The State of the City: Transport in Brighton and Hove

The local council has published the “State of the City Report”, which aims to provide an accessible overview of the city, its characteristics & key issues. The ultimate aim is to “create a shared sense of priorities.” Whether it succeeds or not in that aim, it certainly provides a good overview of Brighton and Hove in terms of the economy, health, crime and population.  Here’s the section dealing with getting around, on transport in Brighton and Hove.

“Our city is a regional transport hub with good road and rail links to London & adjoining cities and towns along the south coast, London
Gatwick & London City airports, as well as the two ports of Shoreham and Newhaven.

11% of our principal roads are described as in need of “consideration of maintenance work” an increase on 8% the year before. The proportion of non-principal roads also classed as requiring maintenance is 6.5%..
Traffic congestion is the local issue residents think “most needs improving”. Vehicle ownership was low at 0.9 per household, compared to 1.1 across England in 2001.
Transport makes up 25% of our carbon emissions compared to 32% regionally & 26% nationally. Road vehicles are the greatest contributing factor to poor air quality in Brighton & Hove with the main pollutants being Nitrogen Dioxide & particulates (PM10).
4,100 residents are estimated to be affected by noise from traffic. The Department of the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs published their “noise maps” in 2010. Over 2,000 of our dwellings are considered to be in “important areas” for monitoring & actions to minimise the effects of traffic noise pollution; 1,400 of these are “first priority”.
Our road safety record is improving. Two people were killed on our roads in 2009 compared to 16 in 2005. 143 people were seriously injured in road accidents in 2009 compared to 145 in 2005.
We have three rail lines which terminate at Brighton station, & eight rail stations in the city. 19,250,000 people passed through our eight rail stations in 2009/10.
Bus patronage has increased from 30.2 million journeys in 2001 to 41.1 million in 2009/10. 12 per cent of residents reported regularly using the bus for travel to work in 2001. In suburbs, where bus service provision & frequencies are lower, residents are more likely to use their cars to travel to work.
3% of residents cycle to work, in line with the national level.
Most of our city has very good accessibility to services such as doctors, food shops, schools & the city centre. 50% of the city’s areas (83 of 164 areas) are in the 20% least deprived in England according to this measure of the 2010 Indices of Deprivation. Ovingdean is the most deprived area of the city with regard to access to key services such as Post Offices, supermarkets, General Practitioners & schools.”