Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

as electric and hybrid electric vehicles, public transport vehicles and bikes, in the
repair and maintenance of vehicles, in retro-fitting existing vehicles to be more fuel
efficient, and in building and maintaining the infrastructure needed to support it. The
International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that every job created in public
transport creates between 2 and 4 indirect jobs in the wider economy.
It is important to note that this is not so much the question of car ownership that is the
main challenge. Certainly the quality and standard of the vehicles engaged in private
use must change. Put more clearly, the use of the private car can be restrained without
damaging livelihoods or the quality of life. For example it is often pointed out that
Germany has higher levels of car ownership but lower levels of car use, with people
not needing to use their cars as often because of good public transport. Also,
consumer demand for greener cars has risen sharply and this will continue to rise due
to both financial and environmental concerns, as indeed must public sector demand
for more, and greener, public transport vehicles. We will need to work with our
union’s Vehicle Building section to ensure this growing demand can be met as far as
possible by green, locally manufactured vehicles supplying high quality jobs. This
will require better support from the UK government for domestic R&D and
manufacture, as well as better infrastructure. See the section on ‘technology’ for
more on the options in this area.
None of this can happen without both stricter environmental standards and regulations
to drive demand in the transport sector, and greater, more accountable direct state
investment in public transport infrastructure and services.
Re-orientating the transport sector towards greater sustainability also needs changes in
land use and planning. More compact cities and shorter distances reduce the overall
need for motorised transport. They can also make alternatives like public transport,
cycling, and walking, more feasible.
There are some initiatives that can be promoted at workplace level by trade union
activists such as car-sharing, travel planning, and training for drivers in fuel
efficiency, and these are areas that trade union activists in any workplace should be
encouraged to pursue, to reduce congestion and pollution.
Public transport
The deregulation of buses since 1986 (along with the privatisation of the railways) has
been a disaster for public transport and the environment, leading to low wages, high
fares, fewer routes and passengers, and worse congestion and overcrowding.
Improving public transport is critical to any serious environmental strategy. More
immediate regulation through quality contracts in the immediate term, and renationalisation
/ municipal ownership in the longer term, is badly needed to deliver
more services, higher staffing levels, better trained and rewarded staff, more
integration with other modes of transport, and lower fares. Such measures would
make public transport a genuinely realistic, comfortable and safe alternative to private
car use.
EU proposals to force the tendering of bus contracts have been fiercely resisted by the
European trade unions. We need to continue to fight to protect the rights of local
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