The Woman who stops traffic

I think I have got a bit "blogged down" recently with the conference. It was a lovely idea to post something on each session, but it meant I didn't want to write anything else until I had got that out of the way.

I will write about my workshop session once I have prepared some of the materials I want to link to from the post.

In the meantime I wanted to talk about "the woman who stops traffic" a Channel 4 programme last night (1 of 3) which has been billed in some places as "Jamie's School Dinners" for sustainable transport.

Disclosure: Just so you know, one of my colleagues is involved in next weeks episode (in Boston, Lincs) looking at encouraging walking. It will also feature Strider (the primary campaign mascot). I wasn't involved in the programme at all (I was on jury service), so hopefully I can be objective!

I really enjoyed this programme. It showed the problem without being (too) sensationalist. The problem in Marlow (as in many towns) is that a quarter of all journeys made were under 2 miles. This number of cars put huge pressure on the town centre, the high street and the historic suspension bridge over the Thames.

I loved the quote from the traffic engineer near the beginning: (everyone thinks) "Traffic is other people". It reminded me of Satre: "Hell is other people"!

All the "great and the good" of the town were hugely sceptical of Kris - one man actually walked out of a a meeting because he thought the meeting was going to be about "transportation" rather than "reducing car use" (go figure!). They were preparing to invest millions of pounds into new roads and car parks, yet couldn't find £3000 to run a "go car free for one day a week" campaign (starting with a single day of action).

The most shocking section for me was when Kris visited a school for the first time. I have never been a school travel planner, so the first parent meeting (200 kids at the school, Kris puts out 40 chairs "the rest of the parents can stand", only 12 turn up!) was a huge insight into quite what a difficult job being a school travel planner is. The attitude of the parents was exactly what I expected ("What if it rains","I would if everyone else did", "it's too dangerous", "we need a proper crossing"), but I was shocked how strongly they believed their positions - they were not open to change at all.

There then followed a classic media "against all odds" story, with Kris trying to whip up support and being rebuffed at every turn. It was very well told, and you truly didn't know what would happen at the end of it.

Although I would have liked to see the story of the school mums a bit more -the most vociferous critic became the most ardent supporter by the end, and her epiphany was glossed over - I really felt firedup at the end of their "change gear" day. There were fantastic "before and after" shots of empty streets, only 6 kids went to school by car and the traffic in the town had halved on their "change gear" day.

What I would love to know - and if you know please comment - is whether the "don't drive one day a week" message got through, and traffic in Marlow has stayed lower.

The programme was originally concieved as a one off, but the strength of the first programme led to two more being created, and a supporting website too.

For me, the crucial difference between this and Jamie's school dinners is that Jamie needed Government (local and central) action. While there does need to be far more money put into promoting sustainable transport, and also improved infrastructure, there also needs to be action by ordinary people like you and me choosing to use our cars less. Despite sceptics comments, these campaigns are not "anti-car", they are just proposing "responsible car use" - thinking before you make a journey.

The show is available for the next 30 days through 4OD - go watch it! (www.channel4.com/4od/index.html).