Transport planners in Britain generally work for local government authorities or in the transport consultancy and engineering firms that are frequently contracted to develop local or centrally funded projects. In theory transport planners are engaged to develop solutions to specific problems, or improve existing sections of infrastructure in the most cost effective ways. In practice, these professionals generate and implement schemes in accord with prevailing orthodoxies on what is ‘sustainable’ etc. which significantly skews the assessment of costs and benefits. In reality, the costs in increased congestion for the most widely used road modes are often ignored or significantly under estimated when plans involves changes that, in theory at least will improve walking or use of bicycles and public transport or encourage modal shift away from use of private motor vehicles.
Presenters of the theories on which UK policy is based are mostly either transport policy academics or transport systems modellers. The most influential academics are based in government funded centres for transport in which the vogue for constraint, especially of private motorised modes, is a key element in the teaching and research that is granted funding. Some modellers are also in academia, but most work in the private sector.
10th September 2008
by Leon Mannings
In theory, policy is shaped in modern democracies by a combination of what government experts and the public think are the best ways to tackle problems. In Britain great emphasis is placed on consultation procedures as means of demonstrating that the public always has a fair say in what government or their sub-contracted consultants propose and decide to do. In practice things don’t really work like that.
UK consultation procedures are rarely more than a well managed way for politicians to justify implementation of measures regardless of what the majority of people who will be affected by them actually think.
A prime example of how this works in practice is the way ‘consultation’ over the introduction of bus lanes is conducted throughout the UK. Almost invariably a bus priority lane will only be proposed on a two carriageway section of public highway that carries a high volume of traffic – and such proposals are often part of a larger scheme that continues along a major route used for both localised and through trips. However, the majority of people using a section of highway that is due to have its capacity to accommodate general traffic halved will not be consulted at all. The only people consulted are the handful of residents who live by the road in question. The thousands who pass through going about their lawful business have no say whatsoever in the prospect of being prohibited to drive their personally funded vehicles on half of the public highway they have already paid for – and enforced with automated penalty charges and fines.
9th September 2008
by Leon Mannings
The way producers and suppliers respond to public demand for fuel that is as cheap and clean as possible has a significant influence on the way transport amenity and policy develops. But the way governments interact with energy companies and indeed the nations that have the greatest abundance of natural resources for fuel production is often of equally critical significance. A good example of this can be drawn from UK government plans during the 1990s, to encourage a shift from the use of petrol and diesel for cars and vans to a ‘greener’ fuel like LPG – which is a generic name for commercial propane and butane. Go here for more.
In trying to ‘go green’ a number of commercial and local government fleet operators invested significant sums on converting their vehicles to run on LPG – in the belief that supply would become sufficiently widespread to enable its cost effective use over time. But the UK treasury refused to offer fuel suppliers a sufficient level of support in the form of tax incentives to enable commercially viable development of extensive supply of LPG. As a result many operators got their business fingers burnt and are unlikely to take similar risks again, while others are resuming their reliance on petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles…
9th September 2008
by Leon Mannings
The way governments choose to tackle problems can depend on which strategy has the strongest champion. A prime example of this being the role of Ken Livingstone in choosing (in theory at least) to cut London’s traffic congestion by introducing a Congestion Charge in 2003. The basis for his ‘new’ scheme was actually a 40 year old idea, widely known as road pricing. But, despite Livingstone’s great success in championing a policy theory – following 40 years of rejection, in practice, it has not delivered sustainable reductions in congestion. Go here for a Reuters report on this. In fact, despite the Western extension of the zone, congestion levels are now the same in 2008 as they were before the charge. Quite clearly this superbly championed way to cut traffic jams does not work in practice – well it does to anyone who isn’t blinded by absolute faith in such ways to go… Now, and partly out of disenchantment with Livingstone’s failure to deliver progress for most road users, Londoners have elected Boris Johnson on the back of promises to champion a different approach to resolving problems. These include reducing the traffic jams induced by recent trends to include an ‘all red’ phase in traffic light sequencing at junctions. But the most controversial idea that mayor Johnson is committed to championing is to improve road safety by allowing motorcycle and scooter riders (P2W) to use bus lanes. Intriguingly, his choice to champion this move was the opposite of Livingstone’s – even they both had the evidence from a three year TfL trial on which to base their decisions. The trail showed that motorbikes use of bus lanes cuts casualties among cyclists and pedestrians and by up to 40%, for P2W riders. Unlike Johnson, who accepted the findings despite knowing that some cycling lobby extremists would not like them, Livingstone’s response to TfL’s report of safety benefits was to have it cut out of the published report…
Again, like congestion charging, the bikes in bus lanes idea is not new, but unlike congestion charging it is successfully deployed in many UK towns and cities and in many more locations overseas, including hyper safety-conscious Sweden. Nevertheless, the extent it can be deployed to reduce casualties still depends on how well the measure is championed.
Challengers of policy ideas can also have a significant influence on the way they evolve. That certainly happened to the UK government in 2007, when they were forced to back off from their plan for nationwide road pricing. This was the result of a spectacular challenge by a formerly low profile individual called Peter Roberts. With the help of the ABD and media publicity his petition on the newly established No 10 website for gauging public opinion attracted a truly exceptional 1.8 million signatures by the end of voting on the issue. Higher profile challengers to prevailing orthodoxies now include Jeremy Clarkson and his chums on the massively popular BBC TV program Top Gear. Read More »
9th September 2008
by Leon Mannings
News and Internet Commentators…
The way problems are perceived by politicians and the public has a fundamental impact on the choices made between options to solve them. But a key influence on the way transport problems are seen is the way they are presented by the media and especially in ‘news’ stories which are generally expected to be a mixture of facts and peoples’ reactions to events. And, to a lesser but increasing extent, views of transport problems and solutions are developed by web based discussion and commentary.
In practice, each publisher of ‘news’ has a view of the world that will differ from others and those differences will lead to correspondingly diverse and biased reports.
For example: David Begg’s organ The Transport Times, invariably presents pollution problems associated with cars with an assumption that the core problem is that too many people use cars. On the other hand, Autocar magazine is far more likely to report on car manufactures successes in reducing vehicle emissions as the key to solving pollution problems…