Press for Change

Transport

Cut & paste the letter on the right into outlook and edit to personalise it if you have time. See lists below for further suggestions.

Dear Cllr Scott and Cllr Wootton

The Dunstable Northern bypass has been put back to 2014, but congestion continues to choke both Leighton Buzzard and Dunstable town centres. According to research from the Dept. of Transport, town centre congestion can be cut by 21% by promoting walking, cycling, and offering good public travel information. These things do not cost nearly as much money as building roads but they do need a political will behind them.

Tackling the school run would have a huge impact as it accounts for one in five of all car journeys; we would also have healthier children.  At present we don’t have Bus route maps by the main bus stops. Bus lanes, more buses, cycle lanes, making streets nicer to walk along, good travel information, could easily be promoted by our councils and we’ll benefit from less pollution and a much better quality of life. Why doesn’t South Beds have a first class public transport system? 

Yours sincerely 

NB It is important to include your name and address.

Got 2 minutes? e-mail this letter to:

Cllr Scott, portfolio holder for planning and economic growth john.scott@bedscc.gov.uk  01767 627 322

Cllr Tom Wotton, portfolio holder for transport tom.wootton@bedscc.gov.uk  01234 772130

Have 5 minutes? e-mail this letter to your County Councillor

Leighton Buzzard

Brian Spurr, ward Leighton - Linslade brian.spurr@southbeds.gov.uk  01525 385917

Brian  Sadler, Southcott Ward Brian.sadler@bedscc.gov.uk  01525 382130

Paul Record, Grovebury paul.record@bedscc.gov.uk   01442 383 529

Roy Johnstone, All Saints and Planets  Roy.Johnston@bedscc.gov.uk  01525 385 854

Brian Piggott, Billington, Eaton Bray Brian.piggott@bedscc.gov.uk  01525 222 805

Rhys Goodwin, Toddington, Hockliffe Rhys.Goodwin@bedscc.gov.uk  01525 210 629

Dunstable

Duncan Ross, Northfields Ward in Dunstable Duncan.ross@bedscc.gov.uk

Gillian Howard, Chiltern Ward Gillian.Howard@bedscc.gov.uk  01582 517669

Peter Hollick, Watling Ward peter.hollick@bedscc.gov.uk  01582  665 113

Jennifer.K Fairbairn, Chiltern Ward Jennifer.fairbairn@bedscc.gov.uk  01582 527198

Houghton Regis

Jack Goodchild susan.goodchild1@bedscc.gov.uk  01582 867  557

Susan Goodchild susan.goodchild1@bedscc.gov.uk  01582 867  557

General points 

Beating congestion by 'Smarter Choices'

A combination of walking, cycling, school travel plans good information, etc can reduce congestion by up to 21% at peak times in urban areas according to research called 'Smarter Choices' published by the Department for Transport.

View document (48 page PDF file) by clicking here

Travel promotion can reduce car use by between 9% and 14% according to research from Sustrans

Eight TravelSmart projects completed during 2003-05 targeting 15,000 households, achieved reductions in car travel of between 9 and 14% by promoting walking, cycling and public transport directly to households. click here for more

There are three sustainable travel demonstration towns: Peterborough, Darlington, and Worcester.

These are funded by the Dft click here for more

Sustrans and Socialdata did a study on these towns and here are some key points.

• On an average day, six out of seven trips by residents of all three Towns either start or end at home. Furthermore, two-thirds or more of people’s day-to-day trips are no longer than five kilometres (just over three miles), and around 20% are no longer than one kilometre (0.6 mile)

• 70% of all trips are  up to 5 km, 43% of all trips are up to 3.km

• Analysis of the journey times recorded in the travel behaviour surveys shows that in fact between a quarter and half of car trips within the Towns are within range of the average cycling trip, and that going by car for these trips offers little or no time benefit over cycling

• Where it provides a practical alternative to local car trips, the main reason people do not take public transport is a lack of information. In all three Towns this was the case in around half of local car trips which could have been made by bus

• Perceptions of relative travel time are also important: in general people over-estimate travel time by public transport by around two-thirds and for cars under-estimate travel time by one fifth

• Lack of information is the greatest subjective barrier to increasing use of public transport, affecting half of all local car trips which could be made by bus using existing services

• People perceive door-to-door journey times by car relative to public transport to be around twice as quick as they really are

• A 10% reduction in car trips would involve switching (on average across the population) less than one car driver trip per person per week to other modes

Social Inclusion

Two out of five jobseekers say that lack of transport is a barrier to getting a job. According to the Social Exclusion Unit’s report 'Making the Connections' view document (14 page PDF file) by clicking here

A survey conducted by the Department for Transport in 2002 into public attitudes to walking and cycling resulted in a third of those questioned saying that they would walk and cycle more if the facilities on offer were improved. 

Improved Bus lanes in Dublin resulted in an increase in bus use of 38%. In Nottingham Bus use is growing 10%year on year. according to the Way TO Go campaign by Transport 2000 and Friends of the Earth.

At peak time, 23 per cent of car trips, by residents of urban areas in term time, were generated by the "school run" in 2004 compared with 17 per cent in 1992/1994.
 

Source: National Travel Survey: 2004

National

Friends of the Earth