The Civic Trust strongly believes that the businesses and the people of York urgently need more certainty about what the Council is planning over the next six years to achieve its ambition. The Local Transport Strategy draft Implementation Plan presented to the Council’s Economy, Place, Access and Transport Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 24^th September only includes commitments to 2026, and many of these  are vague and uncertain. The Council committed in the Local Transport Strategy approved by the Council Executive in July to producing a five year Implementation Plan to 2029 – which is what is now needed. 

Tony May, of York Civic Trust’s Transport Advisory Committee commented to the scrutiny committee; ‘This is a very short-sighted approach.  We know that Mayors will receive additional funding, and that the government will encourage reduced car dependency.  Strategically minded councils will be setting out their aspirations for these changes; so should York.’

Allied to this implementation plan are six further plans to be delivered by late 2025 and late 2026. These key plans, including a Movement and Place Plan and a Sustainable Transport Plan, are the groundwork on which city’s future will be built. There is already an influx of new planning applications in anticipation of approval of the Local Plan. Without a Sustainable Transport Plan it will be difficult to oppose applications for car-based developments. . The city urgently needs to have all its plans in place, so that it can meet its carbon reduction targets, and businesses, residents and developers can plan with confidence. The Council has a month to review its draft Implementation Plan before it is presented to the Executive.  The Civic Trust urges officers to review it in detail, drawing on expert advice, so that it is action-based, specific, and demonstrates that targets will be met.

The post York Civic Trust calls for more ambition from City of York Council’s transport plan. first appeared on York Civic Trust.

The post Can York learn from other cities? first appeared on York Civic Trust.

In 2019 over three quarters of residents surveyed told us that congestion, pollution and carbon emissions from transport were serious problems for York. We established a Citizens’ Transport Forum, which met in February 2020 and told us that the Council needs to be bold and visionary in its approach to transport in order to tackle these problems.

The Council agreed to start work on a new Local Transport Plan for York in January 2021, with the aim of producing a draft for consultation in January 2022. They invited York Civic Trust to provide advice on what might be included. The Council conducted its own Our Big Conversation survey in the summer, and found that among York residents congestion was a serious problem for 90% of people, pollution for 82% and transport’s impacts on climate change for 80%.

Yet the Council has decided to defer publication of its Local Transport Plan, without indicating when it will appear. The Trust have worked hard over the last year developing proposals for a new transport strategy. We do not claim to have all the answers, but we are clear that the options need to be discussed, and a consensus reached so that the Council can start to take action.

We have therefore decided to bring together our proposals in a Transport Strategy for York which we plan to launch in February 2022. We hope that this will stimulate the debate on future transport policy which is urgently needed, and that we can see significant progress on the ground within the next two years.

Professor Tony May, Chair of the Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, said:

“York’s Local Transport Plan is now over ten years old, and much has changed since then. Most other historic cities have already updated their transport strategies. The government will soon be instructing all local authorities to produce new Local Transport Plans, and to demonstrate how these will lead to reduced carbon emissions. It has made clear that future funding will be dependent on the quality of these Plans. Any new Plan will be contentious, and it is crucial that the Council starts the debate on alternative approaches soon. We hope that our new Strategy, to be launched in February, will stimulate that debate.”

The post York Civic Trust set to launch new Transport Strategy for the city first appeared on York Civic Trust.

The City of York Council has agreed to develop a new Local Transport Plan to replace the one issued a decade ago, which will be published for consultation in 2022. The Trust were invited to provide advice on what might be included in the new Plan, and have now submitted our initial proposals.

Last year the Trust convened a Citizens’ Transport Forum, with 100 members drawn from across the city to discuss the city’s transport needs. In its report, Towards a Transport Strategy for York, the Forum argued that any new Local Transport Plan “needs to adopt a holistic, bold and visionary strategy which achieves significant changes in travel behaviour in the immediate future”.

We have taken that as our starting point, and looked for ways in which the city’s transport system can contribute positively to the challenges of reducing carbon emissions, improving the environment and public health, supporting the economy and making it easier for people to take part in everyday activities.

The Trust’s 16-strong Transport Advisory Group, which draws on expertise in all aspects of transport policy, has spent the last few months reviewing the 2011 Local Transport Plan, suggesting the focus for the new Plan, and developing specific suggestions for improving public transport, walking and cycling, making it easier for people to travel less, and managing car use and the road network.

Among the suggestions in its initial proposals are:

· Giving pedestrians greater priority and more direct routes when crossing roads

· Developing a connected, continuous and safe cycle network

· Using park and ride sites as local access hubs, with more orbital bus services

· Local centres and community hubs to support working from home

· A parking policy to help manage levels of car use

· Using traffic control and communications technology to discourage through traffic

Professor Tony May, Chair of the Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, said:

“Since the Council’s current Local Transport Plan was produced a decade ago, much has changed, with electric cars, bikes and scooters, ride-hailing services such as Uber, increased online shopping and now more working from home. At the same time we have new commitments to carbon reduction and air quality, and need to support economic recovery. We have gone back to first principles and asked what sort of city we want, and how can transport best contribute. We have looked in turn at each of the forms of transport, and at how they can best support one another. We have looked internationally for examples of good practice.

