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Drivers to be offered incentives in £15m move to limit car use



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Published Date: 17 March 2008
By ALASTAIR DALTON
TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT
FREE bus and train tickets and cut-price bicycles could be offered to drivers to slash car use under radical plans being launched today.
Ministers want to encourage showcase projects to develop greener transport in communities across Scotland. They hope to repeat the success of similar schemes in England which have seen cycling increase by up to 80 per cent in some towns.

Transport
campaigners welcomed the £15 million move, which they said was more than had been provided south of the Border.

Stewart Stevenson, the transport minister, said: "I want to see Scotland do even better."

Reducing car use is part of the ten-point Let's Go Green Together campaign launched by The Scotsman and the Scottish Government in January.

Cars and other vehicles are responsible for nearly one-fifth of Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions and other gases that affect air quality and health.

The Scottish Government has teamed up with Cosla, the local authorities umbrella body, for a three-year project to create "sustainable travel demonstration communities".

It will encourage councils to jointly fund, with the government, schemes which would showcase initiatives to maximise walking, cycling and public transport and reduce car travel.

Other measures could include no-car zones, improved cycle paths and footpaths, car-sharing schemes and individually tailored advice to households on how to cut car use.





The full article contains 234 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 16 March 2008 9:07 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

druidh,

edinburgh 17/03/2008 00:13:40
Here's an idea. Scrap the trams and give free bus passes to everyone in Edinburgh. It'd still work out cheaper!
2

truthsleuth,

17/03/2008 01:26:05
#1 druidh,
Expand the tram system and the bus/rail system.
Use Eaach where they are best suited.
If Auld Reekie wants to stop reekin then trams are the way ahead they are safer and quieter.

3

Snuffy Ivy,

Aberdeen 17/03/2008 02:11:35
Here's a far cheaper solution to congestion: The UK government should fix a moratorium on the sale of vehicles! Why NOT?
4

Guga II,

Rockall 17/03/2008 03:45:47
#3 Only a townie would come out with a suggestion like that.
5

Hmm ...,

17/03/2008 05:32:49
... so the SNP's desire for better communications in Scotland has petered out rather quickly. Pity, I was impressed by their early approach.

I suppose that ten years of Labour neglect of our road network is an expensive failure to rectify. It still needs to be done and the sooner we start the sooner we can improve Scotland's economy.
6

M.T.,

17/03/2008 07:29:13
Please be aware:-

I will not freewheel down to the supermarket and pedal back up home on a bike with potatoes and other heavy shopping.

I will not get dressed up in the evening and go out for dinner, in the rain, on a bike.
7

M.T.,

17/03/2008 07:31:19
No matter the incentive
8

drew 33,

17/03/2008 08:02:22
Our MPs and MSPS have free rail and bus travel but still manage to claim for thousands of miles of car travel each year.
9

Unimpressed one,

17/03/2008 08:08:56
#8 spot on there. So drivers are to be offered free public travel? What about the rest of us? Is a case of one incentive for the car user and bu*gger all for the non-car owner? If bus fares were pegged at reasonable levels then maybe we would be getting somewhere. In the meantime First Bus runs a half-ar*sed service in West Lothian and puts its fares up every 6 months.
10

yockel,

17/03/2008 08:43:10
80% increase in cycling, what does that mean? Existing cyclists take the scenic route home or two more folk cycle to work?

The sensible location of work places relative to the living accommodation of the workforce might be a better long term solution. The UK doesn't do strategic thinking though.
11

joppa jock,

Huntingdon 17/03/2008 09:57:31
I live near Cambridge which has the highest use of bIkes in the UK, and they're a nightmare. One-way streets, traffic signals and other road signs mean nothing to them. Pavements become impassable as bikes are chained up 4 deep. Cambridge is a small hill-free city, but cycling from the outskirts of cities the size of Edinburgh or Glasgow would be fairly stressful for cyclists and motorists alike.
12

zorba,

airdrie 17/03/2008 10:49:25
When we all go green and cycle 30 miles a day to work, who will spend time with our children as our quality time will be reduced, or does going green only count for so called single parent mothers, who choose to live with their partners have three children and not declare they have a partner nad then work 16 hours a week. Also where will the tax come from tom pay them when iam on my bike
13

zorba,

airdrie 17/03/2008 10:54:56
When we all go green and cycle 30 miles a day to work, who will spend time with our children as our quality time will be reduced, or does going green only count for so called single parent mothers, who choose to live with their partners have three children and not declare they have a partner and then work 16 hours a week. Also where will the tax come from to pay them when I am on my bike
14

