Transport Policy Guide

Green Lib Dems
Transport Policy Guide

Transport
HS2, Congestion Charging, Subsidies,Distributed Local Facilities

The HS2 project costs less than half the total investment in rail improvements in the UK

Transport is a key battleground for Libdems. Lowering the environmental impact of transport is all about designing in options to make the low carbon choices attractive. The three pronged attack is to increase efficiency, accelerate the adoption of alternative power systems and encourage behaviour change.
In addition, national transport policy affects the ability to decarbonise locally. HS2 High speed rail links to Birmingham will connect the Midlands with the continent, providing a lower carbon alternative to short haul flights, but at the same time it will discourage remote working and telepresence, which are the lower carbon alternatives to long distance travel.
Markets are primed to deliver electric vehicles, with ever improving battery technology, giving new cars the unique ability to be upgraded simply by changing the battery. Local planners need to innovate and incorporate roadside vehicle charging into their pavement designs and require that new developments allow for an EV future.

LibDem policy:

• PP15 Transporting People, Tackling Pollution (pub 1995)
  Liberal Democrats would rebalance fuel tax and vehicle excise duty and the taxation of company financed motoring. The tax burden should be placed squarely on vehicle usage, not ownership.
• PP22 Living in the Greenhouse (pub 1999)
  4.2.6 includes: The introduction of road pricing in congested urban areas, with the revenue earmarked for improving local public transport.
• PP46 Transport for People (pub 2001)
  6.0.2 In the past, the main instrument for making transport costs reflect more of the environmental and social costs of transport has been fuel duty. In the future, however, we think the balance needs to shift so that congestion charging plays a bigger role and Vehicle Excise Duty is based more closely on environmental impacts.
• PP82 Zero Carbon Britain Taking a Global Lead (pub 2007)
  4.5.5. includes: We also support a target of zero carbon for all new cars by 2040 and an effective system of penalties and incentives to ensure compliance.
  4.5.6: We would also extend targets to all other vehicles, to ensure that by 2050 all freight vehicles are running on electricity, biofuels or other renewable fuels.
  5.4.9 includes: Requiring train and coach operators to accommodate bicycles on all new vehicles, and improving cycle storage and parking at stations.
• PP85 Fast Track Britain: Building a Transport System for the 21st Century (pub 2008)
  Entire paper covers the topic, and also national transport policy.
• PP109 Green Growth and Green Jobs, Transition to a Zero Carbon Britain (pub 2013)
  Section 6 covers decarbonising transport
  6.1.6 Liberal Democrats would make preparations for the introduction of a system of road pricing and where appropriate, support local authorities seeking to bring in road pricing in congested areas.
  6.5.4 After 2020 we believe that all support for foodcropbased biofuels should be ended; subsidies should be limited to biofuels derived entirely from nonfoodcrop sources.
• PP111 Fairer Taxes, Policies for the Reform of Taxation (pub 2013)
  7.2.1 Liberal Democrats would endorse the Committee on Climate Change's recommendation that emissions from both aviation and shipping should be included in the national emissions targets,
  7.3.4 We propose working with the industry to create VED bandings which will continue to incentivise greater emissions efficiency into the 2020s. This could include a subsidy for the cleanest vehicles, paid for by VED on the highest emission vehicles.

Challenge Magazine Articles:

• 2008 Summer p5 Smarter Travel in Sutton p9 Babies, Biofuels and Bathwater
• 2008 Autumn p14 Road Pricing A Bad Idea
• 2008 Winter p12 Transforming our Transport System
• 2009 Summer p19 The Hydrogen Economy in Practice
• 2010 Spring p6 Hydrogen, Future Fuel?
• 2010 Summer p5 Will Cars Ever be Green? p12 Cycling into the Future
• 2011 Summer p11 The Big Switch
• 2011 Autumn p15 Speed and Emissions
• 2012 Autumn p14 Decarbonising Transport
• 2013 Spring p14 Less Fly Zone
• 2013 Summer p16 A La Mode
• 2013 Winter p8 HS2
• 2014 Spring p18 HS2 Take 2
• 2014 Summer p18 Battle over Bikes

Resources:

• Norman Baker's Green Bus Fund http://tinyurl.com/c7pr2r9
• Sustrans UK charity enabling people to travel by foot, bike or public transport for more journeys
• http://www.sustrans.org.uk
• The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership http://www.lowcvp.org.uk
• The Campaign for Better Transport http://www.bettertransport.org.uk
• The Sustainable Transport Solutions Network http://www.sustainabletransport.net
• The Sustainable Urban Transport Project http://www.sutp.org
• Switch EV The Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project http://vehicletrial.switchev.co.uk/
• The Light Rail Transit Association http://www.lrta.org/
• CTC The UK's National Cyclists Organisation http://www.ctc.org.uk
• JPods the personal mass transit concept http://www.jpods.com/
• Innovate UK Transport page https://www.innovateuk.org/transport
• Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport www.slocat.net

This is available as PDF

(last updated October 2014)