The Department for Transport’s (DfT) decision to "slash funding for walking and cycling by two-thirds" is facing a legal challenge. Campaign group Transport Action Network (TAN) claims ministers bypassed legal processes to chop investment. TAN is arguing this unlawful cut will have a domino effect, toppling wider government promises to protect the climate, clean the air and level up the country. Last summer, ministers announced major investment, saying active travel was “one of the best return

Public bodies and transport operators must do more to enable people with mental health conditions to make journeys, states a new report. An online survey by the UCL’s Centre for Transport Studies revealed the main barriers for people mental health issues. Of the 385 respondents, 90% have anxiety issues, 71% suffer from panic attacks, 68% have depression while 51% have difficulty communicating and 45% have memory loss. The survey was supported by a range of organisations including Sustrans

In creating safer street design for cycling and walking, junctions consistently prove to be the greatest challenge for many designers and engineers. Dutch transport consultancy Mobycon

The Landor LINKS Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service is now in its third year. Whatever sector of transport you work in, MaaS is now having an impact either as a planner, providing public transport, bike share, car hire, leasing, payments, operational support, TRANStech. We'd like to hear from you, so please complete the survey to gauge how MaaS – and our hopes and fears for it – are developing. Take part in the survey today Last year we had more interest from the automotive se

A tech firm that deploys cameras and machine learning software to analyse the movement of people and traffic has received £25,000 from the North East Small Loan Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. Newcastle-based Streets Systems says the funding will enable it to acquire more equipment as well as increasing its workforce and extending its client base. The firm, set up by Tom Bailey and Tom Komar, uses sensors to gather in-depth data on pedestrian and cycle movement

Living Streets started life as the Pedestrians Association, a charity launched in 1929 by the journalist Tom Foley OBE and Nobel Peace Prize winner Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. During the 1930s the charity played an influential role in the introduction of the first Highway Code, the driving test, the 30mph speed limit in built-up areas and zebra crossings. The Pedestrians Association became Living Streets in 2001 and now runs the annual Walk to School Week and campaigns on issues such as the dan

Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, has celebrated its 90th anniversary by paying tribute to the journalist and diplomat who took the first steps towards making roads better and safer spaces for pedestrians. Thomas Foley was a journalist who worked for a number of London newspapers. Foley loved walking and never learned to drive. Throughout his life he campaigned to improve life for pedestrians as became increasingly concerned about he dangers posed by growing numbers of cars,

The winners of the 2019 everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards have been revealed. Over the past 12 years the everywoman awards have championed women in the transport and logistics industries, showcasing and celebrating the sectors’ most exceptional role models. The winners were announced at Grosvenor House in London on 13 June. While many of the winners were drawn from the passenger transport, infrastructure and freight sectors, the world of walking was also recognised at this y

The Blue Badge, Motability and Cycle to Work schemes should be offered to disabled people using bikes, says Sustrans. This would remove some of the barriers to cycling that many disabled people face, believes the walking and cycling charity. “The Blue Badge scheme should be extended so that disabled people can use it with their cycle for better access,” said Tim Burns, Sustrans’ senior policy and partnerships advisor.  A growing number of high footfall city and town cent

The Government should take a lead from Scotland and Wales and adopt road safety targets across England to push down the number of deaths and casualties, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). In 2017, 1,544 people were killed on England’s roads – the most since 2011 – and the number of people killed and seriously injured stood at 23,825, which is way above the 2010-2014 average of 21,283. Yet in Scotland the figures are falling, and while in W

Right from the moment Enfield became one of TfL’s Mini-Holland boroughs back in 2014, the rumbles of dissent began. Cllr Daniel Anderson, who until recently was the council’s deputy leader, recalls being verbally abused at public meetings: “It’s fair to say we faced considerable opposition. People referred to me - and still do - as the idiot who built the cycle lanes. But I can live with that. If I didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do I wouldn’t ha

If you thought the debate about the appropriate speed limit for urban areas was between 30mph and 20mph, then think again: the City of London Corporation wants the speed limit on all of its roads cut to 15mph. The proposal is one of many eye-catching aspects of a new transport strategy to give pedestrians and cyclists more priority. The strategy also sets a 25 per cent traffic reduction target by 2030 as a “minimum aspiration”.  The Corporation already has a 20mph speed limit a

Cracked and uneven pavements make nearly a third of older people feel unsafe when walking on their local streets. The YouGov survey from Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, was released for National Walking Month. Living Streets is calling for councils to remember pavement potholes when repairing their roads to enable the most vulnerable to feel happier and safer using their streets. It is part of Living Streets’ #nine90 campaign which aims to highlight the need for stree

Councillors in Leeds have authorised more than £25m to be spent on city centre traffic management and public realm measures. The council is to spend £20.7m on detailed design and construction works for the Headrow Gateway scheme on the main east-west route across the city centre, on the north side of the pedestrian core. A further £5.6m is allocated to design and construction works for complementary works on Park Row, which connects City Square outside the railway station to

A decision on whether to pursue further traffic restrictions at Bank Junction in the City of London will be made next month. The ‘Bank on safety’ project introduced in 2017 saw all motor vehicles except buses banned from crossing the junction between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday. The City of London Corporation regarded this as an interim project, ahead of the more substantial ‘All change at Bank’ programme. In January, the Corporation authorised design work to commence

An ambitious programme to transform the National Cycle Network (NCN) has been launched with the opening of a traffic-free section on the Caledonia Way between North Connel and Benderloch in Argyll and Bute. The new link at Ledaig - funded by Transport Scotland and delivered by the charity Sustrans – has opened after a decade of community and landowner engagement.   It forms part of a £2m investment by Transport Scotland in NCN Route 78 throughout Argyll and Bute and the Highla

Transport for London is  to pilot green man authority on ten pedestrian crossings in the capital.  The signal strategy already operates on two bus-only streets, in Hounslow and Morden. The signals show a green signal for pedestrians continuously until a bus is detected, at which time people walking are stopped on a red signal, and vehicles are given a green light to proceed. TfL now plans to pilot the approach at a further ten crossings. A spokesman told LTT: “The signal contro

I read with interest of the DfT’s regulatory review regarding micromobility vehicles (‘Regulatory reviews to smooth way for new mobility products’ LTT 29 Mar). However, similar machines, in the form of mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs, have been around for years. In view of changing road conditions over time, a full review is really overdue. There is nothing like losing the ability to walk much, if at all, to restrict someone’s ability to get out of their home a

We’re seeing these developments on the ground now, changing the way people travel. Sometimes it’s trial on a small scale with local introductions of new services across a limited area. The flexible on demand driven bus service in launched by Arriva started in an area of Sittingbourne just 4 miles wide and 6 miles long. A single bus route converted by TransDev to ‘pay for how far you travel’ measured by Bluetooth beacons. One Royal Mail depot trialling electric cargo trike

Tributes have been paid to the architect and street designer Ben Hamilton-Baillie who has died from cancer at the age of 63. After studying architecture, Hamilton-Baillie spent the early part of his career in the social housing sector before joining Sustrans in 1995 to work on designing parts of the National Cycle Network. Subsequently, while travelling on a Churchill fellowship, he came to know the Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman. Monderman, who died in 2008, was critical of traditional t

Plans for a ‘Beelines Network’ of cycling and walking routes across Greater Manchester will take another step forward if 18 schemes gain approval next week. This will take the number of endorsed schemes to 42, delivering 319 new and upgraded crossings and junctions and 70 miles of new cycling and walking routes. If the latest schemes are approved by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the total value of cycling and walking related-projects across Greater Manchester wil

The DfT has announced funding of £21m to kick-start a major upgrade of the National Cycle Network (NCN). Plans to improve the quality of the tracks will be managed by the charity Sustrans, which has earmarked an initial 50 ‘Activation Projects’ for completion by 2023. This forms the first stage of Sustran's long-term strategy to improve the network launched last year. The Activation Projects include: • Refurbishing and upgrading Cinder Track North in Whitby, North Yor

The biggest review into transport in a generation will pave the way for transforming the way people and goods move around our cities, the government has announced in its Future of mobility: urban strategy. Also, in a boost for sustainable transport, the government has announced the first winners of the Transforming Cities Fund and awarded £60 million to 10 city regions for schemes supporting low-carbon vehicles, cycling and walking projects, and smart traffic controls. The Transforming Cit

Scottish transport secretary Michael Matheson has criticised a Bill to make 20mph the default speed limit on most roads in built-up areas of Scotland. He said decisions about 20mph speed limits were best left to councils and warned that the proposed legislation could even jeopardise the Government’s active travel spending. Matheson made the comments to the Scottish Parliament’s rural economy and connectivity committee, which is scrutinising Green MSP Mark Ruskell’s Restricted

Pedestrians will be given more space on crowded streets in Edinburgh’s Old Town during the summer months under proposals being developed by the council.   Options include: removing street furniture; changing vehicle loading, waiting and parking restrictions; reducing carriageway widths; access restrictions for general traffic; one-way street operations; full road closures; and relocating bus stops and taxi ranks. Options for junctions include: banning left or right turns; increasing

