Planning the journey - the future of transport in Southampton - item published in Echo 12 March 2003

On Thursday Southampton will host a 'transport summit': a gathering that will include both experts and transport users to discuss what Southampton's transport needs, and those of south Hampshire, might be over the next twenty five years. Some people, I imagine will react to that with something like 'I don't care about twenty five years time. Why can't I just get my bus when I want it?'

It's right that we should worry about the here and now, but in reality, the only way we are going to get our buses to turn up on time or anything else in transport to work for us is to plan ahead. And not only should we plan ahead, but we need to think about what the city as a whole should look like when it comes to transport. Everything we do affects someone else. The school run in the morning puts 20% more cars on the road at peak times. Traffic congestion in some parts of the city stops buses getting where they need to be. If buses can't get to their destinations on time people miss their connections, or miss appointments, and so on.

Planning ahead though, involves more people than those who run what we think of as transport services. The major employers in the city have an interest in Southampton working well. They want their employers to get to work and their products to be collected or delivered effectively. Hospitals can only function well if their patients can get to and from treatment efficiently and if staff can arrive and depart reliably. It's also in all our interest to plan a system that pollutes less and provides us with choices on mode of travel. Involving the less obvious contributors to the pattern of transport in the City in its planning may pay surprising dividends.

I sent out thousands of questionnaires to city residents and businesses recently in the run up to the summit. I wanted to know how people see the present and future of transport in the City. We've got the facts - we know how many cars come in, where they park, how the bus service works, whether the trains are punctual - but transport is all about people: what they think about the system will determine the choices they will make in the future, and that will lead to the 'facts' changing. We received a huge response, analysis here (Word document) , and the trouble people took to fill in and send off forms was much appreciated. Not surprisingly, most people thought that most aspects of transport in the city had deteriorated over recent years. There were some bright spots, such as facilities for cyclists and pedestrians, car parking and Southampton Airport.

But it is how people see the future of transport that is particularly illuminating. People do seem willing to use buses if they are frequent and reasonably priced. They want even more improvements in facilities for pedestrians and cycling, and some would be prepared to change their mode of travel to work if this happened. Many more would use park and ride schemes or car sharing to get to work. All of these thoughts may lead to a city that looks very different for travel in twenty years time - but one that gets us to where we want to go in comfort and in a clean environment. If we can make real plans to do that - we've made progress for our city indeed.

What do you think about this - email me and let me know