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The Lothian Cycle Campaign |
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The government promised integration not just between transport modes, but between policy areas, like planning, environment, and health. Here are a few hopeful signs of some things moving that way in terms of planning - though, as the first example shows, a big nudge may be needed!!
Our campaign to reduce car spaces at the new Parliament [Spokes 74] has achieved a cut from 136 to 65 - higher than Edinburgh permits to normal developers, but a huge advance! The Parliament will now set an example, and MSPs will experience the problems of ordinary people. Helen Eadie MSP, for example, is putting much effort into Fife rail problems she herself now experiences regularly!
Our campaign took hard work over a long period, and we really thank everyone who helped by writing to MSPs.
Council policies mean the University must at last adopt a serious Green Transport plan if it wants permission for new developments. Like many employers it contributes to city congestion, noise and danger, and now recognises this.
A recent university Bulletin [8.12.99] stated that not only will there be improvements for walkers, cyclists and bus users, but "the costs of parking cars on University sites .. will rise significantly". Of course, the present situation is also very unfair to non-car-users, since the provision of a valuable city centre parking space to selected employees at a cheap rate is effectively an addition to their salary.
University staff/students are asked to send comments to the Transport Issues Group [David.Somervell@ed.ac.uk].
Early
construction on a new canal & towpath bridge at Kirkintilloch, as part
of the Forth-Clyde Millennium Link
Murrayfield and Hampden traffic problems are often in the news. Maybe we should look to England here!
Wembley is to reduce car spaces from 7200 to 1200, with many bus-promotion measures and 2000 bike spaces. Only 4% of fans should arrive by car [LTT 18.11.99]. The new Southampton stadium has 480 bike spaces, just 250 for cars, and many other measures [CTC digest Winter 99].
John Grimshaw - founder of Sustrans [AtoB 12.99]
"Travelling has become so absurdly cheap that we have a short-sighted view of the consequences of excess travel. We must re-assess where we live and work - failure will mean an increasingly uninhabitable world.
Cyclists are at the forefront of tackling the profligacy of travel. Cycling and walking demand a lifestyle which is more local and more intimate.
We must find ways to reward those who pursue lifestyles valuable to society. If I renounce use of a car in town I don't gain a landscaped space outside my house- the space is taken by someone else's car! We need to reclaim street space for those who do not have cars, leading to car-free zones in whole areas of the city."
Millennial articles in Scotland's Sunday papers showed two very differing perspectives on transport...
Scotland on Sunday's editor peered out of a selfish windscreen: "Sarah Boyack's anti-car crusade ... shows just how out of touch the Scottish Executive is" [26.12.99].
The Sunday Herald's chief political commentator, Ian Macwhirter, saw a wider perspective: "We begin this new century with heads firmly in the sand. We would rather not think we might be making the planet uninhabitable. The evidence for global warming is incontrovertible: the 1990s was the warmest decade on record, 1999 the warmest year. The implications for government policy are just too great to contemplate." [26.12.99], and "Scotland does not wish to see her cities choked with traffic, or the countryside given over to tarmac. The Scottish Transport Minister should remain firmly on her bike." [2.1.2000].
Today's lifestyles mean growing local, national and global problems. Most result from people doing what seems best for themselves or their family - yet the combined effects are ruinous. This is particularly obvious in transport.
Governments fear to educate and debate with the public on the need for health/environment-friendly 'joined-up' policy thinking. Yet, as Edinburgh has shown [see article], the public supports such joined-up thinking when they are properly consulted and informed, rather than being left to the often selfish propaganda of motoring interests.
A UK conference Destroying the Myths to highlight such issues is proposed [Road Danger Reduction Forum 01904 551331].
British children have become 7% heavier in the last decade [G 14.12.99], and over 25% of adults will be clinically obese (3 stones over recommended weight) by 2005 [SH 12.12.99]. The result - heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, cancer. A US study found signs of heart disease in 16% of teenagers, 33% of age 20's and 60% of age 30's [H 1.11.99].
It is now widely recognised that inactive lifestyles are the main cause. The Scottish Public Health White Paper set a hugely ambitious target, to increase the proportion of adults taking 30+ minutes of moderate activity at least 5 times weekly from 1995 figures of 32% of men and 22% of women to 50%/40% by 2005 and 60%/50% by 2010 [Spokes 72,70]. It also gave everyday cycling and walking as its main example of moderate physical activity - and it looked to transport policy to achieve this. But there has been no major funded initiative to boost walking and cycling. This failure in 'joined-up' policy implementation means the Public Health target is unlikely to be met.
As the Sunday Herald's chief political commentator Ian Macwhirter says [above] the implications of taking climate change seriously are just too great for many politicians. The fuel escalator, targeted at this problem, was scrapped [p4] as the government did not seriously debate it with the public, or recycle the revenue to sustainable and rural transport, allowing it to be seen only as tax-raising.
The Scottish Executive launches a Climate Change consultation this Spring [guy.winter@scotland.gov.uk or 0131 244 0196] and we hope there will be the political courage to adopt at least the UK's 20% CO2 reduction target.
After years of declining road deaths and injuries, deaths in Scotland rose slightly in the last two years. Across the UK, 10 people still die on the roads each day, equivalent to 2 Paddington rail disasters each week. Globally, road deaths will soon move up from 5th to 3rd biggest killer [G 22.11.99].
"Yes, Dad, you're making a 'great' world for us -
great waistlines,
great storms,
great distance from home to school and
the shops!"
The average Briton travels 28 miles a day getting from one place to another, compared to just 5 miles in 1950, and expected to be over 50 by 2020 [G 12.99]. Houses, shops, work and schools have moved further apart, because car travel has been cheap, with car users not paying the high external costs they impose on society in terms of health, pollution, policing, etc. This dispersion of homes and destinations is the key to many of the other problems.
Where journeys are lengthy for foot or bike, unhealthy and polluting modes are likely to be used instead. In terms of social inclusion, dispersion of facilities is of little concern to habitual car users, whilst people without cars, or those who wish to be less car-dependent, get less choice.
Dispersion also means more pollution: despite much more efficient lorries the energy used to move each ton of goods has grown 9% since 1970 - because it travels so much further to its final destination [G 9.12.99].
As geography professor John Adams recently suggested [G 1.12.99] even home tele-working, while reducing rush-hour problems, may encourage further dispersion, and more total travel when school, shopping & leisure are considered
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