The removal of a large roundabout in Waltham Forest, north-east London, marks the final phase of the borough’s Mini Holland programme. Waltham Forest was one of three outer London boroughs – along with Kingston upon Thames and Enfield – to receive funding from the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson in 2014 to create cyclist and pedestrian friendly routes. A new T-junction, with signalled crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, and bus interchange (pictured above) has replaced

Eleven London councils have secured funding for projects to make their streets more people-friendly. The Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) is providing a total of £53m in the second phase of its Liveable Neighbourhoods programme. Seven boroughs were awarded a total of £33m towards phase one projects in 2017.  TfL received 22 bids for phase two funding. The winning bids comprise a range of projects designed to cut rat running, make junctions safer, implement new wal

The most effective way to combat the threat of gridlock as self-driving cars become more common is through congestion pricing, states new research. The ability of autonomous vehicles (AVs) to cruise will blur the boundary between parking and travel, says the study by transportation planner Adam Millard-Ball, an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Parking charges will no longer be an effective congestion management tool, warns Millard-Ball. &

A six-week consultation to discuss possible developments around Crewe railway station has been launched by Cheshire East Council.  An action plan is being drawn up to manage development and support the regeneration of the site around the station ahead of HS2’s arrival, scheduled for 2027. This will help identify the most immediate opportunities around the railway station, and ensure that related growth and development is ‘plan-led’, says the council.  The action pl

Phase two of plans to transform Newcastle Central Station and the surrounding land will be considered by the city council next week. The programme would free up more space in concourses within the station, provide additional pedestrian entrances into the station, improve short and long stay parking and move the taxi rank into the existing short stay car park at the front of the station. The works would also pave the way for a new station multi-storey car park, commercial and residential housing

A public inquiry will be held in May into Network Rail’s closure of a foot crossing in Deganwy in North Wales, and Conwy County Borough Council’s formal Order for the crossing to be reinstated. Aberconwy MP Guto Bebb has submitted evidence in support of reinstating the crossing, which Network Rail closed in 2011.  In 2016, Conwy confirmed the right of way Order, which states that pedestrians are entitled to cross the double track Llandudno branch where the crossing existed (LT

Campaign for Better Transport has called on the Government to invest £4.8 billion in expanding the railway network to reach the most disconnected and disadvantaged communities. In a new report, The case for expanding the rail network, it outlines how a national reopening programme would initially create 33 new rail lines with 72 new stations, allowing an additional 20 million rail passenger journeys a year by bringing over 500,000 people within walking distance of a train station. It

Shared mobility modes have great potential to address congestion and poor air quality challenges, but the practical delivery of an integrated shared mobility strategy is complex. The Shared Transport Masterclass on February 22 will bring together operators, local authorities and potential mobility users to take the first steps in creating a practical framework, based on 'mobility pledges', that can guide the set-up for successful shared mobility. The mobility pledges are rooted in work tha

As Unicef published its latest briefing on air pollution, stating that across 86% of the UK, children are breathing in harmful levels of toxic air that can harm their lungs, damage the development of their brains and stunt their growth, new figures from Close Brothers Asset Finance’s quarterly survey of businesses in the UK and Ireland suggest that traffic congestion is reaching crisis point across the UK, affecting both productivi

Waltham Forest council has launched a £20,000 fund to help local community projects encourage more active travel.   Organisations can bid for up to £2,500 from the Community Walking and Cycling Fund to deliver projects with residents in the London borough over this spring and summer.  The council hopes the fund will lead to more community led guided walks or rides as well as bike maintenance classes for community groups.  Funding will come from the £27m Mini H

The City of London Corporation is to begin design work on the next phase of changes to Bank Junction, which could see some of the junction’s five arms closed to traffic. The ‘Bank on safety’ project introduced in 2017 saw all motor vehicles except buses banned from crossing the junction between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday. The City made the scheme permanent last September. ‘Bank on safety’ was always regarded as an interim project, ahead of the more substantial &

A huge range of road-focused innovations are to be trialled in a £23m DfT-funded programme announced this week.   Trials will take place in Kent; Staffordshire; Reading; Suffolk; Solihull and Birmingham (joint); Cumbria; Buckinghamshire; and Central Bedfordshire. The councils are working with numerous private and public partners (including more councils).  Buckinghamshire has received £4.49m for a diverse programme of projects, including: using kinetic energy recovery fro

The end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 have seen a host of consultations, reports and inquiries into why it’s so necessary to boost walking and cycling levels; both through securing long-term investment and fully integrating quality cycling and walking infrastructure with public transport, homes and work. First, the Department of Health and Social Care launched its ‘Prevention is better than cure' vision, which specifically mentions the need to 'coordinate transport, housing, educat

The NHS will save £319m if cycling doubles in seven UK cities every eight years by 2040, according a new report from Sustrans. The charity calculates that 34,000 life-threatening illnesses - including Type 2 diabetes, stroke, breast cancer and depression - would be prevented, along with 628 early deaths. Transforming Cities: The potential of everyday cycling uses data from Sustrans’ 2017 Bike Life studies of B

Plans have been unveiled for two schemes in Crawley, West Sussex, designed to create better links between the town’s rail and bus stations and improve pedestrian, cycling and bus access and facilities.  The £5.3m Station Gateway project aims to provide a better public space and transport connectivity and improved town centre facilities while the £8.3m Eastern Gateway scheme is designed to deliver better public space and connectivity to support development opportunities at

Construction work has started on a new transport hub in Derry which will serve as a “gateway” to Northern Ireland’s north-west. The plans involve the restoration and refurbishment of the listed station at Waterside.  Funding of around £27m has been secured from the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme with support from the Department for Infrastructure and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in Ireland.  Northern Ireland’s public transport body Tr

Sheffield City Region has today announced plans to appoint its first Active Travel Commissioner. The post will cover all aspects of active travel schemes to be delivered across the region, as part of Sheffield City Region’s bid for a share of the government's Transforming Cities Fund. Earlier this month, Sheffield City Region submitted six active travel and public transport schemes to the government for co

Local authorities and healthcare commissioning groups should designate physical activity champions at a senior level, who would work across the transport, leisure and health sectors, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has said. The recommendation features in NICE’s new draft quality standard for physical activity. NICE wants transport planners and public health practitioners to work together to ensure the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users

Councils should develop and maintain routes that give priority to pedestrians, cyclists and those using public transport over motorised vehicles, NICE [the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] has stated in a draft quality standard published today. The body calls on planners to develop policies and initiatives to ensure “safe, convenient, inclusive access” for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport passengers with priority over motorised vehicles such as cars, mot

Councils will get new powers allowing the use of CCTV and ANPR cameras to enforce parking restrictions in cycle lanes as part of a government ‘action plan’ to improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists. The two-year plan, published today, will end the requirement for civil enforcement officers to issue penalty charge notices to vehicles parked in cycle lanes. Among a raft of

Improving cycling and walking infrastructure can increase spending in shops by up to 30%, according to a report published today by Transport for London (TfL). The research found that people walking, cycling and using public transport spend 40% more each month than car drivers. Some 45% of high street visits are for “social and community reasons” while improving streets for cycling and walking led to a 216% increase in “people stopping, sitting and socialising”, said the

People-friendly spaces a dedicated cycleway and plazas are among proposals for Edinburgh’s George Street and New Town public realm design project. A draft concept design for the area, which has been produced after extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders including community and specialist interest groups, went on show at Edinburgh’s City Art Centre for the first time on 8 November. As part of the wider City Centre Transformation project, the George Street and New Town (G

Oxford Street in central London will remain an important corridor for motorised vehicles under new plans for the street and the surrounding area published  for consultation by Westminster City Council.  The proposals come four months after the collapse of a plan for the partial pedestrianisation of the street (LTT 22 Jun). It was drawn up by a partnership including Westminster and London mayor Sadiq Khan, but Westminster withdrew support amid pressure from local residents who feared t

The work done on the pedestrian pound by Living Streets back in 2013 showed that shoppers on foot spend up to six times more than those who arrive by car, and calculated that well-planned improvements to public spaces could raise footfall and trading by up to 40%. This was accompanied by other great work, even further back in 2011, from the now defunct Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) on the value of good street design, and the former TfL Urban Design Team’s Val

New innovations can pave the way to smarter mobility on better quality roads and footways, offsetting the impact of funding cuts. This is one of the chief findings of a new report by the Local Government Technical Advisers Group (LGTAG).  The report says that “new techniques and low cost interventions” can help ensure the efficient repair of roads in England. The DfT’s local highway maintenance funding for English authorities is about £1bn a year, which is matched b

An innovative physical activity programme which uses the technology found in high street reward cards to turn cities and towns into giant, mass participation games, is rolling out across the country, thanks to a new £3.32 million National Lottery grant from Sport England. The unique family game, called Beat the Street, rewards players who cycle, run or walk with points and prizes, encouraging families to get out and about and increase their physical activity.  Fifty-nine towns and ci

A 2.5km stretch of Nine Elms Lane and Battersea Park Road will be redesigned to make the streets more people-friendly, says Transport for London (TfL).  The proposals include: a new substantially segregated cycle route connecting to Cycle Superhighway 8, which runs between Wandsworth and Westminster; signals and junctions designed to separate cyclists and motor vehicles by time or space; wider pavements; 23 new or improved pedestrian crossings; and improved bus lanes.

