Member Article

Bristol councils promote green transport in £41m project.

A number of local authorities in the Bristol area are aiming to promote public transport and encourage people out of their cars in a bid to cut congestion and develop greener transport networks. £14 million will be spent by councils as part of a project worth £41 million in total with other money coming from government and other sources.

Bristol City Council, North Somerset District Council, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset are all participating in the project which is part of a number of programmes promoted by the West of England Partnership. The proposed measures include a £13.9 million marketing campaign to try to persuade businesses and their staff to switch to greener commuting, the installation of over 100 charging points for electric vehicles, a discounted bus travel scheme for young people, improvements to bus routes, real time displays of public transport information and more 20 mph zones throughout the city.

The University of the West of England will also be getting involved with market research, door-to-door surveys and advisors working with local business to reduce car use.

In the bid for funding, the West of England Partnership stressed that congestion would cost Bristol and the surrounding area some £600 million by 2016 but that a green economy could result in an extra 95,000 jobs including 17,000 around the new planned Bristol Temple Meads Enterprise Zone, 9,000 at Emersons Green and 4,000 in Filton.

Improved transport plans are a vital part of Bristol Port’s plans for future development, which itself could create an extra 500 new jobs.

Transport Minister Norman Baker has said that it makes “cold economic sense” to encourage the use of greener transport and added that the investment in Bristol would cut congestion thereby making travel easier for remaining motorists. The new projects would complement those already earmarked for Bristol including the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robin Whitlock .