Making the cut: UK spending review special - Steer Davies Gleave

the review
Steer Davies Gleave’s news & reviews
A walk in the city • Drastic times call for smarter measures
It’s the new economy, stupid! • Why car clubs are taking off
Making the cut: UK spending review special
Issue 39 October 2010
www.steerdaviesgleave.com

welcome october 2010
CEO’s comment
We are experiencing a ‘once in a generation’
shift in the priorities of our clients all
around the world. Their need is to find
sustainable and robust ways to deliver
(new) transport policy outcomes in the
most cost-effective manner. This is
reflected in the increasing number of
commissions we have in North and South
America and the Middle East developing
transport and commercial solutions to
deliver transport systems that underpin
the objective of delivering ‘liveability’
and sustainability to our cities. In the UK,
the emphasis is more about improving
operational and financial effectiveness
given existing (or reduced) resources
while still developing the major projects.
Features
t A walk in the city / p4-5
Walking is second nature to us, so
why does it play second fiddle to other
modes as a means to get from A to B?
t Pedal power / p6
As the cycling culture continues
to grow in the UK, we offer ways
to help authorities instil and
improve cycling in their areas.
t Signs of the times / p7
Once notorious for drug crime, Bogotá is
now a popular destination for tourism.
Steer Davies Gleave’s wayfinding
strategy helps the tourists explore and
learn more about this intriguing city.
2
This shift is a significant challenge but
one that Steer Davies Gleave thrives
on and we certainly have the technical
expertise to underpin our strategic
advice and expert opinion to help clients
develop, design, deliver and procure the
integrated and viable solutions required.
Best regards
Hugh Jones and Steve Hewitt
joint ceos
t Into Africa / p8-9
A fifth of the world’s population lives
in Africa, yet for many, safe, modern
and efficient transport is sorely lacking.
Steer Davies Gleave has been working in
four key areas to help change all that.
t It’s the new economy, stupid! / p11
In an economy with less funding,
new tools are needed to help
make the right decisions.
t Why car clubs are taking off/ p12
While most of its members are
individuals, car clubs offer local
authorities great benefits too.
Not on the mailing list?
Want to be sure to receive The
Review regularly? If you’re not
already on our mailing list, you
can subscribe by going to www.
steerdaviesgleave.com/subscribe
t Making the cut / p13
Which schemes should be cut and
which ones shouldn’t? We offer local
authorities four guiding principles on
how to prioritise their transport plans.
t Drastic times call for smarter
measures / p14-15
Unprecedented public spending cuts
could just be the catalyst smarter
choices need to take centre stage.

Solutions for the planet
Along with Metro (West Yorkshire PTE),
Steer Davies Gleave was one of this year’s
business sponsors of Solutions for the
Planet. Working with secondary school
children from across Yorkshire, the initiative
promotes entrepreneurship and raises
awareness of community, social and
environmental issues by challenging school
kids to form ‘companies’ that offer both
commercial potential and a social purpose.
Like any company, each team needed
to work out its managerial, marketing
and finance roles. Over the course of the
programme, each company developed
its business plan by testing out the
feasibility of their proposal, developing
their marketing strategy and working out a
financial plan. Part of the process included
a Young Persons Conference in March,
which gave 400 kids access to experts
– including Paul Robinson and Jehan
Leelananda from Steer Davies Gleave who
were part of the Transport Expert Zone – to
help them develop their ideas. The teams
then pitched their ideas to a panel of judges
at a number of heats, with 10 going through
to a Celebration Final held in the Palace
of Westminster at the beginning of July.
Steer Davies Gleave Director Neil Chadwick
took part on the judging panels for one
of the heats and the Westminster final.
“The energy and enthusiasm of all the
finalists was inspiring”, he said. “Their
hard work, preparation and passion was
clear to see. As well as putting forward
ideas to promote sustainability, they
showed real business acumen too.”
This year’s winners were Yoob It! – a team
of three from City of Leeds School whose
big idea was to bridge the generation
gap by using technology to put young
people in touch with older members of the
community who wanted help with odd jobs.
New head of Latin America
We have grown rapidly
in Central and South
America in recent years,
opening offices in Mexico
and Brazil and developing
a wide portfolio of work
in toll roads, public
transport and stadia.
Following Gloria Hutt’s appointment to
the Chilean government, we are delighted
with the leadership that Germán Lleras
has been providing as our new head
of Latin America. Germán is working
with our offices in Bogotá, Mexico City,
Santiago, San Juan and São Paulo to
continue to expand the range of work we
do in the region as well as our teams.
september 2010 news in brief
Free autumn
seminar series
Challenges for local transport
in an age of austerity
The outcome of the UK government
spending review is due to be
announced on 20 October. To create
a dialogue on key aspects of the new
transport planning agenda, we have
been running a series of seminars with
RTPI and TPS. Come along to hear the
views of respected experts, and add
your own voice to the debate.
8 september
Integrating transport with
other key outcomes: How to
evaluate effectiveness in terms
of achieving wider policy goals
15 september
Citizen involvement in prioritisation:
Ensuring tough decisions
are made democratically,
equitably and transparently
22 september
Making tough decisions in the
light of cuts to bus subsidy
29 september
Low-cost innovation in transport:
The role of cycling, walking
and community transport
6 october
Prioritising programmes
and phasing schemes
13 october
Providing an Evidence Base
at Low- or No-cost
For more information or to register,
go to www.steerdaviesgleave.com/
aboutUs/Autumn_seminar_series
3

