How are we performing currently?
The framework below sets out the criteria against which the current status can be assessed. Aspirational objectives are then set to encourage progress towards the vision.
The framework below sets out the criteria against which the current status can be assessed. Aspirational objectives are then set to encourage progress towards the vision.
2021 Assessment
Where are we now and what else do we need to know?
Transport is Dorset’s biggest challenge, representing 38% of all carbon emissions. Despite significant improvements in the efficiency of vehicles, increased car ownership, larger cars (SUVs), more miles travelled and a decline in public transport provision have offset all the potential savings.
The rural nature of a county with relatively long commutes and poor bus services (largely restricted to built-up areas) means most have no option but to drive. More than 4 billion miles were travelled across Dorset in 2019 (2,750 million – Dorset, 1,371 million BCP) and, as can be seen in Figure 3 for the Dorset Council area, this remained on an upward trajectory pre-pandemic.
In fact, car ownership in the Dorset Council area is already above the national average, reflecting the need to travel for daily activities and the weakness in our public transport infrastructure; clearly more than ‘initiatives’ will be required to address the problem. At the same time, Bournemouth is the third most congested place in the UK, and 56th most congested in the world. Traffic is responsible for West Dorset village Chideock having the worst air quality in the UK.
The ZCB model proposes a dramatic reduction in transport emissions through reducing miles travelled (moving goods and people), replacing vehicle travel with active travel and improving the mix of transport methods.
Where are we now and what else do we need to know?
Transport is Dorset’s biggest challenge, representing 38% of all carbon emissions. Despite significant improvements in the efficiency of vehicles, increased car ownership, larger cars (SUVs), more miles travelled and a decline in public transport provision have offset all the potential savings.
The rural nature of a county with relatively long commutes and poor bus services (largely restricted to built-up areas) means most have no option but to drive. More than 4 billion miles were travelled across Dorset in 2019 (2,750 million – Dorset, 1,371 million BCP) and, as can be seen in Figure 3 for the Dorset Council area, this remained on an upward trajectory pre-pandemic.
In fact, car ownership in the Dorset Council area is already above the national average, reflecting the need to travel for daily activities and the weakness in our public transport infrastructure; clearly more than ‘initiatives’ will be required to address the problem. At the same time, Bournemouth is the third most congested place in the UK, and 56th most congested in the world. Traffic is responsible for West Dorset village Chideock having the worst air quality in the UK.
The ZCB model proposes a dramatic reduction in transport emissions through reducing miles travelled (moving goods and people), replacing vehicle travel with active travel and improving the mix of transport methods.
In this model car journeys reduce from 81% of total miles travelled to 62%; public transport doubles from 14% to 28%. Overall, the distance travelled by each person reduces by 13%, through practical changes such as home working and the local provision of shops and services, which have increasingly become centralised, often in out-of-town shopping centres. There are challenges with home working, which we address separately, but the pandemic has shown us the possibilities that can be opened up with this as an option as well as the additional benefits of less time in traffic, more time with friends and family and better chances to connect with our immediate localities.
Cycling and walking increase. Domestic flights are restricted to emergencies and access to islands. International aviation falls by two thirds. Freight travel is reduced by reduced consumption and waste and 90% of all vehicle movements are via electric vehicles.
Cycling and walking increase. Domestic flights are restricted to emergencies and access to islands. International aviation falls by two thirds. Freight travel is reduced by reduced consumption and waste and 90% of all vehicle movements are via electric vehicles.
Both Councils’ CEE plans recognise this challenge, as does the Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset LTP3 2011 - 2026 (which aims to tackle transport issues across the county and support the move to low- carbon modes of transport). Both include a range of proposals largely aligned to the Government’s longer-term objectives and are reliant on a large number of actions that ‘promote’ improvements. Given the scale of the challenge however, it seems overly optimistic that these will achieve the required changes. In fact, car ownership in the Dorset Council area is already above the national average, reflecting the need to travel for daily activities and the weakness in our public transport infrastructure.
Travel is clearly an area where Government intervention is required. This has been acknowledged in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan. While this plan contains some positive policy indicators and proposed investment, it follows a familiar pattern of (in the words of the Government’s own Climate Change Committee) “too little, too late”. Where opportunities exist, both Councils should ensure they exploit them (as BCP and Dorset Council have with the Transforming Cities Fund), but they should not sit back and wait. They need to drive the changes required and to lobby Government for the resources to achieve the targets if not forthcoming. This is an area where public engagement is essential in agreeing how we get to the desired result, but this, together with the approach to Government funding, needs to be targeted at an end goal, an integrated, transformational plan of connected networks and infrastructure across the county that is overlaid against every planning consideration from homes, shops, schools, businesses and every relevant policy decision.