I’ve done my fair share of travel behaviour change programmes in my time. These programmes often succeed in getting more people cycling, walking and using public transport more often but, when we ask people their primary reason for making a change, the main reason is something to do with personal health and fitness. Similarly, when we come to evaluating programmes, the largest benefits tend to reside in health improvement rather than ‘transport’ benefits. So, I was interested

Three episodes back, if you recall, I got all exercised concerning the fact that, despite much excitement in the past decade or so concerning the benefits of de-cluttering, we’re still either putting too much stuff into our streets that either doesn’t need to be there at all, or putting the stuff that needs to be there in the wrong place. I specifically cited my old friends the ‘Keep Left’ bollards and a new menace: electric vehicle charging pillars. This time round, I&r

Around 50 streets in the capital will be closed to traffic on Sunday 22 September to mark World Car Free Day. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Transport for London (TfL) are backing London Play, the charity that works to give children the freedom to play by shutting roads to traffic. The charity helps residents to organise Play Streets, where roads are closed to traffic a few hours once a week or month to provide a safe space for children to play outside with their friends. Play Streets also enc

Opening this month, Edinburgh's Your Bike cycle hire scheme is using innovative 'hybrid lock' technology that supports a network of 'virtual' geo-fenced bike parking stations along with physical stations. It's about bringing a planned and integrated approach with new facilities and solutions for cities so that the private car is no longer first choice, says Matt McNulty, urban mobility director for Serco and Your Bike The Your Bike scheme in Edinburgh, to be known as ‘Just Eat Cycles&rsqu

Hundreds of new housing developments across the country could be delayed for months because of the DfT’s request that councils “pause” design work on street schemes with level surfaces – i.e. no kerbs.  Transport minister Nusrat Ghani wrote to councils in England at the start of this month “asking” that they “pause the introduction of new shared space schemes that incorporate a level surface, and which are at the design stage”. The Department

The DfT is to update its guidance documents on tactile paving and inclusive mobility after researchers found that many authorities are failing to adhere to the existing guidance.  The DfT commissioned TRL to review two documents, Inclusive mobility (prepared in 2002) and Guidance on the use of tactile paving surfaces (prepared in 1998) to see if they remained relevant or needed updating.  TRL carried out a literature review and engaged with 12 stakeholders, receiving responses from n

A shared pedestrian and cycle path linking Bognor Regis to Littlehampton in West Sussex has been officially opened. The 4.5km shared cycle and walking route cost £2m to construct. The new path runs alongside the A259 and was funded by the county council and Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership.  Rupert Chitty, chief executive at Coast to Capital, said: “Improving transport links has been identified as a priority in our newly-published Strategic Economic Plan – Ga

A 20mph speed limit will be introduced on all Transport for London roads within the central London congestion charging zone, London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced.  The proposal features in the ‘Vision Zero’ road safety action plan published by the mayor of London and the Metropolitan Police Service.  The plan envisages no deaths on the capital’s roads by 2041. Interim targets are for 65 per cent fewer people killed or seriously injured in 2022 against a 2005-09 bas

The government has imposed a moratorium on the creation of any new ‘shared space’ schemes in response to concerns raised during the consultation on its new Inclusive Transport Strategy. The strategy was developed following the Accessibility Action Plan (AAP) consultation, which received over 1,000 responses. Shared space schemes involve the removal of features such as kerbs, road surface markings, designated crossing places and traffic signs are removed. In the strategy document, t

The government will put up to £300m into extending the Access for All programme, making railway stations more accessible, including through step-free access. The funding commitment was announced alongside publication of the Inclusive Transport Strategy, which seeks to improve accessibility across all types of travel for those with both visible and less visible disabilities. The Department for Transport said the new measures and funding will help ensure disabled people can travel confiden

Speed limits on all red routes in London's congestion charging zone will drop to 20mph by May 2020, as part of plans to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on the capital’s road network by 2041.  The Vision Zero action plan – published today by the Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) – also states that by 2024 speed limits will be cut in most of London’s town centres and other high risk locations. Overall, TfL is

Painting a picture of the changing use of our transport system is not easy. A picture composed only of averages or aggregate change amounts to clumsy brush strokes. The finer detail in the picture comes from the artist’s ability to reflect the diversity of components of change – the distributions from which the averages arise. The Department for Transport's latest statistical release, 'Road Traffic Estimates: Great Britain 2017'  attempts to paint a picture, including fine

A project designed to reduce the dominance of the car on a shopping street in Newcastle has won support from a retailer who was among its harshest critics. Steve Robson (pictured) and other traders had opposed Newcastle City Council’s plans to remove parking bays on Acorn Road, in the suburb of Jesmond, and feared the changes would drive away customers. Three years ago the council implemented the £350,000 project, funded by the government’s Cycle City Ambition Fund, making th

Plans have been drawn up to transform Stockport’s bus station into a transport interchange. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is working with Stockport Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to develop the £1bn investment plan. The proposals include: A fully accessible, covered passenger concourse in the interchange with seated waiting areas Better and easier routes to the town centre for pedestrians. with improved links to the rail station, Merseyway

Former London cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan has recommended a huge investment in cycling facilities in Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes in a report for the Government’s National Infrastructure Commission.  Gilligan was commissioned to write a report on cycling provision in the three cities as part of the NIC’s wider work on the growth prospects and infrastructure needs of the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge arc. His report is highly critical of  provision for cyc

Plans for a cycling and walking network across Greater Manchester, made up of more than 1,000 miles of routes, was unveiled at Cycle City Active City last week. The ‘Beelines’ network will include 75 miles of segregated bike lanes as well as 1,400 safer road crossings on most routes and 25 ‘filtered neighbourhoods’ where priority will be given to people over motorised traffic. Beelines was launched at Cycle City Active City by Chris Boardman, Greater Manchester’s c

The Charter for Parks, launched by the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces, and a coalition of national organisations, has called on on Prime Minister Theresa May and First Ministers Nicola Sturgeon, Carwyn Jones and Arlene Foster, to celebrate these spaces and take action to safeguard them. The Charter calls on the UK’s four political leaders to: Endorse a legal duty for all public greenspace to be managed to a good standard Ensure adequate long-term resources for maintenanc

parkrun UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) are set to launch a groundbreaking initiative that could see thousands of patients being ‘prescribed’ outdoor physical activity rather than medication. The initiative aims to improve the health and wellbeing of health care staff, patients and carers, reducing the need for lifelong medication. In 2017, the 1.11 billion prescriptions dispensed in communities across the UK cost £9.17bn. Head of Health and Wellb

A road junction with one of the poorest safety records in London is being upgraded by Transport for London (TfL), the Mayor of London and Islington Council. Reconstruction of the Highbury Corner junction begins on the 28 June. The works will transform the see the 1960s roundabout removed and replaced with two-way roads and segregated cycle lanes on all three remaining sides of the roundabout.  There will also be a new public space created for residents and visitors. The improvements to t

Wide-ranging reforms to the way active travel programmes are funded and delivered in Scotland have been recommended by a taskforce set up by Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf. Yousaf asked Roy Brannen, the chief executive of Transport Scotland, to chair the task force   to examine ways to deliver ambitious walking and cycling projects. The group’s formation in 2016 followed decisions by two councils to remove a segregated cycle path and halt the delivery of further phases of a

Brighton's bike share scheme (BTN BikeShare) is to expand with 120 new bikes and nine new hubs, mostly in Hove.  The scheme started last September with 450 bikes at 51 sites and, in the nine months since, has attracted 35,000 subscribers. Back in March, after gaining more than 22,000 users in just six months, the scheme became the biggest in the UK outside of London, and by the end of May there had been 213,000 rentals and more than 400,000 miles cycled, according to the Brighton and Hove N

All local authorities in Scotland will be given the power to implement bus franchising, under powers contained in the Scottish Government’s new Transport (Scotland) Bill. The Bill also includes powers for the creation and enforcement of low emission zones, ticketing schemes, and parking.   The draft legislation is split into six parts, and the buses section (part two) contains a wide range of new powers, including a new form of partnership – Bus Service Improvement Partnerships

London mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to transform Oxford Street could be doomed after Westminster City Council’s decision to withdraw support.   In a statement that apparently took the mayor and Transport for London by surprise, Nickie Aiken, the Conservative council leader of Westminster, said earlier this month that the council had “taken the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street off the table for good”.  Making the street more pedestrian-friendly is one of the mayor

Measures to improve road safety outside a girls’ school in east London have been drawn up by an all-female team. Tower Hamlets council brought in consultant Project Centre to work on the project with students from Central Foundation Girls’ School (CFGS).  Supported by female managers from Project Centre, students went on a site visit, collected survey data and assessed the needs of all road users. This helped shape the proposed measures, which are now out for public consultatio

