Transport Policy Context

Institute for Transport Studies
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Transport policy context

Part 1: Challenges for transport policy
Part 2: Institutions, regulation, influence and
cooperation
Shaping Future Transport
Dr Caroline Mullen

Part 1: Challenges for transport policy
Shaping Future Transport

Dr Caroline Mullen
Overview to part 1
• Why have transport policy & planning - why intervene?

• ‘Big issues’ related to transport:
– Do they have a time and place,
– How do these influence transport planning.
Why intervene?
• Transport matters for lives and environment
• Changing transport changes the way people and
planet are affected
Why intervene?
Transport systems have major impacts:
-on prospects for decarbonisation (See
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter8.pdf
-on pollution (e.g. Nox, PMs) and related health

impacts (Guarnieri and Balmes 2014; Vermeulen et al. 2014; WHO)
-on access to social and economic activities (so
social inclusion)
-on safety and injury
-on economic development
-other impacts?
Big issues
Efforts across and within countries:
Maybe…
But things are rarely straightforward
Why intervene?
Transport problem Policy

identified implemented to
(e.g. pollution, = address the
congestion, problem
safety…..)
?
Why intervene?
Policy is not always motivated by simple recognition of a

problem:
• Motivations for policy are sometimes a matter of [shifting]
politics
• Sometimes the policy reflects prominent but questionable
ideas about transport and its impacts
We might differentiate between what policy does and what we
think it should do.
Big issues: three points
1. The issue may exist and be important – but has it

been recognised by policy-makers and planners, or
by politicians and public?
•Knowledge develops over time – e.g. on health
impacts of urban air quality
•It can be a long process to get issues recognised
Improving air quality: knowledge, public
awareness and acceptability
Milan: pollution charge – Ecopass 2008-

2011. Wide public acceptability of the charge
Mattioli, Boffi & Colleoni (2012)
“Some cities have license plate lotteries,

restricted days for even / odd numbered plates etc;
http://www.unep.org/transport/airquality/China.pdf
1994
Telegraph 1st Aug 2014

2. Issues may be recognised – but it can be less easy to work

out how they might be effectively and fairly tackled.
Consider road safety:
•1.35 million deaths on the roads each year (WHO 2018)
•Inequalities in risks within and between countries –
correlation with wealth
•Pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders are at particular risk.
In a collision with a motor vehicle as “the collision energy is
mainly absorbed by the lighter 'object'” (EC 2015).
Road safety – protecting vulnerable road users
Old approach to road safety –

O R
Tales of the Road (DfT): Note the
revised version is not like this!
‘London police chief: Onus on cyclists

to be safe,’ The Scotsman 9th Nov 2013
3. Issue exists and is recognised - but other competing factors take
priority
Consider carbon reduction
(Marsden et al 2014) Found measures on reducing carbon from transport
are not effective enough given the scale of the problem.
Practitioners recognise this - in fact it is them who point it out
So why have ineffective measures?
In this case, it was because:
(i) Economic objectives took priority - although that was not meant to
happen
(ii) There is a (contestable) view that increasing traffic = increased
economic growth
(iii) But (on the whole) increased traffic in Europe ≠ carbon reductions
…that was not meant to happen
Sustainable transport –
We are familiar with the idea:
Environment
Economy Equity - Society

(or variations thereof)
But in practice, sometimes more weight is given to one
aspect - in the example of previous slide, weight was given
to pursuit of economic growth. Should that happen?

Part 2: Institutions, regulation, influence
and cooperation
Why does this matter to transport policy?
• Regulation and organisation of mobility systems, influence

what transport measures can be used to address objectives
• Collaboration, co-operation (or blame games) influence how

policy and transport measures function
Who is in charge of transport policy in Britain?
Who is in charge of transport planning in Leeds?
Who is in charge of the railways in Britain

Shadow transport minister
highlights Labour’s support for the
Key to increasing housing supply is investment in
public to own the railway transport infrastructure
http://www.thenews.coop/109328/news/co-operatives/shadow-
transport-minister-highlights-labours-support-public-railway/ Rob Tincknell, Chief Executive Officer at Battersea
Power Station Development Company,
http://www.cbi.org.uk/news/battersea-power-station-key-to-increasing-
housing-supply-is-investment-in-transport-infrastructure/
Local transport (Leeds)
Who is in charge of transport planning in Leeds?

Leeds city council
But Leeds is also part of West Yorkshire Combined Authority which is
creating a Single Transport Plan covering:
Leeds; Bradford; Calderdale; Kirklees; Wakefield; York
Combined Authorities are intended to allow more regional autonomy in
decision making:
But decision-making processes are significantly prescribed by national
government, e.g.
•Involvement of a Local Economic Partnership;
•Bidding for government funds using government criteria;
•Private providers – bus and rail companies
Pre 2020 (now changed)
• Who [was] in charge of the railways in

