One journey Scotland has to make

TRANSform Scotland's challenge for the Scottish Parliament

First published March 1999.

Reclaiming Scotland's streets ... the main challenge for the Parliament

Contents:

... reviving our cities
... tackling social exclusion
... saving lives
... improving public health
... managing our roads
... helping our children

Transport priorities for the Scottish Parliament

reviving our cities

Our traffic clogged city centres present a hostile environment to the tourist trade upon which Scotland is so dependent. Our historic streets are unnecessarily littered with cars.

Traffic calming and pedestrianisation will bring benefits to retailers, shoppers, visitors and residents.

tackling social exclusion

Low income households in inner-city areas are often worst affected by traffic noise and air pollution. Despite having the lowest rates of car ownership, they are yet more likely to be killed or injured in car crashes.

In Scotland, where 38% of households have no access to a car, a car-dominated transport system is a luxury that immediately excludes a large part of the population.

Only by taming the speed and aggression of car and lorry drivers, and by promoting high quality public transport systems, can inner-urban streets again be pleasant.

saving lives

Road crashes are still a major cause of death in Scotland: our pedestrian road death rate is one of the worst in Europe, while our child pedestrian death rate makes crashes the major cause of death for those under 14.

Reducing speed in residential areas can help tackle this carnage.

improving public health

Scotland's population suffers from poor health and fitness, exacerbated by increasing car dependence. It is clear that everyday activity like walking and cycling must form a key focus of efforts to improve the nation's health.

But this can only be brought about if these vulnerable road users are not endangered by dangerous driving and noxious exhaust fumes.

managing our roads

It is now widely accepted that building new roads is a costly and ineffective way to tackle congestion and pollution or to improve the economy. Despite this, the vested interests in the roads lobby will always call for one last, supposedly vital, "missing link" to be built.

We should instead be looking to better manage and maintain the existing road network rather than letting it crumble: this will help not only car drivers, but also other road users such as bus passengers, cyclists and pedestrians.

helping our children

Children are one of the most vulnerable groups as they are most likely to be pedestrians, while children from poorer households are even more at risk, partly because of loss of play space.

Streets must be made safe for children through giving pedestrians priority over cars and 'Safe Routes to School' projects.

Transport priorities for the Scottish Parliament

1. Reclaiming the streets. The fundamental transport challenge in our cities, towns and villages, is to transform the use of street space. Vulnerable road users - pedestrians, cyclists and those with disabilities - must be given priority. Streets made inhospitable by speeding motorists, noise and polluted air must be reclaimed for public use; residential areas must be reclaimed for the people who live in them.

2. Tackle traffic growth. Current traffic growth forecasts suggest 60% more traffic on the roads within three decades: this is patently unsustainable. The Parliament must implement a strategy to reduce traffic miles by 10% by 2010, focusing on the quarter of car journeys that are under two miles in distance and commuter car trips that can be readily switched on to public transport. A major switch from heavy lorries to freight trains should be encouraged, in particular on the long hauls to markets in England and the continent.

3. A level playing field for transport investment. It is imperative that criteria for assessing road and rail investment are put on the same playing field and that in both cases the wider social, economic and environmental effects of investment are taken into account.

4. Kick the addiction to road building. Destructive and traffic-generating road proposals such as the M74 Northern Extension and the Kelvin Valley M80 must be ditched once and for all. Funds saved should be switched into increasing the scale of the Scottish Public Transport Fund, which at Ł30 million a year is set at a level less than the cost of one mile of an M74 extension.

5. Making transport pay its way. MSPs must encourage a full debate about the true costs and implications of transport choice. The motoring lobby's calls for lower fuel taxes ignores the real environmental and health impacts of rising traffic levels and miscalculates the true costs of unnecessary car use to society at large. The Scottish Parliament must however also promote reform to our current fuel duty strategy to make it better targeted on urban areas where congestion and pollution are worse, and where public transport alternatives may be more viable.

6. Show an example. A minimum of 50% of MSP journeys to the Parliament should be made by public transport, cycling or on foot. If our MSPs are not prepared to make personal commitment to sustainable modes of transport then voters are unlikely to take seriously the political parties' professed commitments to public transport, cycling and walking.

Published by TRANSform Scotland, March 1999.

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