To solve these problems people quite simply need to find another way of getting to and from the city. Public transport also needs to be used or Bristol will be seriously threatened. An idea of using yellow school buses to take children to and from school, similarly to the USA, has been suggested, and it has been predicted that these would reduce term time traffic by 20%. Other ideas to reduce congestion have included the introduction of a tram system throughout the city, but there is some uncertainty about this, as it is feared that is may be bad for businesses. At present the lack of cycle paths has discouraged people to cycle, as they fear it is more dangerous, and an obvious solution to this is to increase the number of paths available to cyclist.
There have also been integrated transport schemes in the South West. Firstly they plan to improve Bristol Temple Meads Rail Station and its links and improve road layouts. It is also planned that new park and ride schemes are set up and extended, and a road safety scheme hopes to manage speed and calm traffic at Brislington secondary school and West Town Lane School. This also includes improving safety measures for school children including crossing patrols and school travel plans – hopefully encouraging people to walk. Schemes have also been set up for better cycle parking provision and reviews of cycle routes in and around Bristol as well as improved integration with public transport or the introduction of partnerships for action. Plans also include up to 60 km of footway improvements in the South West, along with other measures to encourage walking such as new pedestrian routes, footway maintenance, safety measures for pedestrians, e.g. CCTV and additional lighting, integration with public transport, and improved mobility arrangements for people with disabilities. The main scheme unsurprisingly involves public transport. Accessibility schemes include better rural bus services, improved arrangements for using taxis and private hire vehicles and innovative community/voluntary transport schemes. Improvements to bus transport is vitally important and this includes up to 340 km of busways in the South west, quality bus corridors, bus lanes and bus priority measures. Such as bus priority scheme is being set up on the A38 at Thornbury, and there will also be enhanced funding for bus corridors and the provision of bus priority traffic signals. To encourage the use of buses better lighting and security arrangements for bus passengers. Parking strategies at Long Ashton have been devised, and it is also planned to widen roads.
Finally in Bristol, the ‘Vivaldi’ project has been developed in response to the Growth 2001 call for proposals, and plans to address the following objectives – “Increasing the urban transport systems sustainability and efficiency through radical strategies for Clean Urban Transport”. The EU funds this project.
French city of Bordeaux has been suffering from similar problems to Bristol, its twin city. The traffic in Bordeaux is extremely bad, with narrow roads and poor public transport options. For taxi drivers this has been a bonus, as they are now being asked to drive longer journeys and as a result are earning more, from those who do not want to face the stress of driving through the congested city. There was a tramline running through Bordeaux, however this was an unattractive transport option and unsuccessful, and the local authorities decided to rip it out. People recently, and in the past, do not want to take the bus, as they believe it is the ‘poor mans option’. It is also feared that the Bordeaux residents simply do not realise how public transport can help the environment.
To solve these problems, a new tramway is now being built. It is planned to be 65 km long, and this will be the biggest in France. It will have a massive impact on the city in a positive way, including reducing vast pollution levels. The tram is powered by electricity and produces no harmful emissions, replacing the carbon monoxide ones produced by the city’s cars. It is hoped and planned that people will leave their cars outside of the town, in suburb-type areas, and then travel to work on the tram system in a park and ride style scheme. Hopefully this will reduce congestion levels brought in by city workers, and free up those who rely on transport on roads, for example freight traffic, such as lorries who are importing and exporting to and from the city centre. The planned tramway will cost huge amounts of money and is seen as the major priority for Bordeaux. Although this scheme will leave little or no money remaining, trees and other types of greenery have, and are, being planted in the city centre, to try and encourage a more environmentally friendly outlook on the city.
Unlike Bristol and Bordeaux their fellow twin city, Hanover in Germany, has been extremely effective and efficient in addressing its transport issues. At the heart of this success is a subway system in the centre of the, running underground right through the city. This was built way back in the 1970’s and has seen Hanover in good stead for its future problems. The reason why Hanover suffers very few problems is that there is a very high percentages of people using public transport, due to the trams and buses being very costumer orientated. The numbers are so high that there are around 450,000 passengers on the trams every day. 50 percent of these tram users have to use it, those who can’t drive cars – the elderly, disabled, young, poorer, and sport users (who are able to take there bikes etc. on the tram). The other 50 percent are targeted by Hanover’s local authority, who try to make the tram service a efficient, comfortable, safe, reliable system. Make no mistake, the bus and tram services work extremely effectively and are user friendly, for example there is plenty of baggage space for passengers. Other features of the tram system are TV’s which give the latest news from the city, including football scores. The railway lines are comfortable and fast, and also link cities together, in fact 98% of trains and buses are on time. The key to this is a traffic control centre, which controls private and public transport. This system informs drivers of when their train is full to allow them to leave and it also controls the flow of people on to the trams for safety. The buses are believed to be so safe that school children take them to school from a very early age and most parents have no concerns at all.
The success is based on a dedicated local authority. The public transport is all state or town controlled, and there is no private sector involved. The city of Hanover put 1 million Euros onto the train system in one year. The public transport’s importance is reflected in the fact that it affects the design of the city, hopefully making it look good. The success of the public transport service has been extremely good for the environment, as far less people are using cars, compared to both Bristol and Bordeaux. The public transport schemes actually have a great responsibility for the outlook of the city. The final factor that has discouraged the use of cars has been a network of cycle tracks that are safe to cycle on.
Some more facts and figures include the fact that in 1994 the Hanover public transport system consisted of eight light rail and three tram routes with 165 stops and a network of nearly 153 km of which some 53 km are on street rails. The bus network has a total length of 487 km and offers 610 stops. Currently, the light rail system links the city centre with the rest of the town and main suburbs, whereas the German Rail serves the region with long distances between the stops and high service speed. However, the problem is the absence of through traffic link to the light rail network that already exists in cities like Karlsruhe. Consequently, the existing rail system will be modified with the introduction of the Stadtbahn as the new system can operate on both rail lines. The bus network is regarded by most as complementary to the rail systems and performs the function of a feeder and distribution network. In addition, the buses provide the radical and tangential links where it is more economic and more effective than rail-based systems.
The new public transport system will gradually be upgraded in order to improve services and to follow requirements of urban development. Originally 73% of Hanover’s population had a tram stop within 600 metres. It was hoped that by the year 2000 the extension of routes would bring about a connecting rate of 83%. The remaining areas have to be served by bus. The extension routes and the new Stadtbahn have seen the introduction of customer friendly rolling stock. As discussed earlier 134 new low-floored vehicles that offer greater comfort and more space for luggage, baby carriers, wheelchairs, and bicycles have been introduced with great success. The first 20 of these vehicles were introduced in 1997.
In 1994 the Hanover public transport policy implemented the following improvements in operation and service: - After 8 pm all buses stop between two stops if requested by a passenger, extension of bus routes at weekend to transport public to recreation areas, some new buses that run on new compressed natural gas technology, further increase in bus and taxi activity, and opening of bus stops designed by international artists. These improvements are hoped to attract even more passengers to stop using their cars, to get the percentage of car users down from 45% in 1990, making Hanover an even more attractive, environmentally friendly European city.
