Agenda item

To consider a report of the Director of Development providing Members with information on the development of the Council’s TravelWise campaign.

The Director of Development submitted a report on the development of the Council’s TravelWise campaign to promote sustainable methods of travel within the city and highlighted key achievements and progress in Leeds since 2004.

Andrew Hall, Transport Strategy Manager and Ray Hill, Senior Transport Planner, both in the Development Department,were in attendance to present the report and respond to Members’ queries and comments.

Officers advised that the report concentrated on the softer transport measures that were in place to encourage motorists to use public transport, by trying to change their attitudes and behaviour through the use of a mixture of incentives and disincentives. 

Members were interested in a whole range of other measures that could be put in place to ensure that Leeds did not become grid locked.  In summary the main issues raised included:

·  Measures to keep traffic flowing, such as improvements to traffic signalling, the removal of pinch points, the introduction of double red lines and red routes.

·  Bus based Park and Ride – Members were advised that this was being considered.  It was noted that the site at Stourton, formerly included as part of Supertram, was being considered as a strategic site, however establishing the site would involve considerable investment and would probably require the services to be subsidised at least initially.

·  Providing motorists with incentives to use public transport, for example by ensuring that vehicles were clean, modern, comfortable and convenient.  The possibility of being given free trials to encourage the use of buses was also raised.  It was noted that for certain new residential developments free travelcards were provided as part of the planning agreement package.

·  The need to explore the provision of incentives so that it would be in the commercial interest of the operators to have fare structures in place that would encourage motorists to use the buses.

·  Particularly for areas that had no local rail links, the need to improve the flow of traffic, such as by removing vehicles making deliveries to shops and blocking the highway, which had an effect on both public and private transport. It was considered that as the enforcement of parking restrictions was now the responsibility of the Local Authority it would be easier to target trouble spots. Members asked about the number of traffic wardens that were working during the rush hours.

·  The consideration of Park and Ride at Wetherby.

·  The improvements to traffic signalling, particular through the use of GPS technology.

·  The need for more suburban railway stations on the existing rail network.

·  The need to press METRO and the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority as part of the development of the city region, to consider reopening former railway lines for communities and providing additional railway stations on existing lines.

·  A smarter way of using bus lanes so that they were not perceived to be under used by motorists.

·  The possible role of cameras to enforce bus lanes.

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the contents of the report and the discussion as above be noted.

(b)  That Metro and the Passenger Transport Authority be requested to look at incentives to encourage motorists to try buses on routes where bus corridor improvements had taken place, for example the A65.

(c)  That Members be provided with information on how many parking wardens worked during the rush hour period.

(d)  That an update report on the issues raised above be presented to a future meeting of the Board.

(Note: Councillors Millard and Lobley left the meeting at 12.02pm during the consideration of this item.)