Travel in Dorset cannot be considered in isolation of tourism with more than 25m day visitors and 3.5m ‘staying’ visitors travelling to the county each year. Addressing how they arrive and move around while in the county has to be a part of the overall plan. As witnessed during the pandemic, the notion of the ‘no-fly staycation’ brings its own environmental challenges for those of us living in tourist hotspots.
It is also important to note that our current travel patterns create significant health issues. On 16 December 2020, Southwark Coroner's Court in London found that air pollution "made a material contribution" to the death of nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, and died in 2013, following an asthma attack. The impact of poor air quality on children's health whilst at school is also an issue, with analysis finding that more than a quarter of schools, from nurseries to sixth-form colleges, were in locations with high levels of small particle pollution. This means an estimated 3.4 million children are learning in an unhealthy environment, where air pollution is over the limit set by the World Health Organisation.
Areas for Consideration
There are several local initiatives across the county that are worth examining. However, in common with earlier chapters, these appear both insufficient to address the issue within the timeframes required and lack a comprehensive vision of how we want to travel in the future. Such a comprehensive vision and plan must address each of the following areas.
Town Planning (developing a sense of place)
For much of the past century our towns have been developed with the assumption that the car is the primary mode of transport. This has had a profoundly negative effect, not just on how much land is used for roads and parking, but also on enhancing many of the negative aspects of modern life (low community cohesion in commuter belts, time taken up by commuting, poor air quality and other health effects). Personal attachment to the car, however, remains a strong bond. Rather than a metal box which gets us from a to b, it has become an extension of our personalities, supported by a multi-million-pound marketing industry. Seeking to overcome this relationship will require more than appeals to zero-carbon living and will need to show how “(Cars) replace lively, pleasant, walkable, human-scaled communities with low-density, sprawled out environments designed for getting elsewhere as fast as possible. (Where our) daily destinations are placed increasingly out of reach of our feet. Space for social interaction and cultural exchange is diluted and dispersed, inhibiting the informal social contacts that bind societies together. Life is pushed indoors, separated, and compartmentalized.”[1]
[1] World Carfree Network
Our challenge will be to learn from those places where this is being undone and, through practical developments, and working with local communities, show how an alternative is both climate and people friendly. We need to focus less on ‘saving the High Street’ a (usually) concrete landscape that sucks the life out of smaller towns, villages and suburbs and relearn the essence of community centres and the ideas around reconnected cities being developed in places such as Copenhagen and Great City (Southwest China), along with specific initiatives like the Madrid Rio green space (created by the removal of a ring road), the Cheonggyecheon recreation area in Seoul (created by removing a highway) and Temporary Play Street Orders, initiated in Bristol in 2007 and now adopted in 100 streets across 30 cities[1]. Locally, plans for Bridport Renewal Area in conjunction with Velocity[3] (see Further Information) provide a vision of how we can “enrich village life and a sense of place, while creating new homes and working environments in healthy and socially cohesive places. (Developing) a ‘polycentric’ cluster of new and ‘expanded’ villages, which are connected to one another by a fine-grained network of cycle routes and within cycling distance of new/existing rail stations. (…) a way to install a low-cost high-speed data network and introduce technology to foster a more sustainable environment and new employment opportunities with an emphasis on the retention and enhancement of the natural environment.”
[1] Sustainable Cities p35
What is clear from a number of studies [2] is that once the infrastructure is provided (from safer streets and segregated cycle lanes to affordable frequent public transport), the switch to better ways of travelling follows. Ideally, applying the concept of commoning mobility would provide a template that ensures that the transition to a new way of travel is not only just but is also ‘attentive to everyone’s needs’[1]. Central to such development is the involvement of local communities and there is a move to Neighbourhood Plans and Climate Emergency Plans being developed to assist with sustainable transport solutions. We understand one such Neighbourhood Plan is being developed in Weymouth with a particular emphasis on sustainability, resilience and climate change.
[1] Planet on Fire p175
Within all of these plans the focus needs to be on the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy, which sets out the most effective choices for health and the environment and is used by many organisations (Figure 5 is from Transport Scotland). The following sections follow this order.
The Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset Local Transport Plan references some of the issues but does not explicitly follow this principle. The West Dorset, Weymouth & Local Plan (2015) did explicitly reference the hierarchy but also noted that it only "should be used where appropriate".
Travel LessThe most obvious way to reduce emissions is to not travel in the first place. This is clearly not an option for many journeys; however, the pandemic has shown us just how many jobs can be performed effectively from home. This should be seen as part of a normal work routine for all roles where this is practical. Simplistically, if everyone worked from home for two days per week, emissions from commuting would fall by 40%. Recognising this is not possible for all roles, the 40% reduction is probably a fair objective for most organisations to set as some employees will be able to work for more than this amount; moving the increasingly popular ‘working from home day’ to a ‘working in the office day’ would be a positive switch in attitude. Likewise, we have seen how business meetings, conferences and the like can easily be moved on-line, which not only saves travel time but also, for many, reduces time away from home and family.
