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Colin Hall explains how the climate has never been better for town halls to encourage their residents to switch to greener transport The credit crunch is giving council leaders plenty to ponder. Rising food and fuel prices and the turmoil in the housing market mean our residents have less money in their pockets. This is certain to have a knock-on effect on town hall budgets, and we all need to plan accordingly. However, as always, where there are threats, opportunities appear. Economic conditions have never been more favourable for promoting greener travel and encouraging residents to reduce their reliance on the car. The last decade has seen a growing public awareness of how behaviour and, in particular, the way we travel, can damage the environment. Similarly, hard-hitting health campaigns are gaining ground, as more people are aware of the need to adopt active lifestyles. Add the recent financial pressures, and the moons are now aligning for local and central government to drive home the message that changing the way you travel has huge health and environmental benefits, and will lighten the load on your wallet. Changing people's behaviour is never easy but as councils are closer to residents and understand their concerns better than any other strand of government, we must take the lead. In 2006, Sutton LBC teamed up with Transport for London to launch Smarter Travel Sutton, a three-year, £5m pilot project to encourage people to use their cars less and switch to greener modes of transport. The aim was to cut congestion on our roads, provide a cleaner environment, and promote healthy lifestyles. It is the largest travel behaviour change programme in the UK, and the results so far have been hugely encouraging. After one year, residents' car trips fell by 2%, and we are well on track to hit our target of a five to 10% reduction over three years. At the outset we needed to find out how people travel and why, and what barriers exist to walking and cycling, for instance. Preaching rarely changes people's behaviour, and often has the opposite effect. Nor is it about being anti-car. Instead, we needed to understand and then empower our residents to choose how they travel. Advisers visited every home in the borough to guide residents on alternatives to the car, providing tailored information, depending on individual circumstances and interests. Some people respond to the environmental pluses of switching from cars to bikes. Others are more receptive when one talks about the financial savings. People travel for so many reasons – commuting, going to school, shopping, for entertainment. By working with partners, we have made inroads into reducing the number of those trips made by car. Every school in the borough has a travel plan, and more parents than ever are walking and cycling with their children to school. We are working with businesses to show that greener travel makes economic sense, with cash savings on parking spaces and company cars, while the social responsibility element aids recruitment and retention. In tandem with the local PCT, Smarter Travel Sutton recently launched the Active steps programme, under which GPs refer patients to a travel adviser to help build exercise into their travel habits. Further work is taking place with football clubs, children's mini-leagues, car club providers and the police. The final strand has been investment in infrastructure, events and promotion. More than £100,000 worth of additional cycle racks is in place across the borough. Family festivals such as Move it at the Manor promote sustainable travel and attract up to 10,000 visitors. And now we are looking to the future, changing the way we apply for funding to TfL to amalgamate money for local engineering schemes which will enable us to transform the face of our district centres to make walking, cycling and public transport a viable choice for most journeys. Through investment from central and regional government, working in partnership with the entire community and tailoring behaviour change campaigns to the needs and aspirations of our residents, we are seeing a revolution in the way people travel in Sutton. By showing residents they can be fitter and healthier, save money and enjoy a cleaner local environment, other councils can do the same. Cllr Colin Hall is deputy leader of Sutton LBC, and executive member for environment

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Driving people to greener travel

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