A walk in the city
Walking is second nature to us, so why does it play second fiddle
to other modes as a means to get from A to B?
By Tony Duckenfield
Why does the saying
go ‘a walk in the park’
and not ‘a walk in the
city’? Why is it that
even for short trips,
do most of us opt for
a different mode to
transport us rather
than our own two feet? Can there be
any more potential to get more people
to walk more? Surely, if a trip could
be walked it would be walked?
What we have found, as illustrated in
figure 1, is that many walkable trips
(two miles or less) are currently made by
car or bus. For example, for trips up to
a mile, walking is indeed the dominant
mode, however, less than a third of trips
between one and two miles in length are
currently walked, and less than one in ten
trips of two to three miles. As with many
things dealing with human behaviour,
there are several reasons why this is.
The barriers to walking
A key factor is habit: many people are just
too used to automatically getting into their
car to make a trip, irrespective of how long
it is. This avoids the need to worry about
how to make the trip or how long it will take;
using car for everything makes life simple.
Linked to this is a lack of understanding
about distances and times when walking.
If car is always used, it can be hard to
imagine how long a journey would take
by foot, and the impression can be that
it is bound to be too far. The same can
be true of journeys by public transport:
4
market research walking
sometimes walking can be dismissed
as an option far too easily because we
are too used to mechanised modes.
A specific issue in London, which may be
relevant in a different guise in other places,
is the inaccurate mental map created by
the London Underground schematic. This
makes many places in central London seem
further away than they actually are. To some
extent this effect is created by the sheer
density of central London, and this is also
true of many other urban centres. In other
words, people think about distance in terms
of the number of landmarks they need to
go past, so lots of landmarks can make
it feel like it’s further than it actually is, if
these landmarks are crammed into a small
area. Unfamiliarity also has an impact, with
familiarity making things seem closer.
Figure 1: Mode Shares for Short Trips
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
20%
76%
Source: National Travel Survey 2002-4
57%
31%
Other barriers include the need to carry
equipment, luggage, or shopping; the
weather; being able to find the best
route; and feelings of personal insecurity.
Some of these can be overcome, and
some only apply to specific trips so
these do not negate the potential for
walking entirely, it may just reduce
the scope somewhat and make it
more difficult to change behaviour.
Encouraging walking
To encourage significantly more walking
requires understanding the specifics of a
location: what are the types of trips being
made? Who is making them? What are
the barriers to walking? Fortunately there
are some off-the-shelf techniques which
can greatly speed up (and reduce the
cost of) gaining this market knowledge.
9% 3%
Under 1 mile to under 2 mile to under 3 mile to under 5 mile
trip length
74%
77%
Other
Bus
Car
Cycle
Walk

For looking at the demand side,
we can use our Smarter TravelStyle
profiling and segmentation tool, which
provides an understanding of the types
of people living in an area and the
types of measures that are likely to be
effective in changing their behaviour.
For evaluating the supply side and the
need for improvements to the walking
infrastructure, there is the Pedestrian
Environmental Review System (PERS )
system which involves auditing walking
routes. An attraction of this system is that it
quantifies the problems and the potential
benefits: very useful for justifying funding.
Having established the relevant
understanding, a walking strategy
can be developed incorporating
an appropriate mixture of ‘hard’
and ‘soft’ measures such as:
hard soft
Signage
Removing
street clutter
Pedestrianisation /
Pedestrian priority
Walking
maps
Marketing
communication
campaigns
Personalised
Travel Planning
A good strategy will also have quantified
targets for additional volumes of walking
and/or increased walking mode share,
which in turn will enable the strategy to
be evaluated and justified, potentially
using a formal business case approach.
Walking as a transport mode does seem
to be taken for granted and to play
second fiddle to higher-profile modes
like cycling, tram and rail. But in the UK’s
current spending climate it may be that
walking can provide the relatively low-cost
‘quick wins’ that many are looking for.
To find out more contact
Tony Duckenfield
t +44 (0)20 7910 5000
e tony.duckenfield@sdgworld.net
London by foot
market research walking
Steer Davies Gleave is currently
undertaking the post-evaluation of
a major pilot of the ‘Legible London’
wayfinding pedestrian scheme. Based
on extensive research, the scheme
uses a range of information such as
signs and printed maps to help people
find their way around London by foot.
Initial signs are positive and it will be
interesting to see the full results when
they emerge later in the autumn.
(CC) Adam NFK Smith 2010
5

