Essay: Sustainable transport

2.0 Literature review
2.1 Sustainability
When examining the literature that surrounds the topic of my study, I found that the first time the idea of a sustainable way of living was introduced was in the essay on the principle of population, written by Thomas Malthus (Malthus, 1798). This idea was way ahead of its time and it wasn’t for another 200 years that the concept of sustainability was created by the Bruntland Commission who were the first to define sustainable development in 1987 stating that it was “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Bruntland, 1987). There is a trend in the literature that followed in the decade after the Bruntland report where (Meadows et al, 1992), (Lélé, 1991) & (Harrison, 1992) all identified the problem of rapid population growth in the last 30 years and the problems that this could have, leading to the need for sustainable development which encompasses many different factors including the area in which my study is focused sustainable transport.
2.2 Sustainable transport
More specific to my study is literature on the idea of sustainable transport, where the movement of people has less of an impact on the environment. Al (1993) and Banister & Button (1993) are the first to mention the idea of making transport sustainable. As the level of car use began to increase rapidly the realisation of the Co2 emissions that this created dawned upon the world’s population (Al 1993; Banister & Button 1993). Literature can then be narrowed to looking at the idea of sustainable transport in the UK. (Roberts, 1992) is the first to mention a need for a plan of action in the UK in terms of sustainable development as seen by rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions. This dependence upon cars as a form of transport is well documented in academic literature with two authors Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kentworthy who have together written two books illustrating how our dependency on automobiles can be overcome to create sustainable cities with sustainable transport networks (Newman & Kenworthy, 1999: Newman & Kenworthy, 1989). Perhaps the most important piece of literature on sustainable transport policy in Europe in recent times is the “White paper on transport” written by the EU in 2010. It is the first large scale governmental publication that brings attention to the need for a move away from dependence upon cars and planes for transport and a move back towards potentially more sustainable forms such as buses and trains (EU commission, 2001).
2.2.2 Different forms of sustainable transport
Literature on sustainable transport can be split into variations. During the early 2000’s the idea of green technologies, such as sustainable forms of car travel, were very limited. For example, Weber et al (1999) talked about the possible future for fuel cell technologies to revolutionize car travel in the coming years (Weber et al 1999). However nearly 10 years later hydrogen fuel technology was still very limited in its use (Whitmarsh & Wietschel, 2008; Ross, 2006). Literature looking at sustainable public transport seemed to have gathered pace in the early 2000’s. Sustainable public transport schemes were found to be an important aspect in creating a totally sustainable urban center (Banister et al 1997; Newman 2004; Steg & Gifford 2005). This sparked a growth in the amount of literature available on public transport and it is now widely written about.
2.2.3 Optimism bias
One factor of sustainable transport planning that I found in literature is optimism bias. Bent Flyvbjerg is an Oxford professor who has written two pieces on the idea that reports and projections for transport plans will be overly optimistic especially when looking at sustainable alternatives to car use. Although this is not necessarily the case in secondary data that can be found in the case of the Guided busway in Cambridge it must be taken into account (Flyvbjerg et al, 2004) & (Flyvbjerg, 2008).
2.2.4 Recent developments
An interesting point that has been brought up by Luca Leone in the sustainable transport journal In Business Weekly. More recently he stated the impact of Brexit and the effect on the city of Cambridge, would produce a need for further transport initiatives (Leone, 2017). There have been relatively few studies conducted on the Cambridge guided busway in recent years with much of the focus being in the first few years of the systems construction. A further aspect of this that is visible in literature on public transport as a whole is the recent rise in popularity of taxi services such as Uber. Rode et al (2017) explain that Uber is increasing in popularity drastically in many cities in Britain and this Is threating to affect the user numbers of public transport as well as car use (Rode et al, 2017). Indeed, recent literature such as that written by Nelson (2017) & Li et al (2016) both talk about the possible effect these ride sharing apps could have on public transport use as well as traffic congestion on our roads.
2.3 Innovations & multi-level perspectives
A further key author is Frank Geels, who is a professor in innovation and sustainability at the university of Manchester. He has written multiple papers looking at sustainability and in particular innovation within sustainability. For example, his article Auto Mobility in Transition looks at innovations within sustainable transport such as the guided busway technology that I will look at in this project. He is also a leading author in the field of green economies and more precisely multi-level perspectives of technological transitions. Geels, (2002) uses a multi-level perspective to assess technological transitions. For example, the guided busway can be seen as a transition from automobile dependence to a sustainable form of transport through innovation. The multi-level perspective is a way of explaining technological innovations and divides the process into three layers the smallest of which is the niche level which is where the radical innovation occurs. Then there is the regime level where rules are laid out to create incremental improvement. Finally, the landscape layer is the external structure which is slow and resistant to innovation (Steward 2012). Although the multi-level perspective points out that a niche market may not develop to the landscape level where it is employed on a much larger scale (Potter et al, 2015). It can be seen in further pieces that this innovation in the field of sustainable transport is necessary as incremental development along established fields will not provide the answers to a sustainable transport system as can be seen in both (Nill, Kemp, 2009) & (Hull, 2008). This provides reasoning as to why the guided busway was chosen as an option in the case of Cambridge. It is an innovative system that fills a niche in the market of sustainable transport with the aim of reducing car user levels in Cambridge.