Stockholm’s congestion charge scheme has proved remarkably effective at suppressing traffic levels and encouraging a shift to other modes of transport in the 20 plus years since its launch. After initially facing widespread public opposition, it now has majority support, even among those who regularly pay the charge. One of the scheme’s architects, Director of the Stockholm City Transport Administration Jonas Eliasson, vividly recalls the uproar around its launch in 2006: “It w

Westminster City Council has withdrawn its support for the Mayor of London’s proposals to pedestrianise the western section of Oxford Street. Mayor Sadiq Khan wanted to see the section from Oxford Circus to Orchard Street, near the flagship Selfridges store, pedestrianised.  This would have coincided with the opening of the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) between Paddington and Abbey Wood next year, with improved pedestrian access at Bond Street station. However, the council has now stat

A major overhaul of the National Cycle Network (NCN) is set to begin next year, with the widening and re-surfacing of paths, new signage and wayfinding, and moving some sections off-road, says Sustrans. The active travel charity is leading a review of the 16,000-mile network in partnership with the four UK governments, local authorities and other landowners including Network Rail, the Highways Agency, National Trust, Forestry Commission and the Canal & River Trust.  All the stakeholder

Funding is being offered to schools and local authorities in Scotland to help them create safe, traffic-free routes. The Safer Routes to School scheme is being funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the charity Sustrans. Sustrans hopes that creating safe zones around schools will encourage children and their parents or guardians to travel to school on foot, by bike or scooter. As well as helping schools develop traffic-free zones, Sustrans plans to target further education colleges

Planners are calling on the Welsh Government to strengthen active travel messages in its revised Planning Policy Wales document.  Responding to a consultation on the new version of the planning statement, the Royal Town Planning Institute Cymru says the document “must be amended so that it explicitly requires accessibility by active travel modes to be prioritised over access by other modes both in the location and design of new developments”. RTPICymru says it is surprising th

How is the advent of big data influencing the way we build our models? How can Virtual Reality allow us to better visualise, and thus better understand, pedestrian experience in crowds? Driven by the necessity to develop ever larger and accurate models, Atkins' pedestrian modelling team has explored an innovative approach that involved the adoption of both traditional survey methods as well as the monitoring of WiFi-enabled devices. Virtual Reality was also adopted as a tool to aid the design pr

The key findings of a European research project into the impact of transport policy on congestion have been published in a new report. The project – called CREATE (Congestion Reduction in Europe: Advancing Transport Efficiency) – examined congestion reduction policies in five western European capitals: Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris and Vienna. The report charts how policy priorities in the cities have shifted over the past 50-60 years: from road building, parking, lower density

Walking is a basic human activity but its fundamental character can make it difficult to identify and categorise as a mode of transport and consequently to occupy a prominent position on the policy agenda. In order to find its political identity it must be given a context. For example, this can include walking for a purpose, such as for leisure or as part of a journey to work, or how walking interacts with its environment, including urban and suburban townscapes, and more natural rural landscape

Walking is a basic human activity but its fundamental character can make it difficult to identify and categorise as a mode of transport and consequently to occupy a prominent position on the policy agenda. In order to find its political identity it must be given a context. For example, this can include walking for a purpose, such as for leisure or as part of a journey to work, or how walking interacts with its environment, including urban and suburban townscapes, and more natural rural landscape

The government is being urged to ban cars from the immediate vicinity of school gates during drop-off and pick-up times by Living Streets. The walking and sustainable transport charity has produced a report, Swap the school run for a school walk, in which it sets out 21 recommendations designed to enable more children to walk to and from school.  The charity delivered the report to the transport minister Jesse Norman at the start of Walk to School Week. More than 2,000 primary schools in

Disabled pedestrians and people living in low-income households are much more likely than non-disabled and richer people to be injured by a motor vehicle, suggests a new study. The study, titled ‘Road injuries in the National Travel Survey: under-reporting and inequalities in injury risk’, was conducted by Dr Rachel Aldred, reader in transport at the University of Westminster.  The study highlights that for every mile walked, a low-income pedestrian is three times more likely

Do you know how to open a car door safely? Exactly who is allowed to travel on the pavement? Is there a speed limit for cycling? During May 2018, as part of a public consultation, the Minister for Transport's team will be visiting four English regions to talk with the public about road safety prior to possible changes in the law Against the backdrop of a country concerned about obesity levels, air pollution and congestion, the Government is keen to make cycling and walking the natural cho

Nearly 400 guided walks are to take place across Greater Manchester in May as part of a festival to encourage people to make journeys on foot and explore the region. The event, organised by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), will offers free guided walks exploring local towns, cities, countryside, canals, riversides and parks across the conurbation. The festival has the support of several local walking groups and charities. Walks cater for all abilities and interests, including a family

For over 40 years John Grimshaw has been at the forefront of the drive to create cycling and walking routes in the UK. From acting as designer of the Bristol-Bath path in the early 1980s, Grimshaw became chief executive of the active travel charity Sustrans from its inception in 1984, and oversaw the creation of the National Cycle Network that now extends to over 14,000 miles. Since leaving Sustrans in 2008, he has continued to work on implementing a range of off-road cycling and walking paths,

My last two pieces were reflections on different aspects of the process of creating better streets. This time, I want to turn my attention to the matter of how to assess whether or not a street has actually been made better. In fact, I’ll be writing about how we might assess the qualities of any street, whether or not it has recently been subject to a ‘betterment initiative’ (and if no-one’s ever used that phrase before, I’m claiming it). One prompt for my doing th

Jon Orcutt, director of communications and advocacy at Transit Center, NYC, talks to Transport Xtra about the need for NYC's proposed congestion charging policy and why Uber and Lyft are currently a menace to the city. Jon talked with Andy Salkeld, Leicester City Council Transit Center is a national Foundation dedicated to improving public transit. We are based in New York City, specifically in Lower Manhattan, and were closely involved with the major positive changes that took place under th

The rising demand for cycle parking across the capital is not being met, with Network Rail particularly culpable in its failure to provide enough cycle racks at train stations, says the London Assembly in a report published today. Transport for London (TfL) should set out “clear steps” on how the rising demand for cycle parking will be met, which partners will be involved and how the infrastructure will be funded, says the assembly’s transport committee. Network Rail was sing

Proposals for a 5km cycleway have been announced by Manchester City Council. The mostly segregated route would link the city centre with Chorlton Park to the south. The Department for Transport has awarded £3.9m for the project while Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the Cycling and Walking Commissioner for Greater Manchester, Chris Boardman, are seeking to raise a further £5m. A Manchester City Council spokesman said: “This would pay for the

Walking and cycling campaigners claimed last week that Wales is not taking its pioneering active travel legislation seriously. One even suggested that the Welsh Government should repeal the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 unless it increased its funding and direction to local authorities. The Act was the world’s first legislation requiring local government to plan and implement coherent networks of walking and cycling routes. It was accompanied by new design guidance. Giving evidence to a

Building homes above railway tracks is a cost effective way of tackling London’s housing shortage, according to John Parker, a director at consultant WSP. Speaking at Rail Stations and Property, Parker said that building on reinforced concrete boxes that straddle rail tracks could provide a quarter of a million homes in the capital. This is based on WSP’s calculation that towers could be built on 10% of the capital’s 11,000km of railway, which, on average, has a 20m-wide corri

The first generation of station travel plans (STPs) were implemented in a bid to better manage, and proactively influence, the modes of travel people use to get to and from UK rail stations. They generally sought to actively promote sustainable travel options; reduce single occupant car trips; and tackle imbalances between parking demand, the quality of facilities for different station users, and differential impacts on neighbouring land uses.  Following an initial wave of pilots, the UK b

Gender inequality remains a big issue when it comes to active travel in the UK, says Sustrans. The charity has published a new report, ‘Are We Not There Yet?, revealing that women’s journeys around cities are typically shorter than men’s, use different modes of transport and are more likely to involve ‘trip-chaining’ (multi-stop journeys) which tend to be for a balance of child care, work and household responsibilities. While women are motivated to tr

Last time, I wrote about a document Creating better streets: Inclusive and accessible places. This time, I’m writing about how we actually go about creating better streets, and making them inclusive and accessible places. Specifically, I want to focus on the importance of engaging with people who often find/consider themselves excluded/limited due to real/perceived inaccessibility. I include all three of those word pairings quite deliberately. This is because one of the principal challeng

Tottenham Court Road is set to become more cyclist and pedestrian friendly, with all motor vehicles except buses banned from using the thoroughfare between 8am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday. The restrictions are due to be in place by early 2020, said the London Borough of Camden. The first phase of the £35m scheme begins in March, with initial works to include: new granite paving on New Oxford Street by Centre Point; the removal of pedestrian barriers and traffic light poles from Tottenham

A growing number of workers in the UK would rather be based in lively urban centres than business parks on the outskirts even when there is ample parking, according to a new report from the Urban Transport Group. “More people in more key sectors of the economy do not wish to be ‘buried alive’ in a business park on the outskirts (however good the car parking) and their skills are in sufficient demand that they can choose the employers that provide them with a more interesting a

Plans for a West London Orbital rail line - connecting Hounslow, Hendon and Cricklewood - feature in the Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy. Mayor Sadiq Khan’s transport vision for the next 25 years was presented today to the London Assembly ahead of its final publication next month. The proposed West London Orbital Line, linking up London Overground services, would run via Brent Cross, Old Oak