We also need to consider our holiday patterns. Would a 3- or 4-week break with slow travel (facilitated by multi-modal, joined-up sustainable travel options e.g. bike and train) be better for everyone than the current trend of multiple short breaks?
Active Travel
WalkingOne of the barriers to increased walking is safety concerns, particularly for children. This helps to create a culture of car dependency from an early age. In fact, one of the greatest opportunities for addressing the cultural barriers to walking is switching the school run from a car-based activity to walking. Walking Buses is one example of how to make this happen, as is School Streets, a Sustrans initiative: ‘a test programme which temporarily closes roads outside school gates at the start and end of each day. It aims to ease the congestion, poor air quality and road safety concerns experienced by many schools. The programme measures the impact of the quieter streets and shares findings with schools to encourage more regular street closures and inspire other schools to try this approach’.
Discussions are taking place in a number of Dorset localities to pilot these schemes; however, making the necessary arrangements can often be subject to significant bureaucratic problems. As these schemes can not only help to address our core objectives here, but also improve the health and safety of our children (in a county which currently has one of the worst records for school-related accidents), we would hope the Councils could find ways to support and promote these initiatives.
We have to recognise however that, while some research has shown that exposure to pollution in vehicles can be as bad, if not worse than outside, most has indicated that for the school run the likely longer exposure time and proximity to direct fumes creates serious issues for those walking on busy roads. Research undertaken in London confirmed that “exposures while walking are greatly in excess of those while driving, by a factor 4.7 for the coarse particle mass (PM10–PM2.5), 2.2 for the fine particle mass (PM2.5–PM1)”. This is another area where fundamental changes will be required in our travel patterns and infrastructure to fully achieve the transition we need.
CyclingSecuring funding as part of the Transforming Cities Fund[5] has been BCP and Dorset Councils’ major success in addressing the issues discussed in this chapter. This central Government funding has only been provided to 12 regions across the UK. Construction of 78km of new cycle lanes, walking routes and bus improvements are planned as part of this, with work underway on a number of improvements already as this report was being drafted.
There is a clear recognition of the benefits of this approach, and as the latest update from Marc Griffin, the Transforming Cities Fund’s programme manager, acknowledges “people need decent alternatives to the car – well connected, safer walking and cycling routes and reliable, prioritised bus services – before they’ll change their travel habits” and goes on to explain that “Bournemouth is sadly one of the worst places in the UK for cycling road casualties. Once cycle paths are built, based on evidence, people will use them. A report earlier this year showed that where cycle infrastructure was added, cycling increased up to 48 per cent more than in cities that did not add cycle lanes.”
This recognition and approach are exactly what is required across the county, and it would be interesting to understand whether the work undertaken in support of this scheme could be broadened to understand what a complete transformation would look like.
Nationally, £1.2bn has been made available over 5 years to improve cycling and walking through a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, including targets to double the amount of cycling by 2025. While the plan recognises the need for schemes of appropriate quality, cycle training and ‘behavioural change’ initiatives it remains to be seen whether the funding will be maintained and whether this is sufficient for the scale of change required. Equally, it is not clear whether any of the £27bn allocated to roads comes with any conditions aligned to the active travel ambition. A lack of joined up thinking has been the downfall of many well-intentioned environmentally focused schemes in the past.
In fact, Cycling UK are calling for £6 - £8bn investment over the same timescale focused on Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans and support the concept of the 15-minute neighbourhood (see Case Studies).
Public Transport
Buses and CoachesThe Department of Transport’s National Bus Strategy and Bus Back Better campaign recognise that “(t)he pandemic caused a significant shift from public transport to the private car and to avoid the worst effects of a car-led recovery, buses must build back better – working at pace to deliver a fully integrated service, simple, multi-modal tickets, increases in bus priority measures, high-quality information for passengers and in larger places, turn-up-and-go frequencies that keep running into the evenings and at weekends.”. There is much in the proposal that is welcomed, in particular the acknowledgement that “there can be no return to a situation where services are planned on a purely commercial basis with little or no engagement with, or support from LTAs.” This is a major reversal of four decades of market-focused operations that nationally have seen the loss of around 3,000 routes, a 403% increase in fares since 1987, and, outside London, a reduction of 38% in passenger journeys between 1982 and 2016.
Several areas have acted ahead of this initiative, notably in the North-West, where the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is investing £135m and resuming control of the network: regulating fares, timetables and routes, and integrating ticketing across buses, trains and trams. There is also a growing campaign for free public transport. This could well be key to making the shift required and, in balance, may not be as unaffordable as it sounds. Dorset Council Bus Back Better is looking at many of these points, and we await the outcomes of their research with interest.
The IPPR’s Environmental Justice Commission is one of the bodies proposing that public transport should be made free (in their case by 2030). Acknowledging that this may seem radical, they point out that “it’s already a reality in more than a hundred towns and cities worldwide, including more than 30 in the US and 20 in France, as well as in Poland, Sweden, Italy, Slovenia, Estonia, and Australia”. This provision is, of course, already available to older people in the UK and younger people in Scotland.
