Draft Mayor's Transport Strategy

Consultation response

London Borough of Barnet

We would like to take the opportunity to endorse the position set out in London Council's response to this consultation, but also to make some additional points.

The London Councils' response comments on the issue of a road user hierarchy, and refers to the role a hierarchy of modes has in encouraging road users to make choices that have wider benefits in terms of emissions and health outcomes. It refers to the part that discouraging the use of less sustainable modes might play in this regard. We would like to emphasise, that in the outer London context, where it is acknowledged that car travel will continue to play a significant role, the priority has to be on ensuring that attractive alternatives are available, rather than penalising those road users whose circumstances require a different choice. This might be in terms of improvements to make other modes more attractive, or in improving the performance of less sustainable modes through reduced emissions, for example.

Also we would like to emphasise the importance of improvements to orbital movement to the borough. The point is partly made in London Councils' response (para 27) “We support the proposals in the MTS to improve orbital links between town centres but we are concerned that the emphasis is primarily on better journey planner information and improved integration between transport modes rather than new infrastructure or services. We believe that improved high quality bus links should be provided where it is not possible to provide rail links. This should include limited stop `express buses' for journeys that can not easily be made by rail.”

There are doubtless benefits to be gained in terms of better information and interchange however, given the scale of regeneration and development expected in Barnet over the coming years, improved travel choice on orbital routes has to play a key role in supporting the increase in population and demand for travel. Improved bus services are the only realistic public transport option for these movements, and we believe express services joining town centres, stations and key interchange points will be necessary to provide an attractive option in comparison with car journeys.

However we believe there is also a role for carefully targeted road schemes in delivering these improvements. In this regard we welcome proposal 34, which acknowledges that road improvements may also have a part to play in improving the transport infrastructure to support regeneration and development, and more generally in reducing congestion and achieving other benefits. We continue to believe that further improvements along the North Circular Road, particularly at Henlys Corner and Golders Green Road have to be considered as a solution, would be grateful to understand how the various criteria set out in proposal 34 are going to be evaluated and seek to engage closely with TfL and the Mayor in jointly progressing this critical work area. The developing sub-regional transport plans also provide an opportunity to consider the benefits of such proposals and we believe the MTS should more clearly acknowledge the investment that may be required to implement these plans.