The Campaign for Better Transport has announced it is looking to appoint a new chief executive office to replace Stephen Joseph, who will be stepping down at the end of Autumn. Joseph was appointed executive director of Transport 2000 in 1988, the same year Michael Palin was appointed President, and received an OBE in 1996 for services to transport and the environment. Transport 2000 changed its name to Campaign for Better Transport in 2007. During his 30-year tenure with the charity, Joseph

All over the world, we are observing the trend towards pedestrianising whole districts rather than individual streets. Zaha Hadid Architects has proposed ‘Walkable London’, a full-scale network of pedestrian routes which will create corridors of activation across the capital.  Walkable London aims at re-introducing walking as an integral part of the city’s transport network. The firm's research highlights, available as a research booklet, state several key statistics driv

Islington Council has invited public comment on the redesign of the Old Street roundabout as part of the £1m competition to transform the gateway to London’s ‘tech city’. Thirty-nine proposals have been selected for discussion from the 120 submitted. One proposal, called Silicon Hill, from architects Cove Burgess and Eco Cycle storage envisages three cylindrical glass towers with safe storage for more than 600 bicycles, which would surround a 'pocket park' and café

With an estimated one billion hypertension cases worldwide, the role of the built environment in its prevention and control is still uncertain. With this in mind, a new study published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health examined the associations between neighbourhood walkability, blood pressure and hypertension in a large and diverse population-based cohort. Access the study's abstract and results here The study shows that neighbourhood walkability within one-kilo

Regeneration projects at and around rail stations can be hindered by investors’ concerns over their viability as well as lack of local support. But taking a creative, practical and flexible approach can increase the chances of success, believes Philip Beer, a partner at law firm Burges Salmon who specialises in advising both public and private sector clients on major regeneration and redevelopment projects. “It’s a question of working up a strong business plan that is realis

The fall in the average number of trips made by people over the last 30 years can be largely explained by a sharp reduction in trips of less than a mile in length, according to a new analysis of National Travel Survey data.  “The overall trip rate increased from 935 per person per year in 1975 to 1,094 in 1990, remained at 1,094 in 1996, then fell steadily to 914 in 2015,” says independent research Kit Mitchell in a paper published by the DfT.  From the peak of trips in 1

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has given the green light for six new cycle routes across the capital, with a mix of main roads and Quietways through Ilford, Barking, Tottenham, Wembley, Willesden, Peckham and Rotherithe.  About 75% of the routes, spanning nine boroughs, will run on main roads. “We have already expressed a strong preference for most of the routes on main roads to be segregated,” said a Mayor of London spokesman. These projects have been chosen from a list of 25 routes

Plans for a new ‘Station Quarter’ around Runcorn rail station forms the centrepeice of a major regeneration of the Cheshire town. Halton Borough Council is working with a consortium, including architects We Made That and consultants Regeneris and Steer Davies Gleave, to develop a masterplan featuring housing, retail, commercial and leisure units in Runcorn. Runcorn station is on the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Mainline and is also a commuter station into Liverpool Lime Street

Young adults in Great Britain and other countries are driving less now than young adults did in the early 1990s. The Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned the Centre for Transport and Society (UWE, Bristol) and the Transport Studies Unit (University of Oxford) to carry out a systematic assessment of available evidence on the subject, both by review of UK and overseas published literature, and by new secondary analysis of existing UK data sets. The study sought to address the questions:

A new statistical release for January 2018 from the Department for Transport presents four pieces of analysis using National Travel Survey data.  Key findings include:  There have been substantial changes in travel behaviour since 1975. The total number of trips per person per year increased from 1975 until 1990 and has been falling since 1995. The basic unit of travel in the NTS is a trip, which is defined as a one-way course of travel with a single main purpose. In 2011-2014, dis

Buses could be removed from some of Oxford city centre’s busiest streets under proposals to make the centre more pedestrian and cycle-friendly. Oxfordshire County Council and Oxford City Council have invited comments on options suggested in a movement and public realm study by consultants Phil Jones Associates and ITP. Their work is intended to inform the city council’s next local plan and the county council’s update to the Oxford transport strategy. The consultants have revi

Look at the headlines and it’s tempting to think everything is rosy for cycling in the capital: soaring volumes of trips, record numbers of hires on the Santander cycle scheme, and mayor Sadiq Khan has just pledged a 28% increase in funding for  borough cycling schemes over the next five years (LTT05 Jan). Yet Andrew Gilligan, who served as cycling commissioner to Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, says the picture is a lot bleaker if you scratch below the surface. ‘He wou

Councils should have the power to give pedestrians priority over vehicular traffic in designated streets, according to the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT).  The recommendation features in a new report on street design, which also recommends an end to the use of the phrase ‘shared space’. The CIHT says the phrase is “vague and tends to be associated with several preconceived ideas”. Practitioners should instead talk about three different d

Pupils at Langstone Infant School and Langstone Junior School are the first to take part in this year's Portsmouth City Council Pompey Monster Walk to School Challenge. The seven week walk to school challenge starts next week and ends in March. In the launch assembly in January pupils heard about the scheme, and even met the Pompey Monster mascot - Stomper!  Pupils are required to walk to school at least three times a week to pass the weekly challenge. In return they will receive a sp

The related problems of air pollution and congestion impact negatively on key risks to the public's health: namely cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases, along with rising obesity levels brought about by the lack of physical activity due to car-dominated lifestyles and road safety fears. Many transport academics and practitioners are asking if some form of road pricing is essential inn order to reduce traffic volumes and so help to fix these challenges?  The recent U

CIHT has finally launched its review of the issue of shared space and how it is being designed, implemented and installed across England. ‘Creating better streets: Inclusive and accessible places’ provides a series of recommendations to Government and industry on how this complex issue can be further improved and developed. The review’s recommendations are aimed at Government, local authorities and those professionals who are working to make our highways inclusive, safer and a

A new safer route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, connecting the villages of Okeford Fitzpaine and Shillingstone in north Dorset, has officially opened to the public. The route, known as the Little Lane Trailway, had been largely impassable for the last 30 years. The project was wholly funded by the EU’s LEADER Rural Development Programme through the Northern Dorset Local Action Group (LAG). The Little Lane Link Project secured an award of £44,200, due to

Poor air quality and physical inactivity are the public health issues of our time. In political circles, we hear plenty of strategic posturing: the new £220m Clean Air Fund has been announced, although details are not yet forthcoming. Integrated transport and spatial planning is back on the agenda, this time to improve health, rather then economic, outcomes. In reality, a combination of appropriate measures is needed to get more people moving, and to do so in clearer air. Plans for air qu

Greater Manchester's walking and cycling commissioner Chris Boardman has published his much anticipated report Made to Move (report will download instantly), which outlines 15 key steps to transform Greater Manchester by changing the way its citizens and visitors get around. The goal ‘should be to double and then double again cycling in Greater Manchester, and make walking the natural choice for as many short trips as possible. We must do this by putting people first, creati

A new report has argued that the government should create a new commission to involve the public in major infrastructure projects. The absence of a national strategy for infrastructure has serious implications, says the independent Institute for Government (IfG) in its report How to Design an Infrastructure Strategy for the UK, the fourth in a series of reports on improving infrastructure decision making in the UK. New projects are ‘dreamt up, reframed, scrapped and reinvented, seemingly w

Construction work has started on Glasgow’s South City Way (SCW), a 1.8 mile segregated cycle and pedestrian route on the city’s Southside from Queen’s Park and the city centre.  The project was Glasgow City Council’s winning bid in the 2016 Community Links PLUS (CLPLUS) competition, funded by the Scottish Government and run by sustainable transport charity Sustrans. A £3.25m was awarded, with match funding from the city council. The first phase of works

Islington Council is seeking design ideas to create an “iconic gateway” at Old Street roundabout. The London borough is seeking proposals incorporating public art and embracing the spirit of “Tech City” - the technological, economic and cultural powerhouse around Old Street. Applications are being sought from a range of disciplines including architecture, urban planning, transport, art, Smart Cities and technology. The 1960s roundabout will undergo a major transformation

Sustrans’ research has been recognised by the United Nations as an example of best practice in using science to shape sustainable development policy. The new UN report, ‘Strengthening the Science-Policy Interface: A gap analysis’, highlights the need for greater collaboration between scientists and policy makers in finding solutions to environmental challenges. It recognised Sustrans’ Fit for Life report covering independent research by leading experts

The current UK physical activity guidelines were published by the Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) in 2011, and offer evidence-based recommendations for physical activity related health outcomes. Starting at the end of 2017, a review will be conducted to provide updated practical public health guidelines and develop potential implementation pathways for all groups, from healthcare to communication professionals.   Access the UK physical activity guidelines review pages  Over t

Working with the UK charity Sustrans, independent environmental consultancy Eunomia has developed a model that measures air quality benefits from reducing motor emissions due to shifting to walking or cycling and changes in personal exposure to air pollution. The model aims to support local authorities in making the case for investment in boosting walking and cycling and estimates the contribution of active travel in reducing levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide – and the sub