RailDorset was not spared Beeching’s axe reducing connectivity to two ‘end of line’ services that have effectively cut off many links, particularly to the South-West, or made connections ineffective (e.g. Poole – Bath / Bristol). While many of the old lines have become attractive routes for walking and cycling, their continuity is now often broken by new housing developments or road systems. This should not, however, prevent them from being explored as potential options for reconnecting as public transport expressways (bus, tram, light rail) dual running with their current usage. The Bridport Renewal Corridor is one such idea (see Case Studies), while Swanage Railway plans to reconnect to the mainline at Wareham and have received a cash boost from the Government to support this.
Commercial Use / DeliveriesSome of the increase in road use over recent years is the growth in deliveries as a result of on-line shopping, with most streets subject to numerous deliveries from numerous providers every day. There is a difficult commercial issue to address around the inefficiency and environmental damage caused by the current market model, but this is unlikely to be addressed in the short term. What can be addressed is the degree to which licensing, restrictions and support for transitioning to electrical vehicles can be made. Equally, local initiatives for carbon-free distribution are taking place in different locations and should form part of wider plans (see Case Studies).
Opportunities also exist to adapt the last-mile delivery process to a zero-carbon / cargo bike option including those for e-cargo bikes promoted by Sustrans. These are growing in popularity but need infrastructure support to create the strategic goods hubs that would enable them to be implemented more widely.
Shipping & Sea TravelShipping is responsible for similar levels of emissions to aviation and also contributes to wider environmental damage and pollution. Although the cruise industry often attracts much attention, it can be seen from the screen shots from Marine Traffic, (Figure 6) that passenger craft (blue) make up a far smaller proportion of global transport than cargo vessels (green) and tankers (red). While the latter should be greatly reduced as our reliance on fossil fuels reduces, the global supply of food and goods presents a wider issue (discussed elsewhere). Locally, however, there could be significant benefits for Dorset’s ports and manufacturing with the ‘greening’ of shipping, the development of offshore wind facilities and local sea transportation.
Travel is clearly an area where Government intervention is required. This has been acknowledged in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan. While this plan contains some positive policy indicators and proposed investment, it follows a familiar pattern of (in the words of the Government’s own Climate Change Committee) “too little, too late”. Where opportunities exist, both Councils should ensure they exploit them (as BCP and Dorset Council have with the Transforming Cities Fund), but they should not sit back and wait. They need to drive the changes required and to lobby Government for the resources to achieve the targets if not forthcoming. This is an area where public engagement is essential in agreeing how we get to the desired result, but this, together with the approach to Government funding, needs to be targeted at an end goal, an integrated, transformational plan of connected networks and infrastructure across the county that is overlaid against every planning consideration from homes, shops, schools, businesses and every relevant policy decision.
Travel in Dorset cannot be considered in isolation of tourism with more than 25m day visitors and 3.5m ‘staying’ visitors travelling to the county each year. Addressing how they arrive and move around while in the county has to be a part of the overall plan. As witnessed during the pandemic, the notion of the ‘no-fly staycation’ brings its own environmental challenges for those of us living in tourist hotspots.
It is also important to note that our current travel patterns create significant health issues. On 16 December 2020, Southwark Coroner's Court in London found that air pollution "made a material contribution" to the death of nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, and died in 2013, following an asthma attack. The impact of poor air quality on children's health whilst at school is also an issue, with analysis finding that more than a quarter of schools, from nurseries to sixth-form colleges, were in locations with high levels of small particle pollution. This means an estimated 3.4 million children are learning in an unhealthy environment, where air pollution is over the limit set by the World Health Organisation.
Areas for Consideration
There are several local initiatives across the county that are worth examining. However, in common with earlier chapters, these appear both insufficient to address the issue within the timeframes required and lack a comprehensive vision of how we want to travel in the future. Such a comprehensive vision and plan must address each of the following areas.
