The Ticket to Kyoto Annual Conference - Mobilising to reduce CO2 emissions in public transport

The Ticket to Kyoto project is working towards its paramount destination: reducing CO2 emissions in European public transport.

On behalf of all T2K partners, TfGM will be hosting the 2013 Annual Conference in Manchester which will include a speech by Professor Colin Hughes, Associate Vice President for Sustainability at the University of Manchester. There will also be presentations from partners, interactive workshops, and group discussions. 

The Conference will highlight  where we're up to and you can help shape sustainable transport in the future.

	Programme
	09.30 - 10.00 Welcome and introductions 10.00 - 10.45 Professor Colin Hughes, Associate Vice President for Sustainability 10.45 - 11.00 Coffee & tea break 11.00 - 13.00 Ticket to Kyoto project, on the path to develop and deliver a Carbon Strategy 13.00 - 14.00 Lunch and Networking 14.00 - 17.00 Workshops. Discover the workshops 17.00 - 18.00 Networking

Register here.


When: Thursday June 20th from 9am till 5pm
Where: Manchester Conference Centre, Weston Building, Sackville St, Manchester M1 3BB

Workshop 1 | Energy Production and Energy Efficiency
How should the transport sector manage energy? What opportunities are there for energy production and energy efficiency? Join the discussion on this topic. We’ll talk about the most effective measures for energy production and energy efficiency, but also about funding opportunities, maximizing the return on investment and obtaining institutional support.
Facilitator: Kevin Leather, Regional Manager - North of England, Mott MacDonald

Workshop 2 | Collaborating to Achieve Carbon Reduction
How can transport organisations work together across different geographical areas and themes to reduce carbon? How can we develop delivery models that include multiple organisations and stakeholders? We will use the Greater Manchester Low Carbon Hub as an example. Come and learn how to deliver carbon reductions across different geographical areas and environmental themes, and how we have developed links with government departments.
Facilitator: Mark Atherton, Director General, Environment, Greater Manchester Low Carbon Hub

Workshop 3 | Reducing Carbon by Encouraging More Sustainable Transport Choices
Learn how to encourage populations to switch to walking, cycling and public transport to reduce carbon footprint and improve health. This discussion will tackle several related topics such as increasing the appeal of public transport and how to translate environmental awareness into behaviour change.
Facilitator: Lee Parker, Director, Parose Projects, London

Workshop 4 | Achieving Economic Benefits through more Sustainable Public Transport
How can we identify the overall economic benefits of a better and more sustainable transport system? We’ll discuss job creation and training, housing accessibility and proximity to employment and how we can engage the private sector and stimulate inward investment.
Facilitator: Simon Warburton, Head of Policy and Research, TfGM

Inactivity..."the silent killer"

On 11th July, the Department for Health (DH) and NHS released a new report on the benefits of physical activity and the risks from inactivity.  The'Start Active, Stay Active - A report on physical activity for health from the four home countries’ Chief Medical Officers' document  highlights that 

"whatever our age, there is good scientific evidence that being physically active can help us lead healthier and even happier lives. We also know that inactivity is a silent killer."

For adults (19–64 years) the report recommends that (page 7):

1. Adults should aim to be active daily. Over a week, activity should add up to at least 150 minutes (2½ hours) of moderate intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more – one way to approach this is to do 30 minutes on at least 5 days a week.
 

2. Alternatively, comparable benefits can be achieved through 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity spread across the week or a combination of moderate and vigorous intensity activity.
 

3. Adults should also undertake physical activity to improve muscle strength on at least two days a week.
 

4. All adults should minimise the amount of time spent being sedentary (sitting) for extended periods.

The report recognises the varied benefits that could be achieved by increasing the number of people choosing to cycle and walk and notes that:

"cycling and walking will reduce transport costs, save money and help the environment. Fewer car journeys can reduce traffic, congestion and pollution, improving the health of communities. Other potential benefits linked to physical activity in children and young people include the acquisition of social skills through active play (leadership, teamwork and co-operation), better concentration in school and displacement of anti-social and criminal behaviour." [Page 9]

Also welcome, is the recognition that for most people the "easiest and most acceptable forms of physical activity are those that can be incorporated into everyday life." Such as cycling instead of travelling by car. 

Table 4 below (page 18) shows the amount of calories a person would 'burn' if they cycle at  'moderate' (10-12mph) or 'vigourous' (12-14 mph) speeds for 30 minutes. (Editor... no wonder I am always hungry!).

