Travel survey in Eastham

The Merseyside Transport Partnership is currently consulting with the public on it's preferred strategy for transport for the next 14years (and short term targets for 2015). The straplines that they have come up with include 'creating a new mobility culture' for a 'thriving international city'. I would argue that we shouldn't be emphasising 'mobility' as it has nuances of driving freedom, but rather 'accessibility'. Having goods and services at convenient locations within our community is a better approach than improving 'mobility' for people to get to large shopping and entertainment centres (which generally favour out of town supermarkets and commerce parks).

Transition Town West Kirby have started their own mini-survey to find out whether people would prefer investment in car infrastructure or investment in walking and cycling. We repeated the idea at 3 Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough events and had 50 responses. People attached a sticker to a chart indicating whether they would like to see more investment in car infrastructure or cycling and walking. The colours correspond to age categories (data not shown here). It is evident that a majority of people would like more investment in infrastructure for cycling and walking. But there are many balanced opinions - wanting 60% investment in cycling, or 80%, unlike my own view of 100% !