Sustrans puts the pressure on politicians to push for travel behaviour change

‘Sustainable transport’ charity Sustrans is evolving beyond its original remit of encouraging more walking, cycling and public transport journeys ‘on the ground’ by starting to devote more of its efforts to lobbying politicians at all levels to introduce appropriate transport policies. Rik Thomas asked the charity to explain the thinking behind this move

Rik Thomas

05 March 2010

Sustrans six-strong policy team, click to view full image: (left to right) Peter Lipman (policy director), Luke Burton (contact database officer), Rachel Bromley (policy communications co-ordinator), Philip Insall (director, health and international), Alan Williams (policy advisor) and Jason Torrance (policy manager)

Sustrans is best known as an organisation that works to enable people to make more journeys on foot, by bike or on public transport in very practical ways, most notably by developing the National Cycle Network but also by directly providing the public with the information they need to change their travel behaviour.

Recently, however, the charity has been ‘beefing up’ its policy division, which now consists of six full-time staff, and this week it launched what it terms “a call...