policy and planning cycling
Pedal power
As the cycling culture continues to grow in the UK, we offer ways
to help authorities instil and improve cycling in their areas.
By Pete Zanzottera
It’s not just the recent
launch of London’s new
cycle hire scheme; the
momentum behind
cycling has steadily been
building over the last
several years in the UK.
Journeys by cycle in the
capital have doubled in the last decade.
The Cycling Town initiative has increased
cycling in the participating towns by 27%
on average in just three years. With political
backers and cycling enthusiasts such as
Johnson, Villiers, Baker and Mr Cameron
himself, cycling remains high on the
government’s agenda. And as a relatively
low-cost means to achieve transport
objectives, now is a real opportunity to
push the bike out even further. Here are
a few ways Steer Davies Gleave can help
develop cycling strategies for local areas:
Getting audited
Many cities and towns have some routes
but few have a well-connected and
differentiated network that is coherent and
easy to understand. Using cycle-based
video analysis, connected to GPS and
other sensors, we can conduct extensive
and detailed audits on cycle networks.
6
For example, in Potters Bar, we have
used these methods to capture all of the
roads and potential routes to classify the
existing network according to the three
Bikeability training levels (based on
cyclists’ experience and confidence):
t level 1 – off-road and traffic-free routes
t level 2 – light-trafficked roads
and residential areas
t level 3 – busier roads with
higher levels of traffic
Improving networks
Working out suggested improvements
to the networks and prioritising them is
something that we understand completely.
In some cases this may involve developing
a full business case and generating cost
benefit analysis figures. Generally the costs
to build a network are relatively easy to
calculate and it is possible to put forward
a set of improvements that could be built
quickly. Calculating benefits for cycle
routes is more complex and very sensitive
to the number of existing cyclists and the
estimate of new cyclists. Our work focuses
on improving the connectivity of a cycle
network and providing ‘missing links’ that
will help to encourage more people to cycle.
Mapping it out
Featured in the last issue of The Review,
our new Cycling Potential Index (CPI) tool
visually displays an area’s underlying
attractiveness for cycling in terms of
topography, demographics and potential
usage. The results can be overlaid on
network improvements to help judge where a
cycle route or network will be most effective.
Getting into their heads
In addition, having insight into the
behaviour of cycling – who does it, why,
where and when – is invaluable when
trying to promote and encourage new
cycling schemes. Steer Davies Gleave has
undertaken innovative research and analysis
regarding projects such as the London Cycle
Hire Scheme and Cycle Superhighways.
This work has particularly focused on
route alignments, user profiles, potential
demand and uptake of proposed work and
home-end Smarter Travel measures.
To find out more contact
Pete Zanzottera
t +44 (0) 113 389 6400
e pete.zanzottera@sdgworld.net

