After two episodes arguing about how Britain became so dependent on the car, Peter Hitchens and Rory Sutherland turn to the more difficult question in the final part of this week’s special Highways Voices series: what should the country actually do next?
Mr Hitchens makes clear that he is not proposing a sudden programme to remove cars from everyday life, arguing instead that Britain first needs to recognise what he regards as a profound historic mistake in allowing the motor car to dominate the transport system. He says changing that position could take generations, but that long-term planning cannot begin until the underlying problem is acknowledged.
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Mr Sutherland takes a more experimental approach. Drawing on arguments around the late transport analyst David Metz's work, he questions whether major transport schemes are assessed using the right measures at all. Rather than concentrating so heavily on speed and theoretical journey-time savings, he suggests policymakers should pay much more attention to the quality, convenience and frequency of the journeys people actually make.
That leads to discussion of Heathrow's driverless pods, why travellers often seem more attracted to trams than buses, and the way permanent transport infrastructure can influence development. The pair also return to the Oxford-Cambridge railway, with Mr Hitchens using its troubled reopening as an example of what he sees as Britain's inability to deliver a coherent transport policy.
The conversation also turns to smaller-scale interventions. Mr Sutherland calls for widespread experimentation with intermodality, micromobility, better station access and easier links between cars, bicycles and trains, arguing that policymakers should watch how people respond before committing billions of pounds to another major scheme. He says improving relatively short journeys made frequently may deliver far greater value than shaving a few minutes from occasional long-distance trips.
Listen to the concluding episode to hear whether the two men can find a workable area of common ground, why connectivity may matter more than speed, and whether Britain's next transport revolution should begin not with another grand project, but with a series of much smaller ideas.
Highways Voices is brought to you with our podcast partners the Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG, ITS UK and ADEPT.
