-to what degree can UK government policies improve present traffic situation and reduce the impact on the environment to achieve sustainable development.
Abstract
In recent decades, urbanisation is one of the biggest problems in many counties as the population grows rapidly, urbanisation related issues, such as traffic, make the problems worse, governments are trying to improve the situation by carrying out initiatives and encouraging people to use green transport methods. This essay focuses on traffic related matters in the UK with the purpose of evaluating whether these policies are effective in meeting traffic congestion, pollution, and achieve sustainable transport. It starts by listing the main current problems, followed by an outline of government initiatives, after that statistics collected from regions and national levels are provided together with an analysis aimed at assessing how feasible and sustainable they are. The statistics show positive tendency in terms of using public transport and green gas emissions, Sustainable Travel Plans largely proved to be successful, therefore, to a large extent the problems can be solved by the sustainable policies in the long run, as long as continuing efforts are being made to ensure benign progress, practically, in car using and energy consumption areas which may affect the overall achievement.
Introduction
Over the last 2 decades, as the population has been increased rapidly, urban areas in many counties have witnessed a dramatic growth accordingly, at present, nearly half of the global population live in cities, and it is expected that over the next 3 decades most people that increase in global population will also live the urban areas. Many countries are on the way towards urbanisation which means cities which grow rapidly and massively, and large amount of migration pour into these areas. In Europe, the urban population was 51.2 million in 1950, it’s predicted by the year of 2030 that this figure will amount to 79.6 million in 2030(Cohen, 2006).
Urbanisation, also stands for low average cost of providing infrastructure, education and health care, and other basic services (Cohen, 2006), however, it’s also attended by many serious problems that challenge the surrounding environment and current situation of the society, such as: traffic congestion, pollution, over-crowded public places, high priced houses and consumer goods, increased crime rate, fierce competition which are difficult to manage.
Facing the problems that become increasingly sticky, government carried out a range of measures to improve the situation and hope to achieve sustainable development, Brundtland describes sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”(1987,p43 ),as this essay will focus on the traffic problems and traffic pollution in UK, firstly, I will reveal the traffic problems of UK’s current situation, secondly, introducing the policies that the government adopted to tackle the problems, then move on to analysis how sustainable the solutions are.
Till now, a series of initiatives are implemented by UK Department for Transport to encourage sustainable travel, meanwhile to promote healthier lifestyle and to improve local environment. Great efforts have been made by the government, based on the statistic and research that has been done before, in my opinion, to a large extent the problems can be solved by the sustainable development policies in the long run.
Main body
Traffic related problems
Transport, road transport in particular generates a huge amount of pollution and it is the major contributing factor to global warming (Neale, 1997) .The impact that transport has on environment can be measured by estimating carbon dioxide emissions (Leith, 2007). In 2007, transport accounts for 24% all carbon dioxide emissions in the UK, rising from 20% (117 million tonnes) in 1990. Carbon dioxide emissions come from road transport increased by 11% between 1990 and 2007 (Department for transport, 2007).
The UK Government pointed out in the White Paper on the Future of Transport: road traffic is the major source of air pollution, and every year there are more than 24,000 people die for this reason, and similar number of people are in the hospital because of exposure to polluted air which has mainly come from road traffic(DETR, 1998).
Another problem of transport is traffic congestion, new road building projects are planned to meet the traffic demand, but more often than not, are being neglected that they can bring more traffic problems and noise pollution; moreover, it has become a striking symbol of unsustainable development in UK and many other countries (Neale, 1997).
In order to find out the effects of traffic-related pollution in urban areas and come out with possible policy to deal with it, in 1999, a national survey was conducted and it indicated that 66.6% of 147 surveyed respondents regard the effects that road traffic has on the health in urban areas of UK as being serious or very serious, and 70.5% view traffic exhaust pollution and 41.1% consider noise pollution as a serious or very serious issue (Ison, 2002).
Government solutions
In 1998, “Transport White Paper” as an integrated transport strategy carried out with the aim to change the travel habits and arouse people’s awareness to reduce car-based travel, thus lessen the pollution caused by traffic congestion and bring health benefits (Coleman, 2000), therefore, the Sustainable Travel Plans play an important role in this strategy in order to fulfill the goal that is to make transport better for everyone (Rye et al, 2000).
