Brighton and Hove transport infogram

As part of the preparation for LTP4 (Local Transport Plan 4), which Brighton and Hove City Council is required to put in place, council officers have prepared a briefing pack for members of the transport partnership. Here’s a useful infogram from the brief, which sets out some key facts about transport in and around Brighton and Hove. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that 38.2% of households in Brighton and Hove do not own a car or van.

Quote of the Week

Meant to post this a while ago - it’s a quote from an article last month in the Financial Times (registration required) by Adair Turner, formerly the chairman of the UK’s Financial Services Authority. The article is about the relationship between the housing market and financial instability.

He notes,
“Increased supply must be part of the policy response but preferably through increased housing density in major cities. Transport and environmental policies that enable people to live in more densely populated areas without jeopardising their quality of life could be as important to financial stability as bank capital requirements.”

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.
c


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….

Quote of the Week

Driverless cars (again) – Google gets it on car ownership.

“Google….looks at our motorised world and sees that we spend fortunes on the purchase, upkeep and operation of cars that are usually driven by a single human, spend a good deal of their time immobilised in urban congestion, and much of the rest of the time parked in streets. They see governments and local authorities driven to distraction, if not to bankruptcy, by the costs of providing roads and infrastructure to support our motoring habit. They see the mortality, environmental and health costs of human-controlled automobiles. And they think: this is nuts.”

(And a great way to make loads of money.)

John Naughton, The Observer, 1.6.14

Google’s disruptive driver-less cars

It’s easy to laugh at the two seater Google-mobile, which goes at 25 mph, has a cartoonish cutesyness and lacks a steering wheel. So I was going to write about how, despite appearances, this disruptive intervention by Google could potentially change everything in the sphere of transport - from public to personal.



And then I saw this article in the Telegraph by Matt Warman, a person who likes cars and driving. According to Warman, “Our lives are ruled by cars even if we don’t drive….and Google will end that era.” So, I’ll let him comment. And if you doubt whether it will happen, just remember, that while Google is now a large (and growing) part of the digital furniture, twenty years ago it did not exist - and a Googol was a number meaning 10^100.

Fascinating facts: transport data from the census

Here’s a glimpse of some census data relating to transport. It shows that Brighton and Hove is a lot more carfree than most of the south east. The full picture is here, and there’s a more focused look at travel to work patterns here (unfortunately, whoever wrote it refers to data from the 2001 Census. I’m assuming that’s a mistake.) Anyhow, the most shocking fact is that nearly 9,000 (30%) of workers in the city who travel less than 2km to work use a car. Why?

“You don’t have transport”

Or so someone said to me the other day, referring to my status as a carfree chooser and their perception that I wouldn’t be able to get to a couple of addresses (in central Brighton!).  Correction: “You don’t own a car” ≠ “You don’t have transport.” “Transport” takes many forms, including: two feet, one at the end of each leg; two wheels, frequently attached to a bike. Four wheels, which feature on all of the following: car club cars, hire cars, taxis and buses. Not to mention the wheels that run on rails which snake out of Brighton and Hove and connect us with the rest of the UK and Europe. When it comes to transport, ownership is not the name of the game.

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.”