Signs of the times
Once notorious for drug crime, Bogotá is now a popular destination for tourism. Steer Davies
Gleave’s wayfinding strategy helps the tourists explore and learn more about this intriguing city.
By Juan Pablo Rioseco
While years of political
instability once
made it a place to be
avoided, improved
security, infrastructure
projects and clean-up
campaigns, have made
Bogotá one of Latin
America’s urban highlights, attracting
over 630,000 tourists last year.
To help tourists navigate their way
around the city, Steer Davies Gleave
was asked by Bogotá’s tourism board to
develop a wayfinding strategy including
a commemorative trail around the
historical city centre of La Candelaria
for the country’s Bicentennial, which
celebrates the 200th anniversary of its
independence from Spain this year.
La Candelaria is an intriguing
neighbourhood of cobblestone streets,
historical squares and 400-year-old
churches mixed with cafes, hotels
and modern high rises. Conscious of
the unique urban environment, it was
important that the signing system for
the Bicentennial trail was clearly visible
yet respectful of its surroundings.
Following visual and accessibility audits
to understand the flow of pedestrians, we
created a two-mile pedestrian route linking
38 landmarks which reconciled historic
accuracy and wayfinding opportunities
into a sequence of numbered items. The
trail can be followed regardless of where
someone might join the trail, capturing both
incidental citizens and tourists wandering
around the area, as well as offering better
support to organised tour groups.
The signage itself needed to serve several
purposes: it needed to highlight the
Bicentennial celebrations while also having
a long-lasting presence, be plainly visible
and provide clear and easy-to-follow
directions, as well as information about the
historical landmarks – while working within
a wider visual identity. So we developed a
combination of temporary signing elements
(such as balloons, banners and totems),
which specifically highlight the Bicentennial
over a six-month period; and permanent
waymarkers made of bronze and stainless
steel, which would serve as long-lasting
footprints of the celebrations. Supporting
this is a comprehensive pocket guide.
Signing systems aren’t just about providing
directions; they are part of the user’s wider
experience of making a journey and, as in
this case, discovering more about a place.
The wayfinding strategy for La Candeleria
gives visitors to Bogotá an insight into the
city’s remarkable history while allowing
them to easily and confidently explore
the city that it has become today.
To find out more contact
Juan Pablo Rioseco
t +44 (0)20 7910 5000
e juan.rioseco@sdgworld.net
Leaving an (in)visible mark on Bogotá
Often the best wayfinding strategies go
unnoticed by those using it – intuitively
anticipating where people would need
information to find their way so they
don’t even have to think about it. If
someone gets confused and feels lost
or frustrated, then we haven’t done
our jobs properly. Steer Davies Gleave
has worked on several information
design and wayfinding projects in
Bogotá including comprehensive
passenger information and station
signing guidelines for TransMilenio,
one of the most successful BRT
systems ever built (which we also
helped design). Most recently, we’ve
won a project for Bogotá’s Integrated
Public Transport System aimed at
bringing buses, BRT and metro together
into a coordinated information user
experience. While we’ll definitely be
leaving our ‘mark’ on the city, we’re
hoping that anyone travelling in and
around Bogotá won’t even realise it.
7

spotlight africa
Into Africa
By Charles Russell
A fifth of the world’s population lives in Africa, yet for many,
safe, modern and efficient transport is sorely lacking. Over
the last three decades, we have been working in four key
areas to help change all that. Highlighted on the map are
just a few of the projects we’re proud to have worked on.
urban transport
As the population of many African cities
explodes, the pressure on the infrastructure
grows to intolerable levels – in transport as
with other key services. Transit solutions
play a crucial role in enabling the cities to
grow in an efficient and sustainable way.
regulation and institutional
development
Transport services cannot be created
without efficient institutional structures
and effective – but permissive – regulation.
These provide a clear interface between the
public and the private sectors, both in terms
of project development and service delivery.
privately financed infrastructure
Transforming international capital funds into
well-constructed, operated and maintained
systems is a challenge many countries face.
Private finance has proven to be a viable
mechanism – it provides new sources of
capital funding, reinforces a structure for
procurement of cost-effective and timely
construction, and creates an ongoing
commitment to operation of the system.
aviation
Airports and air services are a vital part
of the continuing economic development
across Africa. Safe, efficient operations
(through the management of airspace to
the highest international standards) and
modern infrastructure are needed to help
ensure a bright future for the continent.
8
To find out more contact
charles.russell@sdgworld.net
abidjan, côte d’ivoire
It has, for many years, been an ambition
to build the Marcory bridge across
the lagoon in Abidjan and connect
expanding north and south without
transiting the congested CBD. We
have supported the scheme sponsor
in developing the proposals for a
toll-financed private development.
gambia
guinea-bissau
senegal
sierra
leone
guinea
liberia
morocco
rabat, morocco
The Ministry of Transport in Rabat wanted
western
to look at the possibility sahara of introducing
private finance to the development and
maintenance of the Kingdom’s road
network. Steer Davies Gleave carried out
mauritania
a detailed study of how this could be
structured, and gauged the domestic and
international appetite for such a scheme.
côted’ivoire
lagos, nigeria
Traffic conditions in Nigeria’s
commercial centre – Lagos – are
known to be chaotic, with particular
bottlenecks on the bridges across
to Lagos Island. We helped Lagbus
establish a new company which was
charged to develop and operate high
quality bus services in a segregated
highway along the main corridors.
cape town, south africa
Steer Davies Gleave has for a number of
years been supporting a consortium of
domestic and international contractors
as they develop proposals for the
extension of the major highways
serving Cape Town. The latest projects
will incorporate the open road
electronic toll collection systems now
being installed across the country.
burkina faso
ghana
mali
togo
benin
alg

