Words into Action: Brighton and Hove budgets for sustainable transport, but is it enough to change people's transport habits?

Looking east along Old Shoreham Road: new cycle lane with raised kerb 20 Mar 2012

Brighton and Hove City Council released its 2012-13 Local Transport Plan capital budget on 15 March 2012 (link to download below). The budget lays out how £6.46m of capital will be spent over the next year with allocations for the following two years. This compares with £3.34m in 2011/12, £3.02m in 2010/11 and £5.79m in 2009/10. It is good to see progress - at a time when not much tangible seems to be happening - but I fear it won't be enough to show the benefits of sustainable transport. So the goal of a significant shift to sustainable transport won't happen. Yet.

Real priorities are funded in the Plan, including Lewes Road and Dyke Road cycle lanes, and expansion of area-wide 20 mph limits. The Plan contains real progress, but it doesn't promise a sustainable transport network throughout the city so I'm not convinced that it will improve public transport and cycling links enough to achieve a substantial 'modal shift' in the way people travel around the city.

Cycle lane - mixed use at bridge pinch point

I know it is a case of limited funds and limited political power. But we should remind ourselves of the objectives, and real possibilities that have worked in other cities. So I re-state the case for a East-West Sustainable Transport Corridor in Brighton and Hove (already outlined in the year 2000 Local Transport Plan 2).

Here is a (maybe radical) idea for testing the idea of a Sustainable Transport Corridor. We have already temporarily closed the Old Shoreham Road to construct a cycle lane. Can we extend the experiment by keeping the bridge over the railway (by Silverdale Road) closed to private cars? Only open to buses, cycles, walkers, taxis, local trades, emergency traffic etc. Introduce rapid (limited stop) buses along the route and make rapid public transport from Mile Oak to Brighton Central a realistic alternative to cars? We could show the public that sustainable transport is about more than just cycling.

There is already sustainable transport action in the city - I live near the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane construction scheme, and I (among others) have cycled along the new cycle lanes though they're not yet officially open. The widened cycle lanes give cyclists like me a much better feeling not just of safety but of room to "be" - a sort of confidence in being a cyclist, rather than a marginalised eccentric in a torrent of dangerous traffic. The space for car traffic is reduced. There may be complaints that this reduced space slows traffic. But right now it's closed and there is no traffic. The city survives. Boys play football on the Old Shoreham Road and it feels great to be car-free.

So this might be a good time to argue that the Old Shoreham Road should not be seen as an 'artery' for private motor traffic in greater Brighton-Hove-Portslade. We have the A27 bypass for people who want to drive between the suburbs. We want to reduce rat-run commuter traffic traffic in our residential areas because it is dangerous for children and cyclists. But it seems cars are the only fast way to get about town. We need a Rapid Bus Transport route. Could we re-propose the Old Shoreham Road become a Sustainable Transport corridor, where it's fast, safe and pleasant to cycle, walk and use buses? I guess these preliminary moves on Old Shoreham Road might turn out to be a first step in this direction. We don't need to jump at an untried 'Sustainable Transport Corridor' if we can implement and test it step by step.

We might make the transition easier if we engage motorists with planning alternative routes. I spoke to a lady who said it took an hour for her to drive from her home in Portslade to her job in Central Brighton the other day - including parking (in free-parking QP/Hanover). She says she lives too far from Portslade station to use the train. Can we show we do respect car drivers by talking to her of the alternatives: use the A27 and park for free. Or catch a bus and train... already we know that bus-train will involve long waits and slow buses... we're back to the need for a rapid bus. Likewise it can take an hour by bus from central Hove to Woodingdean or Moulescomb depending on your luck with traffic and connections.

So we need an east-west sustainable transport corridor, with feeds from the suburbs such as Mile Oak - maybe with with a fork running up the Lewes Road and to the Deans. It's not enough to say, as Mary Mears did, that there's a perfectly good cycle route along the coast. Most people don't live or work close to that route. It needs to be a transport backbone rather than on the edges of the city. There's stuff to work out. Lots of people don't like cycling. Try cycling to Woodingdean from central Brighton - the hills! Could we provide buses with cycle space? Many people don't cycle so rapid public transport is key to a sustainable transport corridor.

If handled right a Sustainable Transport Corridor might be acceptable to motorists and cyclists as an experiment, especially considering the road is already closed. Rapid buses would need to be provided. It would be good to show that the vision behind sustainable transport is more than a cycle lane in congested traffic.

Link to Brighton and Hove City Council Local Transport Plan Capital Programme 2012/13

CTS rapid transit system in Brighton and Hove could become reality this year, according to AQAP report

Could Brighton & Hove's CTS look like this example? Many Continental and USA cities use Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems with standard buses, light-rail like stations, queue jumpers, priority traffic lanes and signals. Stations at one-mile intervals.

