Transport Minister Gillian Merron today congratulated Peterborough, Darlington and Worcester as the Sustainable Travel Towns, on the good results they have achieved in boosting sustainable transport in their areas.
Speaking at the Sustainable Travel Town Conference in Worcester, she highlighted some of their successes so far in increasing cycling, walking and use of public transport, and urged other local authorities to follow their example.
Research from the first three years of the sustainable travel towns project show that:
* Darlington has seen a 14% increase in public transport trips, a 29% increase in walking trips, and a 79% increase in cycling trips. Car trips were down 11%
* Peterborough increased public transport trips by 13%, walking trips by 21%, and cycling trips by 25%. Car trips were down 13%
* Worcester's public transport trips were up 22%, walking trips were up 17% and cycling trips were up 36%. Car trips were down 12%
Gillian Merron said:
"These results show that simple things like giving people information about public transport, starting car share schemes and encouraging people to walk and cycle more can have startling results.
"People in these areas are already starting to swap their cars for walking, cycling and public transport. This can only be a good thing for reducing local congestion and pollution, improving people's health and helping to tackle climate change. I hope that this trend will continue, and that more and more local authorities will learn from these towns example."
The towns used a variety of measures to achieve the results, including a technique called 'Individualised Travel Marketing'. This involved a team of travel advisors visiting households offering travel information tailored to that household, and collecting comments from residents about how their experience of local travel could be improved.
Speaking at the Sustainable Travel Town Conference in Worcester, she highlighted some of their successes so far in increasing cycling, walking and use of public transport, and urged other local authorities to follow their example.
Research from the first three years of the sustainable travel towns project show that:
* Darlington has seen a 14% increase in public transport trips, a 29% increase in walking trips, and a 79% increase in cycling trips. Car trips were down 11%
* Peterborough increased public transport trips by 13%, walking trips by 21%, and cycling trips by 25%. Car trips were down 13%
* Worcester's public transport trips were up 22%, walking trips were up 17% and cycling trips were up 36%. Car trips were down 12%
Gillian Merron said:
"These results show that simple things like giving people information about public transport, starting car share schemes and encouraging people to walk and cycle more can have startling results.
"People in these areas are already starting to swap their cars for walking, cycling and public transport. This can only be a good thing for reducing local congestion and pollution, improving people's health and helping to tackle climate change. I hope that this trend will continue, and that more and more local authorities will learn from these towns example."
The towns used a variety of measures to achieve the results, including a technique called 'Individualised Travel Marketing'. This involved a team of travel advisors visiting households offering travel information tailored to that household, and collecting comments from residents about how their experience of local travel could be improved.
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