It is great to see that the Department of Health and NHS are promoting clear guidance on the wide ranging benefits of increasing the numbers of people choosing to walk or cycle. But as the report also recognises (Creating towns and cities for cycling).... "Central to this is the need for cycling to be prioritised as part of local authority transport plans." (Emphasis added).  The challenge now is to translate the clear health (and environmental) benefits into a progressive strategy to improve the active travel (walking and cycling) facilities and culture in Greater Manchester.  The recent successful Local Sustainable Transport Fund bid could help with this, but compared to many European and North American cities - we still have a long way to go.

A public service announcement.....

This just in from TfGM.....

"Manchester Cycling Survey

Transport for Greater Manchester is bidding for government funding to improve cycling and walking facilities across Greater Manchester.

To assist us in making this bid, we would like to ask for your help by completing this short survey about cycle parking facilities in the city centre and barriers to cycling around Manchester.

Your responses will help us to establish the extent of use of current cycle facilities, which facilities require improvement and where additional facilities may be required to improve cycling in Manchester initially, and then across Greater Manchester.

Please note that all responses will be anonymous.

Contact details are being requested to help us with future research, and will not be used in conjunction with responses to this survey.  If you have any questions about this survey, please feel free to contact Ian Davies at Ian.Davies@TfGM.com or by telephone; 0161 2441245.

Thank you for your help."

End of message.  

Editors note: the survey will be online till 15th July....

Update 4th July 2011: The TfGM survey is now closed.


There was a great response to the TfGM survey about cycle parking facilities in the city centre and barriers to cycling around Manchester with 500+ completed surveys.


Also, a fair few people responded asking "what about my area" !   In the light of these responses, it is rumoured that TfGM will be carrying out a GM-wide survey in the not-too-distant future. Meanwhile, a overview of the Manchester City Centre survey results will shortly be available via the survey website.

TfGM... cycling towards a sustainable transport plan?

Well the bids are in and now everyone has to wait for the Department for Transport (DfT) equivalent of the white smoke from the papal chimney....I am off course referring to the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) bids that have been submitted seeking a slice of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund available from national government.  The Local Sustainable Transport Fund (or LSTF) is a Department for Transport funding scheme for "projects which stimulate economic growth whilst reducing carbon emissions." and TfGM have submitted two bids.

The "key component bid" (up to £5 million) for the Greater Manchester Commuter Cycle Project was submitted on Monday 18th April and the 'Large Project' bid (up to £45 million) was sent off on Monday 6th June.

The main element in the "key component" bid is for several large Cycle Centres (to be located in Manchester City Centre and possibly Media City) and a number of other smaller scale cycle parking/storage facilities. Whilst, the jury is still out in many cities on whether the large Cycle Centres will flourish or prove to be expensive white elephants there is a clear need across Greater Manchester for more and better cycle parking and storage facilities.


The "key component" bid also contains funding for a range of "Cycle Support Measures" including the provision of cycle training and the bid document states that:  "Bikeability Level 3 training will be provided for adults along their route to work, or as part of their work, particularly targeting new cycle commuters. Cycle training will also be offered to all those taking up the Bike Back to Work offer." (Page 11)  

The bid document goes on to state: "A central pool of some 3,330 places will be funded by LSTF funding, to be matched by a similar level of locally funded training." and that "Beyond 2014/15 the full costs of a cycle training programme will be met from local resources." It will be interesting to see if the 10 GM local authorities will still agree to the funding for adult cycle training beyond 2014/15 - even if the LSTF bid is unsuccessful.

Those nice people at Love Your Bike helped lobby Manchester City Council to introduce adult cycle training (for more details see the Freewheeling website) and over the last few years have been encouraging all GM local authorities to introduce similar schemes... so are delighted to see this included in TfGM's key component bid.

The snappily titled "Large Project Bid" was for just under £45 million and is an "expression of interest" which, if it makes it through the first round at the end of July, will be developed further with Department of Transport officers between August and December 2011.

Because the LSTF is a "competitive bid process", ie TfGM are bidding for funding against any of the other Metropolitan areas in England and Wales, the detailed bid documents were not available for public consultation.


A brief "Vision for Sustainability' document was circulated to a small number of organisations before the bid deadline. One of the "outcomes" listed was the aim to achieve a "doubling of commuter mode share for cycling into the Regional Centre and a 50% increase elsewhere, delivering over 7,000 additional commuter cycle trips per day and replacing around 420,000 car trips per year." (Page 9).

Which sounds ambitious, until you realise that current levels of cycling into the City Centre (during the AM peak time) are estimated to be a 1.1% modal share. Therefore the 'target' is to go from 1.1% of travel trips being made by bicycle to a grand 2.2%.   Compare this to Copenhagen's current cycling modal share of over 40% !

