Courage! Active Travel! Vision! And… The Ramblings of An “Eco-Nazi”?
Or, the importance of embedding walking and cycling in the design of our new towns
“What’s missing in the rest of the world is courage. Mayors could say: ‘This is my opportunity [to leave a] legacy,’ but most will not dare.” – Audrey de Nazelle
Before we get into the newsletter, a confession: I have managed to triple-book myself and in a vain attempt to protect my sanity, after today I’ll be sending out a newsletter every two weeks rather than weekly for the next month or two. Bear with me... 🙃
So! What legacy is Audrey talking about?
Why, it’s cycling of course!
A recent Guardian article has picked up on the way Paris has embraced cycling under the mayorship of Anne Hidalgo.
There’s a city that regardless of the backlash, has done much to shake its “car-centric reputation.”
Let’s think about it.
The pedestrianisation of the banks of the Seine was not a popular move.
But now?
People don’t want to go back! They love it.
And if that’s not enough, the city has also embraced the concept of the 15-minute city although it is noted that this has yet to reach the suburbs.
Nevertheless, the idea hasn’t generated the controversy it has here in the UK.
After all, a 15-minute city or neighbourhood just enables you to be lazy.
If you can get to all the shops and facilities you need in a short walk from your home, what’s not to like?
If you don’t need to rely on a car for every journey, surely you’ve got it made?
There remains much to think about in terms of our new towns, which provide opportunities for us to tackle the housing, infrastructure and health crises facing us before we even get started on the climate crisis.
I recently watched a seminar on Solutions for New Towns and Urban Extensions and, in keeping with the theme of these missives, was particularly interested in the segment on unlocking sites with sustainable transport – presented by Geoff Burrage, a transport planner and “eco-nazi” who thinks transport planners should be urban design allies.
Yowza!
You can catch the seminar here:
But my takeaways from the transport section are:
By focussing on the number of cars on the road you get the “wrong” answers when it comes to questions around the sustainability of the site – people are not cargo
The NPPF says transport should be vision led but it is still focussed on highways
We should plan around people first – where do they want to go?
Case Study: Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Town – a new town of 7,500 homes. Rapid transit became a key structuring element along with topography and landscape and developed into a sustainable transport corridor. This approach reminds me of the work done in Groningen where sustainable transport is deliberately more convenient than driving.
Case Study: Growing Baldock, an urban extension that will double the town’s size. However, in the early stages insufficient consideration was given to active travel, bus and rail and the local plan required a link road that would create severance and draw traffic through the site. This scheme thankfully was withdrawn. Subsequently, a place-focussed masterplan was produced with no link road and some bold improvements to the town.
Go for vision first – what are you aiming at?
Recognise transport will be key to placemaking success – or failure
Have the transport planners around the table – but remember that solving transport issues are not just about transport
Front-load the design work
Don’t focus on a transport model even though you will probably need one
Work closely with technical stakeholders to avoid surprises later on
Well, there is no argument here. Capturing the opportunities that active travel and public transport can provide seem to me to be a no-brainer.
I’m hoping that Manual for Streets 3 will finally make an appearance soon so we have an up-to-date document and can start pushing for good practice. But, as I’ve said before, unless highways authorities are under a duty to use it, we’re just gonna keep getting more link roads and junctions you can “see from space.”
Still. Here’s hoping. We’ll get what we invite.
See you on 22 April!
#transport #manualforstreets3 #placemaking #cycling #15minutecity #groningen
… and if you enjoyed it…