Transport & our Quality of Life

Our quality of life depends to a great extent on transport, for example how easily people can travel. We need to find ways of encouraging more people to use public transport or the region’s main centres may become gridlocked by traffic. Transport also has a major effect on our health through road casualties and the effect of breathing polluted air. It can also affect the amount of exercise we get and our stress levels.

“Good transport links are key to successful business and development, attracting investment and creating employment, supporting social inclusion and encouraging tourism, which makes LTP2 key to the ongoing economic growth of the region,” said Councillor Stanley King, Chair of the West Yorkshire LTP Steering Group.

The final LTP2 was submitted to Government in March 2006.

Initial Consultation

Over 4,000 people responded to our on-line and mail-out questionnaire in the consultation before the production of the provisional LTP2.  We also asked representatives from health, education, the business sector, interest and community groups. You told us that traffic congestion was the biggest problem, followed by congestion, long travel times and the state of the roads/cycles lanes and pavements.

Your top 3 priorities for LTP2 were;

• Measures to reduce traffic congestion
• Improve bus services    
• Better value for money and more flexible public transport tickets

This information has been used to help produce LTP2. 

The most popular solutions to reduce traffic congestion were for more freight to be carried on rail and water, special lanes for cars with more than one person and ‘park and ride’ provision. 

You expressed your opinion on measures to improve transport.  We have taken your views into account in considering how best to develop further our transport system. 

 LTP2 strategy

We have set out our strategy for LTP2 below.   

Tackling congestion

• Encourage more people to use the bus rather than the car by improving reliability, punctuality and reducing journey times;
• Provide extra space on peak time rail services; and
• Consider other measures, for example more ‘park and ride’.    

Delivering accessibility (ease of getting around)

• Make bus services easier to use by simplifying networks and fares;
• Maintain and improve the condition of the road network for use by cars and for the delivery of goods; and 
• Improve pedestrian and cycle facilties.

Safer roads

• Measures to continue the reduction in the numbers of people killed and seriously injured on West Yorkshire’s roads. 

 Better air quality/environment

• Develop transport schemes that help to reduce vehicle emissions, for example, in Air Quality Management Areas.
• Link Air Quality Action Plans to measures in the West Yorkshire LTP.

The full LTP2 is available by clicking on the link at the top left hand side of this page. There is also a summary of LTP2 available by clicking on the link to the draft of the main LTP2 document. 

West Yorkshire’s first 5-Year Local Transport Plan secured £3/4bn for local, integrated transport improvements in the region including the My Bus yellow bus school transport scheme and the Leeds Station Interchange. Local Transport Plans are also the source of funding for district councils’ statutory highway duties such as roads maintenance. The LTP1 Final Delivery Report was submitted at the end of July 2006. This reports the progress towards the targets set in the first LTP.