Let’s create a positive and long-lasting transport legacy
TO be on one of our buses in what was, not that long ago, the central Bristol rush hour, it is difficult to comprehend how much has changed in a matter of months. But with change comes opportunity: and I believe we now have a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to reinvent our cities for the better and to establish sustainable mobility once and for all into our urban infrastructure.
Many office workers are still working from home across the West of England (and this number is not likely to reduce all that much over the next few months), so now is the time to look at how we reshape Bristol and Bath in particular from a transport perspective and how we capitalise on the significant shift we continue to experience in travel needs and patterns.
This means looking at our road layout and urban design in a radical way that we may not have envisaged before. What this could mean in practice remains to be seen, and requires clear leadership by the politicians in WECA (West of England Combined Authority) and the local authorities, but it is clear that the car-centric modelling of the 1970s is not sustainable and if the political will to think radical is there, this will benefit our area for decades to come.
Before lockdown, congestion and air pollution in the West of England were two of the key issues being addressed by our local authorities. They remain so. We are seeing engagement from all of our local leaders with Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bristol City councils all declaring climate emergencies in the last 18 months, showing how serious these issues are.
Clean Air Zones, bus-only roads and the pedestrianisation of key areas, such as the old city in Bristol city centre, are amongst key moves to tackle congestion and pollution.
As a bus company, we support cycling – people might think we wouldn’t! But cyclists are often also public transport users and certainly less likely to own and use a car. So we are excited that people are being encouraged to stay on their bikes through initiatives such as the BusinessWest Cycling Works, a cross-city north-to-south and east-to-west protected bike corridor, based on the new planned and existing routes; cycle-friendly facilities at each of our park and rides and additional secure bike parking across the city centre.
Going forward, ideally cyclists will have segregated parts of the highway to enable them to make their journey alongside dedicated bus priority routes. We’d like that: buses and cycles may be on the same side of the fight, but don’t enjoy each other’s company in bus lanes! And walking is also up the agenda with WECA’s recently adopted Local Cycling and Walking Plan (LCWIP). Again, pedestrians are likely to be bus users, too.
Indeed, cross working will be critical to the new approach to transport. The West of England, for instance, is one of only four transport areas to trial e-scooters as part of a £100m fund earmarked for investment in public transport schemes. It will be very interesting to see how this develops.
We certainly need to start looking at ways we can accommodate passengers who will want to use them as a ‘last mile’ or ‘first mile’ option on their journey.
From our perspective, we’ve already increased bus frequency on some routes – such as the No 2 route in Bristol (albeit frequencies have been affected – both up and down - in the short term by CV19) and the city council has introduced some more bus priority (although right now some adjustments are needed, lest the measures introduced in good faith actually delay the buses).
There are now 99 carbon-neutral bio-methane gas-powered buses running clean and smooth on local routes, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 85 per cent and by next year we hope to have the whole of our bus fleet meeting the highest Euro VI standard, which also significantly reduces exhaust emissions. Biomethane gas buses are a smart and efficient way of realising our decarbonisation ambitions as we move away from more polluting technologies to much greener ones. We are looking for more in Bristol next year, despite the national obsession with electric everything.
Covid-19 has also prompted the astonishingly rapid development of some clever new ideas to make things easier for the bus user. The first of these was the change to the First Bus app that enabled users to see where their bus actually is on the map and indeed how much space it has on board. More recently we have rolled out Space Checker which allows the user to see how busy our routes are and where the space is. Then there is our pilot, being developed with WECA’s support, which is BookMyBusRide.com. This is an experimental service which enables the user on selected routes to secure a space on the bus before travel.
Through active partnership working, we will continue to support the economic, community and environmental wellbeing of the region, combining funding from local government in bus infrastructure with our own commitment to cleaner vehicles and easing congestion.
We have all faced unprecedented challenges this year, and it is unlikely that they are over yet, but rather than writing off 2020 as the year that wasn’t, let’s make the most of the opportunities which have also been presented to us and view it as the year that together we created a positive and long-lasting transport legacy.
Much has changed this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but far from writing off 2020, we should embrace the opportunities it has brought, says James Freeman, managing director of First West of England