Delivering integrated transport: the role of communications

One of the biggest barriers to introducing sustainable local transport initiatives—be it bus lanes, cycle paths, speed humps or congestion charges—is failure to communicate the benefits of such schemes to the communities they will serve.This paper reports on research that was undertaken in response to increasing evidence that negative media coverage, poor relations with the media, poor communication practices and public resistance to projects were acting as barriers to the delivery of transport programmes for a number of UK local authorities.The work culminated in the production of a ‘toolkit’ for local authorities to help them communicate more effectively, both with the media and directly with the public.