and S W Town Accessibility of various social groups to different activities TRRL Supplementary Report SR 258, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1977
C G B Mitchell Some social aspects of public passenger transport TRRL Supplementary Report SR 278, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1977
C G B Mitchell and S W Town Access to recreational activity TRRL Supplementary Report SR 453, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1978
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J P Rigby Access to hospitals: a literature review TRRL Laboratory Report LR 853, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1978
C G B Mitchell The use of local bus services TRRL Laboratory Report LR 923, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1980
C G B Mitchell The influence of the car on personal travel TRRL Supplementary Report SR 681, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1981
Joint Working Group of TRRL and Gwent CC Accessibility measures in Gwent: travel to hospitals and shops TRRL Laboratory Report LR 994, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1981
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L Pickup Residential mobility among council tenants—the role of transport and accessibility TRRL Laboratory Report LR 1100, Transport & Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, 1984
Mayer Hillman, John Adams and John Whitelegg One false move … A study of children’s independent mobility PSI Publishing, Policy Studies Institute, London, 1990
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Figure 1
ACCESS TO CARS BY MEN AND WOMEN—GREAT BRITAIN
NATIONAL TRAVEL SURVEY
Figure 2
HOLDING OF FULL CAR DRIVING LICENCES BY MEN AND WOMEN—GREAT BRITAIN
NATIONAL TRAVEL SURVEY
Figure 3
NUMBER OF JOURNEYS PER YEAR BY ALL MODES OF TRANSPORT BY LENGTH BAND
NATIONAL TRAVEL SURVEY
Figure 4
TREND IN THE AVERAGE LENGTH OF TRIPS BY ALL MODES OF TRANSPORT BY PURPOSE
NATIONAL TRAVEL SURVEY
Figure 5
THE PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE OF RETIREMENT AGE BY POPULATION DENSITY OF LOCAL AUTHORITY 2009 (REGIONAL TRENDS NO 43, TABLE 1.2)
28 August 2012