Do we understand road traffic well enough to justify high levels of investment in roads?

The ways that we move around are highly complex. How we make decisions about the routes we elect to use, and the destinations that we need to reach or that we choose to visit, serve to influence where and how traffic flows. Add to this more personalised factors about the ways that we drive and times we need or prefer to make trips, and we see a hugely complicated matrix of factors that determine where congestion builds.

Given the complexity of the equation, there are strong grounds to wonder whether we understand traffic well enough to intervene to alter the road network effectively. And crucially, what does ‘effectively’ mean in this context? Are schemes which aim to make car journeys quicker and easier sensible given the damage that our over-reliance on cars is doing to the environment and to society?

This blog is a response to two Highways England reports concerning the impacts of road ‘improvement’ schemes.

The first of the reports is about the ‘pinch points’ programme. Coverage of the report included headlines such as ‘England traffic jams ‘worse’ despite congestion schemes’. This report is a review of a series of evaluations of road schemes that were intended to support economic growth and to improve congestion and safety outcomes. The report covers evaluation work conducted early after the changes were made – before the schemes are ‘mature’.

But there is already strong evidence that the schemes are not delivering in the way that was intended. Some improvements in congestion during peak hours are offset by further delays during other periods. Safety outcomes are more positive, although the removal of outliers arguably puts a more positive light on this result than is warranted.

The second report is a summary of evaluations of 85 major schemes. Major schemes tend to involve very costly new road construction or significant engineering measures. The report suggests that the planned outcomes of the major schemes are largely met.

However, there is some richer context to this. On the one hand, the accuracy with which adverse outcomes are forecasted is lauded – knowing the extent of the damage being caused by a road scheme doesn’t feel like a cause for celebration. On the other hand, the inaccuracy of traffic and cost forecasts is very clear.

This point about forecasting traffic levels, and the implication for what this shows about our understanding of the impacts of the measures that are being implemented to support travel by car, are a real cause for concern. The challenges of forecasting are numerous and complex. But the fact that we are not doing it well suggests that we really don’t understand the implications of the changes that we are making to the road network.

In an era where the problems that car traffic poses are better understood than ever before, should we really be investing on this scale in an attempt to make it easier for people to drive further, faster and more frequently?

A recent briefing paper by Transport for Quality of Life for Friends of the Earth makes a strong case for how the planning system can be used to reduce the need for car travel. In particular, the report makes the point that ‘The expansion of road networks around towns and cities only leads to a vicious cycle of more settlements on the periphery, more roads, and further sprawl’. The implication is that the current investment in roads is ‘locking-in’ damaging behaviours by facilitating more travel by car.

More forthrightly, an argument recently presented states that ‘Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out’. The author states that ‘Transport should be planned, but with entirely different aims: to maximise its social benefits, while minimising harm … accompanied by a steady closure of the conditions that allow cars to rampage through our lives’.

Both reports pick out a myriad of reasons why the car is causing so much damage, and the former at least makes clear and constructive suggestions for alternatives to investing to support car travel.

The huge programme of investment in roads that supports more car travel could and should be reoriented to offer solutions to current economic, health and wellbeing, social justice and environmental challenges.

Sustrans’ work is all about supporting positive outcomes across the domains of economy, health and wellbeing, social justice and environment, and about offering alternatives to car use for the trips that people want and need to make.

• Air Quality
• Cycling in cities
• Policy

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Paths for everyone: a new traffic-free link on the National Cycle Network

The official opening of the new traffic-free link in Ledaig

Xavier Brice, Sustrans Chief Executive and Lee Craigie, Active Nation Commissioner for Scotland

Recently we reviewed the entire National Cycle Network, all 16,575 miles, and in 2018’s Paths for everyone report we were honest in highlighting where the Network doesn’t meet the high standards we’ve set ourselves at Sustrans. The report identified 50 activation projects that Sustrans will focus on fixing and upgrading that are key to improving the entire Network.

We’re incredibly proud to see the very first of these reach completion, with a new traffic-free link at Ledaig, between North Connel and Benderloch, on the iconic Caledonia Way in the Scottish Highlands.

It’s an important first step in a far longer journey. We want the Network to truly represent the idea of paths for everyone. You can’t genuinely label a trunk road as a ‘path for everyone’. Our vision is to make all the Network traffic-free or quiet-ways, suitable for people of all abilities. That’s a big challenge with a huge price tag but what it breaks down to is a series of small projects like this.

The new path at Ledaig represents so much of the work Sustrans does. Not only high-quality, traffic-free paths; but also communities, landowners, schools, local politicians, residents and central government coming together. It’s taken more than 10 years and Sustrans has been there through it all, helping to bring people together and make things happen.

Creating a national asset for all 

We often talk about Sustrans’ vision, strategy and ambitions. The numbers are quite staggering: 16,575 miles of the National Cycle Network and 750-million trips a year, over 6-million on the Caledonia Way alone.