eria
nigeria
equatorial guinea
tunisia
kigali, rwanda
Kigali’s rapid growth in recent years
has created a surge in demand at the
libyan
principal regional arab bus jamahiriya and minibus taxi
station at Nyabugogo, which was built 15
years ago. To help ease the congestion,
we provided operational and traffic
advice which supported an assessment
of niger the potential to attract market-based
domestic finance to fund a new terminal
chad
appropriate to the needs of the city.
sao tome
and principe
cameroon
gabon
central
african republic
congo
democratic
republic of the
congo
durban, south africa angola
In order to encourage the development
of direct long distance passenger
services – and to create a production
and distribution hub – Kwa Zulu Natal
has developed a major new airport to
serve Durban. We helped establish
namibia
the PPP procurement of the project.
botswana
south africa
egypt
rwanda
zambia
zimbabwe
lesotho
kigali, rwanda
As it rebuilds its economy after the 1994
genocide, the Rwanda government needs
to ensure that the major international
airport at Kigali is adequate to serve the
country’s growing needs. Steer Davies
Gleave has supported the development
of plans for the new airport.
burundi
sudan
uganda
ethiopia
united republic of
tanzania
malawi
mozambique
eritrea
kenya
somalia
maputo, mozambique
Maputo serves as a major port for traffic
from the Johannesburg/Pretoria and
Nelspruit corridor. We worked with the
promoters to develop a major tolled
highway running across the border
from South Africa to the coast.
spotlight africa
lake albert, uganda
Located on the border with Congo, Lake
Albert serves both as a resource and a
highway for the fishing villages located
along its banks. We supported InfraCo
in its appraisal of the possibility of a
micro project for the development of
a new ferry service across the lake.
kampala – mombasa
Uganda depends in great part on the
transport corridor between Kampala
and the Indian Ocean at Mombasa.
Steer Davies Gleave helped explore
the possibility of developing a
unitised train operation to offer a
more reliable and quicker service.
dar es salaam, tanzania
The government-owned bus company
in Dar es Salaam has found it
impossible to compete in the new
deregulated environment. Steer Davies
Gleave helped with the privatisation
of the company, as well as the
reorganisation of the bus services.
johannesburg, south africa
The 60km corridor between
Johannesburg and Pretoria serves
more than 100,000 vehicles per day.
To provide an alternative, public
transport service, as well as a link
to the airport, a new high-speed
rail –Gautrain – is being developed.
Steer Davies Gleave has provided
support to the scheme developer.
9

special uk spending review
The outcome of the UK government’s spending review
this autumn will have a dramatic impact on the way
transport is planned, financed, delivered and operated
across the country. New thinking, new tools and new
ways of working are needed in an economic climate
where scarce resources will have to work smarter
and harder than ever before. In the following pages,
Steer Davies Gleave offers some ideas to consider.
10
making
cut the
uk spending review