Britain?
Diagram from:
Office of Rail and Road, who also say:
“This diagram is intended to be a general
rather than comprehensive overview of the
Great Britain rail industry for illustrative
purposes only…
The overview reflects the industry as of
February 2016.”
http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/
0008/16379/an-overview-of-the-rail-
industry.pdf
New plan
https:// https://gbrtt.co.uk/
researchbriefings.files.parliament.u
k/documents/CBP-8961/CBP-
8961.pdf
New mobility services
Left: https://tfgm.com/innovation/escooters
Below: https://beeactive.tfgm.com/cycle-hire/
Rarely one organisation in sole charge. Yet sometimes one organisation is
influential –
e.g. Jamie Lerner mayor of Curitiba 1971–1975.
Pedestrianisation of part of Curitiba
To overcome opposition Lerner implemented the pedestrianisation over a
two day period
Shop owners - expected to object – actually supported the action
A local automobile group did object and planned to drive across the
pedestrian area – so
“the city workers laid down strips of paper the length of the mall. The auto
club arrived and found dozens of children sitting in the former street,
painting pictures” (Khayesi and Amekudzi 2011, p. 1551)
Working across institutions
Might be vertical - one is directed by the other;

Might be horizontal – collaboration between organisations;
Might be more complicated: e.g. public and private sector, or
between government and private sector, or between non-
governmental organisations and government.
Can be statutory; or collaborations between organisations with
differing areas of expertise, or relations based on public
opinion or social responsibility, or commercial relations.
Based on ITS contribution to Challenge project

Major areas on which organisations may need to cooperate
are:
•Strategy development;
•Resource sharing and liabilities;
•Data sharing;
•Financing and budget;
•Consistency between regulations under which each operates
(e.g. competition law; data protection; safety requirements and
employment conditions);
•Strategy consistency (e.g. between local and regional
authorities).
Cooperation (e.g. between regional planners and public transport
providers) should ideally take account of the following:
•That resources tend to be scarce, and a key decision will involve
deciding distribution of resources
•That planning tends to be conducted under conditions of uncertainty (we
have discussed this already)
•Actors may bring differing, potentially conflicting objectives; Actors can
have differing remits and constituencies to whom they are accountable;
•Sectors can have differing technical approaches or differing to appraisal,
monitoring and evaluation;
Summary
• Why intervene?
– Difficult to avoid, and can have influence despite uncertainties
• ‘Big issues’ can shape direction of planning, but:
– Recognition of issues can emerge as knowledge changes
– Issues can be tackled in very different ways, and this raises
questions of what is preferable or fair
• Institutions, their roles, influence and cooperation.
– Many influences on decision-making
– Collaboration is a central part of transport planning
References
European Commission (2015b) Pedestrians and cyclists unprotected road users
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road_safety/specialist/knowledge/pedestrians/
pedestrians_and_cyclists_unprotected_road_users/no_speed_no_mass_and_no_protection_en.htm
Geddes, J. A., Martin, R. V., Boys, B. L., & van Donkelaar, A. (2016). Long-Term Trends Worldwide in Ambient NO 2
Concentrations Inferred from Satellite Observations. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(3), 281–289.
http://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409567
International Energy Agency (IEA 2015), CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion – Highlights, 2015 ed. International Energy
Agency, Paris
Khayesi, M. Amekudzi A.A. (2011) Kingdon’s multiple streams model and automobile dependence reversal path: the case of
Curitiba, BrazilJournal of Transport Geography 19 (2011) 1547–1552
Marsden G; Mullen CA; Bache I; Bartle I; Flinders M (2014) Carbon reduction and travel behaviour: Discourses, disputes
and contradictions in governance, Transport Policy, 35, pp.71-78. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.05.012
Mattioli, G., Boffi, M. & Colleoni, M. Milan’s pollution charge: sustainable transport and the politics of evidence, Paper
presented at the Berlin Conference 2012 on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, “Evidence for
Sustainable Development”, Berlin 5-6 October 2012
Vermeulen, R., Silverman, D. T., Garshick, E., Vlaanderen, J., Portengen, L., and Steenland, K., (2014) Exposure-
Response Estimates for Diesel Engine Exhaust and Lung Cancer Mortality Based on Data from Three Occupational
Cohorts, Environmental Health Perspectives 122, 2, 172-177
World Health Organisation (no date) Public health, environmental and social determinants of health
http://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/databases/health_impacts/en/index1.html
World Health Organisation (WHO) (2018) Global Status Report on Road Safety. WHO, Geneva

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Institute for Transport Studies

Transport policy context

Transport policy context

Shaping Future Transport

• Why have transport policy & planning - why intervene?

-on pollution (e.g. Nox, PMs) and related health

Transport problem Policy

Policy is not always motivated by simple recognition of a

1. The issue may exist and be important – but has it

Milan: pollution charge – Ecopass 2008-

“Some cities have license plate lotteries,

Telegraph 1st Aug 2014

2. Issues may be recognised – but it can be less easy to work

Old approach to road safety –

‘London police chief: Onus on cyclists

Economy Equity - Society

Transport policy context

• Regulation and organisation of mobility systems, influence

• Collaboration, co-operation (or blame games) influence how

Who is in charge of transport planning in Leeds?

Who is in charge of the railways in Britain

Who is in charge of transport planning in Leeds?

• Who [was] in charge of the railways in

Might be vertical - one is directed by the other;

Based on ITS contribution to Challenge project

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