It is also interesting to note the comment in Manchester City Council's Local Area Implementation Plan (LAIP) which states that: "Cycle journeys into the City Centre have doubled in the last 3 years and walking trips have increased by over 80%."  [Page 21]

Whenever discussing statistics it is always worth remembering Mark Twain's "lies, damned lies, and statistics" observation. However, if cycle journeys into the City Centre have already doubled over the last 3 years, then given that TfGM are asking for up to £50 million of Local Sustainable Transport Funds, it does seem a little unambitious to set a similar target (although of course the actual number of people cycling would be much larger than in the previous 3 years).

The Large Project Bid document is now available and outlines proposed projects in 4 main themes:

• Sustainable Access to Key Destinations and Transport Hubs
• Supporting sustainable choices
• Smarter Travel
• Enabling community transport

In the 'Supporting sustainable choices'  section the document describes how cycling training provides a "cost-effective means of giving adult cyclists the confidence to cycle to work and to cycle as part of their daily lives. It has already been successfully trialled in Manchester and Trafford, and the bid includes proposals to roll this out across the rest of the conurbation." (Page 10). Tucked away on Page 22 is a budget allocation for £2.9 million for Cycle training. If the LSTF bid is successful this revenue funding would support cycle training for 36,000 people in Greater Manchester over a 3 year period. 

Now, when adult cycle training is discussed, comments often run along the lines of "why do people need cycle training, anyone can ride a bike".  However, academic research has shown that between 7% and 12% of adults never learnt to ride a bicycle and the results from the Manchester Freewheeling adult cycle training scheme has shown that approx 20% of all the cycle training places were for "Learn to Ride" sessions i.e. for people who could not ride a bike - but in most cases could cycle after attending the training sessions.

Also, taking into account the large number of people who can cycle - but do not have the confidence or experience to cycle on the roads in Greater Manchester - then adult cycle training can have a big impact in helping and encouraging people to start, or return to, cycling.

If TfGM's Local Sustainable Transport Fund bids are successful, then Greater Manchester will have a mega adult cycle training scheme and this is very, very welcome....  and this element of the LSTF bid certainly cannot be described as unambitious! 

....but I cannot help wondering what effect such a huge cycle training programme would have on those damn statistics!


Update 5th July


Norman Baker M.P, the Transport Minister today announced the local authorities who had been awarded Local Sustainable Transport Funds for their "key component" bids.  Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) have been awarded the full £4.9 million requested for the Greater Manchester Commuter Cycle Project "key component bid".  Good news.

Update: Step away from the Trans-Pennine Trail !

Readers of this blog will remember that earlier this year, Metrolink, in its infinite wisdom, decided that the best solution for the Trans-Pennine Trail (TPT) near the Metrolink extension at Sandhurst Road, Didsbury was to propose installing six sets of steps into the TPT. See "We will remove barriers to cycling by installing steps".  

Those lovely people at Love Your Bike thought that building steps into a popular walking and cycling route was not the most sensible option and so organised an email lobbying action to get Metrolink to think again.

Pressure pays off.  Over 550 people sent emails lobbying their GM Integrated Transport Authority members and as a result a lively GMITA committee meeting on Friday 25th March saw a succession of councillors from all political parties lining up to question the steps proposal.  The Committee unanimously voted NO to the steps proposal.

Deluded fantasy. One councillor when questioning Metrolink's cost projections for the steps and the other solutuions referred to the costs as being a "deluded fantasy". Hard not to agree.

Next steps (sorry!) GMPTE/Metrolink officers were instructed to go away and come back with a more suitable  proposal. Anyone who sent an email should have received a letter from Keith Whitmore, the current chair of Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) - the successor to GM Integrated Transport Authority. [Ed - please do pay attention at the back]

For all those that have not had the pleasure of receiving this missive, the letter outlines that the options being examined were:

"1. Steps plus cycle groove at Sandhurst Road (current design).

2. Lengthening of the Sandhurst Road bridge to allow the Trans Pennine Trail to pass beneath (instead of up and over).

3. “Tunnelling” through the embankment next to the Sandhurst Road bridge, again, to maintain the Trail within the cutting rather than crossing up and over Sandhurst Road itself.

4. Re-routing the Trans Pennine Trail alongside the River Mersey whereby it would not occupy the Metrolink corridor – as suggested by residents and the Love Your Bike Campaign at the meeting on 25 March and which is being discussed with the City Council."

and goes on to state that the "option of providing ramps to cross up and over Sandhurst Road is not being considered further on the basis that our preliminary investigations concluded that Options 2 and 3 above would be the more cost-effective means of providing a steps-free Trail at Sandhurst Road and would be considerably less visually intrusive than ramps (which was a concern for residents). Therefore, these options have been preferred for further consideration."

