28 Strategy not street fights

Nothing is more emblematic of York’s lack of strategy than its approach to consultation over transport issues. Over many years, both national and local polls and surveys have consistently shown that an overwhelming majority of the public would support large-scale measures that would increase cycling everywhere, so why is this desire not made real? In York, part of the problem is that no one asks us these big strategic questions – of how transport in this city relates to our quality of life. Instead, policymakers just consult on lots of little projects as they come along: a traffic light here, a junction there. Since every scheme seems to throw up local partisans squabbling over minute technical details, we have a recipe for inaction. Transport policy in York, which should be viewed in the round, gets reduced to a series of street fights in which any progress towards improving our collective future is derailed by ultra-localised nimbyism. This death by a thousand consultations has led to gridlock in York’s transport policy. It’s time to redress the balance. We call for consultation by politicians on the entire transport network and how this relates to the larger collective issues that we all face in this city. Let’s all agree on the big questions and leave the localised technical details to the transport professionals.