But what is really rewarding is coming somewhere like Ledaig and seeing these paths in action. Watching children cycle to school, talking to residents and locals - the people who actually use the infrastructure we help fund and build – reminds us that this isn’t about numbers or even just transport, it’s about creating places to be. Places to be human. It’s about people on bikes, people walking, people with mobility scooters, people with dogs, all coming together and sharing the space.

The Network is a national asset but it’s also about local communities, just like North Connel and Benderloch, who use these paths on a regular basis for daily journeys and commuting. It links these communities to something far bigger and I think in our increasingly divided times that’s really something worth celebrating: a UK-wide Network that is open to all, joining us all together.

Read more about our Paths for everyone report and 50 activation projects

Sign up to our Sustrans enewsletter to keep up-to-date with our future plans, projects and news

• Communities
• Cycling
• National Cycle Network
• Walking

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Helping jobseekers get on their bikes in Nottingham and Derby

Our Sustrans jobseekers project works to remove travel barriers to employment and training opportunities for people looking for work in Derby and Nottingham.

Our Sustrans jobseekers project works to remove travel barriers to employment and training opportunities for people looking for work in Derby and Nottingham. Barriers people face include cost, time and not knowing how to access timetables and travel information. Matt Easter, our England Director for the Midlands and East, discusses how the project is changing lives, one person at a time.

What was the problem?

When I’m asked about my work at Sustrans, one of the questions that always comes up is why should we care so passionately about cycling and walking? Of course, there are many reasons such as improving our environment or helping people to lead healthier lives. However, in Nottingham and Derby, we’re adding another reason to that list - we’re helping people back into work.

It’s often forgotten in the debate around skills and employment that our entire economy is dependent on transport one way or another. Without a means of travelling, most people wouldn’t be able to earn a living and lack of travel options is one of the big barriers to accessing employment and training.

In the East Midlands, unemployment runs higher than the national average. Many jobseekers have told us they can’t afford bus and taxi fares, don’t have a car and either can’t cycle or don’t have access to a bike. Given these challenges, Nottingham and Derby are proving ideal locations to deliver a project which helps tackle transport poverty.

What do we do?

Last year, we were commissioned by Nottingham City Council and Derby City Council to help address these issues. Their funding, via The Access fund, now in its last year, builds on previous projects which helped jobseekers such as the previous Nottingham gets 2 work scheme.

Whether unemployed, looking for new work or seeking access to training our new project team are here to offer support tailored to a person’s needs. They work with clients individually to develop a bespoke personal travel plan. For many clients, a PTP could be the first time they’ve engaged in wider active travel and sustainable travel themes and this opens up a range of walking, cycling and public transport options.

For those who want to get on their bike, we’ve delivered a number of reconditioned bikes to our clients free of charge. We also offer a range of support and training activities including maintenance courses, how to build a bike, cycle training, led rides and Dr Bike services.

What have been the outcomes?

One by one, the project is bringing people together - it’s brought us together with a range of partners, too! It has been a great example of collaboration and we’ve really benefited from working with Cycle Derby, Life Cycle Derby, Nottingham Bikeworks and RideWise. The project is dependent on a multi-agency approach, with each partner contributing to helping the jobseekers we work with.

This inspirational project is funded until March 2020, so we’re only halfway through but it’s already made a big impact. So far we’ve:

•  Spoken to more than 900 people in Nottingham and Derby who are looking for employment, a new job or access to training and apprenticeships.
•  Helped more than 200 people with a bespoke personal travel plan specific to their needs
•  Provided a range of cycle services to more than 150 people
•  Handed out 80 free reconditioned bikes to jobseekers

We were originally set a range of performance goals based on a three year period and we were nearly a year late starting. Despite this, the project is meeting its targets and making a real difference for jobseekers in the two cities.

Lots of people who’ve accessed our services have told us that the support we have given them has been transformative. Many clients who’ve benefitted from a reconditioned bike and cycle training say it’s given them new skills and helped them get around in a practical way. Others say it’s helped them to keep fit and allowed them to get to appointments on time.

There’s also examples of this scheme enabling many people to turn adversity into a positive by embracing active travel after years of car dependency. One client told us that the bike we’d provided them with has given them new skills for life and a low-cost means to get around all year around. For others, it’s given them the confidence boost they needed after losing a job and their car.

Could we be doing more?

This project is helping people into work and training while enabling them to make healthy travel choices. In the longer-term, this project will be having a positive impact on local health budgets and is reducing out of work benefit payments.

I’ve been involved in numerous projects and worked with some great people during my time at Sustrans, but this project really stands out. I’m incredibly proud of our team in Nottingham and Derby, but I can’t help feeling that we could be doing so much more.

