Press Notices
31.03.05:
Constraint Only Road to Cutting Car Use, says CfIT
A new study of some of the world’s leading cities has shown that the only cities to reduce car use are those that include a measure of car restraint to complement their public transport investment, a new report for the Commission for Integrated Transport showed today.
Car use still climbs in cities which have made impressive improvements to public transport but have not backed them up with initiatives to protect road space from filling up behind those who make the switch to public transport.
The study combed cities from Paris, London, Moscow, New York, Singapore, Dublin, Zurich to identify what influenced travel patterns and the measures that were the most effective.
Commission Chair, Professor David Begg said: “This study backs up the idea that both carrot and stick are needed.
“We obviously need to continue to make improvements to public transport to attract more users. But the reality is that however good public transport is, most motorists are not going to make the switch unless they have to.
“That means reduced parking spaces, higher parking charges, reduced road space (with the extra given over to buses or pedestrians) and road user charging.
“ Dublin and Zurich are good examples of what happens if public transport investment is not coupled with car restraint. In Dublin bus use is up by 40% since 1996 but car use has rocketed by 28% over the same period. Zurich has some of the finest public transport but it is in exactly the same position. Public transport use has doubled in 14 years but car use is still rising by 4% a year.
“Conversely, London shows the world what can be done. Since 2000 5% of car journeys in central London have switched to buses.
“At some point people are just going to have to realise that there is a finite limit to the number of cars that any city can accomodate – and that lifetsyles are going to get pretty uncomfortable along the way.”
Notes to editors:
The report examined transport in major world cities such as Paris, London, Moscow, New York, Singapore, Dublin, Zurich and Nottingham to identify what influenced travel patterns and the measures that were the most effective.
CfIT’s report can be found on our website at www.cfit.gov.uk after midday on 31 st March 2005
For further information please contact: cfit@dft.gsi.gov.uk
Return to: World cities research index
