In summary, we advocate:

Managing travel demand by

• reducing the need to travel, ensuring that new development is focussed to provide employment and services close to where people live

• supporting rural services, maintaining local employment and reducing the need to travel for rural communities.

Improving public transport by

• providing high quality public transport services, including at least a basic network of bus services in rural areas and improved rail timetables

• minimising the effects of local authority cuts in funding on the frequency, quality andresponsiveness of rural public bus services

• supporting innovative approaches to bus services to contain costs

• supporting campaigns to increase public transport use

• considering provision of additional rail stations close to areas of high population

Considering Park and Ride

• considering provision of further Park and Ride schemes where it can be shown that they would be effective in reducing congestion, are designed in a way that minimises abstraction from existing public transport services, and would not have an unacceptable visual impact on the landscape

Addressing Road Safety

• improving opportunities for people to walk and cycle in rural areas in safety

• improving safety for residents and all road users by reducing speeding traffic, including introducing lower speed limits where necessary, sensitively designed traffic calming and more use of weight restrictions on minor roads

• ensuring higher standards of road maintenance

Recognising recreational uses

• recognising that country lanes are a recreational resource in their own right and considering designation of Quiet Lanes where recreational use is extensive

• encouraging provision of new rights of way or permissive routes to divert recreational use off public roads where such use is extensive

Minimising Environmental Impacts

• ensuring measures to manage traffic in rural areas are sensitive in their design

• encouraginng use of quieter road surfaces

• ensuing the environmental impact of moving freight is minimised by redirecting lorries on to the “County Advisory Freight Routes” and encouraging greater use of rail transport where feasible

• avoiding new roads and major improvements to existing roads in rural areas, focussing instead on better traffic management and sensitive minor improvements to reduce congestion

• limiting further development at Gloucestershire Airport that would lead to noise and pollution locally

• considering the use of the canal for transport for goods which are not time sensitive

We will work with other transport organisations such as the Campaign for Better Transport and Friends of the Earth, to influence Government transport policy.

Read our Policy Statement

Read the CPRE SW response to the Department for Transport consultation on the Great Western franchise, June 2014