It’s the new economy, stupid!
In an economy with less funding, new tools are
needed to help make the right decisions.
By Lars Rognlien
The current economic
climate, with sluggish
growth and severely
constrained public
purses, demands a
change in the way
transport projects are
prioritised. With less
money to go around, local authorities
and central government departments
alike need to consider carefully how
to extract the most value for money
out of the resources they have.
For transport this will most likely mean a
stronger focus on revenue schemes and
quick wins/ low cost options such as
smarter choices and travel planning. The
need for private funding arrangements may
also be on the rise, although the appetite
for investment may not be as great.
However, if the current economy means
a change in how limited funds should be
prioritised, should not also the way we
assess and prioritise projects change to
reflect that? Two key economic challenges
are restoring growth and reducing the
public debt, so schemes that deliver
productivity gains quickly should be given
a higher priority than those that deliver
consumer benefits that are spread over a
long period of time. Firstly, schemes that
deliver economic growth quickly aid the
recovery. But more importantly, economic
growth means sorely needed tax revenues.
At the same time, partnerships of
councils will replace the regional
administrations. This will increase the
focus on understanding the local economic
impacts of schemes. Councils may care
less about delivering time savings and
national value for money and more
about growth in local employment,
population, productivity and land values.
All this requires new tools. The guidance
on Wider Impacts can help to an extent,
but only at a national level. There are
regional models that can help but these
are typically costly to set up and maintain.
Wanting to help fill the gap between
national appraisal and bespoke regional
models, we have developed a sub-regional
economic impacts model. Technically it
falls within a class of economic models
called Computable Generalised Equilibrium
(CGE) model. It represents detailed
interactions between economic sectors
and households in a given area, as well
as trade with other parts of the world.
This type of model has strong foundations
in how economists believe actors in the
economy interact, where prices adjust to
ensure supply and demand are in balance.
Based on standard outputs from transport
appraisal and published official statistics,
the model can help to understand how
a scheme affects the economy ‘on
the ground’. Time savings to business
travellers, for instance, are converted into
productivity gains to the firms employing
them – giving a boost to their production.
This in turn forces a reduction in prices,
which ensures demand for their products
keeps up. In order to increase production,
the firms will increase the use of labour
and other inputs, bidding up the price
for those. Households are better off
because of a combination of higher real
wages, lower prices and, ultimately,
higher consumption. The final outcome
is a composite of all these effects.
The new model will not
find any ‘new’ benefits
that the appraisal did
not capture. But it will
give us an understanding
of the distribution of impacts
special uk spending review
across space and economic sectors
(including households) as well as the
manifestation of the benefits in terms of
prices, wages, output, jobs and incomes.
With this model we will be able to
advise local and regional stakeholders
about how individual projects deliver
against their economic objectives as
well as helping them demonstrate how
schemes deliver economic growth and
tax dividends at a national level.
To find out more contact
Lars Rognlien
t +44 (0)20 7910 5000
e lars.rognlien@sdgworld.net
11

special uk spending review
3 reasons why car clubs are taking off
While most of its members are individuals, car clubs offer local authorities great benefits too.
By Matthew Clark
It’s good for the
environment
Evidence from the Carplus
annual survey 2009/2010
shows that, on average,
for every car club car,
11 private vehicles have
been sold. Car club
members tend to make a greater proportion
of trips by more sustainable modes than
average. The reduction in car mileage by
car club members also has a positive effect
on emission levels, with car trips by club
members producing only a quarter of the
emissions of a typical British licence holder.
It makes political sense
Encouraging sustainable travel is an
area of policy which the UK’s new coalition
government is keen to promote. When
considering policy options for increasing
sustainable travel, local authorities
will increasingly need to focus on value
for money. One way to tackle both the
need to conserve financial resources
and promote increased travel by public
transport, walking and cycling, is to
explore partnerships with commercial car
club operators. Which brings us onto…
12
It’s a win-win situation
Car clubs provide a perfect
opportunity for a partnership between
the public sector and the private sector.
Local authorities looking to develop a car
club network can also lead by example,
benefiting from using car club cars for
their own travel, replacing the hassle and
cost of maintaining fleet cars with car club
cars on site. Sophisticated management of
car club bookings makes it straightforward
for different departments to be billed
separately, while the all-inclusive cost of
bookings makes costs transparent and
encourages consideration of the use of
other modes, such as train and bus travel
where possible. Car clubs can potentially
provide a ‘win-win’ situation for local
authorities. A successfully implemented
and promoted car club network can
provide a local authority with both an
incentive for residents to reconsider their
car use patterns and a way to increase the
efficiencies and green credentials of
its car fleet.
So will it work for your area?
As with all types of transport, the success
of a car club within a particular location
will vary. Car clubs are most successful
commercially where population density
is high, public transport is good and local
authorities are supportive. Steer Davies
Gleave recently completed a car club
market study for the London Boroughs of
Camden and Islington, which considered
the maximum potential for car clubs,
bringing together information about car
club members, population demographics,
and travel patterns. This study provided
an evidence base to help with a planned,
managed and informed expansion of car
club provision across the two boroughs.
To find out more contact
Matthew Clark
t +44 (0)20 7910 5000
e matthew.clark@sdgworld.net

