Get Off the Bus, Gus…

…and walk a bit. And then get on another bus. Get off. And walk some more! Great to see Brighton and Hove Buses supporting active travel, with this bus spotted in Portland Road, Hove.

Follow up to The Big Debate on banning cars in Brighton city centre

A few further thoughts on the Big Debate about whether cars should be banned from Brighton city centre.


A car “ban” is rarely total
“Banning cars” normally means that the city centre is accessible by automobile only to residents, taxis, police, service vehicles, and delivery vehicles.


Many great cities have implemented a ban

Cities that have banned access, as described above, include: Turin, Vienna, Salzburg, Ghent, Dubrovnik, Copenhagen, Munich, Stuttgart, Zurich, Lausanne, Geneva, Basel, Quebec City, New York Broadway in Times Square and Herald Square, Adelaide.


 

Photo shows one entrance to the Limited Traffic Area (ZTL) in Turin – home of the Italian car industry (bikes are allowed).

Active Travellers spend more
The data increasingly shows that pedestrians and cyclists out-spend car borne shoppers. The most recent collected source is independent research commissioned by Living Streets, published here.

Key findings from that research:

• Making places better for walking can boost footfall and trading by up to 40%

• Good urban design can raise retail rents by up to 20%

• International and UK studies have shown that pedestrians spend more than people arriving by car. Comparisons of spending by transport mode in Canada and New Zealand revealed that pedestrians spent up to six-times more than people arriving by car. In London town centres in 2011, walkers spent £147 more per month than those travelling by car

• Retailers often overate the importance of the car – a study in Graz, Austria, subsequently repeated in Bristol found that retailers overestimated the number of customers arriving by car by almost 100%

• Landowners and retailers are willing to pay to improve the streetscape in order to attract tenants and customers.

Active travel reduces harms and economic costs
Other economic consequences of increasing walking and cycling include:

• reducing the impact of poor health from inactivity

• cutting the number of casualties through measures such as 20mph defaults and similar measures

• distributional effects from helping people to save money by choosing the cheapest ways to get about: foot and bike.

An interesting item from The Economist last year cites figures from TfL indicating that pedestrians spend an average of £373 ($571) a month, compared with £226 for drivers.
The Economist article concludes, "Ailing high streets and town centres need to win back walkers. Learning from London's incentives would be a start" and goes on to cite the 2004 plan to make London a “walkable” city.

For ‘London’, read ‘Brighton.’

Report of the Week

It seems that barely a week goes by without some august body producing a report full of evidence supporting the case for more exercise, less car dependency and more “active travel” – which doesn’t mean going on long walks, or lengthy cycle rides, but simply building more activity into our lives. Which can even mean the walk to the bus stop.
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But despite the ever-growing piles of evidence, and the declarations of support from politicians for “evidence-based policy,” most of the talk is lip service, the reports get filed, and progress is minimal. To add to the long line of reports already on the shelf, here’s one produced by the Active Transport for Healthy Living Coalition, ten organisations ranging from Sustrans to the Association of Directors of Public Health. Full of good stuff, but don’t hold your breath….

How not to miss the bus

One of the things that puts people off public transport is not seeming to be in control. The Illusion of Control is a well-documented feature in psychology, and it clearly afflicts drivers. It’s something that public transport users are less likely to suffer from - often because we seem to have very little control over what’s going on. And that’s because exercising control means getting hold of the information needed to make the right transport choices: buses turning up when they’re not expected, or not turning up when they should do is a major turn off.

Developments in ICT (Information and Communications Technology) now mean that working your way through a timetable has become a lot less necessary. Increasing numbers of bus stops are being fitted with real time indicators which count down when the bus is due, or you can send a text using the code on the bus stop. Even better are the smartphone apps now available. I use Bus Scout, available for Android smartphones (there doesn’t seem to be an iOS version). It’s powered by Traveline, it’s free, and you can download it here. I’ve used Bus Scout all over the place, and it’s usually pretty accurate - sometimes it’s even better than the information provided by the real time indicators at the bus stop. (How can that be?). So now I know when the next bus is due - and still avoid the illusion of control.

Two For the Price of One

Here’s an excellent letter from Chris Murgatroyd to our local newspaper, the Argus, about 20mph speed limits, the first phase of which is soon to be implemented in Brighton and Hove.
And here’s news of an initiative to tackle obesity in Wales, with a proposed Active Travel Bill under which councils will be required to connect key sites such as hospitals, schools and shopping areas with traffic-free routes and cycle lanes. Roll on the rest of the UK….

Pedestrians, Pintxos, And Other Puzzles

Santander, San Sebastian, Bilbao: so many pintxo bars, so many cake shops, so many ice cream parlours…so few obese people. How come? Here are a few observations - unscientific, anecdotal and observational, and based on a couple of weeks spent in Northern Spain - which doesn’t mean not valid. Mostly, the answer appears to be food culture and active travel. First, the food, though wonderful, comes in small portions – eg, pintxos (tapas). Very little is processed. Moreover, it’s ok to share. The fast food oligopolies/chain outlets (please don’t call them “restaurants”) are scarcely seen (San Sebastian has one McDonalds). Practically all of the dining happens in small independent businesses, whether bars or restaurants. There's hardly any eating or drinking “on the go.” You just don’t see people toting bottles of soda or eating crisps whilst walking. Eating goes like this: Arrive. Talk. Eat. Talk. Leave.

So much for the food culture, what about active travel? As per the previous post/Argus article, great swathes of Santander, Bilbao and San Sebastian are carfree and there’s efficient and inexpensive public transport. Not just in the main cities, but in many small towns and villages, cars have been put in their place – after pedestrians. San Sebastian is a poster child for rebalanced streets – cars come way down the hierarchy, below walking, cycling, roller-blading, skateboarding, jogging and running. Pavements are uncluttered and unobstructed - the advertising “A boards,” which make getting around on British pavements so difficult, are just not to be seen. Guard rails, which pen pedestrians onto pavements at crossing points, don’t exist. So what’s the paradox? Brits abroad will tell you that they love these places. Elected and appointed officials from UK local government go on fact finding- missions to see for themselves. But back in the UK many of the good intentions melt away, and motorists seem to acquire a magical power of veto when it comes to improving our towns and cities by better management of the car. The question is, why? Pedestrians have votes too….