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Our latest Delivering Change report shows what cities can do to improve transport and boost their economies.
The impact of the tube strike in London this week reminds us how important transport is to making cities work. The reduction in tube services meant that buses, roads, Overground, Boris bikes and even the pavements were packed with commuters all trying to find their way to work.
London, while large and complex, is not necessarily the exception. Almost half of commuters in cities live and work in different local authorities, and they use a wide range of modes to get where they need to go. If any part of the transport system is not working, it has an effect on people and businesses. Road congestion, delayed buses, and even separate ticketing systems that prevent people from going from train to bus or tram all hold our cities from being as efficient as they can be.
My report released today with the sponsorship of Mace, Delivering change: making transport work for cities, shows that UK cities need a better way of managing their transport systems. And due to their size, complexity of transport and institutions in place, the tools will be different for different places.
All cities should benefit from:
But larger city regions should take transport a step further and form Integrated Transport Authorities where possible. This will allow them to coordinate all modes of transport across the wider city region, helping commuters, shoppers and people using public services get where they need to go efficiently and affordably.
And those cities with combined authorities (Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield) should be granted TfL-style powers. London’s ability to coordinate transport with housing, regeneration, and economic strategies helps it unlock new housing and business sites and grow the economy. Their additional financial powers also help them invest in projects that would not go forward if they waited for funding from government.
In the meantime, cities should be leading, not waiting. While cities are calling for more powers over their transport, they should learn from one another about better ways to work around the current system. Nottingham, for example, has established ways to improve bus quality through flexing their other powers and developing a bus quality scheme. Other cities have used their limited financial powers to set up some fees and charges to pay for specific transport schemes. But this does not happen often enough, because the system as it stands is too challenging.
Transport underpins so many of the factors that affect cities’ growth: housing, employment, business trade and the environment. It is an increasingly complex area of investment, and UK cities need new and better ways of dealing with the challenges of doing so. By empowering cities to manage and invest in their roads, rail, buses, trams, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure better, the knock-on effect will be felt throughout the economy.
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