York's 'behaviour change' team aims to persuade new arrivals to ditch their cars

The centre of York earlier this month. City leaders are trying to tackle a growing congestion problem. Pic: James Hardisty

City of York Council’s six-person iTravel team, funded by the Department for Transport, aims to tackle congestion by “promoting behaviour change towards sustainable travel options”.

And a report setting out its plans for the coming year says changes to the historic Yorkshire city “mean a greater potential to change travel through the iTravel programme”.

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These include improvements to the outer ring road, which combined with the existing park and ride services will reduce traffic passing through the centre of York and free up space for more environmentally-friendly forms of transport.

The report said improvements to the cycle network are planned and that the new Scarborough Bridge, which opened last year, “has opened up new cycle route possibilities”.

Its author, Duncan McIntyre, the council’s iTravel Programme Manager, said there would be fewer parking spaces in the city centre as a 340-place car park at Castle Gateway was being replaced by a “new public urban realm”.

He added: “York Hospital is experiencing increased local congestion. That and the new hospital Park & Ride will give us the extra employer and bus operator support needed to promote sustainable travel effectively to employees and visitors at the hospital, which is a significant trip generator.”

Mr McIntyre wrote in his report that planning applications to build newresidential estates “have been a dominant theme in the last few years with some now entering the build phase”.

And he wrote: “We want to provide our services to new residents at the life change event of moving house and take advantage of cycle/bus vouchers that many developers are required to provide. This will complement work being undertaken/funded by developers.”

New housing developments in York include Germany Beck, a 650-home site two miles south of York city centre in Fulford.

Decision-makers in York have been trying to the growing problem of traffic congestion for years, as the city’s medieval road network was not designed for 21st century traffic flows.

The iTravel team is funded by a three-year Access Fund grant from the Department for Transport which ends this month, but the council has applied to extend the programme for another year with afurther £438,000 grant.

But the report says there is currently no allocatedfunding for 21/22 onwards or funds made available by DfT to bid to. It says: “This is not unexpected but makes longer term planning more difficult.”