Town Planning (developing a sense of place)
For much of the past century our towns have been developed with the assumption that the car is the primary mode of transport. This has had a profoundly negative effect, not just on how much land is used for roads and parking, but also on enhancing many of the negative aspects of modern life (low community cohesion in commuter belts, time taken up by commuting, poor air quality and other health effects). Personal attachment to the car, however, remains a strong bond. Rather than a metal box which gets us from a to b, it has become an extension of our personalities, supported by a multi-million-pound marketing industry. Seeking to overcome this relationship will require more than appeals to zero-carbon living and will need to show how “(Cars) replace lively, pleasant, walkable, human-scaled communities with low-density, sprawled out environments designed for getting elsewhere as fast as possible. (Where our) daily destinations are placed increasingly out of reach of our feet. Space for social interaction and cultural exchange is diluted and dispersed, inhibiting the informal social contacts that bind societies together. Life is pushed indoors, separated, and compartmentalized.”[1]
[1] World Carfree Network
Our challenge will be to learn from those places where this is being undone and, through practical developments, and working with local communities, show how an alternative is both climate and people friendly. We need to focus less on ‘saving the High Street’ a (usually) concrete landscape that sucks the life out of smaller towns, villages and suburbs and relearn the essence of community centres and the ideas around reconnected cities being developed in places such as Copenhagen and Great City (Southwest China), along with specific initiatives like the Madrid Rio green space (created by the removal of a ring road), the Cheonggyecheon recreation area in Seoul (created by removing a highway) and Temporary Play Street Orders, initiated in Bristol in 2007 and now adopted in 100 streets across 30 cities[1]. Locally, plans for Bridport Renewal Area in conjunction with Velocity[3] (see Further Information) provide a vision of how we can “enrich village life and a sense of place, while creating new homes and working environments in healthy and socially cohesive places. (Developing) a ‘polycentric’ cluster of new and ‘expanded’ villages, which are connected to one another by a fine-grained network of cycle routes and within cycling distance of new/existing rail stations. (…) a way to install a low-cost high-speed data network and introduce technology to foster a more sustainable environment and new employment opportunities with an emphasis on the retention and enhancement of the natural environment.”
[1] Sustainable Cities p35
What is clear from a number of studies [2] is that once the infrastructure is provided (from safer streets and segregated cycle lanes to affordable frequent public transport), the switch to better ways of travelling follows. Ideally, applying the concept of commoning mobility would provide a template that ensures that the transition to a new way of travel is not only just but is also ‘attentive to everyone’s needs’[1]. Central to such development is the involvement of local communities and there is a move to Neighbourhood Plans and Climate Emergency Plans being developed to assist with sustainable transport solutions. We understand one such Neighbourhood Plan is being developed in Weymouth with a particular emphasis on sustainability, resilience and climate change.
[1] Planet on Fire p175
Within all of these plans the focus needs to be on the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy, which sets out the most effective choices for health and the environment and is used by many organisations (Figure 5 is from Transport Scotland). The following sections follow this order.
The Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset Local Transport Plan references some of the issues but does not explicitly follow this principle. The West Dorset, Weymouth & Local Plan (2015) did explicitly reference the hierarchy but also noted that it only "should be used where appropriate".
Travel LessThe most obvious way to reduce emissions is to not travel in the first place. This is clearly not an option for many journeys; however, the pandemic has shown us just how many jobs can be performed effectively from home. This should be seen as part of a normal work routine for all roles where this is practical. Simplistically, if everyone worked from home for two days per week, emissions from commuting would fall by 40%. Recognising this is not possible for all roles, the 40% reduction is probably a fair objective for most organisations to set as some employees will be able to work for more than this amount; moving the increasingly popular ‘working from home day’ to a ‘working in the office day’ would be a positive switch in attitude. Likewise, we have seen how business meetings, conferences and the like can easily be moved on-line, which not only saves travel time but also, for many, reduces time away from home and family.
We also need to consider our holiday patterns. Would a 3- or 4-week break with slow travel (facilitated by multi-modal, joined-up sustainable travel options e.g. bike and train) be better for everyone than the current trend of multiple short breaks?
Active Travel
WalkingOne of the barriers to increased walking is safety concerns, particularly for children. This helps to create a culture of car dependency from an early age. In fact, one of the greatest opportunities for addressing the cultural barriers to walking is switching the school run from a car-based activity to walking. Walking Buses is one example of how to make this happen, as is School Streets, a Sustrans initiative: ‘a test programme which temporarily closes roads outside school gates at the start and end of each day. It aims to ease the congestion, poor air quality and road safety concerns experienced by many schools. The programme measures the impact of the quieter streets and shares findings with schools to encourage more regular street closures and inspire other schools to try this approach’.
Discussions are taking place in a number of Dorset localities to pilot these schemes; however, making the necessary arrangements can often be subject to significant bureaucratic problems. As these schemes can not only help to address our core objectives here, but also improve the health and safety of our children (in a county which currently has one of the worst records for school-related accidents), we would hope the Councils could find ways to support and promote these initiatives.
We have to recognise however that, while some research has shown that exposure to pollution in vehicles can be as bad, if not worse than outside, most has indicated that for the school run the likely longer exposure time and proximity to direct fumes creates serious issues for those walking on busy roads. Research undertaken in London confirmed that “exposures while walking are greatly in excess of those while driving, by a factor 4.7 for the coarse particle mass (PM10–PM2.5), 2.2 for the fine particle mass (PM2.5–PM1)”. This is another area where fundamental changes will be required in our travel patterns and infrastructure to fully achieve the transition we need.
