Council transport officers are inviting contributions to a transport study with a difference, as they look ahead at what Britain’s transport should look like in 2030 and beyond. T
The ambitious research project aims to answer what happens next – after today’s policies, including road charging, have run their course. And it starts from ‘the potentially-controversial view that travel is actually good for all of us,’ according to the County Surveyors’ Society.
Rather than seek to restrict travel, ‘we have started from the assumption that “travel is good”, because there are positive social benefits derived from travel which need to be supported,’ explained Ed Chorlton, chair of the CSS futures group.
Apart from a Department for Trade and Industry-sponsored Foresight report on intelligent infrastructure – written from a technology perspective – most longer-term thinking was concentrated on air and rail travel, and trunk roads, he said. ‘Nobody talks about the rest. We are trying to get some lateral thinking into the debate which, understandably, focuses on delivering today’s agenda.’
Council chief officers were dealing with these issues day-to-day, applying current policy, and were well placed to look forward, said Chorlton, director of environment, economy and culture at ~Devon County Council~ and its deputy chief executive.
The study will review current approaches to charging, rationing road space, environmental impacts, and investment levels. It will also explore the strategy options after public transport use is maximised, local transport plans have delivered ‘the shared priorities’, and congestion charging and demand restraint have taken effect. That work could also have implications for what was happening now – or should be happening, he said.
Through its work, the CSS group ‘aims to provide a vision under which local authorities can unite, lobby and collectively move forward the local transport and transportation agenda’. Its study started last summer, with a review of current policy development by the University of Southampton. A series of stakeholder hearings will be held this summer to canvass views from transport users, professionals and industry leaders.
futures@warwickshire.gov.uk
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