Making the cut
Which schemes should be cut and which ones shouldn’t? Steer Davies Gleave offers
local authorities four guiding principles on how to prioritise their transport plans.
By Tom Higbee
Funding cuts will have
significant implications
for local authorities.
Some very difficult
choices will need to be
made. At the same time,
many transport problems
and issues remain
pressing, and authorities,
through their third Local Transport Plan
(LTP3) are looking to establish clear
policy priorities for the coming years.
While the funding picture will become
a little clearer when the outcome of the
Spending Review is published in October,
it could well be the new year before the
Department for Transport can be definitive
about what money will be available.
Waiting until the new year will mean it will
be too late to get a well thought through
plan in place. Authorities should now be
considering their response to prospective
cuts of 20% to 40%. Efficiency savings will
be important, but we know that this level of
spend reduction can’t be met by efficiency
alone. The question is how to identify those
activities and programmes that should be
prioritised and those which should be cut.
One option is to scroll through budget lines
and pluck those that neatly correspond
to the level of cuts required – already
some authorities have culled their
smarter choices programme broadly
on this basis. Another approach is to
‘salami slice’, with a proportionate cut
cascaded down the chain so that each
budget holder must reduce costs by an
equivalent amount. This is arguably fair
(all suffer equally), certainly expedient
(it avoids making difficult decisions), but
ignores the fact that addressing transport
priorities and issues will almost certainly
require a re-focusing of activities.
At Steer Davies Gleave we advocate an
approach to prioritisation that is evidenceled,
transparent, and is capable of
examining and assessing the contribution
of a range of activities against key policy
goals and value for money. We have
developed prioritisation frameworks for
key clients including Metro, Transport
for London, Merseytravel and Yorkshire
Forward to help them understand the
performance of interventions and
the key trade-offs between them.
While there are lessons to be learned
from this experience, the development
of any prioritisation framework should
be bespoke and tailored for purpose for
which it is being used – i.e. what are the
key questions that need to be answered?
There are, however, fundamental
features of each of the prioritisation
frameworks we have developed, based
around a set of guiding principles:
t objective-led. The framework must
develop criteria and measures that
directly relate to key policy priorities,
whether thematic (e.g. economic
efficiency, carbon) or spatial
(regeneration or improving connectivity).
t evidence-based. The assessment of
performance against policy priorities
and value for money should be
underpinned by the
best available evidence.
However, a single model or
analytic tool cannot support
assessments of potential
across disparate interventions
and activities, so there must
be an explicit role for professional
judgment and the need to draw on, and
interpret, evidence from elsewhere.
special uk spending review
t transparency. The assessments
of individual interventions must
be supported by a clear rationale
that is presented to decision
makers. These should be subject
to review and challenge.
t informing decision making. The
purpose of the framework is to provide
decision makers with the best available
evidence base to enable them to
prioritise activities. It should not
provide ‘the answer’ but provide an
understanding of key trade-offs between
alternative expenditure scenarios.
The development of a robust and
transparent approach to prioritisation will
not mean living with cuts will be easy, but
it will ensure that decisions are informed
and that local priorities and challenges are
best met within the funding available.
To find out more contact
Tom Higbee
t +44 (0)20 7910 5000
e tom.higbee@sdgworld.net
13

Drastic times call for smarter measures
Unprecedented public spending cuts could just be the catalyst smarter choices need to take centre stage.
By Jon Foley
For many transport
professionals, the
current pinch on UK
public sector spending is
forcing a rethink on the
future of local transport
planning. This presents
a real opportunity for
smarter choice interventions to come
to the fore as they address two key
issues that are on everyone’s mind:
t innovative, low-cost, high-value
options. As spending on large transport
infrastructure projects comes under
pressure, there’s an opportunity
to consider lower cost solutions
such as investing in smarter choice
interventions that optimise the use of
the existing transport network rather
than changing the network itself. Local
authorities have massive assets at
their disposal – in the form of their
transport networks – and making better
use of these should be a focus during
this period of financial uncertainty.
14
special uk spending review
t ways to spend less. We are all thinking
more seriously about our spending. In
addition to us as individuals rethinking
how we undertake some journeys
to reduce costs, many organisations
are accelerating a change in working
practices in order to cut back their
spending on staff-related travel.
Maximising impacts
The overall cost on travel behaviour
change interventions is typically
much lower than large infrastructure
expenditure. The economics of behaviour
change have also shown that lasting
change to active travel for just tens
of people justifies the expenditure of
hundreds of thousands of pounds.
People have been becoming more aware
of their health and fitness over the
years, and this trend, combined with
today’s financial pressures, could be the
catalyst that will accelerate changes to
travel behaviour. Looking at the signs:
t One of the clear outcomes of the soaring
fuel prices in 2008 was that car-use
dropped. The same has happened
recently. As improved road safety figures
were a result of the fuel protests, the
travel behaviour change agenda can
benefit from the current economic crisis.
t As people reconsider their situations,
they are likely to discover what is
literally on their doorstep. From our
Sustainable Travel Towns experiences,
one Darlington man had said, “I would
cycle but there’s no cycle routes here”.
What he didn’t realise was that there
was actually one less than 50 metres
away from the bottom of his garden.
t While the proportion of households
with access to a car may not change,
purchases of new cars are falling
and it is possible that the car will
be seen as a high-cost option
for a larger number of trips.