Projects associated with ‘behaviour change’ are often judged by participant numbers or health impacts difficult to quantify over a longer period.  This project works, because it is targeted at a particularly disadvantaged group of people and success is all about the long term change in each person’s travel behaviour. We could be having this impact by developing similar projects in other parts of the country. We’d be able to replicate the benefits on a much bigger scale with bigger returns. We could take the model from Nottingham and Derby and improve it based on what we’ve learned so that it can be developed as a key component of our city and town based programmes across the country.

Our jobseekers project has also been effective as we’ve really honed our ability to work in partnership with other organisations who have a similar focus on getting people back to work. These include; 20 20 Journey 2 Work program, Derby County Community Trust, The Refugee Forum and JC+ in Nottingham. This ability to utilise Sustrans’ pioneering engagement expertise, alongside our local knowledge, enables us to attract excellent local partners and means projects can be really rooted in local need, with participants also encouraged to shape our work further.

This transformative project has delivered impressive results in a short space of time. Thanks to our dedicated team, and our partners, there are hundreds of people who are looking forward to a better future in work and training, with hope and confidence. For me that makes Sustrans’ work so worthwhile and reminds me why we need to continue to make it easier for everyone to walk and cycles

Find out more about Bike It Jobseekers

• Communities
• Cycling

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Views from the classroom: Why we want a ban on cars on the roads outside schools

“Since we started closing the street to cars, we have seen a huge difference in the environment around the school gates.”

“We would love to make the road closure outside the school permanent – not just to increase safety but also improve the air quality for our children.“

Cycling, scooting and walking has many health and environmental benefits. Despite this, 42% of primary school children are driven to school, while congestion and idling car engines pollute the air outside schools across the UK.

Our recent YouGov poll revealed that nearly two thirds (63%) of teachers want to ban cars on the road outside their school, with a further 26% agreeing that school street closures are an effective measure for bringing down levels of air pollution.

So how can teachers get involved and close their streets to motor vehicles? We caught up with teachers and head teachers across the UK to find out how they have closed their streets to cars for this year’s Big Pedal challenge and why it matters.

Claire Lippiett, Tyn-Y-Wern Primary School, Caerphilly

"We have 242 children attend the main school and also have a small nursery, so you can imagine the chaos that ensues when everyone travels in during the morning and leaves in the afternoon.

"The side street the school is situated on is very small and narrow so cars struggle to turn around as there isn’t enough space. To top it all off, traffic races up and down the main road that connects to the side street and means it can be dangerous for pupils when crossing the road.

“Since we started closing the street to cars, we have seen a huge difference in the environment around the school gates. It’s much less congested, calmer and feels more welcoming. Caerphilly Council has set up a permanent traffic order, where access to the road that leads up to the school is coned off and monitored by a School Crossing Patroller. This works really well.”

Julie Edgecombe, Murrayburn Primary School, Edinburgh

“We want to create a safer and more relaxed atmosphere outside the school. That’s why we’re working hard to discourage parents from driving straight up to the gates at the start and end of the day.

“Our Cycling Officer Kerr and road safety contact at Edinburgh Council have been absolutely brilliant at pushing the application forward for a car-free day. It all went really smoothly and with their help, the tender was approved in good time.

“We hope the one-day street closure raises awareness of the hazards caused by drivers parking on yellow zigzag lines and highlights how easy it can be to park further away and walk, scoot or cycle for the remainder of the journey.

Donna Berry, St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, Southampton

“I think that taking part in the Big Pedal and one-day street closure run by Sustrans, will be a powerful way of showing parents what’s possible when cars are removed from the environment. We hope it will also get them thinking about where they can park other than the road outside of the school.

“We would love to make the road closure outside the school permanent – not just to increase safety but also improve the air quality for our children. We are pushing for a six-week street closure trial in the summer, led by the local council and supported by Sustrans, and hope this will enable us to slowly make the change to a car-free environment.

Claudine Richardson, St Richard Reynolds Catholic College, Twickenham

“At the moment, almost half of our primary school children are driven to school which is something we would like to discourage. This is because the catchment area for the primary years is relatively small, meaning that the children could potentially walk, cycle or scoot the school journey.

“We know this isn’t achievable for everyone but want to encourage parents and pupils to travel actively to school where possible. I think it’s a combination of factors that put parents off. There is a lack of cycling infrastructure in the local area, safety fears when walking and cycling on busy main roads and the fact that many parents are so time poor in the morning. This makes jumping in the car seem like the ideal and often the only way to travel.

“Being based in a very residential area and so close to the station means that a more permanent street closure may be difficult. This is because we need to balance the needs of the local community with that of the school and ensure we maintain a happy relationship. We’d love to trial the street closure scheme at different times of year and then go from there based on residents’ feedback.”

Find out more about the Big Pedal - the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge.

• Environment
• Health
• Schools

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