Sensible to pause city transport plan rather than to accelerate it
THE mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, has admitted to MPs on the House of Commons Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee that the council had “totally messed up” a major bus route in the city.
Mr Rees was referring to the installation of a cycle lane which reduced traffic from two lanes to one along Lewins Mead, resulting in severe congestion and delays for buses. This is not a surprise.
Back in the spring the mayor unveiled his transport vision for the city. He described it as being a “far reaching” plan to encourage walking, cycling and other “sustainable” forms of transport. The mayor said that ambitions to transform travel had been “accelerated” in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
I questioned his approach via your Letters & Opinion page. On June 2 you published my letter in which I described the mayor’s transport strategy as being a depressingly predictable plan which draws the wrong conclusions.
There has been a significant reduction in commuter traffic due to people working from home during the pandemic. A recent YouGov survey found that only 7 percent of workers want to return to the office full time after the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. It is likely that much of this reduction in commuter traffic will become embedded as a permanent change. I think it would have been sensible to pause the plan rather than accelerate it. A transport strategy could than have been formulated based on the new reality.
I expect that the mayor has used funds made available by the Department for Transport to implement these changes. However, it is still taxpayers’ money and it should be spent wisely. I understand that the council is required to improve air quality in the city and I fully support that. However, I am unconvinced that a policy which results in increased congestion and journey times will help to achieve this. And councils have been told by the College of Paramedics that such changes risk causing delays to ambulance response times. If so, that is a big problem.
I suspect the mayor is using the pandemic as an excuse to force people out of their cars. However, many are currently afraid to use public transport because of the risk of infection. I fully support walking and cycling as a means of transport where appropriate.
However, for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the disabled that is not an option. The mayor’s transport vision makes life more difficult for them.
Jonathan Hucker Conservative candidate
Stockwood Ward