Practical choices
While spending cut backs could signal
the fast-tracking of smarter choices
into the mainstream, the challenge for
decision-makers at all levels is to engrain
smarter choices into their plans in a
much more robust and credible way.
Of course, smarter choice interventions
are not always the white knight. Our
experience tells us that they only provide
value for money in certain situations and
we have already helped a number of local
authorities prioritise limited resources
by identifying where the potential
for behaviour change is greatest.
The partners involved in the delivery of
Transport for South Hampshire (TfSH) are
one group of local authorities that have
grasped the smarter choices nettle. TfSH
Project Director, Keith Willcox, says that:
“We are committed to the delivery of a
comprehensive programme of behaviour
change measures, but it is important to
note that these require funding too. That
said, their lower cost and high impact
nature makes them particularly attractive
in these austere times. Successful local
initiatives include workplace travel planning
(with bonds), Bus IT, the Solent Travel
Card, and ROMANSE, which provides
information to travellers to make informed
decisions about their travel. In addition
we are producing ‘reduce’ and ‘manage’
strategies and developing our evidence
base, which will be capable of testing
smarter choice initiatives, including
land-use planning responses, which are
key to imbedding ‘good’ travel habits.”
As we rethink how we travel and the
public sector purse is squeezed, local
decision makers have an opportunity
to challenge conventional thinking
on local transport planning. Will the
response be to deliver smarter choices in
a piecemeal fashion or to enable these
interventions to be an effective part of
achieving local objectives through a
targeted approach? Only time will tell.
To find out more contact
Jon Foley
t +44 (0)20 7910 5000
e jon.foley@sdgworld.net
Free autumn seminar series
Join us as we discuss aspects of the UK’s
new transport planning agenda. More
information can be found at
www.steerdaviesgleave.com/
aboutUs/Autumn_seminar_series
8 september
Integrating transport with other
key outcomes: How to evaluate
effectiveness in terms of
achieving wider policy goals
15 september
Citizen involvement in prioritisation:
Ensuring tough decisions
are made democratically,
equitably and transparently
22 september
Making tough decisions in the
light of cuts to bus subsidy
29 september
Low-cost innovation in transport:
The role of cycling, walking
and community transport
6 october
Prioritising programmes
and phasing schemes
special uk spending review
13 october
Providing an Evidence Base
at Low- or No-cost
15

Our locations
LONDON
t +44 (0)20 7910 5000
e sdginfo@sdgworld.net
LEEDS
t +44 (0)113 389 6400
e leedsinfo@sdgworld.net
EDINBURGH
t +44 (0)131 226 9500
e edinburghinfo@sdgworld.net
GLASGOW
t +44 (0)141 224 0990
e glasgowinfo@sdgworld.net
BOLOGNA
t +39 051 656 9381
e italyinfo@sdgworld.net
About us
ROME
t +39 064 201 6169
e italyinfo@sdgworld.net
MADRID
t +34 91 541 8696
e spaininfo@sdgworld.net
ABU DHABI
t +971 (0)2 643 3097
e uaeinfo@sdgworld.net
BOSTON
t +1 (617) 391 2300
e usainfo@sdgworld.net
VANCOUVER
t +1 (604) 629 2610
e canadainfo@sdgworld.net
MEXICO CITY
t +52 (55) 5615 0041
e mexicoinfo@sdgworld.net
SANTIAGO
t +56 2 757 2600
e chileinfo@sdgworld.net
Printed to ISO 14001 Environmental Management System standards using vegetable oil inks, elemental chlorine free
pulp and fibre from well managed forests. 95% of the waste created during the process was recycled.
BOGOTA
t +57 1 322 1470
e colombiainfo@sdgworld.net
SAN JUAN
t +1 (787) 721 2002
e puertoricoinfo@sdgworld.net
SAO PAULO
t +55 (11) 3151 3630
e brazilinfo@sdgworld.net
Steer Davies Gleave is a leading
independent transport consultancy
providing services to government,
operators, regulators, promoters,
financiers and other interest groups.
Founded over 30 years ago and with
over 350 consultants worldwide,
we have an unparalleled breadth of
specialist expertise available for our
clients. We welcome the opportunity
for an informal discussion on
prospective consulting assignments.
Contact us at sdginfo@sdgworld.net
Not on
the mailing
list?
The Review is read by over 8,000
transport professionals around the
world. If you would like to receive
a free subscription, go to
www.steerdaviesgleave.com/subscribe
www.steerdaviesgleave.com