Green travel - are we in reverse gear?

I don't know about you but I find it annoying and unnecessary that lots of us make so many short journeys in cars. If you feel the same way you probably won't want to hear that councils are only spending about 1p per head per week of their transport funding on schemes that would cut traffic. Not good.

The recession has bitten councils hard - there isn't a lot of money around to fund anything at the moment. So it makes even more sense for them to spend the money they have got wisely.

Improving local transport can be a very expensive business but there are tried and tested, value for money alternatives to investing £millions in new roads. They are called Smarter Travel Choices (STCs), schemes that encourage people to walk, cycle, car share or use public transport - reducing car journeys overall.

Between 2004-8 the last Government piloted STCs in three English towns. They worked: they cut car traffic by 9 per cent and boosted levels of walking, cycling and bus use - all at the comparatively low cost of about £5.65 per head per annum. In 'Treasury speak' they gave a benefit:cost ratio of  4.5:1, i.e £4.50 of congestion busting value from every £1 spent.

Sounds like a bargain to me, especially as these schemes also cut carbon emissions, reduce air pollution and tackle obesity through encouraging more active travel. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) was so impressed it has repeatedly called for a national roll out across the UK. Surely it's a 'no brainer' to get these schemes in place as soon as possible?

But new analysis by Halcrow, commissioned by Friends of the Earth and Sustrans, shows a distinct lack of smart decision-making by councils about how transport spending is prioritised.

Halcrow  looked at 27 of the 80 Local Transport Plans (LTPs) produced by English councils and found that councils were, on average, spending a fraction on STCs compared to the sums spent in the pilot project towns - of the 16 LTPs that were directly comparable - only about 70p per person per year. This completely goes against the CCC's recommendations.

Transport has to make a significant contribution to cutting overall emissions if the UK is to meet its carbon targets - transport emissions are no lower than they were in 1990! New technology like electric vehicles should help in the medium to long term, but measures to encourage travel behaviour change are urgently needed to cut emissions now.

The potential for change is enormous. More than half of all car journeys are under five miles long - less than a 30 minute cycle. And a staggering 85 per cent of commuting cars have just one occupant, when many people could share. So there is huge potential for cutting traffic by shifting many journeys to walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing. And don't forget - a quarter of all UK households also don't have access to a car, so improving the alternatives to driving will have big benefits for poorer people accessing jobs and services. It's a win, win situation.

A revolution in how we travel is possible and is needed but both central government and local councils must make urgent changes to achieve it. The Government's enthusiasm for 'localism' isn't helping - councils can't be left to make all the decisions, they need strong incentives if they are to deliver sustainable transport, and carbon reduction generally.

 The following changes need to happen:

• Both the Government and councils need to ensure that STCs get at least the £5.65 per head per year funding that was spent in the pilot schemes;
• The Government must incorporate a duty into its forthcoming Energy Bill to require councils to draw up climate change strategies for their local areas - this would provide a big incentive for councils to act on transport;
• The Government must monitor the performance of councils' Local Transport Plans.

With these changes in place I reckon we'd be getting up to second gear at least, and in the right direction too.