stephen joseph

ACT Travelwise conference

Economics of sustainable travel

Stephen Joseph, Chief Executive

Campaign for Better Transport


Campaign for Better Transport

• Charitable trust promoting sustainable transport• Support from wide range of interests• Co-ordinates environmental and other NGOs

concerned with transport• Commissions and publishes research • Conducts public campaigns• Promotes pilot projects and good practice


Research on economic impacts of LSTF - context• Need to show effectiveness of LSTF measures to DfT/

Treasury, but other audiences:• Local transport funding, including LSTF capital, now

devolved to Local Enterprise Partnerships• Councillors and business people need to persuaded

about packages of small measures and behaviour change, as opposed to big projects

• We have been promoting “smarter choices” for around 20 years but there is still scepticism about them – big projects don’t face the same tests


Research origins

• Came from networking meetings of the LSTF large projects

• These identified a range of impacts from the projects which might not be captured by traditional appraisal

• So we asked DfT for sponsorship to explore and set these out

We found six kinds of economic impacts of LSTF projects


1. Helping employers

- employers’ transport problems can restrict jobs to those with cars and impact on their operations

- Long history of travel planning: LSTF has developed this – business engagement programmes


Helping employers: case studies

• Greater Manchester travel choices: 300 businesses, covering 250,000 employees

• Hertfordshire Maylands business park• South Yorkshire “Inmotion” programme• Bournemouth cycle challenge – 98 organisations

and 1390 people joined in, 50% of occasional cyclists became regular and 10% of previous car users now cyclists


2. Helping unemployed into work

Targeted programmes to help unemployed people access jobs including

• Travel advice• Journey planning• Free/discounted public transport tickets• Subsidised bikes and scooters (“Wheels to Work”)• TrainingAlso linked to other measures – Stoke includes advice on

childcare and credit unions too


2. Helping unemployed people into work - examples

• West Midlands Workwise – 12,000 people helped into work since 2003, 70% still in employment after 6 months, 90% using sustainable transport

• Merseyside’s Travel Solutions Programme: 671 helped 2012-3, 75% still in work after 6 months. Free bikes for 100 NEETs – all still in work or training after 13 weeks

• Nottingham: half price “Kangeroo” card for jobseekers, 32,000 a month by Sept 2013, 17% of card holders found employment


3. Improving public transport

Links to employment:- Greater Manchester Local Links- S Yorkshire Job Connector buses- Bristol coach servicesNew services to widen labour markets and give

people without cars access to jobsCheaper fares: Reading fares cuts


3. Improving public transport

Improved services:- North Somerset “kickstart” project: 21-24%

increase in patronage- Hertfordshire quality network partnerships- Surrey park and ride- New station for James Cook hospital


4. Promoting Active Travel

- Greater Manchester Commuter Cycle Project:- Cycle hubs- Cycle training- Business support- Cycle routesNottingham U-Cycle: cycle promotion at

universities, colleges and hospitals – car travel down by 10%, 44% of staff and students use non-motorised transport


5. Community involvement

- Nottingham Community Smarter Travel Hubs, with dedicated co-ordinators who work with local employment agencies to give travel training, cycle hire etc.

- Surrey “community travel fund” giving grants to community groups


6. Improving the public realm

• Boscombe in SE Dorset, part of “Three Towns” project: improved pedestrian precinct and traffic management

• Telford town centre box road, turning one side into “urban street” 20 mph zone – attracting £250m regeneration scheme


Packages: bringing it all together

- SE Dorset “Three towns” programme: wide range of improvements in the Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch corridor

- South Hampshire “My Journey” programme – 9 corridors in Southampton and Portsmouth, facilitating developments creating 30,000 jobs


Research conclusions

• Emerging evidence suggests that LSTF programmes are helping the economy in various ways, not all of which fit into conventional transport appraisal

• Packages of lots of small measures, mutually reinforcing, can do as much for the economy as big projects

• Packages can attract private sector investment (Arriva in Watford invested £1m on one route alone) and partnerships


Conclusions - continued

• Labour market effects appear to be helpful• Very targeted transport programmes appear to have high

success rates in getting longer term unemployed into work, especially if linked to other provision/ services

• These effects generally fall outside conventional transport appraisal but transport is not given priority in welfare literature/ programmes either

So we suggested these should be examined further as potential input to the post election spending review and to inform LEPs and local authorities.


But there is a wider context: investment in major roads…


.. major cuts in public transport funding


And bus and rail getting dearer

•Past trends show motoring and aviation costs have fallen in real terms, public transport costs have increased•Government policy is still RPI annual increases for rail fares•Bus fares increased by a third in cash terms 2008-13


Smart growth not dumb growth…

Economic growth doesn’t mean more and more roads and cars:

• Vienna: car use has fallen from 40% - 36%, 30% of journeys are now on foot or bike, 34% public transport

• Los Angeles: 90% car, 10% rest• London: 1993- car 46% public

transport 30%; 2010- car 34% public transport 42%


Conclusion

► Transport and planning needs to promote “smart growth”, not “no growth” or “dumb growth”

► Car dependence is bad for those with cars and those without, and for the wider economy, environment and society

► Travel behaviour can change and reliance on cars is not inevitable

► There are examples of business and council initiatives that can offer good models

► Many technical tools and models are out of date and rely on past trends continuing

► The challenge is to make transport decisions and funding support rather than undermine sustainable travel

stephen joseph

Travel

testsact travelwise

transport commissions

business people

sustainable transport

local transport funding

unemployed people accessjobs

effectiveness of lstf

public campaigns