Giving people more transport choices is an economy boost and levelling up opportunity

Last week Labour announced its plans for the new Great British Railways, including a commitment “to set targets for modal shift to lower emissions from the transport sector”. This echoes commitments already made by Wales and Scotland, both have set their modal shift targets for 2030, unlike England.

But what exactly is ‘modal shift’? This rather jargony term basically means improving systems to make it easier for more people to travel on diverse modes of transport, such as buses, trains, trams or bikes, instead of always having to resort to private cars.

Many more people will see the benefitLabour’s commitment is brave in the light of the current political gamesmanship taking place around the ‘war on motorists’, but it’s the right one for local communities, lower income groups, the economy and the environment. Labour’s target will focus attention on introducing more and better alternatives to car use, which is good news for us all.

As we discuss in our 2021 report Not going the extra mile, the benefits of modal shift extend far beyond reducing carbon emissions. Air pollution and traffic congestion are two major problems that better public transport helps to solve. Researchers from UCL estimate that over 48.5k adults are dying prematurely each year in the UK due to particulate matter pollution, of which private transport is a major source. And congestion is estimated to lose the economy £8 billion a year. Road building is an expensive and inefficient way to tackle it as more roads often encourage more driving rather than clearer roads.

Good transport options connect communities and get people to work. Supporting a range of alternatives makes the transport system more equitable which is particularly important for those who do not have access to private vehicles or live in areas with limited transport options. Forty per cent of the lowest income households do not have a vehicle and rural areas need more reliable transport to help reduce isolation and poverty.

A mix of approaches will work best Our Net zero policy tracker shows that, even with the current rise in electric vehicles, the transport sector still has a long way to go before its emissions fall to the level needed to address climate change. In other words, we need to electrify vehicles faster or make public transport options the first choice for many more journeys across the country. The best strategy will be to do both.

Public transport, car clubs, walking, cycling or wheeling should be made more logical and appealing for everyone. Making that happen will take collaboration between government, local authorities and transport operators. And it should start with ambitious targets.

Of course, it’s one thing to set a target and quite another to deliver it. If Labour wins the next election, it will need to be prepared to invest in higher quality more reliable, affordable public transport. For buses, we recommend keeping fares capped which has proved so successful in getting more people to use them. And making this policy even more affordable. This is a comparatively affordable policy but longer term funding for it could be freed up by cutting some unnecessary new road projects.

We explored other policy levers that could encourage modal shift, for instance to improve integration between transport modes and infrastructure, in our greener travel report . We think this is such a productive area of change that will signal new and much needed attention to local communities’ needs, so we will be doing more on this over the summer.