26 July 2011. A rapid transit public transport scheme could become reality in Brighton and Hove as early as later this year, according to Brighton and Hove City Council's Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) 2011.

*** Update: 27 July 2011. A council source commented today: "The CTS proposal was made in a previous era when there was money around for such schemes, alas, whilst it remains an aspiration, the funding is no longer in place for this."

The AQAP report issued last week says the Coastal Transport System (CTS) (formerly known as Rapid Transport System (RTS)) could begin in 2011/12 "subject to acceptance of the Business Case by the Government".

If approved, the express, limited-stop-route would run from Brighton Marina in the East, via the Royal Sussex Hospital and Brighton Station, then along the Kingsway to the King Alfred, and finally to Shoreham Harbour in the West. CTS could connect with other public transport links. This would hugely speed up journey times for those using public transport along these routes.

The report says: "The CTS is designed to create a step change in public transport services and infrastructure in Brighton & Hove by providing an attractive, alternative for some journeys to reach both existing and future planned destinations. This will provide sufficient choice for some car drivers and assist in contributing towards transport modal shift that is in line with the council’s LDF Core Strategy. CTS aims to deliver a socially inclusive transport mode. The increased capacity of the public transport network will offer environmental and economic benefits to the city.

CTS would initially link key social, leisure, residential, business and employment destinations between Worthing (West), Brighton Marina (East) and Brighton Station (City Centre). Utilising a high quality, frequent express with limited stops, the CTS will complement, rather than compete with, existing local bus and train services.

The CTS is propsed to use two key corridors (east and west) with segregated priority on the route and at junctions where possible. The route will be :

• East out of Brighton Station – North Street – Eastern Road – Royal Sussex Hospital – Brighton Marina.
• West out of Brighton Station – West Street – Kings Road – King Alfred Centre - Shoreham Harbour

The routes will link the railway station, the retail centre, major businesses such as American Express, the Royal Sussex County Hospital and visitor destinations such as the Marina and the seafront.

CTS is based on the concept of high frequency, limited stop services to primarily meet the needs of passengers who otherwise may not have considered conventional local Brighton and Hove City Council – England July 2011 bus services. It is expected that there will be 10 RTS stops in Brighton & Hove.

Proposed CTS stops:
• Brighton Station – a key interchange for longer distance passengers seeking links to American Express, Hospital, Marina or Shoreham Harbour developments – the number and type of buses and taxis needs to be managed at this interchange from an air quality point of view
• Clock Tower – access to Churchill Square and other central retail areas in Brighton centre although the number of buses at this junction must be managed with a view to the air quality implications
• North Street – access to the Cultural Quarter, tourist, retail and employment areas, plus bus to bus interchange, North Street has between 3,500 and 4,000 buses a day
• American Express (Edward Street) – serving one of the city’s major employers
• Royal Sussex County Hospital (Eastern Road) – a key sub-regional health facility
• Brighton Marina – a significant leisure destination and retail destination , as well as serving major residential development and the proposed Brighton International Arena
• Brighton Conference Centre – gives access to the Brighton seafront as well as an important destination
• Hove Seafront – offering an intermediary stop serving residential and employment uses, as well as offering a tourist link
• King Alfred Centre – a potential redevelopment site
• Shoreham Harbour – significant regeneration potential for residential, commercial, leisure and community uses.

*** UPDATE 27 July 2011: In the notes to the AQAP report, the CTS Rapid Transport System is mentioned as an option to the Local Transport Plan (2) which was the plan for the period 2000-2011, and now succeeded by LTP3. The notes say the Rapid Transport System was to have been implemented by BHCC and Brighton and Hove Bus Co. It was rated as having "HIGH" impact on air quality. The budget cost was £11.4m mainly for planning a priority route for express buses. Other benefits were to reduce impact of private car use resulting in less noise, congestion and improved road safety. "Targeted at specific road network but will also reduce private vehicle traffic citywide".
Intriguingly, the notes say that the Rapid Transport System was to have been implemented in 2008-2009. There's obviously some discrepancy here with the main text of AQAP, which says the CTS project would be implemented in 2010-11.
It seems this Rapid Bus scheme was left over from the original Local Transport Plan of 2000. Other parts of this sustainable transport plan (such as Old Shoreham Road) fell victim to the policies of the Tory administration in the years 2007-2011, which, apart from relentless cost saving, also attempted to "repeal" the council's commitment to sustainable transport - because it "unfairly penalised" car drivers.

For more analysis of the AQAP 2011 report: click here.