Business should do their transport bit with workplace parking
Posted on 14 July 2011
Plans to improve the city transport network are the focus of July’s Planet Bristol column in the Bristol Evening Post. Chief Executive of Forum for the Future, Peter Madden, urges Bristol businesses to do their share to support the planned transport improvements.
Local government is putting in cash, people are paying through high fares, and business is being asked to support a workplace parking scheme. Without everyone playing their part Bristol could grind to a halt Peter warns -
Read any of the surveys about what people loathe in our city, and guess what always comes out top? Yes, transport. We hear motorists complaining about congestion, bus passengers complaining about fares, and cyclist complaining about safety.
This is a quality of life issue – one of the things that brings the city down. It affects social inclusion, because people don’t find it easy to get to work or the doctor’s. And I think it will increasingly affect our economic competitiveness. Whole sections of north Bristol are already chock-a-block in the morning and evening rush-hours. Companies won’t want to locate here – or even stay here – if things get worse.
Why does this feel so much worse than in other places? After all, most of our big cities were built around the old medieval road grids, so the centres are always going to be pinch-points. But Bristol, more than most, has grown hugely without putting the public transport infrastructure into place.
Some of these pressures might be eased by the new bus rapid transit system. These routes will be particularly important for connecting up South Bristol with the economic life of the city.
However, we can be sure that there aren’t going to be more huge slugs of central government money to build the new railway lines that London is getting, or the shiny new trams that criss-cross our northern cities. Bristol will have to find more of the answers itself.
We should do more to reduce the need to travel in the first place, through more flexible working and making sure people have shops, services and offices near where they live. We should keep investing in walking and cycling, which are the cheap and healthy options, and where we’ve seen a real boost over the last couple of years.
Ultimately, however, the council will need a steady stream of money to invest in improving our transport. So, it really does need to bite the bullet on charging for workplace parking.
Making firms pay for people to park will make them look hard at alternatives, such as working from home, car-sharing and putting in showers and racks for cyclists. It will also give the council some money to spend on improving our transport.
Of course, there will be the moans from the usual quarters. But hey, everyone said congestion charging would kill London, and the opposite has happened. Congestion and pollution have dropped dramatically. Public transport has improved immeasurably. And the capital is booming.
Some businesses are bound to complain in the short-term, but I hope they will then realise the long-term economic benefits for themselves and for our city. Workplace parking charges will take some political bravery to push through. We need to see all the political parties getting behind it and showing the leadership that Bristol needs.
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Bristol city region
Making the West of England the most sustainable city region in the UK and one of the top green cities in the world, with leadership that understands the urgency of the need for profound change to create a sustainable, prosperous future.
Bristol needs an ambitious transport strategy which includes an integrated transport authority (just in Bristol if the other LAs don’t want to be part of it) and a plan to reduce First’s market share to 30% or so. Maybe a candidate for elected mayor could run on this platform?