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Summary

Moving with the Times: Supporting sustainable travel in outer London

Summary

This report is part of Moving with the Times – an ambitious programme of research and events from Centre for London that aims to address London’s major transport challenges and shape how people move around our city.

Here, we look at how to support more sustainable travel in outer London, while our next report – to be released later in the summer – will investigate how the costs associated with travelling across London influence travel behaviour.

The difficulties of sustainable travel that are faced by people living in outer London have come to the fore this year, with proposals for ULEZ expansion and ongoing issues with the suburban rail network. Compared to inner London, outer London suffers from a lack of reliable and convenient alternatives to driving (such as public transport links) – with the result that many people find it difficult to give up their cars.

This report illustrates why the way people travel matters, shows why some outer Londoners feel they have no option but to drive a privately owned car, and proposes policy changes that would support more people to travel sustainably.

Why transport in outer London matters

  • For some people in outer London, accessing jobs and amenities, visiting family, and travelling to new places would be very difficult without a private car; others choose to drive but could in principle make their journeys using different modes of travel.
  • 69 per cent of households in outer London have access to or own a car, compared to 42 per cent in inner London and 77 per cent across England as a whole.
  • If people drove less in outer London, this would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and congestion – and providing improved alternative transport options to achieve this could widen access to economic and social connections.

How people travel in outer London today

  • In outer London, the most-used forms of transport are walking (38 per cent of journeys), driving or being a passenger in a private car (38 per cent of journeys), and using public transport (20 per cent of journeys).
  • In outer London, driving is used for travel twice as much as within inner London (38 per cent of journeys compared to 19 per cent).
  • In outer London, the travel environment is focused more on private car use, with less public transport and lower densities of cycle lanes, cycle parking and shared car and bike schemes.

What’s holding us back?

  • The high cost of new infrastructure, particularly for major rail projects, is a barrier to delivering better alternatives to car use in outer London – especially since Transport for London’s revenue fell substantially following the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems possible that London will not be a national priority for capital investment in the coming years.
  • Improvements that make it easier to walk or cycle vary in cost. Funding them largely falls to local authorities: however, the application process for some funds is time-consuming and inefficient, posing a barrier for local authorities with limited time resources and squeezed budgets.
  • Local authorities face financial and political barriers to reallocating road space for more sustainable uses.

What needs to change?

In the next section of this report, we set out 10 priorities for change that would help meaningfully improve access to sustainable modes of transport for most people in outer London. Here are three of these key recommendations:

  • Increase the coverage of the cycle network in outer London: Transport for London and local authorities should prioritise safe, segregated cycle lanes suitable for a range of micromobility vehicles. New routes should support local journeys for leisure and family purposes as much as journeys into central London.
  • Commit to new public transport routes for new developments: Transport for London should commit to introducing new bus routes for new developments before those developments are completed, so that they can offer better public transport links and less car parking. This could be paid for partly through the early release of developer funding (or borrowing against such funding), but additional funding may also be required.
  • Deliver shared transport more consistently: London Councils or the GLA should work with local authorities to design a procurement framework for shared transport modes such as car clubs and shared bike schemes. Local authorities may choose to jointly procure shared services, or temporarily reduce fees for operators to increase coverage in areas with lower population density.

Taking up these recommendations would bring long-term benefits for people in outer London. However, many will require additional funding for local authorities and Transport for London to deliver them. We recommend that additional funds are either allocated from central government or generated by granting the Mayor greater powers to raise money in the capital.