“Low Carbon Transport: A Greener Future” (2009), a strategy designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport which is in line with Climate Change Act 2008 , calling for businesses and citizens to take joint actions to use green transport to reduce the impact of transport has on climate change (Department for transport,2009) , among green plans ,the cycle to work scheme is encouraged greatly by the government, tax-free bikes are offered to staff to promote healthier commuting and reduce environmental pollution.
In recent years, UK government has given priority to cutting down the transport problems and build a low carbon future, transport is a big consumer of scarce resources and a major contributor to environmental pollution (Banister et al, 2003), thus developing a low carbon travel plan with a wide range of options for citizen and businesses is essential (Department for Transport, 2009).
In responding to comply with policies and take actions, for both organisations and individuals make commitment to the environment, the implement of the Sustainable Travel Plans especially meaningful in reducing carbon dioxide emission and striving for a sustainable future, since walking and cycling cause no carbon dioxide emission and resource consumption, in addition, using public transport and car sharing such kind of environmentally-friendly alternatives exhaust much less carbon dioxide emission than driving alone, furthermore, it can improve the air quality, alleviate local and global environmental problems, such as climate change and global warming.
“Sustainable Travel Plans(or Green Commute Plans) is a package of measures tailored to the needs of individuals and aimed at promoting greener, cleaner travel choices and reducing reliance on the car thus reducing the impact on the environment”(Department for Transport, 2009). It is including “walking, cycling, public transport, car clubs, car sharing, eco-driving and low carbon vehicles” (the Scottish Government, undated), table below shows the measures of Sustainable Travel Plans:
Table: 1-1
Source: The Scottish Executive Central Research Unit 2000, p18
The first Green Commute Plan in UK was adopted in Nottingham in 1995, Nottinghamshire County Council and a number of local employers intended to make a public commitment to encourage their staff to use sustainable transport to travel to work and to reduce the impact on environment (Emerson et al, 1999). Since then GCP is developed by the adoption of some public and private organisations including Nat West and Hewlett Packard (Newson, 1997).At present, some big companies in UK such as: Pfizer, Stockley, Park, AstraZeneca and Boots also have their own Green Commuter Plans. Green Commute Plan has witnessed a steady increase since 1990, peeking at the implementation of reducing car-based travel by the department of environment (Coleman, 1999).
Evidence and statistic
In order to find out how feasible and sustainable policies are, numerous research has been done, in “The Effects of Smarter Choice Programs in the Sustainable Travel Towns: Full Report” which was published by Department for Transport in 2010, this full independent report examined every aspect of traffic and served to assess the achievement of 3 'Sustainable Travel Towns'- Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester in which Sustainable Travel including cycling, walking, public transport, and decreases usage in cars is being adopted (Department for Transport, 2010).
The report indicated that the usage of bus increased tremendously in Peterborough and Worcester, 760,000 extra trips in Worcester, and 2.6 million extra trips in Peterborough, whereas Darlington showed a slight decline (though the rate of decline slowed from 2006 onwards) during the period of the implement of Sustainable Travel Plans in 3 towns, the car driver trips of household travel in three cities reduced by 7% to 10% in three places based on that figures in 2004’s report, and this helps to lessen the traffic congestion to a great deal, moreover, the carbon saved from the decrease in car driver journeys that below 50km in the Sustainable Travel Towns achieved a percentage of 0.6% reduction in individual emission compared to the figure of 2004, and the carbon savings of an individual can amount to approximate 50kg CO2 across the three towns (Department for Transport, 2010). Table1-2 below can show the progress made in the 3 Sustainable Travel Towns clearly:
Table: 1-2
Sources: Department for Transport, 2010, The Effects of Smarter Choice Programs in the Sustainable Travel Towns: Full Report, charter 3
The Department for Transport concluded that implement of Sustainable Travel in three towns is very successful in terms of carbon savings which is an important element of reducing carbon emission, and it also brings about additional substantial benefits, evident congestion relief, improved air quality, cost saving, the report also gives an example of two employees who use car sharing to commute, each of them can save £4,000 a year, furthermore, it can be of great assistance to fulfill government objectives.