A new publication has been released providing user guidance on using the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEA

Sport England has chosen 12 places to work with on a new approach to build healthier, more active communities across England. Around £100 million of National Lottery funding will be invested in the pilot scheme over four years, to create innovative partnerships that make it easier for people in these communities to access sport and physical activity. The 12 pilots are: Birmingham and Solihull, Bradford, Calderdale, Doncaster, Essex, Great Exeter, Greater Manchester, Hackney, Pennine Lanca

A survey of seven UK cities has revealed that 75% of residents want to see more investment in cycling. Cycling and walking charity Sustrans carried out research in the cities - Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Greater Manchester and Newcastle – two years after an initial survey.  The new reports showed a rise in the number of segregated cycle lanes and bike parking spaces in the past two years, but also a rise in concerns about safety. Only 30% of respondents think c

Sustainable transport charity Sustrans has developed a tool with environmental consultancy Eunomia that has been designed to help make the case for walking and cycling measures in terms of air quality. The air quality tool shows how to get the best value in terms of air quality from supporting walking and cycling, and sets a framework for how to build plans for walking and cycling into plans to improve air quality. Dr Andy Cope, director of insight at Sustrans says

While the push to deliver new homes and retrofit existing communities is high on the political agenda, if not actually happening in practice, we need a conversation about the kind of places that we build. Research carried out by Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and the Ramblers found that local authorities want to build places that encourage walking and active travel. Developers do not always share these priorities, however, and many councils feel the mismatch is a challenge in achieving

Active travel will enable cities to spend less on building, maintaining, and upgrading their infrastructure by replacing congested urban road networks and car parking infrastructure, according to a new report by technology company City Science. Helping incorporate higher levels of physical activity into the daily life of the city, walking and cycling can reduce regional healthcare costs, says the report. Some of these benefits might be readily captured by conventional transport planning impact

A road safety film featuring numerous pink kittens highlights how much drivers miss if they are distracted by looking at their phones. The THINK! road safety film is aimed at younger drivers in particular. The video was directed We Are From LA, the directors behind the video for Pharrell Williams’ hit song Happy. It has been shot in the style of a music video with a soundtrack from musician Aphex Twin. The music video style of the film marks a change from previous THINK! campaigns. THIN

Replacing private car traffic with new shared mobility services in urban areas can dramatically reduce the number of cars needed, significantly cut CO2 emissions and free public land for uses other than parking – without making it more difficult for users to get from door to door. This latest report from the International Transport Forum at the OECD, presented at Smarter Travel LIVE!, examines how the optimised use of new on-demand shared transport modes could change the future of mobilit

A new set of road use rules devised specifically for London is among the ideas proposed by an independent commission studying ways of making the capital’s highways work more efficiently. A ‘Movement Code’ is one of a series of policies proposed by the Commission on the Future of London’s Roads and Streets, convened by the Centre for London think-tank with the aim of developing new thinking on what can be done to manage the conflicting pressures on the capital's surface t

Urban streets could be converted into pedestrian and cyclist friendly green spaces by replacing roads for traffic with planting and adding greenery to building façades, a landscape architectural practice has suggested. WATG has unveiled its ‘Green Block’ concept with a visualisation of how Fleet Street in central London could look if transformed into a traffic-free, planted environment. The design is a response to a public challenge by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to designate

The way in which smartphones enable users to connect to information and services while on the move has made them an integral part of the way people engage with urban life. However, once a smartphone runs out of power that connectivity is lost. One solution to the problem of low power is to enable people to power up their phones for free in public spaces. This is the thinking behind ‘smart benches’ created by Strawberry Energy, a smart cities start-up which is now working with the Fo

Smarter Travel LIVE! 2017 offers an expertly-crafted overview of need-to know people, initiatives, products and services – all in one place Resources are squeezed, time is precious and expectations upon local authorities and transport professionals increase.  The travelling public assumes that everything about their travel experience can, and should be, improved through the smart (and positive) implementation of technological innovation.  But is it really that easy? The t

Last time, as you may recall, I reflected with renewed concern upon how unhealthy our relationship with motor cars is; how our towns and cities are conformed to the car; and how, by being so dependent on the ‘freedom’ that cars seem to offer, we have in effect largely become their slaves. You may also remember that I ended that piece with a promise to explore some possible solutions. I’ll be good to my word just as soon as I’ve rehearsed the character of the problem. I d

Dockless bike sharing start-up oBike has launched in Oxford, providing cyclists and cyclists-to-be with a cost effective, convenient and sustainable way of travelling around the city.   Following substantial liaison with the local authorities, oBike will roll out its dockless bike sharing scheme across the city on an indefinite trial basis. Haroon Khan, Business Development Lead for oBike Uk, said: 'We are extremely excited to launch oBike in Oxford. Building on from our successes in

Is current guidance on walking and cycling distances in need of an overhaul? And, if so, why does this matter? These distances form the basis of many decisions about where we live and work. Distances are used as criteria in assessing land allocations in Local Plans and in determining planning applications. They are also used in decision-making around transport infrastructure, including bus stops.  We decided, firstly, to investigate the distances on which existing guidance is based and the

The unlikely announcement that an upmarket vacuum-cleaner manufacturer is venturing into the electric vehicle (EV) market is a great metaphor for the scale of disruption and sheer unpredictability of our changing financial models. Did any of us predict Dyson would invest £1bn in battery technology alone over the next five years?  It will be interesting to see how far Dyson’s enterprise will fully immerse itself in this emerging sector. Will vehicles (and even batteries) be desi

Judging from this year’s Smarter Travel LIVE! programme, there will be a great deal of discussion about the future of transport, intelligent mobility and smart cities. Five years ago the conference’s focus was on ‘Rebooting Smarter Travel’ and we were just getting to grips with the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF). Since then much has changed; we continue to make progress but we also have an eye on the future. We wonder what cities of the future will look like and

The Department for Transport has this week published its Summary Report on the Impacts of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), which indicates that the Fund successfully supported projects that reduced car use, increased walking and cycling levels, boosted bus patronage, supported local economies and cut carbon emissions. Published figures suggest that LSTF investments 'achieved high value for money', says the report. In 2011, the Department launched the £540 million LSTF to i

Propelmee, an autonomous mobility software provider with specialist expertise in perception, will unveil its last mile delivery pod ‘Go4’ at the Smarter Travel show in Milton Keynes on 19 & 20 October. ‘Go4’ will appear on the ‘Street of the Future’ showcasing the first demonstration platform of Propelmee’s unique and highly robust autonomous mobility capabilities. ‘Go4’ will go live in a public demo in Cambridge later this year as a foot

More than 300 delegates attended Healthy Streets at Walthamstow Assembly Hall last week to explore the connections between public health and transport strategies. The event, organised by Landor LINKS and hosted by Waltham Forest Council, brought together council officers, urban designers, public health specialists, transport planners, consultants, academics, equipment developers, innovators and campaigners. The programme encompassed health-led street design, re-allocation of road space, behavio

Private car ownership should be banned in cities as part of a “revolution” in urban transport planning, according to a new report.  “All cities should target at least 70-80 per cent of trips by public transport, walking and cycling – with the remainder of trips by low emission vehicles,” says the report for Greenpeace in Germany written by a team led by Robin Hickman, a reader at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. There should be &ldq

Caerphilly County Borough Council is hoping that the next Wales and Borders rail franchisee may not share Network Rail’s opposition to active travel routes over level crossings. The Active Travel (Wales) Act  obliges all 22 unitary authorities in Wales to plan and implement networks of walking and cycling routes. By 3 November they must submit to the Welsh Government their Integrated Network Maps (INMs), outlining route proposals for the next 15 years.  Network Rail objects on

Jesse Norman MP, appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport in June 2017, will be giving a keynote speech and taking questions at Smarter Travel LIVE! on 19 October. As Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads, Local Transport and Devolution, the minister is responsible for buses cycling and walking policy, Highways England and strategic roads, local roads policy and funding, road safety, transport and the environment and transport technology (incl

Five active travel schemes have been awarded funding totalling £22.5m by the Scottish government. The shortlisted projects, to be delivered by charity Sustrans, will receive 50% of the total costs. Two of the schemes are in Edinburgh while the others are in Glasgow, Stirling and Inverness. Work on each project is due to begin in the next two months, with Inverness City Active Travel Network (Highland Council) set for completion by summer 2020. Meanwhile, Walk, Cycle, Live (Stirling Counci

While there has been plenty of debate over what Mobility as a Service (MaaS) could look like in the future, there are relatively few case studies on projects that have so far been delivered.  At Smarter Travel LIVE! I’ll be sharing my insights on a trial that Atkins ran in Cambridge. For many, MaaS is associated with mobile phone apps including integrated payment and journey planning. But providing the technology will not, on its own, ensure modal shift or an uptake of a MaaS servic

Last year saw the publication of the Department for Transport’s eagerly anticipated Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. This has since been accompanied by guidance to local authorities on how they can help double cycling activity by 2025.  While the availability of government funding for delivering walking and cycling network improvements remains a topic for debate, the guidance to councils appears sound. The guidance was developed by an expert advisory team, drawing on interna

