Transition Derby

What started out as a simple idea some months ago turned out to be a real success with just under thirty people coming out to hear the four people panel on Saturday 12th March. The question was Derby: 2031 - How will we travel?" and the panel consisted of:

• Alex Hornby; Commercial Director of trentbarton
• Chandra Morbey; Railway Engineer, Derby
• Dave Clasby, Director of Bike It with affiliations with Sustrans
• Catherine Martin, Planner from Derby City Council Transport Dept

Chandra, offered to go first and she gave us some very interesting insights into how travel by tram, train and tram-train had evolved since the 1890’s. She started by saying that today’s system of mobility was unsustainable and that electricity seemed to be the fuel for our future transport needs, providing it doesn’t pollute, doesn’t have a carbon footprint and won’t cause radiation scares.

Basically we need to double the amount we walk and use trains, multiply by six times the amount we cycle, quarter the amount we use cars and travel 20% of what we do at the moment. Quite a tall order and one that is going to require some huge mind-set change.

Amazingly lots of what we will be using in 20 years’ time is already here and the trams with motors from Brush in Loughborough dating from 19thcentury, trams in Nottingham from ABB made in Derby and even possibly trolley buses (don’t need any expensive rails and only need some overhead cable) which stopped in 1960 in Derby. Other modes she mentioned were Tram-trains (run on train tracks and tram rails) are popular in Germany and are due to be trialled in Sheffield and Rotherham and also Personal Rapid Transport (small cars running on a track, being used at Heathrow)

She ended her 10 minute slot with some must do’s:

• lots of community involvement and initiatives
• make it a lot more easier to catch the train
• more cycle parking at stations and tram stops
• better seat reservations
• better pricing models to fill up trains.

Alex, from Trent Barton got off to a fast start by saying that TB was very customer led, had attractive, comfortable vehicles, one of the most modern bus fleets in the country vehicles with smiling drivers. He called it the “Coffee shop” approach and certainly the buses on the Mickleover route fit the bill exactly. Alex said he was going to be a little controversial and started by saying that unless more embrace buses we are going to have congestion, congestion, congestion, gridlock, high carbon emissions and people won’t be able to leave home.

He explained that public transport had been reducing from the 1950’s and it was only in 1996 when TB’s fortunes began to improve. For example after some market research they launched the Spondon Flyer and usage has increased 400%. Alex went on to say that the future of the bus to 2031 depended on:

• more use by the general public
• reduced dependency on council grants
• smaller networks
• a hub and spoke arrangement
• affordable technology
• access by mobile
• lots of incremental changes

Catherine from the Transport Planning Dept. of the Derby City Council was next and she explained that the coalition of the political parties supported sustainable local transport, which included promoting public transport and more cycling.

Catherine went on to say that Derby was a "Be Active" city and supported the many Hi Tec companies and SME’s based in Derby and the coalition was determined to make best use of our existing assets. We were not going to see more costly projects like the new Bus Station, Connecting Derby or the Swing Bridge across the river at Cathedral Green. We had to make the best use of the assets we had.

With regard to travel in 2031, it was going to be more expensive, with fewer journeys and a need to increase the use of technology to reduce the number of cars and increase the number of buses and cyclists. Some ideas are by:

• attracting more electric cars, we would need to have a system of electric charging points in the city
• educating children and adults more about the challenges we were facing with transport
• promoting more people cycling over short routes
• developing more web-based information, which linked Traveline with lift share and car pool websites
• providing more help with travel planning to create smarter travel with automatic debit systems i.e. like Mango from Trent Barton across all bus companies and integrate real time displays on bus stops
• promoting more shared travel with City car clubs, shared journeys and more pre-planning of car trips

Dave, as the stand-in speaker for Sheridan Piggott, was the final speaker and as ever was very passionate with lots of information and examples. His main points were that we:

• must change the way we live
• need a strong jolt to get us out the old way of thinking and behaving due to a general crisis of general inactivity and massive freedom of mass consumption
• needed to be aware of the increasing immigration of people from areas that are becoming more and more inhospitable
• will suffer from more and more congestion and more and more pollution if we don’t change
• need to re-examine not where we are travelling but why do we travel so much – the distances, the relationships between where we work and where we live

He then went on to describe a few ideas based on the carbon reductions required by 2020, which had been developed by Sustrans:

• we must redesign our travel to include 20% of journeys must be by bicycle
• 50% of our journeys must be under 4 miles
• promotion to a better infrastructure must be promoted, especially at junctions where must re-design the "hierarchy of transport" away from the car being number 1:

1. Pedestrians
2. Cyclists
3. Buses
4. Cars
5. Trains

• speeds must be reduced from 30mph to 20mph and 70mph to 50mph
• rewards for slowing down and less driving must be created or the equivalent of the more you drive the more you pay
• more help must be given to rural communities, as they will be very cut off by high oil/high energy prices
• introduce congestion charging to fund the improvements
• change dramatically the way we think about travelling
• live closer to work
• reduced income tax if one lives and works within the same postcode i.e. from home or similar
• remove the VAT from bicycles
• motorbike licence from 17 years old and driving licence age increased to 21 years old
• more space for bikes on trains and buses – the latter could be attached on the rear as in Europe.

In completion Dave gave some comments about how society must to change its cultural perception and aspirations so that:

• people who travel by bus and cycle are seen as responsible members of society
• people see cyclists as healthy, active and responsible
• bus users are seen as responsible users of community services
• single occupancy of car use is seen as an incorrect use of earth’s assets and road space
• joint ownership of cars, like car clubs, is seen as the best use of assets
• walking, cycling and use of public transport is seen as the only way to travel
• more joined up thinking between centres of work – hospitals, large factories, office complexes, industrial estates – so that bus journeys replace individual car usage
• more use of ICT so that users know when their bus are due to come
• better training of car, van, lorry, bus and train drivers to understand the best way to accelerate and brake so that the least amount of fuel is used
• consider the use of the German system of ordering the bus via the internet/mobile system to come to you rather than buses travelling at times when and where there are no passengers

After throwing open the discussion to the floor, additional comments included:

• cycleways don’t work as cars and buses don’t always respect them
• the confidence of cyclists needs to be raised
• more thought should be put into the planning and design of road and street markings to give more priority to cyclists and reduce the power of the car
• free cyclist training provided for children and adults
• more promotion of cycling as a way of keeping fit, being healthy and getting from A to B quicker
• increase the road space for cyclists and public transport by reducing the road space for cars
• only allow lorries to use the centre of the city for deliveries, outside of peak travel times
• increase the amount of cycle parking at regular points in the city
• improve the security of cycle parking
• change the traffic light controls in favour of cyclists
• increase the security of trains late at night
• provide better value for travelling by bus and train, which takes into consideration the economy of saving of road depreciation, damage and wear by cars

Conclusion

Many thanks to Chandra, Alex, Catherine and Dave for without you we would not have had the richness of thought and discussion, stimulated by your presentations. The amount of ideas and thought from yourselves and the audience demonstrated there is a huge amount to be done to change the lifetime of habits and behaviours of car drivers to get them out from behind the steering wheel to sitting on a saddle and sit in a bus or train, and that is if they don’t walk. Thankfully there is a lot of like-minded thinking from yourselves as to what is required and we need to challenge and change:

• the ridiculous reasons why we travel so much
• increase the idea of living and working locally i.e. localisation
• reduce this idea of "me" and bring back the concept of community
• develop more use of ICT to allow people to plan their journeys in advance
• create more seamless use of travel facilities
• change the priority of modes of transport.

©William Barron

Transition Derby

April 4th 2011