Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
within local authorities should be encouraged, although currently there is little
evidence from our interviews to suggest that this occurs on a regular basis.
Freight transport is recognised in urban areas at the local authority as something
highlighted when complained about. Complaints come from both transport oper-
ators and from other stakeholders with regards to noise, safety and access mainly.
For transport operators, a common complaint is the availability and access to
loading/unloading space. Although UK interviewees from both the freight industry
and LA's agreed that freight has a very important role to play in supporting the
urban economy, most believe that freight is generally taken for granted by the
general public, and is therefore not at the top of the political voting agenda. It was
even observed that the politicians ''like to think it's important but I'm not sure that
a lot of politicians give it the attention it deserves''. There was consensus amongst
those interviewed that the general public have very little knowledge of the freight
movements going on around them, and as a result they mostly notice the negative
aspects of freight transport. One industry respondent commented that freight is
''most probably misunderstood more than anything. I think when any individual
goes to their corner store they're happy to pick up their loaf of bread but they're
pretty [annoyed] that they can't park their vehicle… because the truck is in the
way… people certainly want the convenience but they don't want the inconve-
nience of vehicles being in the inner cities or built up areas at the times when they
are trying to go about their daily business.''
For many of the authorities interviewed, freight plays a key role in the regions'
manufacturing, quarrying, timber and agricultural industries where it provides a
continual source of employment. Even in the areas where the economy is service
sector dominated with a healthy tourism industry, the local authority recognises
that for ''the tourists that come here to buy the ice creams, the ice cream has got to
get here… it probably came on a lorry''.
It is also noteworthy that general knowledge of freight transport operations is
relatively unknown, since there are seldom any reliable statistics available. In
some of the localities it is possible to identify heavy vehicle movements from the
regular traffic counts performed (however, those are not performed in all locali-
ties), although no statistics were formally published to identify freight transport
volumes or intensity. Whilst very specific and detailed information exists about all
public transport movements in some cities, freight transport by comparison
appears to have been pushed further down the local authorities' agenda.
6 Managing Urban Freight
The most common way of managing freight transport in urban areas is by regu-
lation and restrictions. For the localities interviewed, weight and time restrictions
of some kind or infrastructure restrictions such as pedestrian only streets and one-
way road systems are amongst the most frequently used. One of the main
downsides described by operators of the weight limit restrictions imposed is that
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