Act TravelWise Autumn Conference 2014 - The Economics of Sustainable Travel Keynote Presentation: "Economics of Sustainable Travel"

1. Economics of sustainable travel
Stephen Joseph, Chief Executive
Campaign for Better Transport
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2. 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
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3. 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
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4. 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
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5. 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
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6. 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
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7. 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”)
• Training
Also linked to other measures – Stoke includes advice on
childcare and credit unions too
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8. 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
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9. 3. Improving public transport
Links to employment:
- Greater Manchester Local Links
- S Yorkshire Job Connector buses
- Bristol coach services
New services to widen labour markets and give
people without cars access to jobs
Cheaper fares: Reading fares cuts
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10. 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
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11. 4. Promoting Active Travel
- Greater Manchester Commuter Cycle Project:
- Cycle hubs
- Cycle training
- Business support
- Cycle routes
Nottingham U-Cycle: cycle promotion at
universities, colleges and hospitals – car travel
down by 10%, 44% of staff and students use
non-motorised transport
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12. 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
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13. 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
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14. 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
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15. 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
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16. 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.
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17. But there is a wider context:
investment in major roads…
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18. .. major cuts in public transport
funding
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19. 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
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20. 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%
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21. 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
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