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Going Green Around the Fringes
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Everyone knows going green is important, but how can people be encouraged to change the way they travel? Staff from SPT decided to visit the Scottish political party conferences to seek out some answers.
The transport partnership held a number of lively lunchtime debates at all the recent conferences, with leading politicians, party members and transport experts all taking part.
At the Liberal Democrat conference in Aviemore, Shadow Finance Minister Tavish Scott took the chance to congratulate SPT on its various environmental initiatives. He also said he hoped the body would continue to be at the forefront of developing green transport policies in West Central Scotland.
The MSP said: "I have always admired the solidity of the work that SPT does, the rational analysis that they bring to transport issues and the enormous transport challenges they have got in West Central Scotland. But also the common sense approach to solving problems."
The audience also heard how SPT is implementing more Park and Ride schemes, and is campaigning hard to encourage people to leave their cars at home - when their journey can be made in other ways.
This point was picked up on by Patrick Harvie MSP, convener of the Scottish Parliament's Transport committee at the Green Party conference.
He said: "I welcome initiatives to increase the uptake of walking and cycling in Glasgow. The main thing is to ensure that quality facilities are in place so that people can see the benefits of getting out of their cars and choosing a different form of transport."
He continued, "While transport infrastructure projects are important, we need to continue to address general service issues such as improving the quality of bus services, addressing air pollution and investigating new integrated ticketing technologies."
The debates also looked at how to reduce harmful traffic fumes in city and town centres, how to better manage congestion on the roads, and what could be done to improve transport ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Rob Gibson, Nationalist MSP for the Highlands and Islands, echoed the view that quality public transport is what is needed to encourage motorists to switch to bus or rail. He spoke to SPT Express at the SNP conference in Aviemore.
He said: "In order to encourage economic growth across the country, we need to improve accessibility by public transport. I think that the speed of rail travel, particularly in the north of the country, needs to be looked at. We should perhaps look at investing more in small transport improvements which can have a big impact on our more rural communities."
Others who contributed to the debates included Glasgow SNP councillor James Dornan, who suggested restrictions on cars are needed in Glasgow city centre in order to get people on to public transport.
North Lanarkshire councillor for Wishaw, Clare Adamson, added that it was important to combat anti-social behaviour on buses, especially in the evenings and at night.
SPT staff members were on hand at all of these conferences to tell people more about projects like Park & Ride, the Subway, Crossrail Glasgow, Partick Interchange and Clyde Fastlink.