In research “Mitigating Transport's Climate Change Impact in Scotland: Assessment of Policy Options” which was published by Scottish transport statistics in 2009, the finding suggested that the joint force of the 2 polices in the Central Scenario would achieve a reduction of approximately 1.35 MtCO2 p.a. in 2022, while another project called Ambitious Scenario would achieve a reduction of approximately 2.15 Mt CO2 p.a. in 2022, an reduction estimated to be 44% from 1990 total transport emissions (tale 1-3).
Table: 1-3
Sources: Scottish Transport Statistics, 2009, Mitigating Transport's Climate Change Impact in Scotland: Assessment of Policy Options
The annual publication “Measuring Progress Sustainable development indicators 2010” which assessed the UK progress in sustainable development, this research outlined 68 aspects together with the evidence which can examine the progress, the study shows emissions of six greenhouse gases in 2009 were 575 million tonnes, 26 % reduction compare with that of 1990. Emission of carbon dioxide, the main element of greenhouse gas, was estimated to be 481 million tonnes, 19 % lower than 1990. It’s worthy noticing that emissions decreased by 9% between 2008 -2009.
Chart: 1-4
Source: Defra, DECC, AEA Energy and Environment
The figures in first reports is largely satisfactory, despite no progress made in 3 Sustainable Travel Towns in terms of bus using in Darlington and carbon saved from the decrease in car driver journeys which need to be improved, the experiment in 3 towns can be of help the implementation of Sustainable Travel Plan in other cities in order to have an overall achievement. Taking Scotland as a region that shows in second research, the reductions in Central Scenario and Ambitious Scenario was huge, although they are estimated figures; a reduction of 44% from 1990 total transport emissions is really encouraging. The implement in cities and regions are successful, so it’s not suspiring to find out the overall 26 % reduction compared with 1990 in six greenhouse gases which fulfilled the goal of 18% reduction in Kyoto protocol, together with 19 % in carbon dioxide prove that the Sustainable policies are successful in UK.
The transport caused pollution problems are largely solved, however, according to the research: Energy consumption in the United Kingdom that done by Department of Trade and Industry(undated), the transport energy consumption becomes sever which can affect sustainable transport achievement, the transport energy consumption has increased 2 times since 1970 (Chart: 1-5), although rail and water transport has fallen, the consumption from road transport doubled from 22million tonnes to 42 million tonnes since 1970.Between 1990 and 2001, energy consumption increased by 8% in the rail transport, and 7% in the road transport. Among different type of road vehicles, car made up of almost 2/3 of the all road transport energy consumption.
Chart: 1-5
Source: DTI
The length of journey and frequency of using cars affect energy consumption greatly, now, less of 1/3 families without a car, the chart: 1-6 shows car use by an individual increased by 91% since 1970, and car is most frequently used if the journey is more than 1mile, consequently, the using of car and the energy consumed form this are the biggest problems need to take in to consideration to fulfill the objective of the sustainable development of the society.
Chart: 1-6
Sourced estimates derived from data provided by DFT and ONS
Conclusion
As urbanisation becomes increasingly severe ,transport related problems become one of the symbols of being unsustainable(Neale, 1997), and as transport plays an important role in meeting the challenges that the urbanisation bring about, sustainable transport initiatives which design to combat with traffic related problems make great contribution in minimising negative impact on environment, traffic stress and congestion, improving air quality, researches show that an increase percentage using of green transport methods instead of car-based travel can lessen the traffic caused environmental pollution ( Department for Transport, 2009),
The data of researches indicate positive changes, and dramatic percentages in decreasing CO2 emission in cities, region, and the whole country prove that the sustainable policies are successful, as a result, to a large extent the problems can be solved by the sustainable policies as long as continuing efforts are being made, especially in car use and car energy consumption aspects, and most likely these two areas are full of opportunities that researches can be carried forward to examine whether improvements are being made with reference to taking current statistics as the base year.
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