Transcripts
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CD1 Track 33 Part 3
Between 1997 and 2010, the Labour government in power at the time adopted an integrated transport policy. What we mean by integrated, is that different aspects of the transport system – so road, rail, air travel – are planned in relation to one another. One of the main issues addressed by that government was how to encourage car drivers to drive less, and to use public transport more. The first point is that just making improvements to the public transport system is not enough to get drivers to use buses or trains. We can provide more buses and trains so that these are less crowded, and we can make them cleaner, safer environments to travel in, and all this will need investment of course, but, even if we do all this, drivers will still prefer to use their cars.
CD1 Track 34 Part 4
So the Labour government tried a number of measures aimed at encouraging drivers to use public transport more. The government tried to encourage car-sharing, so, in some experimental projects on crowded roads, lanes have been designated for use by cars with more than one occupant; CCTV cameras are used to police the trials. The thinking is that if people believe that they can get to work more quickly by driving in this faster lane, then they are more likely to share cars.
In London, congestion charging has had some success; cars are charged to enter a central zone and again, CCTV cameras linked to a computer system are used to ensure compliance. This reduces the number of cars in the centre of London, and the income from congestion charging is then invested in London’s public transport system. This is an example of what is meant by an integrated policy.
CD1 Track 35 Part 5
The problem with many of these schemes is that they put pressure on motorists, on drivers. Drivers have already felt under pressure because of the dramatic increases in fuel prices. When the coalition government came to power in 2010, it promised to ‘end the war on the motorist’. It was less interested in the schemes to encourage people to drive less, so, for example, the congestion charge zone has been
reduced in size. The coalition is more interested in projects to develop the rail network, including a high-speed rail line connecting the north and south of England, and in responding to the growth in air travel either by building a new airport or developing an existing one.
So this shows some of the difficulties involved in encouraging people to drive less and use public transport more, but to sum up the point I made earlier, a whole range of measures attacking the problem from different angles is more likely to be successful than one ‘big idea’.
CD1 Track 36 Ex 3.2
In Part 1 of the extract, the lecturer is discussing the reasons for rapid economic growth in East Asia in the 1990s. Listen and continue the following notes.
The East Asian economic miracle Part 1
And a lot of time was spent in the 1990s trying to interpret the so-called ‘East Asian miracle’. There are big disputes about the extent to which the East Asian miracle shows that market liberalism works, particularly when you realize that one of these countries is China, with a highly controlled economy indeed. The Japanese have never run a purely free-market economy. Neither have the Koreans. On the other hand, Singapore, Hong Kong, were swashbuckling free-market capitalism. So there were debates about the extent to which state intervention in the free market pushed forward the East Asian miracle.
CD1 Track 37 Ex 3.3
In Part 2 of the extract, the lecturer goes on to discuss another factor. Listen to Part 2 and continue the notes.
Part 2
But nobody disagreed about one element of the East Asian miracle, and that was investment in people. Country after country in East Asia, it was argued, had undertaken reasonably equitable investments in health care, education and training of people in those countries. And it was argued that this was a major stimulus to industrialization in this area, that you could always hire a lot of people at low labour rates, but who were in reasonably good health, who were literate and who had reasonable skills.
Listening
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