Transport strategy too watered down to be successful

The Transport Strategy became so watered down it lacked any clear vision or strategy.

The strategy was more than simply putting smaller, more efficient vehicles on the roads. The strategy was also about enabling people to travel by bus, by foot, by bicycle – active travel if you will – if they chose to.

The original strategy had a clear vision to promote and subsidise bus use, as well as bike use and walking as a means of transport. Being the most vulnerable, those travellers were to have their needs at the top of the pyramid, such that their needs were considered as top priority when it came to transport decisions on island.

The benefits were far-reaching, as it has been proven time and time again, the world over: a population that engages in active travel are healthier, requiring less medical spend per head, as well as less public spending on transport infrastructure.

The strategy also promoted the use of electric vehicles, and the development of infrastructure to enable their use on the island, not just for those with a driveway and an electric socket.

Again it is proven time and time over, around the world, that lost revenue from fuel duty from less motoring is more than compensated for by reduced infrastructure and public health spending. There are farther-reaching effects of reduced fuel use, such as the reduced stress and spending on our hydrocarbon fuel port as electric vehicle use increases.

The Transport Strategy became a battleground to enable sales of vehicles to continue unabated, especially larger vehicles. The thin disguise of the organisers with vested interests in motor vehicles ignored the many integrated and linked benefits to the island as a whole.

With its teeth torn out, sadly to this day, there is no overarching clear guide as to what the Guernsey Transport Strategy is.

As the Transport Strategy was pared down, those who would like to let their children walk or cycle to school, or even walk or ride to work themselves, but feel it unsafe to so, lost out. Those who would like to use the buses but they are too infrequent lost out. Public health spending lost out, and infrastructure spending continues to rise, which means all taxpayers on the island lost out.

When you consider two-thirds of our population live in the northern, flat, half of the island, the majority within a few miles of work, school, friends, beaches, restaurants, cafes, one would imagine it should be easier to travel by bus, bike and foot, rather than being all but dependent on a car. That is what the Transport Strategy aimed to enable. Not just for those living in the north, but all islanders.

It would be great to see the States pull the remains of Transport Strategy together to a coherent strategy with clear goals.

SAM FIELD,

Guernsey Bicycle Group.