This was a joint project involving the local councils in Wilsden, Harden, Cullingworth and Denholme to look at sustainable travel, traffic and road safety issues.
It is recognised that transport is now the single biggest source of carbon emissions nationally, and emissions are failing to fall. The objective is to encourage and enable more people to use climate-safe, community-friendly modes of travel, and reduce traffic and pollution, across the four villages.
The Green Travel Project drew on expert help from Sustrans and Mapping for Change, to explore local views and opportunities for improvements. The project is supported by a grant from Shipley Area Committee.
The project involved a series of ‘roadshows’ in 2021 where local volunteers, and officers from Sustrans, engaged with residents and visitors in conversation about sustainable transport, exploring what might help more people to use walking, cycling and public transport, and leave the car for at least some journeys. A copy of the report can be downloaded here.
This was followed up with online mapping workshops from Mapping for Change to map out in more detail local barriers and concerns, and develop ideas for a greener, less polluted way forward. The online copy the map is available here https://bingleyrural.communitymaps.org.uk/project/access-the-bingley-rural-green-travel-map?center=53.8331:-1.8524:13 for further development. A copy of the map was delivered to every household in the four villages and distributed at various points. A copy can be downloaded here.
The project concluded that people recognise the need for change and are ready and willing to make many of these changes. There are high levels of car dependency with 64% of local people using a car most days and 46% of locals never use public transport. There are very high levels of car use among visitors and relatively poor awareness and also mixed opinions of public transport. There are particular issues with integration both between different bus routes and also between bus and rail. A further result identified were high levels of concern about road safety issues impeding walking & cycling. The final report can be downloaded here.
There were a number of positive outcomes from the study including –
- Heightened local awareness of green travel.
- Evidenced appetite for change.
- Lines of communication open with bus companies.
The results of the project have been fed into both Bradford Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and will inform future projects.
An additional positive outcome was joint working between the four local councils and it is hoped that this approach can be a model for further joint projects.
