"We don’t take enough account of the urban development benefits you get (from trams) and should be looking more favourably at urban rail transport."

Trams need a push, inquiry hears

Britain needs to embrace more light rail, discourage workplace parking, improve links between planning and transport and encourage vehicle sharing if efforts to tackle urban congestion are to succeed, witnesses to a Transport Select Committee inquiry evidence session remarked on Monday.

Dr David Metz of University College London was asked if trams are more effective than buses in encouraging modal shift. “Evidence shows they are, but we have not been very forward in building trams in Britain compared with countries on the Continent, in particular France,” he said. “We don’t take enough account of the urban development benefits you get (from trams) and should be looking more favourably at urban rail transport.”

Witnesses were asked for other solutions to urban congestion, which led to a call to discourage workplace parking from Local Government Technical Advisers Group national transport committee vice chair John Elliott. “Travel planning is a powerful tool but at the moment it can be quite difficult to do transport planning for workplaces in small towns,” he said. 

John Elliott added that a lot of people currently drive to work, get a free parking space and clog up town centres, whereas bus journeys often cost more. “That doesn’t feel right; we effectively subsidise people to drive to work rather than encourage them to cycle or use the bus. Little changes are needed to make a big difference."

CIHT’s policy and technical affairs director Andrew Hugill was asked if local authorities currently take sufficient note of the impact of traffic congestion when approving new housing estates. “I would suggest that the link between planning and transport is not as strong as it might be,” he replied. “There is room for improvement in understanding how development impacts on transport in its widest sense.”

John Elliott added that there is “definitely a tension” between authorities which have targets for housing and those with responsibility for transport. “Most of these new housing developments are on the periphery of relatively small towns where alternative modes are not there. We are getting a lot more congestion that is not solvable with the current strategies in place.”

The witnesses were asked for their thoughts on the introduction of driverless vehicles. “For any new technology we should be asking what impact it will have on congestion,” remarked Dr Metz. “What is important is the idea of sharing, such as people being incentivised to share taxis by offering lower fares. This may be more interesting to look at than driverless cars.”