2.4 Guided busways
Guided busway technology is one that is relatively new and therefore literature about it is fairly hard to come by, however as it develops there has been some articles written in recent years. For example, the first mention of it in literature was in “The potential of guided busways” written by (Read, Allport & Buchanan, 1990) this was written a few years before the first example of a guided busway was built and is the first piece to properly identify the potential for guided busways as a new form of sustainable transport. More literature then followed in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, (Sneller 1997; Vuchic 2002) developed the idea that guided busways and bus rapid transport could provide a viable sustainable alternative to car travel. At this stage there were real life examples that had already been built and could therefore be used as examples of the successes and failures of the system. Phillips (2006) then looks in more detail at examples where guided busway technology has developed to try and determine the varying levels of success that they have had (Phillips 2006). The first case where the technology was put into practice started in 1980 in Essen Germany where the technology was used to try and link the city’s bus and tram systems, Boeger & Koch (1984) have written a detailed study looking at the system specifically. There have since been two further developments in Essen. The first attempting to make the tracks useable for both cars and busses, which ran for 11 years and is now only used by buses, whilst the second is a section of guided busway that is built for the same purpose as the Cambridge guided busway to reduce motorway traffic and employs the same technology with concrete tracks and guide wheels on the buses for steering (Phillips, 2006). This example paved the way for guided busway technology to be further developed with future systems such as the one found in Cambridge.
2.4.2 Global examples
There is also a lot of literature on the guided busway systems that are in place in other parts of the world for example Australasia. A key author on this area is Graham Currie who has many pieces looking at the examples of guided bus and bus rapid transport technology on the continent. For example, the journal article “Bus Rapid Transit in Australasia: Performance, Lessons Learned and Futures” analyses the results of the numerous systems in operation in Australasia including the Adelaide North East busway which was opened in 1986 making it one of the first examples world-wide (Currie, 2006). He then followed this up in 2010 with “Bus Rapid Transit in Australasia An Update on Progress” which aimed to assess the success of the numerous examples after they had been in operation for a longer period of time. It finds that user numbers over the whole continent were up from 37 million per annum to 86 million per annum from 2006 to 2010 indeed he concludes that overall the technology has been a great success in the continent of Australasia (Currie & Delbosc, 2010).
2.5 The Cambridge guided busway
There is a fair amount of literature on the guided busway system specifically despite its relatively recent creation, this is likely due to its importance of being the largest example of the technology globally and the fact that it is new technology. Within the literature written specifically on the guided busway there are patterns that are visible. David Olgilvie is a key author on the system, he is a leading researcher in public health at the University of Cambridge and he has written and co-written in over 10 different journals on the Guided busway in Cambridge. As you would expect given his area of expertise most of his work focuses on the health benefits of such a renewable transport scheme. For example, “Health impacts of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway: a natural experimental study” is a study assessing the impact that the busway and cycle path have had on the level of the ways people travel in the area (Ogilvie et al, 2016). He has however also written multiple pieces that focus on the guided busway and its use for commuting purposes. For example, “Changes in mode of travel to work: a natural experimental study of new transport infrastructure” & “Commuting and health in Cambridge: a study of a ‘natural experiment’ in the provision of new transport infrastructure” are two pieces that are co-written by him and look at the guided busway and its usefulness specifically for people who use the system to commute to and from work (Heinen et al, 2015; Olgilvie et al, 2010). This is a particularly useful area for my study as commuters are seen as a key target market for the guided busway as it provides direct travel to and from stops such as the Cambridge Science Park, both railway stations in Cambridge as well as the City Center. Another key author is Paul Hodgson He has co-written two pieces of literature that look at light rapid transit (LRT) and in particular the Cambridge guided busway, and how it has moved on from trams and now guided busways are the future with the technology employed by guided busways such as in Cambridge merging into existing tram systems (Hodgson & Potter, 2010); (Hodgson et al, 2013).
2.5.2 Physical activity and the Cambridge busway
There is also a group of literature that has been released talking about the use of the guided busway in Cambridge for walking, cycling and other physical activity. Jenna Panter is a key author in this field (Panter et al, 2016; Prins et al, 2016; Foley et al, 2015) are all examples of studies that she has co-written looking at the guided busway in Cambridge and assessing the impact that it has had on people’s physical activity. This is an important aspect of the guided busway to assess as it provided an easy route for people to travel in and out of Cambridge away from any roads with the aim to increase physical activity of people living within the vicinity of the route.
2.6 Cambridge’s transport problem
The guided busway is an attempt at finding a sustainable solution to the transport issue that has long be present in Cambridge as a result of the cities rapid growth and as (Platt, 2015) & (Platt, 2013) state the problem was first addressed in 1996 with the creation of the Cambridge Futures Forum. This produced evidence of Cambridge’s unsustainable rate of growth and forced action from the local government. Graham Hughes has written 2 pieces about this, the first of which talks about Cambridge as a historic city with small poorly paved roads which creates a need for a sustainable alternative to cars for transport (Hughes, 2005).
Whilst the other piece outlines the city’s attempt to charge road users and how this has affected transport schemes in the city (Ison et al, 2008). The transport problem that the city of Cambridge faces is further laid out in a statement from the Cambridge Past Present and Future charity group (CPPF) in 2015. They stated that in order for the city to remain a hub for investment particularly in the science and technology field that it prides itself in, improvements must be made to the city’s transport system (Cambridge Past, Present & Future, 2015). Harriet Bulkeley has written 2 pieces about Cambridge’s urban growth. With 2800 houses to be built around the city every year from 1999-2016 the city needed sustainable transport plans to accommodate this growing population (Bulkeley, Betsill, 2005) & (Bulkeley, Rayner, 2003). The guided busway was the built to integrate with the city’s existing park and ride system that had proved popular and solve the transport issue that had long existed in the city.