CyclingSecuring funding as part of the Transforming Cities Fund[5] has been BCP and Dorset Councils’ major success in addressing the issues discussed in this chapter. This central Government funding has only been provided to 12 regions across the UK. Construction of 78km of new cycle lanes, walking routes and bus improvements are planned as part of this, with work underway on a number of improvements already as this report was being drafted.
There is a clear recognition of the benefits of this approach, and as the latest update from Marc Griffin, the Transforming Cities Fund’s programme manager, acknowledges “people need decent alternatives to the car – well connected, safer walking and cycling routes and reliable, prioritised bus services – before they’ll change their travel habits” and goes on to explain that “Bournemouth is sadly one of the worst places in the UK for cycling road casualties. Once cycle paths are built, based on evidence, people will use them. A report earlier this year showed that where cycle infrastructure was added, cycling increased up to 48 per cent more than in cities that did not add cycle lanes.”
This recognition and approach are exactly what is required across the county, and it would be interesting to understand whether the work undertaken in support of this scheme could be broadened to understand what a complete transformation would look like.
Nationally, £1.2bn has been made available over 5 years to improve cycling and walking through a Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, including targets to double the amount of cycling by 2025. While the plan recognises the need for schemes of appropriate quality, cycle training and ‘behavioural change’ initiatives it remains to be seen whether the funding will be maintained and whether this is sufficient for the scale of change required. Equally, it is not clear whether any of the £27bn allocated to roads comes with any conditions aligned to the active travel ambition. A lack of joined up thinking has been the downfall of many well-intentioned environmentally focused schemes in the past.
In fact, Cycling UK are calling for £6 - £8bn investment over the same timescale focused on Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans and support the concept of the 15-minute neighbourhood (see Case Studies).
Public Transport
Buses and CoachesThe Department of Transport’s National Bus Strategy and Bus Back Better campaign recognise that “(t)he pandemic caused a significant shift from public transport to the private car and to avoid the worst effects of a car-led recovery, buses must build back better – working at pace to deliver a fully integrated service, simple, multi-modal tickets, increases in bus priority measures, high-quality information for passengers and in larger places, turn-up-and-go frequencies that keep running into the evenings and at weekends.”. There is much in the proposal that is welcomed, in particular the acknowledgement that “there can be no return to a situation where services are planned on a purely commercial basis with little or no engagement with, or support from LTAs.” This is a major reversal of four decades of market-focused operations that nationally have seen the loss of around 3,000 routes, a 403% increase in fares since 1987, and, outside London, a reduction of 38% in passenger journeys between 1982 and 2016.
Several areas have acted ahead of this initiative, notably in the North-West, where the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is investing £135m and resuming control of the network: regulating fares, timetables and routes, and integrating ticketing across buses, trains and trams. There is also a growing campaign for free public transport. This could well be key to making the shift required and, in balance, may not be as unaffordable as it sounds. Dorset Council Bus Back Better is looking at many of these points, and we await the outcomes of their research with interest.
The IPPR’s Environmental Justice Commission is one of the bodies proposing that public transport should be made free (in their case by 2030). Acknowledging that this may seem radical, they point out that “it’s already a reality in more than a hundred towns and cities worldwide, including more than 30 in the US and 20 in France, as well as in Poland, Sweden, Italy, Slovenia, Estonia, and Australia”. This provision is, of course, already available to older people in the UK and younger people in Scotland.
RailDorset was not spared Beeching’s axe reducing connectivity to two ‘end of line’ services that have effectively cut off many links, particularly to the South-West, or made connections ineffective (e.g. Poole – Bath / Bristol). While many of the old lines have become attractive routes for walking and cycling, their continuity is now often broken by new housing developments or road systems. This should not, however, prevent them from being explored as potential options for reconnecting as public transport expressways (bus, tram, light rail) dual running with their current usage. The Bridport Renewal Corridor is one such idea (see Case Studies), while Swanage Railway plans to reconnect to the mainline at Wareham and have received a cash boost from the Government to support this.
Commercial Use / DeliveriesSome of the increase in road use over recent years is the growth in deliveries as a result of on-line shopping, with most streets subject to numerous deliveries from numerous providers every day. There is a difficult commercial issue to address around the inefficiency and environmental damage caused by the current market model, but this is unlikely to be addressed in the short term. What can be addressed is the degree to which licensing, restrictions and support for transitioning to electrical vehicles can be made. Equally, local initiatives for carbon-free distribution are taking place in different locations and should form part of wider plans (see Case Studies).
Opportunities also exist to adapt the last-mile delivery process to a zero-carbon / cargo bike option including those for e-cargo bikes promoted by Sustrans. These are growing in popularity but need infrastructure support to create the strategic goods hubs that would enable them to be implemented more widely.
