Summary of the Strategy

The 5 KEY measures:

• Make minimum city centre parking charges the same as return bus fares from the city outskirts. Everyone will then have an interest in bus fares, not just regular passengers! It makes no social or environmental sense for city parking to be cheaper than a bus ride. As well as encouraging car sharing, Park and Ride and bus usage, such a policy will help put downward pressure on bus fares.
• Gradual decrease in council controlled public parking by 3% per year. With parking charges pegged to bus fares, more people will be encouraged to access and move around the city by other means - so fewer parking spaces will be needed.
• Workplace parking charges. A charge to businesses for their parking spaces can be introduced under existing legislation. Whilst this may be unpopular, local authorities can make a strong case for workplace charges, making clear the time and money businesses would save with less congested roads. All the money raised should be ring fenced and re-invested in sustainable transport solutions.
• A ‘walking bus’ for all primary schools. Nearly one in five cars clogging up the roads at 8.50 am is on the school run. All Exeter’s primary schools should provide ‘walking buses’ where children form a large and visible group, supervised by adults, and walk safely from their homes or ‘bus stops’ into school.
• ‘Car-free’ housing developments with public transport links and car clubs. New houses mean more traffic. With hundreds of new homes proposed for Exeter, traffic will grow and grow, unless local authorities commit to ‘car-free’ housing developments. This doesn’t mean residents are ‘excluded’ or immobile. Instead, cycle, pedestrian and bus routes and car sharing schemes are built into the developments. Such developments also allow more space for gardens, meeting places and amenities and mean streets are safe for children to play in.

The 6 Secondary Measures:

• Fund/subsidise public transport using ring-fenced funds raised from parking charges.
• Improved city bus services including the introduction of peripheral bus routes to link railway stations, business/retail parks, hospitals, the university, park-and-ride sites etc; redevelopment of the city bus station; increase in evening frequencies and a comprehensive public transport guide like that produced by Torbay Council.
• Household leafleting campaign (similar to the recycling campaign) focusing on public transport and highlighting the real costs of the car - financial, social, health, environmental; to include information on real and perceived fears of travelling without a car.
• Use of Cycling England grant to massively increase safe junctions and cycle lanes particularly to schools, workplaces and shops and to fund adverts to raise the status of cyclists while decreasing the status of cars.
• Extension of car exclusion zones, particularly in the city centre.
• More pedestrian crossings; better people priority.

Additional Measures:

• Congestion charging/road pricing (preceded by a feasibility study).
• Bus priority (REAL priority given to buses in their own dedicated lanes operating at all or at least the majority of times).
• Free bus travel paid for by car and air taxes.
• More Park and Ride.
• Addressing people’s fears, e.g. increasing street lighting, conductors for late buses.
• Pollution monitoring at school gates.
• More coordinated regional transport strategy.
• More, better, cheaper public transport through subsidy.
• Incentives for home deliveries/shopping.
• Closing off rat-runs in residential areas.
• Unlimited bus travel within an hour (or other timeframe) with one ticket.
• Train and bus through ticketing (one ticket allowing travel on more than one mode of transport: travelcard principle).
• All employers of 60+ employees to develop travel plans (needs legislation).
• Exeter metro (using existing track plus extensions to Crediton and to new communities in East Devon – very expensive and even cities larger than Exeter are struggling to get light rail systems implemented).
• Discourage edge of city shops/workplaces.
• Car adverts: lobby central government for more truthful adverts and real health warnings.
• More encouragement for home working.
• Get local authorities to lobby parliament for removal of parental choice for schools.
• Transport co-operatives (for running public transport. Not-for-profit public transport providers seen as an important way forward but given current legislation and the entrenchment of large private companies difficult to achieve).
• More public subsidy for Exeter Car Club (though see car free housing above).
• Greener public transport.
• More self-enforced 20mph zones.
• Local transport information on the web.
• School safe zones (no parking near schools)
• Improved surfaces for walkers and cyclists.
• New residential developments with LOCAL services.
• Flexible public transport/experimental transport (e.g. similar to the Wiggly Bus model).
• Park and Ride points dispersed across Devon.

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