The stress of traffic is a burden. Whether we’re stuck in it, trying to keep our kids safe beside or crossing it, if we’re straining to hear someone talk over it, or even just breathing near it.
It’s costing lives and money, and we can’t afford it any longer. We can do better than this.
Is there hope in the transport vision set out this month by Sheffield Council? Much of it is attractive – safer streets and better systems, but I struggle to see how the actions it points to can meet the challenges we face. These contradictions risk keeping us stuck in the mess of traffic that chokes us today, however smooth the presentation of progress is.
The council’s new vision sets a high bar, aiming for a “reliable, low-carbon transport network, fit for the rest of this century”, and says ”We know what a world-class transport network looks like.”
Many cities are doing good things. We have much to learn from Paris, Ghent, Barcelona and Bogotá. But I don’t know of a city that is close to ending the harm of traffic to people, economy or planet.
The Netherlands is a cautionary example. They’ve built beautiful streets with world-class active and public transport options (which help make the Dutch some of the healthiest people, with the happiest and most independent children).
Yet their government also keeps expanding motorways, and car ownership continues to rise. Far from showing a utopia, the Dutch government still had to be forced through the courts to reluctantly reduce deadly air pollution – by modestly reducing motorway speeds.
One part of the harm is to our climate, and the scale of change needed has been admitted in recent years. The previous Sheffield transport strategy in 2019 (which the briefing for the new vision describes as “still very relevant and valid”), says responding to the climate crisis is:
“not likely to be a question of just more ambition for cycling, cheap bus fares or tram extensions – rather, we anticipate the Climate Emergency is likely to fundamentally challenge, in short order, the degree to which we can facilitate [car] travel as we have become accustomed to.”
To meet our city’s carbon budget would mean at least a 66% reduction in car use share before 2030, according to Arup (still assuming increased bus use, walking and cycling, and all remaining vehicles being EVs). And since half the carbon budget has been spent before this transition has got started, the shift from cars needs to be even greater now.
How fast could we phase out cars? We could ask: How soon do we want safe streets for our children? How soon do we want breathable air? How soon do we want the rich to pay a fair share, and big corporations to take less of our money? How soon do we want accessible streets we can enjoy and call our own?
And whatever kind of streets and city we build must be better and not repeat the patterns of exploitation for profit that got us into this mess. It needs to be fair, inclusive and liberating.
So does the new council vision point us in this direction, whether or not it’s fast enough? Let’s look at the very first example of success that it gives:
“On busy routes such as London Road and Broadfield Road, we’ve made bus journeys more reliable and pedestrian crossings safer.”
This has included removing and dividing up pedestrian crossings, making people walking or wheeling go further and wait so that motor traffic can keep flowing. The original plan added another traffic lane but was scaled back due to cost. If more money was available then more traffic capacity would have been added.
Yes, buses on London Road get delayed in congestion, but 97% of the queues are private traffic. Easing this bottleneck here is planned to enable somewhere over a hundred thousand additional vehicle trips a year.
There is a lot of good stuff in this vision document, including talking about priority for people, making streets more accessible and safer, developing an active travel network, and improving buses, trams and trains.
But if the aim of improving all these “alternative” transport options is to reduce traffic… doesn’t that mean we should expect traffic to… reduce?
Yet it isn’t shy about building in more – not less – traffic.
Plans include the Innovation Corridor, expanding M1 junctions, adding 20% traffic capacity to Shalesmoor, expanding the inner ring road, expanding park and ride (which encourages more, longer car trips), expanding cross-Pennine traffic routes and more roads for a reopened Doncaster Airport.
It all feels a bit like an alcoholic who says “I know I’m hurting myself and everyone I love and I am going to get sober. It’s going to be different, you’ll see. And so I’m installing a bar in every room of my house.”
One way to set a clear new direction would be to do like Labour in Wales and commit to no more road expansion.
Can we dream of streets that serve all of us and our lives, over the profits of large companies?
What does that look like for you? How can we build this together?
Tell the Truth Sheffield 