Dame Sarah Storey, the active travel commissioner for Greater Manchester, has said the region is still “a decade or so behind” London when it comes to public transport.
The Paralympic Games gold medallist and travel policy adviser said the region is playing catch-up with London and other European cities when it comes to its reliance on cars over trams, buses, and bikes.
Bee Network and the shift from driving
“People here are driving because they feel they don’t have any other choice. It’s the work of the Bee Network to shift that, but change does take time,” Dame Sarah said.
“If I think back to when I was visiting London in preparation for the London 2012 Games, I would never have taken my bike to London. Now I take it every time.”
“We are on that same journey – we’re just a decade or so behind. We’ve got that investment now, and with devolved funding, we can make decisions about local places without having to ask permission all the time.”
Asked if she thought the change could be made within a decade, Dame Sarah said it was “down to everybody here in Greater Manchester.” Many of the region’s roads still see regular “frustrating” gridlock traffic during rush hour and school run periods.
Learning from European cities
She noted it was worth comparing Manchester to other European cities that have also managed to shift their infrastructure away from relying on cars.
“Obviously what works in Madrid isn’t always going to work in Manchester,” she added. “But in the Netherlands there’s now a culture [of using public transport]. They had a huge issue in the seventies and it took them very many years to address how many kids were being killed on their roads. Thankfully, we don’t have those same statistics – we have different reasons to change.”
One of those reasons is the obesity crisis, according to Dame Sarah. The travel commissioner spoke at an event in Little Hulton, Salford celebrating 50 new school streets across the region – a measure aimed at making school runs safer by closing off roads during key periods.
School run and congestion
One in four vehicles across Greater Manchester’s congested roads is believed to be linked to the school run, according to the travel expert, while walking or cycling to school has the added benefit of keeping kids active.
Manchester remains in the top five most congested cities in the UK, according to analysis by INRIX, and is home to some of the busiest stretches of motorway outside of London.