It is understood that Metrolink have requested a meeting with Sustrans and Trans-Pennine Trail in the next few weeks..... hopefully to discuss a more sensible plan.  More news as we get it....

Combining cycling and public transport....

1st April 2011...and with great fanfare the new Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is launched.  The new transport plan states that:

"A number of transport needs cannot be covered by cycling or public transport alone since neither can offer a sufficiently flexible transport solution on its own. Proposals are set forth in the City Plan 2011 which would make it easier to combine cycling with public transport, thus providing a realistic alternative to private cars.

The Greater Manchester Public Transport Plan (2011-2015) takes a highly favourable view of combining cycling and public transport and targets cyclists as potential customers to a greater extent than in the past. This has resulted in the removal of most restrictions applying to bicycles on commuter trains. There are still some restrictions applying to rush hours. However, the most recent development is that bicycles are now allowed on commuter trains in rush hours when travelling in the opposite direction to the main traffic. As more and more commuter trains of the new type are acquired bicycles will eventually be allowed on the train at all hours of the day. Bicycles will be permitted on the new Metro around the clock."

Well it may be April Fools Day... but this text is from a real Transport Plan,* unfortunately just not the Greater Manchester Plan. (* Have changed the city name and dates but the rest of the text is contained in the City of Copenhagen Cycle Policy 2002-2012 document.)

Unfortunately, in a fairly stark contrast to the Danish policies,  the 'Integration with public transport' section in the GM Local Transport Plan states:

"Combining cycling with public transport provides a viable alternative to the private car for many medium and long-distance journeys. It can both increase public transport patronage by increasing the catchment area of stations, and reduce the demand for car parking around stations. Cycle carriage is permitted on Northern trains (the major operator in Greater Manchester) but overcrowding means that there are serious problems in accommodating more than two bikes on some trains, and conductors have the right to refuse access if the train is crowded. There is, however, no restriction on the number of folding bikes carried. The carriage of bicycles on Metrolink is prohibited under the by-laws due to constraints on space on the existing trams, unless they are folded and fully encased. This policy was recently re-affirmed following a review. Bus operators in Greater Manchester do not permit cycle carriage."

Oh dear... "right to refuse", "prohibited", "do not permit" what a lot of negatives and all this in a Local Transport Plan that is supposedly more pro-cycling than previous LTPs.  Whilst, an increasing number of cities in Europe and worldwide have already started to integrate cycling into their public transport networks, by and large Manchester seems to be stuck with a "cycles are a problem" mentality when it comes to the bus, tram or train network. With its aspirations to be a world-leading City, isn't it time that Manchester started to catch up?  Let's hope that, together with their new name, TfGM can begin to develop the progressive policies to deliver better integratation of cycling and public transport in Greater Manchester.

This blogger would welcome details of how other cities around the world are working to integrate cycles with their public transport  networks. Please leave a comment or a link.  Thanks.

How many bottoms can TfL fit on a (cycle hire) bicycle ?

The London Assembly Transport Committee has recently released a report " Pedal power: the cycle hire scheme and cycle superhighways" (November 2010)  that casts a beady eye over the operations of the 'Boris Bikes' cycle hire scheme and cycle superhighways in London.

As a cycle hire scheme for Manchester is one of the options being considered for inclusion in the next Greater Manchester Local Transport Plan there are important lessons to be learnt from the operation of cycle hire, or bike share, schemes in London and elsewhere.

The Greater Manchester LTP3 consultation document states that "we also need innovative solutions to help people to cycle as part of their daily lives, so we are looking closely at recent city centre cycle hire schemes to take the best from these and other marketing initiatives." (Page 12). 

Consideration of a cycle hire scheme was also contained in the recent report to the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) Policy & Resources committee which recommended that members consider:  "iv) a major bicycle hire scheme, similar to that in operation in London, should be explored for Manchester City Centre and adjacent areas of Salford."  The somewhat spurious reasoning for this particular committee to support a cycle hire scheme was that it would remove the need for integrating cycle carriage into the GM transport network - particularly Metrolink trams.... but I digress.

The London Assembly report states that they "found great enthusiasm for the cycle hire scheme but there remain questions about how it is being funded. It is not clear exactly how much sponsorship Barclays has provided for a scheme which has now been running for four months" and that "over 20 per cent of respondents to our survey had started cycling as a result of the scheme and over 80 per cent thought it good value for money. One comment received, representative of the views of many, described it as “a very significant enhancement to life in London”.

