Festival of Debate – Cycle Sheffield and Transport Poverty

The Festival of Debate Democracy day featured discussions on many topics that affect your day to day life in Sheffield. One of these topics was Transport Poverty. The discussion was hosted by Cycle Sheffield and featured a great panel; Amy Palmer (Initiative manager from the Terminus Initiative), Ollie Hart (GP at the Sloan Medical Centre), and Pete Zanzottera (Sustainable Transport Consultant). The following shows what was discussed by the panel and attendees and their suggested solutions.

Don’t use transport poverty

Building neighbourhoods not roads

As Sheffield develops, it does not always consider the way people will access its developments. Lowedges residents have experienced this recently. GP surgeries moved, but bus routes didn’t which meant patients without cars struggled to access the health centre. Although the centre had a bus stop nearby, many people required a bus to Sheffield and out again before they could reach the centre. Discussion suggested that this is symptomatic of zonal planning. Planning that divides areas into zones of usage and splits up communities. It creates roads as obstacles, divides neighbourhoods, creates obesogenic environments. 

How we take control of this situation and influence change? Restrain the use of the car. Focus on concepts such as transit orientated developments and 20 minute neighbourhoods that are human friendly and accessible by all. Of course, neighbourhoods that take this approach, inevitably see massive health benefits too.

“My bus pass saved my life”

Amy shared her opinion on the value of free public transport. Before she received a bus pass, she was isolated. Attempting to navigate the bus network unsuccessfully was an intimidating prospect, as it would cost money that wasn’t available. Free bus passes afforded the opportunity to try the bus without having to worry about this. It breaks down an extra barrier to accessing the community.

We’ve got to be pragmatic when it comes to changing the minds of politicians

“Don’t rely on the council”. We need community critical mass. When we get this, things will happen. We are now in a position to make big change. The new Mayor has the opportunity to make things happen, but we need to tell him what we want.

It was suggested that policy follows public opinion. “We get what we ask for but, I don’t believe people are motivated by health. People are focused on the here and now”. Grand visions of utopian societies don’t get the buy in they need. However, if we ask questions like ‘where would you like your children to grow up?’, we get approval for the changes we are looking for. Cleaner, greener, safer, and friendlier places are what everyone wants.

How do we act quickly? Where are the quick wins?

In our neighbourhoods, at a local level. By working on a network or permeable neighbourhoods, we can create streets that function as play zones, quiet ways, and places for people to enjoy. Stopping rat running traffic will help this greatly. The School Street movement is a good example, it works. However, it all relies on communities to make it happen. If it is owned by a community, it will succeed. See Play Streets in Armley, among others.

Do we get out stop traffic on the clean air day? Public opinion seems to be changing after Extinction Rebellion. Do we get involved in local campaigning?

Leadership is a challenge

The Manchester tram system has expanded and reduced car use successfully. Nottingham has successfully embedded a workplace parking levy. How do we get civic leadership on initiatives like this in Sheffield? It was suggested that big decisions like this often need to be informed by even bigger business cases.

Sheffield focuses on business and not on people. For example, we only measure walking once a decade, but traffic is measured by the minute. A shift in transport economic to greater incorporate ‘non-motor’ travel, would give us different lenses to view decisions through.

Joined up thinking

There is a lack of joined up thinking across city when it comes to infrastructure. The decisions made on transport do not consider effects further down the line. For example, the colour of the paint used on cycle lanes and ‘Danger – No entry’ is the same colour. You can see how that causes confusion. Bus use is encouraged, but it’s cheaper to get a taxi.

However, the panel sympathised with the difficulty of this task. Move More have tried mapping out the networks needed to join up communication and work collaboratively, but it is a big task that produces a resource that is hard to comprehend.

Beyond the panel discussion…

Outside of the panel discussion, we had some great chat with people attending a variety of different talks at the hub day. We asked the question “What would make Sheffield an easier place to get around?”. The following pictures were ideas from the attendees.

#FestivalofDebate

Throughout the day, we posed a few questions on social media. ‘What would you spend £1million on?’ was the most popular.