Travel and air pollution

Bristol has one of the highest rates of car ownership of the largest cities in the country. Every weekday, half a million vehicles cross into and out of the city centre. The average speed in the centre has fallen to just 11 mph at peak times and the number of road casualties is showing signs of increasing.

Air quality fails to meet national standards throughout much of central Bristol and surrounding areas. It is clear that Bristol has some important transport challenges.

Increasing numbers of cars on our roads have led to:

• increased travel demand patterns and higher levels of congestion
• air pollution and
• road casualties

This discourages people from using public transport or walking and cycling.

To lower congestion, improve air quality and make our roads we aim to promote sustainable travel patterns and increase people's sustainable transport choices.

How can you help?

Small changes in how people use their cars can make a big difference.

• If every car travels five miles less per week it saves 100 million miles of traffic a year (the equivalent of 100 park and ride sites).
• If we all made just one trip in 10 by car less there would be 10% less traffic - roughly the level of traffic in the school holidays.
• It is recommended that adults should take regular exercise of 20 minutes twice a day, at least five days a week - walking or cycling to work does this for you, saving time and money.

How to travel without a car?

This section has links to all the relevant pages to help you reduce your reliance on your car:

• TravelBristol - the TravelBristol website can help you plan your journey by public transport.
• Walking - details of leaflets and walking groups all aimed to get you to choose walking for those shorter journeys.
• Cycling - details of routes, events and groups encouraging people to cycle to places rather than drive.
• Car Clubs - join a car club and reduce the cost and hassle of owning a car and enjoy the benefits of using a car for that occasional and longer journey.
• Disabled Travellers - details of community transport such as dial-a-ride and easyrider.
• Buses - details of timetables, park & ride, night buses and concessions.

To find out more visit the Air quality home page.