Shipping & Sea TravelShipping is responsible for similar levels of emissions to aviation and also contributes to wider environmental damage and pollution. Although the cruise industry often attracts much attention, it can be seen from the screen shots from Marine Traffic, (Figure 6) that passenger craft (blue) make up a far smaller proportion of global transport than cargo vessels (green) and tankers (red). While the latter should be greatly reduced as our reliance on fossil fuels reduces, the global supply of food and goods presents a wider issue (discussed elsewhere). Locally, however, there could be significant benefits for Dorset’s ports and manufacturing with the ‘greening’ of shipping, the development of offshore wind facilities and local sea transportation.
Like many areas, the rapid shift away from fossil fuels in shipping is inhibited by a lack of Government finance, despite the usual proclamations about sustainability and green projects. The relative ease with which non-fossil fuel sea transport can be developed with smaller craft could provide huge opportunities for Portland / Weymouth and Poole in particular.
Car UseCar journeys across Dorset account for around 80% of vehicle miles travelled with many likely to be essential for residents given inadequate public transport alternatives, insufficient local amenities and commuting requirements. However, while this report recognises the importance of moving all vehicles away from fossil fuels, as explained earlier, in solving the wider issues of environmental breakdown there is an equal need to move away from private motor vehicles as the primary mode of transportation. Nevertheless, during this decade of transition there will be an urgent need to provide the infrastructure required for switching to electric. Hopefully, alongside the Government’s intentions to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 actual support will be provided to support the transition.
Councils could also take the lead and work with local employers and businesses to make the appropriate provisions. Dorset Council has just completed phase 1 of e charging network: Phase 1 has seen the installation of 42 chargepoints (sockets) in 21 locations around the county and includes 5 replacement rapid chargers and one new rapid charger at the Langton Road Car Park in Blandford Forum. Use of the chargepoints has exceeded expectations and saved 51,000 kg in CO2e emissions when compared with petrol or diesel vehicle use.
Car ownership, however, is highly inefficient, with these material-intensive, expensive machines spending most of their life inactive. Reports show that 8,000 ha of Central London (10,600 football pitches!) are used for car parking. This is land that could be used for housing, growing food or other beneficial purposes. Proportionately, Dorset’s towns probably fare little better. A recent briefing paper from Deloitte noted that “The UK government estimates that congestion already accounts for almost 80% of the societal harm caused by driving one additional mile. In 2019 the delays, wasted time and welfare losses cost the UK the equivalent of 3.0% of GDP. On current policies EVs will increase these costs. According to the Department for Transport, a move to zero-emission motoring could raise traffic levels by 50% by 2050.” This is clearly not desirable or sustainable. Furthermore much of the pollution associated with car transport is actually produced through other waste materials (e.g. from tyres, brakes and manufacturing).
Most studies, such as those referenced above, show that addressing our reliance on cars and decreasing their use require both provision of affordable, reliable alternatives and (often dramatic) actions that encourage behaviour change (congestion zones, car-free areas). These suggest success, in a fair and just manner, will only be achieved if the infrastructure is provided first.
Small-scale, community-led, transformational initiatives include car clubs, which offer cost-effective access to a vehicle when required, reducing the need for car ownership, and therein the temptation to use for short journeys. These have been successful in many locations.
A number of organisations have also developed Travel Plans to help their staff get to work in the most sustainable way. Two local examples, which we feature as case studies below, are Lush and Bournemouth University.
Air TravelHistorically, national emissions data has excluded Shipping and Aviation, leaving a glaring omission in the data with respect to the respective environmental damage caused by both industries. Equally, there are concerns that, while aircraft produce a relatively small proportion of global emissions overall, the burning of fossil fuels in the atmosphere at typical flying altitudes causes almost twice the damage (through effective radiative forcing) than similar emissions made at ground level. As such the ZCB scenario reduces international travel dramatically.
However, regional airports will have an important role to play in our future scenario, reducing road traffic to larger hubs and maintaining international connections where required. A frequent-flyer levy (see Policies) would enact a polluter pays principle and encourage better behaviours from those who currently fly the most.
Domestic and private flights should be phased out as soon as possible, while the overall number of flights from Bournemouth Airport could be fixed to emissions levels, targeting a reduction of 7.5 - 10% per year. Such a policy applied nationally would accelerate the transition to new fuels or decrease the environmental damage by removing services.
Eliminating Carbon from Transport LifecyclesAs noted in the Car Use subsection above, environmental damage from transport is not limited to the type of fuel used to create movement. Damage is caused through infrastructure development (roads, bridges, rail lines) and through manufacture and distribution of vehicles. The latter can be addressed through regulation of parts that can be repaired, rather than replaced, and requirements to recover or recycle materials from used and damaged components (covered more in the Buy Better - Waste Nothing chapter).
Transport Integration and InfrastructurePending the planning and conscious shifts in attitude noted above, we can start to look at how individual modes of transport can be improved, integrated, made affordable and sustainable. Discussions at the Dorset CAN Transport Group (see Case Studies below) have started to frame solutions around developing a matrix view of the issues and opportunities with each mode of transport and how these could be developed to meet our daily needs.