The arrival of Will Norman as London’s first Cycling & Walking Commissioner in February heralded a new approach to reducing car use in the capital. The former global partnerships director at Nike is seeking to develop a comprehensive network of ‘corridors’ that link main roads with Quietways, as set out in mayor Sadiq Khan’s draft Transport Strategy.  Alternatives to superhighways Norman moved to the Mayor’s office on the understanding that his remit woul

Last year saw the publication of the Department for Transport’s eagerly anticipated Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. This has since been accompanied by guidance to local authorities on how they can help double cycling activity by 2025. While the availability of government funding for delivering walking and cycling network improvements remains a topic for debate, the guidance to councils appears sound. The guidance was developed by an expert advisory team, drawing on international

The arrival of Will Norman as London’s first Cycling & Walking Commissioner in February heralded a new approach to reducing car use in the capital. The former global partnerships director at Nike is seeking to develop a comprehensive network of ‘corridors’ that link main roads with Quietways, as set out in mayor Sadiq Khan’s draft Transport Strategy.  Alternatives to superhighways Norman moved to the Mayor’s office on the understanding tha

A cycling charity has called for wider awareness to be made about the dangers of ‘car-dooring’ and how to prevent it through a public awareness campaign. Car dooring incidents involve drivers or their passengers opening car doors without checking for the presence of cyclists. Cycling UK is also advocating that people open car doors with their far hand, rather than the near as a way of preventing avoidable collisions. This method is sometimes called ‘the Dutch Reach' as it is c

The Healthy Streets conference, exhibition and awards will take place on Thursday 28 September at The Assembly Hall in Walthamstow, London. Anyone involved in the planning and provision of Healthy Streets should not miss out on this major industry event where the leading influencers, policy-makers and budget holders will meet, network and discuss the implications of the Mayor's draft Transport Strategy (MTS).   Healthy Streets is at the top of the policy agenda and will have implications

Free guided walks are being offered by Transport for London (TfL) to encourage people to explore the capital on foot and to highlight the benefits of walking for health and wellbeing.  The Mayor’s draft Transport Strategy aims to increase the proportion of people walking, cycling and taking public transport to 80% by 2041, compared with 64% now. “To make this commitment a reality, a wide range of improvements to London’s streets, junctions and public spaces are underway,

The way we travel is on the threshold of a major transformation. We will be able to make journeys that are safer, cleaner, more efficient and cheaper. And the catalyst for that change will be intelligent mobility (IM). In this new environment we will have access to connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and new mobility services (including super-smart ticketing). But in order to see these benefits we will need sector collaboration and convergence. If this transition is managed well the rewards ac

Four out of ten adults aged 40-60 walk less than ten minutes continuously each month at a brisk pace, according to Public Health England (PHE).  In a new report extolling the health benefits of walking, PHE notes that walking levels have declined over recent decades.  “Although the evidence for ten minute bouts of walking is limited, it is clear that 70-90 minutes per week of brisk walking [more than 3mph] can improve fitness,” it says. Jason Torrance, England policy dir

A stretch of disused railway between Scarborough and Whitby which could be given a new lease of life as cycling and walking route. Sustainable transport charity Sustrans has used a grant from the Coastal Revival Fund to develop a plan for a restoration of the old Yorkshire railway line, which is now referred to as The Cinder Track. The

Road safety outside schools has become an all too frequent cause for concern across the UK. In an effort to tackle the problem, a range of measures are being deployed including school-led awareness campaigns, CCTV enforcement and parents volunteering as parking patrol officers. Meanwhile, a project in south London has taken a different approach, re-configuring the street layout to bring about behaviour change. The layout on New Park Road, off Brixton Hill, was designed by the charity Sustrans i

Transport charity Sustrans Scotland is offering employers a way to offer its employees access to healthier journeys to and from work via its Active Travel Champion (ATC) programme. Active Travel Champions are organisations that have committed to increasing levels of walking and cycling at their organisation. Sustrans works with sites of 200 or more employees on which ‘champions’ are permitted to spend one to two hours of time per month on ATC related planning and activities.

A £200m plan to build a bridge covered with trees over the River Thames in central London has been abandoned. The Garden Bridge Trust, which was set up to build the footbridge, has informed Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport, who had both allocated public funds to the project, of its decision. The trust, said it had failed to raise private funds since losing the support of the Mayor of London Sadi

Scottish Government statistics on children’s physical activity reveals almost 9 out 10 of children do not meet the government’s physical activity guidelines. Only 11% of children surveyed by the ‘Growing Up in Scotland’ study met the recommended 60 minutes of activity per day. Meanwhile, the latest ‘Hands Up Scotland&r

With roads close to saturation point and trains becoming overcrowded, transport providers and innovators must work together to develop new solutions, believes Stephen Hart at Innovate UK. “Congestion is getting worse, with growing frustration leading to more road rage,” he says. “There’s no longer a rush hour, there’s a rush five hours.” Current systems used to manage roads and rail services need to be better integrated to be effective, says Hart, head of co

Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) are seen by the DfT as critical to the success of the Government’s first Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS). The DfT wishes to encourage as many local authorities as possible to publish soundly-based LCWIPs, which will set out a long-term network plan for cycling and walking across a defined area, and a series of short, medium and long-term improvement schemes. Ministers believe that LCWIPs are the best means of putting i

Sustrans has launched three spreadsheet models intended to help local authorities make the case for walking and cycling schemes.  The Excel spreadsheet models are part of a wider active travel ‘toolbox’ put together by Sustrans with the help of Living Streets, the TAS Partnership, and Adrian Davis. The infrastructure impact tool estimates how different types of cycling infrastructure investment could affect cycle and car use. The calculations are based on experience from a ran

Chris Boardman, Olympic cycling champion, has been appointed as Greater Manchester’s first ever Cycling and Walking Commissioner. Greater Manchester’s Mayor, Andy Burnham, selected Boardman to help boost cycling and walking in Manchester, which was a key pledge in Burnham’s mayoral election manifesto. The announcement comes as the Mayor received and endorsed a four-year plan to get ‘Greater Manchester Moving’. Burnham has committed his leadership to implement the

Transport strategies that turn vehicle-dominated streets into ‘people places’ will do much to tackle the health and social challenges that we face, believes Lucy Saunders Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has placed the Healthy Streets Approach at the heart of his 25-year Transport Strategy. This will require all transport decisions and investments to benefit health by improving the 10 Healthy Street Indicators (right). Making public health the driving force behind a transport strategy may

A guide offering organisations in the Square Mile practical advice on how to get employees to switch to active travel is out now. 'Safer in the City' – Best Practice Guide 2017 has been developed by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the Active City Network – a forum created to promote safe active travel. The guide is full of case studies and interviews highlighting initiatives in a number of organisations across the City of London including the Bank of England, Nomu

Plans have been published to reconfigure the busy Fiveways junction in Croydon, south London, with the aim of making it safer for all road users.  Transport for London (TfL) and Croydon Council say the proposed improvements would help to reduce delays and congestion. They point out that the Fiveways area is often busy, with motorists and bus users experiencing congestion at peak times, especially on weekends when large numbers of visitors go to and from the retail parks along Purley Way.

Leeds City Council is to install an automated system to control vehicular access to the city centre’s pedestrianised core, amid heightened concern about the risk of terrorist attacks.  Traffic Regulation Orders restrict vehicular access into the streets between the hours of 10.30 to 19.00. But Leeds’ director of city development Martin Farrington told councillors the TROs had had only “limited success”. “Without regular police enforcement a substantial number

I read Mr Walker’s letter about Bath’s 20mph speed limits with interest (LTT 9 Jun). I think he is correct about the importance of setting the speed limit at the 85th percentile speed, or close to it. However, his position that the 85th percentile speed is comfortable and safe for motorists does not take into account that the 85th percentile speed is neither safe nor comfortable for more vulnerable road users, in particular cyclists. He suggests that a 20mph speed limit would requir

The need to create healthy streets is at the heart of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s first transport strategy, which sets out proposals to reshape transport in the capital over the next 25 years. The Draft Transport Strategy includes proposals for ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’ that encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport and to increase opportunities to use streets as public spaces and for play. The mayor wants to create ‘Healthy Routes’ - attra

The Government’s draft air quality plan published earlier this month says local authorities should only introduce charging Clean Air Zones (CAZs) if they are unable to identify “equally effective alternatives” for bringing NO2 concentrations down to within the European limit values (LTT 12 May).  Yet, as the accompanying technical report, running to 253 pages, makes clear, in many places charging CAZs are likely to be the only way to comply with the limit value in the sho

Some of Network Rail’s plans to close level crossings in Essex will put walkers in danger by diverting them onto unsafe roads, according to Essex County Council.  In March Network Rail made three Transport and Works Act Order applications to close, or downgrade to use by non-motorised users only, more than 100 crossings in the Anglia area (excluding Norfolk). Most are closures. The applications follow a public consultation and affect 24 crossings in Suffolk; 30 in Cambridgeshire; an

