Transport – policy timeline

  • The report Personal Mobility and Transport Policy was described in a leader in The Observer in 1973 following its publication as “probably the most damaging onslaught every launched on the private car’s primacy”.
  • Mayer was invited to advise on the setting up of a new division of the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (then the Road Research Laboratory) to carry out research on the social aspects of transport policy – a post held from 1973 to 1976.
  • Government Transport Policy White Paper in 1977 refers to its aim of “reducing our absolute dependence on transport”.
  • The study Social Consequences of Rail Closures was referred to as “the only systematic analysis of the effects of rail closures” in Regional Studies, Vol. 21, 1980.
  • British Rail reversed its plans for further closures and, from 1980, made no subsequent requests to government to approve further closures. In 1989, British Rail announced that it had reprieved almost all of its provincial network lines from closure.
  • Peter Bottomley, Minister of Transport in 1986 urged local councils “to do more to slow down traffic in residential areas”, and the role of speed has been emphasised in much government road safety publicity since then.
  • In 1990, following publication of a Monopolies and Mergers Commission Report drawing on the findings of the PSI survey, the saving of 30 provincial rail routes from closure was reported.
  • A meeting with the Chair of the GLC Transport Committee and his Officers revealed concerns and reservations on the idea of roadside plaques to mark fatalities, principally on psychological grounds, which were sufficient to prevent even a pilot project being tried out.
  • A new body, the Road Danger Reduction Forum, was set up in 1994 to press for recognition of the fact that road accidents are not a reliable measure of road safety and that the target for reducing danger should be focused on reducing traffic levels and vehicle speed.
  • The paper Social Goals for Transport Policy had a considerable impact on Government policy, including the setting up of the Social Research Division of its Transport and Road Research Laboratory, and the Department of the Environment’s Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) 13 in 1994. “The key aim of the guidance is to ensure that local authorities carry out their land-use policies and transport programmes in ways which help to: reduce growth in the length and number of motorised journeys; encourage alternative means of travel which have less environmental impact; and hence reduce reliance on the private car.”
  • The Department of the Environment’s Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) 13 in 1994 stated that “shopping should be promoted in existing centres which are more likely to offer a choice of access particularly for those without the use of a private car”.
  • John Gummer, Secretary of State for the Environment, ruled in 1995 against further planning permission being granted for out-of-town shopping centres.
  • DoE/DoT PPG 13 in 1994 implicitly acknowledged the greater significance of the non-motorised modes than public transport in planning for less travel. It stated that plans should foster “forms of development which encourage walking, cycling and public transport use”, reversing the previous ordering of the modes in public documents.
  • John Bowis, Minister of Transport, stated in Drive Slower and Save Lives in 1996 that “it is now well understood that if you drive more slowly, lives can be saved”.
  • A new body, the Slower Speeds Initiative, was set up in 1998, to press for lower speeds on roads. It called for government to undertake a national review of speed limits covering all classes of road.
  • From 1997 to 2003, the Government funded research at Leeds University on variable speed limiters.
  • The DETR Transport Policy White Paper 1998 included a statement of the government’s intention to review policy on road speed. This was subsequently published by the Department of Transport in 1999.
  • Serious consideration has been given in recent years to the adoption of a default urban 20mph speed limit.
  • The themes in Reviving the City and In favour of a compact city (as well as other earlier publications) form part of the DEFRA brief in 2007 for submissions for the development of the government’s plans for eco-towns.