On a more formal level it is encouraging to note the work being developed by the Connected Dorset Advisory Group, particularly around the importance of improving rail, coach and bus networks, along with integrated ticketing and other proposed improvements.
Current assessment
Having considered the current assessment documented above, the report contributors have assessed the county’s current category as:
Car UseCar journeys across Dorset account for around 80% of vehicle miles travelled with many likely to be essential for residents given inadequate public transport alternatives, insufficient local amenities and commuting requirements. However, while this report recognises the importance of moving all vehicles away from fossil fuels, as explained earlier, in solving the wider issues of environmental breakdown there is an equal need to move away from private motor vehicles as the primary mode of transportation. Nevertheless, during this decade of transition there will be an urgent need to provide the infrastructure required for switching to electric. Hopefully, alongside the Government’s intentions to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 actual support will be provided to support the transition.
Councils could also take the lead and work with local employers and businesses to make the appropriate provisions. Dorset Council has just completed phase 1 of e charging network: Phase 1 has seen the installation of 42 chargepoints (sockets) in 21 locations around the county and includes 5 replacement rapid chargers and one new rapid charger at the Langton Road Car Park in Blandford Forum. Use of the chargepoints has exceeded expectations and saved 51,000 kg in CO2e emissions when compared with petrol or diesel vehicle use.
Car ownership, however, is highly inefficient, with these material-intensive, expensive machines spending most of their life inactive. Reports show that 8,000 ha of Central London (10,600 football pitches!) are used for car parking. This is land that could be used for housing, growing food or other beneficial purposes. Proportionately, Dorset’s towns probably fare little better. A recent briefing paper from Deloitte noted that “The UK government estimates that congestion already accounts for almost 80% of the societal harm caused by driving one additional mile. In 2019 the delays, wasted time and welfare losses cost the UK the equivalent of 3.0% of GDP. On current policies EVs will increase these costs. According to the Department for Transport, a move to zero-emission motoring could raise traffic levels by 50% by 2050.” This is clearly not desirable or sustainable. Furthermore much of the pollution associated with car transport is actually produced through other waste materials (e.g. from tyres, brakes and manufacturing).
Most studies, such as those referenced above, show that addressing our reliance on cars and decreasing their use require both provision of affordable, reliable alternatives and (often dramatic) actions that encourage behaviour change (congestion zones, car-free areas). These suggest success, in a fair and just manner, will only be achieved if the infrastructure is provided first.
Small-scale, community-led, transformational initiatives include car clubs, which offer cost-effective access to a vehicle when required, reducing the need for car ownership, and therein the temptation to use for short journeys. These have been successful in many locations.
A number of organisations have also developed Travel Plans to help their staff get to work in the most sustainable way. Two local examples, which we feature as case studies below, are Lush and Bournemouth University.
Air TravelHistorically, national emissions data has excluded Shipping and Aviation, leaving a glaring omission in the data with respect to the respective environmental damage caused by both industries. Equally, there are concerns that, while aircraft produce a relatively small proportion of global emissions overall, the burning of fossil fuels in the atmosphere at typical flying altitudes causes almost twice the damage (through effective radiative forcing) than similar emissions made at ground level. As such the ZCB scenario reduces international travel dramatically.
However, regional airports will have an important role to play in our future scenario, reducing road traffic to larger hubs and maintaining international connections where required. A frequent-flyer levy (see Policies) would enact a polluter pays principle and encourage better behaviours from those who currently fly the most.
Domestic and private flights should be phased out as soon as possible, while the overall number of flights from Bournemouth Airport could be fixed to emissions levels, targeting a reduction of 7.5 - 10% per year. Such a policy applied nationally would accelerate the transition to new fuels or decrease the environmental damage by removing services.
Eliminating Carbon from Transport LifecyclesAs noted in the Car Use subsection above, environmental damage from transport is not limited to the type of fuel used to create movement. Damage is caused through infrastructure development (roads, bridges, rail lines) and through manufacture and distribution of vehicles. The latter can be addressed through regulation of parts that can be repaired, rather than replaced, and requirements to recover or recycle materials from used and damaged components (covered more in the Buy Better - Waste Nothing chapter).
Transport Integration and InfrastructurePending the planning and conscious shifts in attitude noted above, we can start to look at how individual modes of transport can be improved, integrated, made affordable and sustainable. Discussions at the Dorset CAN Transport Group (see Case Studies below) have started to frame solutions around developing a matrix view of the issues and opportunities with each mode of transport and how these could be developed to meet our daily needs.
On a more formal level it is encouraging to note the work being developed by the Connected Dorset Advisory Group, particularly around the importance of improving rail, coach and bus networks, along with integrated ticketing and other proposed improvements.
Current assessment
Having considered the current assessment documented above, the report contributors have assessed the county’s current category as: