Postscript - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 435

As we noted earlier (1.5) the distinctive feature of the last 30 years is that growth
in car ownership has mostly taken the form of additional households with two or more
cars. In other words we have moved from a situation in which the car was a household
commodity to one in which it is increasingly the province of individual adults. It has
also been an era characterised by counter-urbanisation and more suburban lifestyles so
that for most people acquisition of a car has not been constrained by the availability of
a parking space at either home or workplace. Car running costs have been relatively
low so that little disadvantage has been incurred by households owning larger cars
which are used to capacity on only rare occasions, or indeed from having a second car
which is only used on odd days.
This situation is changing and will change a great deal further in the coming
decades in the main urban areas where the bulk of additional population will live. The
cumulative effect of development densification and restrictive parking provision will
place a premium on available space at both home and workplace to be allocated through
some combination of rationing or pricing. The areas over which comprehensive on-
street parking control will apply will extend ever outwards from urban centres. Both
national taxation and local charging can be expected to apply a greater differential
according to vehicle size (strictly vehicle emissions) whilst the average cost of new cars
within a particular class will rise in order to fulfil more stringent emissions standards.
Higher car purchasing and/or running costs, coupled with more widespread traffic
congestion and improved opportunities for travel by non-car modes on segregated or
prioritised routes will result in motorists reviewing their options for individual journeys
and whether to renew their vehicle ownership - and, if so, in what form.
Because car use is so strongly linked with levels of car ownership (2.9) it should be
a central feature of public policy in urban areas to create the conditions in which it
is attractive for their residents to reduce average car ownership levels over time. This
can be done through three types of inter-linked measure (additional to 'conventional'
demand management strategies):

1 through policies adopted in new residential developments

2 through improving and promoting opportunities for non-car travel for work and

school journeys (i.e. those which are made daily)

3 through extending the spread and scope of personalised travel planning.

1) Policies in new residential developments

The more people's home circumstances are car-oriented the less likely they will choose
modes other than a car for any particular journey. Attempts by public authorities to
achieve modal shift on individual types of journey are therefore faced with an ever-
bigger handicap to overcome. It is a travesty therefore that present national planning
policy in England makes no reference to the desirability of designing and managing
new housing developments in ways which will encourage reduced car ownership and
use (PPS3 para 51). There is no requirement to prepare and maintain a residential
travel plan for larger developments and no reference even to the Good Practice
Guidelines on this subject which have been published by the Department of Transport
(DfT 2005f). It should be axiomatic that all such developments have their own car
clubs, car-hire and lift-share schemes or provide residents with links into schemes
operating locally. In favourable situations the option of 'car-free' development should
be examined (Morris 2005).