00.00 Rush-hour
traffic. Cars head-to-tail.
Guide Voice : An average rush hour in London.
Not a pretty sight. Britain's road transport system is in crisis.
Here, people use their cars more than any other country in Europe.
Traffic congestion is bad, and will get even worse. But the true
cost is only now becoming apparent : Britain will have to spend up
to £4 billion on new roads, every year for 30 years, just to
keep up with the rate of traffic growth - this, according to
startling research funded by the Economic Social and Research
Council, the ESRC.
00.37
London
GVs, Congestion Charge signs, cameras.
Guide Voice : No wonder change is in the air.
Since London started charging drivers to enter the city centre last
February, there are already fewer cars. Now the government is
looking to charge motorists for using roads outside London too,
with pilot projects expected soon. Many drivers don't like the
idea. Though other countries have been using tolls for years, in
Britain, roads have always been free.
01.03 Professor
Phil Goodwin at work.
Guide Voice: At London University, the Director
of the Transport Studies Unit, Professor Phil Goodwin, says old
attitudes have got to change.
01.13 SOT Professor Goodwin - "Unlike
all the other methods of reducing traffic, road pricing produces
money. And you've got the money to spend on improvements,
alternative methods of transport, public transport facilities, or
indeed anything else you want. And this creates the possibility of
making improvements, of adding carrots to the stick, which in
principle ought to be easier to sell politically than simply
restricting traffic with no other benefits
available."
01.43 Professor
Goodwin at work.
Guide Voice: The Unit --
funded by the ESRC - has come up with a number of key policy areas
where changes could be crucial.
01.52 Train
arriving at station.
Guide Voice: Researchers
say it's vital to make Britain's transport system better and
cheaper -- especially the much-criticized railways.
02.02 Filling
up at petrol pump
Guide Voice: But they've
also found that fuel and car prices directly affect traffic flows.
A 10 percent rise in the fuel price could lead to 3 percent fewer
cars on the road.
02.13 Pedestrian
areas, bus-lane, cyclists.
Guide Voice : And they've
looked at making town centres more friendly to non car-users, with
more pedestrian areas, more bus and cycle lanes,. Taken together,
these steps would amount to a rethink of Britain's transport
system.
02.27 Steve
Hounsham, Communications Manager, Transport 2000, at work
Guide Voice: But it could
be done. Policy-makers here don't have far to look. Steve Hounsham
of Transport 2000, a national lobby group:
02.37 SOT Steve Hounsham -
"We're using our cars more and more as time goes on. In
other countries, they don't have this same obsession with the
motor-car, and they're very happy to use public transport more than
we do in this country. So certainly we should be looking to other
countries and copying some of their ideas, in particular
Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark. They all
have much better public transport systems than we do, not so much
road traffic congestion, and a more enlightened attitudes towards
using alternatives to the car."
03.06 Car
exhausts; cyclists.
Guide Voice: Campaigners
say there'd be lots of benefits from less road congestion : Lower
air pollution. Fewer road accidents. More people walking or
cycling, leading to a fitter, healthier nation.
03.17 Pedestrians
walking, young people talking.
Guide Voice: More
generally, broad changes in the way we live may offer signs for
hope. The ESRC research has shown that how people travel to work,
and where they work could be major factors. There are signs, too,
that young people are changing their attitudes towards using cars -
that they're more open to change than their elders:
03.40 SOT Professor Goodwin
- "We do know that young people have a greater
sensitivity to environmental questions than the population as a
whole. The interesting thing is can we build on that in such a way
that it lasts for the rest of their lives, rather than simply being
a temporary phase they grow out of. And that will be one of the
most important questions for the long-term future of transport and
its effect on the environment."
04.06 Buses,
people boarding.
Guide Voice: So this is a
critical time. If charging drivers to use roads leads them to turn
instead to public transport, 2003 could prove to be a milestone
year in resolving Britain's transport crisis - saving British
tax-payers a fortune at the same time.
04.24 Ends
