Wiser investment
Reform taxation and increase spending on sustainable travel
The vast majority of transport budgets are spent enabling people to travel far and fast. And yet the majority of journeys we all make everyday are local. These journeys could be made by foot, bike and public transport, and yet very little money is spent in enabling us to make smarter travel choices.
Transport budgets are often sucked up by big projects focused on making long journeys easier. Very little is spent on enabling people to change their travel behaviour, which could significantly reduce the need to spend on bypasses, road widening and other expensive initiatives.
As a result taxation and transport spending in the UK has significantly reduced our choice when it comes to how we get around. We can do a lot to change this within existing transport budgets by focusing on achieving a wider range of smarter travel choices that are sustainable, healthy, and improve our quality of life.
This is why, as part of our call to action, Sustrans calls on UK governments to:
- Invest only in schemes and initiatives that reduce high carbon travel.
- Re-establish a fuel duty escalator UK-wide to reverse the current decline in the cost of motoring.
- Introduce work and retail place parking levies with revenues invested in improving environments for walking, cycling and public transport.
- Establish UK-wide road pricing programmes with revenues invested in improving environments for walking, cycling and public transport.