City of Stoke-on-Trent Local Transport Plan 3 Focus Groups

AECOM <strong>City</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent Local Transport Plan 3 21Capabilities on project:TransportationCurrent strategies designed to encourage sustainable travelwere deemed to be unsuccessful.“I work in a school and we have walk to school weekand the amount <strong>of</strong> stuff that they produce for thechildren to walk to school. I think if you can walk toschool you will, regardless <strong>of</strong> whether you’ve got car ornot and I just think they waste so much money, thesethings just get put in the bin, they have stickers, leaflets,you name it, for one whole week walking to school to tryand encourage and it doesn’t encourage them.”“Promoting something which doesn’t happen.”3.3.4 ParentsParents felt that the goals addressed the issues they hadraised. However, it was felt that people who travel by thevarious different modes within <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent should beconsulted in order that the goals are implemented effectively.Further, the group thought that not enough priority was given tonon-car users when planning new developments.“It addresses the issue fine, it isn’t what they, well,actually saying this is our goal, it’s the way they goabout it. They’ve got to go about it sensibly and whenthey start to talk about we’ll make better routes forcyclists, is there going to be a committee <strong>of</strong> people whodon’t use them, who are going to arrange where thecycle routes will be or are they going to actually involvesomebody who’s a biker.”“Where they are regenerating the areas, they’ve notactually put in buses to service them and the buses thatthey are using to service them are like this lady’s here,that are charging her £3.80 to go via Birmingham, youknow, to get to Newcastle [-under-Lyme].”“Again you see that’s the sort <strong>of</strong> thing that’s probablyorganised by somebody who drives all the time, wherethis is where we have the bus routes, not somebodywho uses the bus, but surely they could monitor bus …,people who are at the bus stops during the day incertain areas, I mean they can get it right.”“When I was a kid all bus routes were done first,sorted.”“Absolutely, it is just the biggest waste <strong>of</strong> money andthat must cost a fair packet and I think they do that twicea year and it’s a total waste. Parents park like a little bitaway from the school just to walk, just so the childrencan get a sticker, so it doesn’t work. We waste a lot <strong>of</strong>money in <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent] on stupid things like that.”3.3.5 Bus UsersBus users felt that the issues they had raised were addressedby the LTP3 goals. Participants felt that the health goal wasespecially important for addressing their issue throughimproving access to transport and transport safety. Bus usersthought that bus travel was too expensive and should bereduced in order to encourage more people to consider it. Thegroup thought that encouraging more people to use buseswould benefit both the environment and the economy.“And I think if people are using the bus for work, they’rekeeping the traffic down, so they should give them adiscount, you know, because they are doing whatpeople are telling, you know, they’re all saying to you,don’t use your car, use the bus and everything, you useit and it’s so expensive.”“You see it would be good for like businesses, so likethe council, if you worked for the council and you’reusing the bus, if they give discounts to students, so whydoesn’t the company as a whole give you a discount forusing the bus.”It was suggested that employers could provide discounts forbus travel.“Like have something with First and it says oh, if you’reusing the bus, like they do for like Alton Towers, they docheaper tickets and that and that’s like a benefit, that’s