Stuart Murray On Transport

This is the text of the talk from Stuart Murray taken directly from the Deane-Cum-Heaton Labour Party's Branch minutes.

  A Doomsday Scenario

Stuart started by saying that a doomsday scenario looms. There has been a vacuum in transport policy during the last 50 years and the "predict and supply" philosophy just hasn't worked. More roads = more congestion and it is predicted that the number of cars will increase by 38% during the next 20 years. There just isn't the physical space to park all of the current cars and Milton Keynes was the only town developed with the car in mind. This government, like the last, hasn't got to grips with the problem.

  The Main Issues

Stuart described three main issues:-

      Congestion - Manchester City centre is always snarled up, the M62 is a nightmare and the area around schools is always congested in the morning and afternoon. During the last 30 years a perception has developed that it is not safe for children to travel to school on their own. This impacts on children's social development. Walking to school or travelling on their own allows them to interact with their contemporaries, learning interactive social skills and independence. There's a big element of unintended consequences in the transport debate.

      Pollution - One in six or seven children suffer from asthma or respiratory disease. The air quality is sometimes so poor that these children and affected adults are advised to stay indoors, usually when the weather is best and when they should be exercising, playing, etc. 3,500 people are killed in the roads each year but radio traffic reports only seem interested in for how long the road will be closed!

      Social - Bolton has centralised its hospital service at Farnworth and this sort of thing has happened all over the country. There has been no factoring of the time, effort and energy this requires of non-car owners, especially those who are ill. 30% of Bolton households don't have a car and more than half of our population doesn't have access to their own independent means of transport. Poorer people have fewer cars, have less access to shops and have to pay higher prices. It's often easier to buy sweets and crisps than fresh fruit and vegetables.

  Discussion

There followed an extensive discussion. Veronica decried the "jump in the car for the shortest journey" attitude as encouraging laziness. George said that changes should take place in health care provision so that more services are provided locally. Leilia stressed the importance of expanding public transport and used the Newcastle Metro system as an example but Noelene said that public transport is often so dismal, expensive and unreliable that most people who can head straight back to their cars.

John, admitting to have done so himself, said that many people choose to live a long way from their place of work, often in places where there is no easy public transport link. John Muskett said that part of the answer would be to "over provide" public transport, at least for a while. Anne believed that out of town shopping centres reinforces, from pre-school years, the "jump in the car and go" philosophy. Joyce said that there was not enough publicity about car pollution. Often she has to ask people parked outside schools, waiting to pick up their children, to switch off their engines. Stuart believed that the freedom of people to drive cars has been at the expense of children to be able to play in the streets.

Graham opined that we have a very narrow view of the cost of things. The supermarkets have offloaded a lot of their distribution costs onto those who travel long distances to their "super stores". Buses without conductors are cheaper to run but cause congestion because of the time it takes the driver to collect the fares.

Noelene said that there is a major cultural problem. We don't have a culture that believes an integrated public transport system to be a good idea. Our cars have made us free to be selfish.

  An Answer?

In response to a question from Graham, Stuart said that in the government's White Paper he'd like to see:-

      A shift in resources to allow and encourage local authorities to break "transport chains". People must walk and ride bikes more. There must be more traffic calming measures, very low speed limits in built up areas (20 mph) and even lower ones near schools.

      The principle of hypothecation should be breached. People would support increased motoring costs if they knew that the money raised would be spent on public transport.

      Action to integrate transport and local land use, where homes are built in relation to facilities (work, shops, leisure centres, etc.). The Middlebrook railway station should have been build before the stadium.

Other questions and points were put - John on road pricing, Janet on the improvement in the quality of the local buses, George on the extension of the Metrolink, John Muskett on development of cycle routes in Bolton and Leilia on transport and local government.

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