Let's get off this road to nowhere

We continue to organise our transport along existing lines. Everyone must be aware of this, at least sub-consciously.

The pedestrian knows she is not safe walking alone, or along roads. The cyclist knows he is not welcome on any through road and runs the risk of being knocked over. The user of public transport knows she is not able to reach many preferred destinations, nor any at specific times. The private driver can see that many routes have reached saturation point and that increasing numbers of users are wanting their share of space and are willing to challenge for it, not necessarily legally. There is a pent-up demand for private car usage which no amount of road building, even if it were socially acceptable, would be able to satisfy. The politician and public servant know it because they face ever-increasing transport costs (both subsidies and infrastructure) without making any dent on congestion, safety or public transport effectiveness. In other words, our transport system is not sustainable.

What does "sustainable" mean?

It is a current buzz-word which, applied to transport, simply means it is so structured that it can feasibly continue into the future. The dictionary definition is "able to be maintained at a fixed level without exhausting natural resources or damaging the environment". Recently "sustainable" has taken on broader dimensions than purely the environment, although this remains the core issue. So I shall look at sustainability from a number of different viewpoints.

Environmentally: Our transport system impacts on the environment in a number of ways. The smog pall we see most mornings is the obvious one. Others are the invisible elements that affect our health, such as lead, the nitrogen oxides and the particulate matter that is produced by combustion engines. The gobbling up of land to be dedicated to roads and parking areas, the impact on views and quality of life, all these things affect our environment. Then of course there is the huge impact that the production of CO2 has on global warming and climate change, not to mention the use of scarce resources. (Internationally, transport accounts for 28% of all global warming emissions.) In all these ways, our current transport system is not environmentally sustainable.

Economically: If you don't have a bleeding heart for the environment, consider instead the economically unsustainable transport system we have. It is heavily reliant on oil, which we all can see is escalating in price and having a detrimental effect on our budgets. We see buses and trains passing us by mostly empty except at very particular times of the day; we see taxis being driven in very unsafe ways because economically they need the extra fares to survive. We see costly rail infrastructure being underutilised because it has to compete with road transport companies, whose infrastructure is almost totally subsidised by the state. We see expensive road con-struction which on completion merely moves the congestion it is trying to solve to other areas of the road system that then also need upgrading. This is a never-ending merry-go-round because, inevitably, the original upgrade becomes inadequate in its own turn.

Socially: Socially our transport system is unsustainable because it is not integrated in any way with our land-use planning system. We build houses and then wonder how people are going to get from there to existing services without a car. We build services without planning to cater for anything other than private transport or the ubiquitous minibuses, which are left to organise themselves as best they can to service the demand. The poorest of our community are least satisfactorily served when it comes to transport. Our visitors must have a car to enjoy the amenities we offer - this was not always so. There is no fast, safe, secure rail system to speed them into a more central area from the airport, not even a rapid bus transit system. Safety and security are almost non-existent in any form of transport, public or private. Taxi shootouts, bus crashes and private car-hijackings are all testimony to this truth.

What can we do about it?

The solution requires a combined effort from the authorities and the individual - a "social contract", in fact. The authorities must be given the space to "turn the ship around" in the knowledge that the individual users of the transport system will modify their behaviour once the system provides them with the opportunity to do so. At the same time, the individual must have confidence that the authorities will act with determination, technical skill and political will to provide us with a sustainable transport system.

What will it look like?

From the individual's point of view, it will be a system that will allow them to exercise the following hierarchy of choice:

First, is this trip strictly necessary? Can I do what I want to do without making a trip, either by using the telephone, the internet or local amenities that require no more than my feet to get me there?

Second, if not, can I get on a bicycle and get to where I want to go, safely (without having an accident), securely (without being attacked and robbed, hurt or deprived of my bicycle), healthily (without having to breathe in noxious fumes, but instead feeling the effects of good exercise) and enjoyably?

Third, if not, is there safe, secure, healthy public transport that will provide me with a trip that will be available within a reasonable time frame, and affordable, delivering me close enough to my destination?

Fourth, if not, can I use a road system that will be uncongested because my fellow citizens have chosen the above three options responsibly, leaving the road clear for my unavoidable trip?

From the authorities' point of view, it will be a system that will encourage the individuals to make their decisions as far up the above hierarchy as possible. Such a system will have to:

• Integrate with land-use planning to provide needed services far closer to where people live so they do not need to travel far.
  
  
• Provide safe, secure bicycle paths for a clear majority of (particularly poorer) people to use and perhaps provide a system for procuring inexpensive, easily maintained community bicycles.
  
  
• Provide safe, secure, extensive public transport that is made to be faster and cheaper than the private transport alternative (by artificial limits or penalties on the latter if necessary, eg exclusive bus lanes with priority at intersections).
  
  
• Provide good road access to areas which are remote, either to reach or to travel from, and where public transport is not economically feasible due to low demand.