National Transport Strategy

[Jdsk]

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My concerns would be for more rural populations, in particular the less wealthy. Already the cost of housing in many such areas is beyond many people's reach, those who can afford rents often only just manage to do so. Increases in transport costs could easily see them gone forever.
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We're in a village just a mile or so outside Oxford. There's a steep hill. A couple of years ago we surveyed residents' use of transport as part of the Village Plan.

Many households currently depend on their cars. There are several buses a day. There isn't a train station. A few people cycle to work in the city. (The survey was before widespread availability of or familiarity with eBikes.) We have extensive voluntary driving. There are excellent footpaths and several walking groups.

Car use could be decreased by more frequent buses. That's predominantly a matter of subsidy and could be ramped up very quickly.

There might be a new railway station in Cowley, a mile away. But people would still have to get there.

eBikes could make a difference.

But I don't expect to see any decrease in car ownership: they're just too useful for when they are needed.

Jonathan

[Biospace]

But I don't expect to see any decrease in car ownership: they're just too useful for when they are needed.

Yes, they are, which I find a constant irritant!

Considering all the factors, I still haven't worked out whether a BEV or smaller ICEv would be better for occasional use for those who live and drive outside congested areas. 3000 miles a year, with a couple of 15 mile trips twice a week and the odd day out.

[Jdsk]

The question has been asked in another thread about why progress in decreasing harm from car-like objects in built-up areas is so slow.

At which point democratic legitimacy has to be mentioned.

Any encouraging signs anywhere on that? Will parties' policies in the next general election matter? And would making decisions more locally help?

Jonathan

[Bmblbzzz]

My instinct is that making decisions more locally would help, in that virtually no one is going to vote for measures explicitly aimed at decreased car ownership or use, but people will vote for better local transport options and neighbourhood improvements.

[Stevek76]

It's something that really needs a bit of political leadership. I'm not sure it's really a case of 'virtually no one' votes for measures decreasing car use, depends on the area. I also think that it's a bit arbitrary to split out 'local transport options' etc from decreasing car use. Local politicians in urban areas that have made committed efforts to shift transport away from cars have been rewarded at the ballot box more than they have suffered.

And as Rees in Bristol has shown, chasing/fearing the motorist vote in an urban area often ends you stuck in a no man's land, loosing votes to the greens in the central areas where people are impatient over lack of progress in that area (amongst other issues) whilst meanwhile making little to no ground in the suburbs where any casual glance at the facebook groups will suggest that the typical 'motorist voter' thinks he's 'anti car'.

Re car ownership, that's really more a major policy concern for urban areas where car storage is often on public land, is effectively subsidised and has progressed to a point that it causes significant issues. With that, car ownership can be fairly easily reduced simply by introducing controlled parking and/or ramping up fees on that parking to better match market rates for the land use. Such fees can also be tailored to favour car club use.

Car ownership on private land in more sparsely populated areas is a bit of a moot issue really. If use drops sufficiently you may find a household with multiple cars drops one or two as those get to end of life or they need cash for other reasons.

[Biospace]

It's something that really needs a bit of political leadership.
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It requires a lot of skilled political leadership to overcome the inertia which exists with entrenched behaviour patterns, we're all creatures of habit yet capable of large change at the drop of a hat if the right circumstances exist.

People have grown used to the comfort and privacy of their own space even when they're crawling for mile after mile in queues. They're aware of the plumes of pollution they're helping create but point to a lack of good alternatives, which for many is where the electric car comes in - 'zero emissions'. In fairness, the advantage of electric propulsion is by far at its greatest in long rush hour queues.

Yet for all the comfort and privacy, there are large inconveniences when using cars to commute through heavy traffic. Air quality inside the cabin in a queue is often very poor, there may be an hour or two less spent at home and parking at the other end may be fraught. Many households could make do with one car rather than two if someone commutes by other means - a large sum of money saved.

The choice of the first few towns and cities where pilot projects ran would be critical, but put in place paths for bicycles and pedestrians which are as suitable as new build roads are for cars and the traffic would soon follow. Perhaps the single largest hurdle in Britain is our short-termism and the requirement to demonstrate profitability for a project within a very narrow set of rules and within an unrealistically short timespan.

Just as heart disease was measured to fall almost instantly smoking was banned in public houses, I would expect a similar result if even one tenth of commuting journeys were replaced with bicycles and ebikes.

[Bmblbzzz]

It's something that really needs a bit of political leadership. I'm not sure it's really a case of 'virtually no one' votes for measures decreasing car use, depends on the area. I also think that it's a bit arbitrary to split out 'local transport options' etc from decreasing car use. Local politicians in urban areas that have made committed efforts to shift transport away from cars have been rewarded at the ballot box more than they have suffered.

That's pretty much what I'm saying. People will vote for better bus services, more pleasant streets to live in, easier walking, etc. This leads to less car use and some of those people, as a result of those measures, will decide it's no longer worth having a car. But hardly anyone votes for making cars unaffordable and similar measures aimed explicitly at reducing car ownership.

[Jdsk]

"All aboard! Can Luxembourg’s free public transport help save the world?":
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... -the-world

Current (!) zero-fare schemes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_publ ... _transport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_publ ... _transport

Jonathan