We would like to hear from everyone about the ideas which attract support, those that don’t, and suggestions that we might have missed.

The proposals are available on our website, along with our review of the 2011 Local Transport Plan and overview of the approach that we have adopted.

The post Be bold and visionary in your new Local Transport Plan, says York Civic Trust first appeared on York Civic Trust.

York Civic Trust and York Cycle Campaign have teamed to develop a response to this challenge. In a report published today and presented to York City Council, they explain the short-term need:

The effects of the lockdown impose serious threats to York’s tourism, retail and leisure industry. We will need to return to fuller employment, education, shopping, leisure and tourism if the city is to remain vibrant. Yet we know that social distancing will need to remain in place for some time to come, reducing the capacity of pavements, cycle lanes and bus services alike. With the government still discouraging people from using public transport, there is a real danger that car use will rise to levels above those before the lockdown, and result in even worse levels of congestion and pollution.

But the potential for transformative change is also key. Just before the lockdown started, York’s ground-breaking Citizens’ Transport Forum concluded that the Council “needs to produce a holistic, bold and visionary transport plan which achieves significant changes in travel behaviour in the near future.” Our response to coming out of lockdown offers an unanticipated opportunity to commence this process.

The policy document focuses on enabling and encouraging:

· residents who are able to do so to access the city centre, local centres, colleges and workplaces on foot and by bike;

· primary and secondary school children to access their schools on foot and by bike as an alternative to using school buses or the car;

· commuters from outside York to switch to park and cycle;

· tourists and day visitors to walk and cycle from their arrival point in York and throughout their stay.

It offers a series of improvements which can be made throughout York to help walkers and cyclists, and suggests using much of the funding available from government to implement these. But it also accepts that further action will be needed where the transport network is most constrained. The attached map illustrates the key proposals, which include:

· widening pavements at many locations in the city centre and on the approaches;

· park and cycle facilities at all six park and ride sites, with high quality cycle routes to the city centre;

· improvements to the orbital cycle route and new links from the villages;

· improvements to the cycle route from Micklegate Bar to Stonebow, including a bus-only section across Ouse Bridge;

· innovative schemes to give cyclists priority at Lendal and Skeldergate Bridges;

· improved crossing facilities on the Inner Ring Road to avoid pedestrians having to cluster at traffic lights;

· a bus-only section on Gillygate, where social distancing is particularly difficult.

Professor Tony May, chair of York Civic Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, said:

“If we can reallocate road space to allow as many people as possible to access York safely, this in turn will support the recovery of business and tourism. We have called upon the voluntary contributions of many experts to help develop this programme. We fully appreciate that the programme which we outline above is substantial, will require significant initial investment and continued resources for maintenance and enforcement, and will in parts be controversial. But it is essential that York adopts a visionary programme of this kind if it is to be successful in responding to the government’s challenge.”

Kate Ravilious, of York Cycle Campaign, said: “We’d like everyone to be involved and next week we’ll be launching a Commonplace interactive map for residents to suggest where space for walking and cycling is needed. Meanwhile, we’d like to see the Council keep people safe and address priority locations immediately. Our petition, which asks the council to make space for walking and cycling during the Covid crisis, now has over 1500 signatures, demonstrating that residents want to see this change,”

“We would like to see the Council start consulting immediately on the longer term proposals in our list, set targets for achievement. monitor the impacts of implemented schemes and publicise and promote the results,” adds Professor May

We look forward to working with the Council and other stakeholders on this programme, in order to achieve the transformational change which the government, our Citizens’ Transport Forum and, we are sure, our Council seek.”

For more information, please contact Ben Pilgrim on 0778 995 1781. To download the report please click on the link below

The post Transforming travel and protecting the public: how York should respond first appeared on York Civic Trust.

Partnering with the York Environment Forum and York Bus Forum, The Trust’s surveys asked residents and those commuting into York to work to outline what they feel are current issues with transport in the City, how and why they move around the City and how they would like to see transport changed in the future.  

The results of the surveys of residents, commuters and visitors can now be read and downloaded here:

York Transport Local Consultation – Key Findings Report: Residents and Commuters, Nov. 2019

York Local Transport Consultation – Key Findings Report: Visitors’ surveys, Nov. 2019

The response to the survey will feed into the Council’s new Local Transport Plan, work on which is expected to be started next year.

A Citizens’ Transport Forum, drawn from those who completed the survey, will shortly be established to discuss and review the implications of the responses, and to work with the Council as it develops its Plan.  

This consultation was funded by York Civic Trust, The National Lottery Community Fund, the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, York Environment Forum, York Bus Forum and York BID.

The post Transport Survey first appeared on York Civic Trust.