Comment: Back to school and back to talking about traffic
The summer months, and the holidays season, may have taken the issue from the top of agendas locally, but now that the schools are back and we motor inexorably on towards Christmas, we can be guaranteed that traffic delays will return to the forefront of local debate.
The reality is that every sizeable town suffers traffic congestion – a result, mainly, of our dependence on the motor vehicle. There is clearly a shift in mentality required and the Government, local authorities and general transport theory is endeavouring to achieve this by prioritising what is described as 'active travel' – walking, cycling and such other means of transport.
However, the introduction of active travel measures generally leads to slower movement of cars. This has often resulted in a backlash as too many of us only see the world through the lens of a car driver. Pedestrians, cyclists, buses and so on also have transport requirements and needs.
The move to active travel has obvious public health and environmental benefits – and whilst these are commendable, and, in the case of the environment, urgent, we also need to ensure that car drivers are not penalised for having no alternatives.
In this regard, we need a holistic approach. If we want to remove people from their cars, then we need to provide alternatives and to ensure the emphasis on active travel is replicated across all sectors of society.
A small, but simple example: secondary school children still carry school bags that would challenge the strength of an endurance athlete. How do we expect teenagers to walk to school carrying school bags of such weight? A move to digital text books would help to remove traffic from roads.
More significantly, we need to provide greater housing opportunities in town centres, rather than in suburbs. We need greater remote working possibilities, which would help reduce the level of traffic in towns. This is not about being prescriptive about where people should live: for those who reside in rural areas, and work in urban areas, we need park and ride facilities.
We also need realism – it is not possible in a short period of time to deter car use, without a huge societal change.
It is also the case that our roads were not built for the level of traffic volumes being accommodated at certain points of the day. We also know there are simple solutions to alleviate traffic congestion, including changing traffic-light sequencing and removing certain blocks on traffic. Strategic new link roads will help though we should also be wary that more roads might simply generate more traffic.
Things to think about when your sat in the car in traffic.