Normal!,

Nairn 17/03/2008 11:42:06
It is fairly obvious that as we continue to add to the population with ever increasing migration then it follows there will be more car users. It is the same reason our government is so proud of the increase in rail passengers. The unfortunate spin off is all public services are suffering. As for housing, it appears the only way they will stop building is when they run out of land!
15

The Former Mr. Angry,

Perth 17/03/2008 11:47:24
No such thing as a free lunch! It all has to be paid for by someone, in the case you and me. If you cannot for some reason use public transport efficiently or even at all, you are therefore bolstering freebies for the rest. Since a large percentage of Scotland is not covered by public transport in a meaningful way, i.e. you could take several hours to get there and back, or even days in some cases there's an obvious disparity.

If trains and buses and trams are made available, are clean and run to decent timetables they'll sell themselves, Initiatives like this will fizzle out unless the idea has economic and social merit.
16

Brisssac,

Glasgow 17/03/2008 14:01:34
additional info:
Free public transport tickets could be offered to encourage people to try it.
A national transport strategy launched by the previous Scottish Executive in 2006 included plans for exclusion zones around schools in which all or most vehicles would be banned. Tavish Scott, the then transport minister, said “some pretty hard decisions” would have to be faced over restricting car use to boost the proportion of children cycling or walking to school.
Despite previous efforts and significant improvements to buses and trains in many areas, Scotland is still largely wedded to its cars.
More than two in three people still travel to work in cars or vans, which has increased slightly since devolution nine years ago.
Although rail commuting has increased, bus use is down slightly and walking and cycling to work is virtually unchanged.
In addition, more pupils are being driven to school at the expense of walking than in 1999.
Mr Stevenson said: “Congested roads, increasing car use, more cars on our roads, and rising emissions - these are the worrying trends facing Scotland in 2008.
“It is clear that it is time for us all to take action. We must encourage a change in the mode of transport we use.
“We need to look at new ways of persuading people out of the car and onto more sustainable forms of travel such as trains, buses, walking and cycling.
“Sustainable travel communities give us a fantastic opportunity to do just that, and could drastically change our travel habits. This approach has delivered impressive results in other countries, transforming the travel behaviour of thousands of residents.”
Colin Howden, the director of sustainable transport campaigners TRANSform Scotland, said the government was offering more cash over a shorter period than in England.
He said: "This will provide an excellent opportunity to showcase how small-scale local transport projects can get people to switch to sustainable transport.
“The English scheme has proved very s
17

Brisssac,

Glasgow 17/03/2008 14:02:35
additional info (continued):
“The English scheme has proved very successful. Given the additional funding available in the Scottish scheme, there is no reason why this shouldn't deliver even better results.
“If Scotland is to achieve its ambitious climate change emission targets then the transport sector is going to have to play a large part. The sustainable travel towns will provide examples of how to bring about reductions in carbon emissions.”
Stephen Joseph, the executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport, said the English projects had proved such “smarter choices” can have an enormous impact on travel behaviour.
Alison Hay, Cosla’s regeneration and sustainable development spokeswoman, said: “We all want to live in more sustainable, healthier communities but getting from where we are now to there is going to involve some fundamental lifestyle shifts.
“This project provides a forum for looking at how we can make these shifts in a big way.”
18

Turkey Jerky,

17/03/2008 15:02:20
I have an 80 mile a day round trip to work. I would have to get 2 trains (walking between stations) and a bus, and still have to walk a further 3/4 mile. It takes me 40mins to drive in the morn, it would take at LEAST 1.5 hours to use public transport. Also the cost of driving is about £9 - £10 a day. Trains and bus would be £12 -£13 a day.

Nuff said. Even if it were free, my time is worth more to me.
19

CyclingEdinburgh,

17/03/2008 16:51:46
http://cyclingedinburgh.info/2008/03/17/part-of-edinburgh-to-be-travel-demonstration-community

 

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