‘Travel habits will evolve’
Bath’s sustainable travel boss says creating disruption on the city’s roads will allow new patterns to emerge.
Deputy leader Sarah Warren said Bath and North East Somerset Council will be swift to act if new low traffic neighbourhoods are not working but they must be given a chance, and co-designing them with communities should prevent problems arising.
She said all of the Liberal Democrat policies were aimed at driving down car dependency to improve public health and tackle the climate emergency. The party has allocated £2m on its liveable neighbourhood rollout and if “particularly thorny” issues arise up to half of the budget for individual schemes could be spent on public engagement.
Cabinet bosses last month approved the first 15 “simple” applications to take forward - and their success will be critical to the Lib Dems’ re-election chances.
Their Conservative rivals have claimed the project will make some areas “unliveable” by displacing traffic onto congested roads and restricting access for businesses and people with disabilities.
Asked how confident she is in the rollout and the administration’s ability to maintain public support, Cllr Warren, the climate and sustainable travel cabinet member, said: “It’s all about bringing the public with us.
“We know from our climate emergency declaration that we have to reduce per person car mileage by 25 per cent by 2030 to hit net zero.
“Bath is rammed with traffic. It’s full of congestion. Businesses lose money sat in queues. This is all about providing alternative ways of getting around.
“That will mean those people who don’t need to travel by car will feel safe trying out alternative ways of getting around the city. That will mean that those who have no option but to travel by car should have an easier time getting around.
“It’s absolutely vital that some of them work. Why would you not want that for your area? It’s about making spaces around people’s homes that are less dominated by cars that are nice spaces to spend time and chat with your neighbours.
“We had a lot of support for the principle and a lot of people are willing this to succeed.”
She added: “We’re trying to create infrastructure where pedestrians are separate from bikes, who will be separate from cars, and it will just feel safer for everyone.
“By creating a bit of disruption on the highway network you get people to think newly about the way they move around, and then new routines will evolve, and fewer people will be dependent on cars.
“We have to give them a bit of time. It can take several weeks.
“When liveable neighbourhoods have been put in in other places in consultation with communities they have eventually resulted in new patterns of behaviour. We need to give them time when they bed in.
“As a council we have the ability to take anything we think really is just not working. It’s really important to give them time and bear with.”
She could not say how the council will determine if something is not working in the short term, or would not work at all, but added: “We don’t anticipate that there will be big concerns because we’re going to design them carefully with communities.”
The council is working out how it will co-design the schemes with the community. It is set to publish a consultation and engagement plan this month, start consulting and codesigning the first schemes in September and then prepare preliminary costings the following month.
Another round of consultation will take place in November before they are rolled out - the council is now aiming for June 2022.
A presentation for scrutiny committee members this week revealed that in difficult cases a signalised pedestrian crossing can cost more than £150,000.
Cllr Manda Rigby, the cabinet member for transport, said the £2m budget would not go far on that basis but some measures could be as cheap as a planter.
She said the 15 schemes taken forward were for wealthy areas and left behind neighbourhoods across B&NES so the council can be sure they work everywhere.
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It’s about making spaces around people’s homes less dominated by cars that are nice spaces to spend time and chat with your neighbours.
Cllr Sarah Warren