Transport

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 453.

Question: Which environmental issues are most pressing in urban areas, and how are they being addressed? What is the overall environmental profile of urban areas? Are new environmental issues emerging that have been neglected or are little understood?

We here make some observations on issues connected with transport (pollution, congestion, stress), water (supply and use), noise (generation and pollution).

We take as a given the situation of urban traffic congestion, that causes economic losses and has a negative effect on life quality. There is a need to reduce such traffic.

We think the UK has much to learn from other countries in Europe. The growth of car travel and long-distance commuting by car should be compared with trends from other EU countries and cities, particularly those with comparable levels of GDP as the UK, such as the Netherlands and Denmark. We make the observation that there are many cities around Europe (e.g. Den Haag, München) where car ownership levels exceed those in the UK but where car use is lower because of excellent public transport systems. The important work by Mees (2000), comparing Toronto and Melbourne, both relatively dispersed low-density cities, demonstrates conclusively that the crucial factor in public transport use is not investment or land use, but simply delivery of an effective coordinated service on an 18-hour, 7-day-week basis. There are lessons to be learnt, particularly about the need for long term planning, investment levels and citizen participation from these 'best practice' cities.

New estates have been built around small towns with poor public transportation services, making their residents car-dependent. The government has been reluctant to finance major urban transport schemes.

It is very difficult to persuade motorists to use public transport (at least in the short term). Therefore technology solutions need to be encouraged e.g. biofuels in diesel engines (carbon cycle contributors, agricultural surplus mop up).

How can we change behaviour? Road pricing is clearly vital, but the need is also to make it easier for people to change travel modes to walking, cycling and public transport by making these modes safer, pleasanter and more efficient. Car clubs provide people with easy access to a car when essential, but break the link to car ownership. We would observe that where such facilities are in place then people make environmentally friendly decisions (e.g. most business trips between Leeds and London and Manchester and London use the excellent high-speed, electric rail links between these cities).