Overall the report  is positive and supports the continued development of the cycle hire scheme, but the report also highlights that: 

"TfL reports that the annual operating cost of the scheme will be £18 million which it expects to be met from charges and sponsorship. To date in 2010/11, TfL has received only £1.9 million of income from charges largely because the roll out to casual users was delayed by six months and has missed the summer months. TfL now expects the scheme to be self-financing in two to three years and for the income to start contributing to its £79 million set up costs by 2017/18." (Page 7) with regard to the issue of funding, the report concludes that:

"The costs and funding arrangements for the cycle hire scheme remain opaque. TfL has not told the Committee how much Barclays has paid to date for its branding of the scheme. The argument that all details of the relationships between TfL and Serco and Barclays are confidential is not a compelling one. The details of these deals determine how much of the costs of the scheme have to be met from farepayers at a time of huge pressure on TfL’s finances. It is in the public interest for these details to be made available to the Committee. This would be in line with the Mayor’s commitment to transparency about public expenditure."

To date, the London scheme has attracted over 100,000 registered members, who are making 15,000 cycle trips per day (averaged over the whole week), although the average number of weekday trips is higher at 21,000-24,000. But, this is just over half the target of 40,000 daily trips, although it should be noted that the scheme was only opened up to to casual users on 3rd December, albeit with some initial problems. TfL expects to reach an average of 27,000 trips per day by March 2011 and to reach the target of 40,000 trips per day in future (unspecified) years.

Phase 1 of the London Scheme was supposed to have enabled members and casual users to 

use 6,000 bikes at 400 docking stations with over 10,000 docking points. However, the full scheme may not be in place until March 2011 and the London Assembly report indicates that 348 docking stations have been established. (Information from TfL provided on 24 November 2010).

How many docking stations are needed will continue to a subject for discussion, with the London Cycling Campaign arguing that the functionality of the scheme depends on the full complement of 400 docking stations being completed. 

Recently released bike share data highlighted how people in Lyon, France's second-largest Metropolitan area,  make 16,000 trips every day using the Vélo’v scheme. The Velo 'v has 4000 bikes available at nearly 350 stations around the city which has 480,660 inhabitants although the population of its metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,757,180. Despite being many times smaller than London, this scheme has nearly as many docking stations, as are planned for London and two-thirds of the bicycles.

Since it began in 2005, the Velo 'v scheme has tracked the start and destination locations as well as trip time.  Researchers at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon crunched the data from the 11.6 million bike trips and found that:

• Lyon, the third largest city in France, is traversed via a cluster of narrow, one-way streets which adds to the driving distance for just about any destination. Lyon bike share data shows, however, that bike trip distance is often shorter than what an equivalent car trip might be. Reasons for this might be shortcuts and a great number of wrong way cyclists riding on the sidewalks. There are no bike lanes in Lyon.

• Average cycling speed is about 10 km/hr — about 6 MPH. 

• The fastest cycling speeds are during the morning commute, when the average rises to almost 15 km/hr (9 MPH). In Lyon, this sedate speed is faster than the average driving speed in that congested city.

The Lyon data has also been used to create maps showing the most heavily cycled routes.(See above).

The London Assembly report also raised concerns about how effective the cycle hire scheme had been in encouraging people to switch from car travel. The report states that:

"Our survey found less than one per cent of journeys are replacing those previously made by car; TfL’s planning assumptions were for a five per cent shift from car to bike." (Page 8)

In response to complaints about the lack of bicycles, Serco has doubled its total number of redistribution staff and vehicles but as the report highlights, this in turn has:

 "led to questions about the environmental impact of the scheme. It was originally expected that only electric vehicles would be used for redistribution. Serco is now using 14 electrically powered vehicles, 10 Focus/Mondeo vehicles and, on a temporary basis, three 7.5 ton lorries and four Sprinter vans. It also uses 10 Nissan vans for on-street maintenance. It has told the Committee that it is undertaking a fleet review in light of the different redistribution requirements." (Page 18)

Whilst many (most?) cycling campaigns are supportive of cycle hire schemes there are concerns that such schemes will divert limited resources from other, possibly more cost-effective, projects and initiatives that promote and support cycling.  See for example the comments from one cycle organisation with regard to the proposed San Francisco Penisula Bike Share scheme:

"Dedicating $7.9 million to an unproven, risky project like bike sharing seems a poor use of limited funds, when other bicycle projects have proven track records to replace automobile trips with bicycle trips."

Hopefully, Manchester can learn lessons from other cities that have successfully introduced cycle hire schemes but until more details of any proposed scheme are made available there will remain key questions on both operational issues and potential costs.  Not least, the question of where will the funding come from and will it genuinely be "new" funding or more a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul."  Watch this space.