Some of those attending this year’s Cycle City Active City arrived in style, riding into Bradford on the Cycle Superhighway from Leeds. Not surprisingly, several local delegates referred to the route with pride during the two-day event.  The fully segregrated 23km cycleway, completed last year, forms the centerpiece of a range of infrastructure projects being implemented in West Yorkshire. Phase 2 of the CityConnect project is now focusing on improving cycling infrastructure in Hudde

A traffic ban at Bank Junction in the City of London comes into force today. Only buses and cycles will be allowed to use the junction from 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday under the experimental traffic order imposed by the City of London Corporation. This marks the first phase of plans to totally re-design the junction by 2021, which could result in the removal of all motorised traffic. The 18-month trial will cut the number of casualties and improve air quality, without impacting on traffic flow

Air pollution in the UK kills 25.7 out of every 100,000 people, making it one of the most deadly countries in Western Europe, according to the 2017 Health Statistics from the World Health Organisation. The figures show that, by comparison, morality rates from air pollution are 0.4 per 100,000 in Sweden, 12.1 in the United States, 14.6 in Ireland, 14.7 in Spain and 15.8 in Brazil. Meanwhile, new figures from Kings College London reveal that air pollution in the capital is now worse than levels

“Thanks to this Government’s intransigence about tackling air pollution, the battle to improve the quality of the air we breathe has played out not in the political arena but in the courts,” The Guardian said on 27 April, three days after the Government had attempted to delay publication of its air quality strategy, citing ‘purdah’ in advance of the upcoming General Election. “Time after time, the Government has found itself on the wrong side of the law&hellip

Persuading Londoners to walk and cycle more is an important part of mayor Sadiq Khan’s policy agenda. The person entrusted with the day-to-day delivery job is Will Norman, the mayor’s recently appointed walking and cycling commissioner. Appearing before the London Assembly’s transport committee last month, Norman explained that he’d spent six years working on ways to increase the population’s physical activity, the last three as director of global partnerships for s

Sustrans is to review the UK’s National Cycle Network and explore whether more of the network could be on traffic-free routes. The NCN project was launched by Sustrans in 1995 and the network now totals 16,000 miles, which is a mixture of traffic-free and on-road routes.   Sustrans chief executive Xavier Brice revealed the plans to review the NCN to LTT this week. “We are embarking on a review of the National Cycle Network – we’re just in the process of scoping it

English local authorities outside London are being invited to bid for consultancy support to prepare local walking and cycling infrastructure plans (LWCIPs).  Guidance on preparing the non-statutory plans has just been published by the DfT alongside the new Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (see above). The guidance draws on Transport for London’s cycle design guidance and the Welsh Government’s active travel guidance.  In preparing LWCIPs, the DfT says councils sho

A new bridge for cyclists and pedestrians across the River Aire in Leeds opened this week. The Skelton Bridge opens up future access to Rothwell Country Park. Leeds City Council invested £500,000 and Sustrans designed and installed the structure. 

Recently there has been a paradigm shift in approaches to active travel within the transport and urban planning industry. Just five years ago, cycling was still seen as a niche pursuit, often accommodated by paint on tarmac and the liberal sprinkling of ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs across the nation, while walking was considered something one did from the door to the car.  With growing awareness of active travel’s myriad benefits for air quality, public health, reducing cong

A £1.2bn plan to make cycling and walking mainstream modes of travel for shorter journeys has been published today by the government.  The Department for Transport (DfT) has pledged to double cycling, reduce bike-related accidents and increase the proportion of 5 to 10 year-olds walking to school to 55% by 2025. Funding will be allocated to a wide range of projects designed to create safer cycling routes, new cycle links between city centres, provide more cycle proficiency and safet

The benefits of walking range from positively impacting local economic growth, to being effective as a prevention to and treatment of physical and mental health conditions. Despite this, 69% of short journeys are still taken by car and there has been a national decline in walking activity. 1  Encouraging the uptake of walking as a natural choice for shorter journeys will require us to think of longer term solutions, to ensure our walking networks are fit for purpose. Local networks will ne

Hull has one of the greatest potentials for cycle commuting of any English city, according to research using the DfT’s Propensity to Cycle software. Using 2011 Census data about main mode of journey to work, the software tool estimates which journeys could be easily switched to cycling, based on journey distance and topography.  Researchers tested two scenarios. In Go Dutch, they applied Dutch rates for cycle commuting to England, adjusting for distance and hilliness. In the Ebikes

Network Rail is seeking financial contributions from the developer of a proposed building outside Cardiff Central station, saying the development will generate additional passenger footfall. Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy said last year that the private sector should contribute more to rail enhancements. While attention has focused on major projects such as Crossrail 2 in London or East West Rail between Oxford and Cambridge, Network Rail’s stance on the Cardiff development indicat

Sedentary lifestyles are too common these days, and this comes at great cost to our health and to the public purse. But building in 20 minutes of recommended physical activity every day isn’t always easy. One way to change this would be to make physical activity part of our daily routine, and this is where the PASTA project comes in. The EU-funded project PASTA – Physical Activity Through Sustainable Transport Approaches – aims to connect transport and health by promoting activ

The City and County of Swansea Council plans to remodel a major city centre street after the previous remodelling, ten years ago, was judged a failure.  The remodelling of the east-west Kingsway in 2006 was part of a larger £11m project to prepare Swansea for the introduction in 2009 of the ‘Metro’ cross-city bus service operated by FirstGroup using its ‘ftr’ articulated buses.  Two-way bus lanes were installed on the southern carriageway, leaving the no

Next time you’ve got the chance to go away for a few days, leave the arrangements to someone else. I recommend it. Left to myself, there’s no chance I’d have chosen to rent a house in Pateley Bridge, in North Yorkshire, in February. But ‘er indoors did; and, despite the weather being cold, often overcast, and occasionally wet, we’ve just had a very enjoyable time in Nidderdale, with the small town we stayed in being a large part of the reason why. Before the holid

A cycling strategy is not only about getting more people on bikes. It’s about positive development and health, it’s about safety, social equality and well-being. That's what cycling and walking strategies can deliver. Policy, planning and urban design is part of the mix: it’s about tying these things together, and it transcends a transport plan. We need to change the conversation. We need to go back to first principles and talk about people. This includes understanding how we d

The ambitious targets range from doubling cycling, reversing the decline in walking activity, reducing cyclist fatalities or serious injuries and increasing the number of children (aged 5-10 years) walking to school. The benefits are far-reaching, from encouraging local economic growth, to positively impacting health and well-being and promoting sustainable transport modes. However local authorities must recognise the true value the strategy can bring, and commit to developing bespoke plans for

We may not be able to predict what the future of transport will be, but we can be sure of what it will not be. And we can be wiser. There is no need to scan deeply into the horizon to spot the green shoots of change: they are everywhere to see. We may not be sure exactly what shape it will take, but we know that the revolution in transportation and travel habits is going to be big. Increased robotics are already in every new vehicle: assisted parking, sensors, automated efficiency, and even sof

January – the time for fresh starts, a time when many of us will be resolving to get healthy – to go to the gym every day after work perhaps, or to join that running club. These good intentions can be hard to sustain as the winter chill draws you indoors towards box sets and comfort food. Fortunately, there is a way to boost your physical activity level without breaking too much of a sweat. It could be as simple as changing the way you travel. Transport is among the key issues deter

The UK’s first demonstration of a ‘teleoperated’ autonomous vehicle service for people with reduced mobility has been completed as part of the GATEway project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), which is being led by TRL. The demonstration, which took place at the InterContinental Hotel in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, used an autonomous-enabled Toyota Prius. It ma

Some of Europe’s leading cycling practitioners will converge on Bradford, West Yorkshire, this May for Cycle City Active City.  Now in its fifth year, the two-day event has earned a reputation for lively presentations, stimulating debates, an exhibition covering all aspects of active travel, ‘speed learning’ sessions and city cycle tours. This year’s event, taking place on 11-12 May, will be hosted by City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and organised

2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jane Jacobs, the great writer and urbanist. It’s fair to say that this landmark hasn’t received all the attention that it deserves, what with one or two other events dominating the news, but for anyone involved in planning, designing and building our towns and cities it is an anniversary worth celebrating because her ideas affect us all. Or, at least, they should.  Jane Jacobs is best known for her 1961 book, The Death and Life

Buses and taxis are to be banned from a busy shopping street in Oxford city centre on safety grounds.  Oxfordshire’s cabinet has approved plans for an experimental traffic regulation order (TRO) to close Queen Street to buses and taxis in time for the opening of the adjacent Westgate shopping centre this autumn. The future of cycling in the street is also to be reviewed.  Queen Street is already busy with pedestrians and footfall is expected to grow dramatically when Westgate o

Bridgend County Borough Council in South Wales is to return traffic to three pedestrianised streets in Bridgend town centre. The council says the  change is justified because of reduced pedestrian footfall brought about by changing shopping habits. Consultant Capita was commissioned to review the risks of increasing vehicular access to the streets. It concluded that doing nothing was the safest option if road safety was the only consideration.  But Mark Shephard, Bridgend’s cor

The widespread use of “risk averse” autonomous vehicles could make roads safer for pedestrians, resulting in people-friendly neighbourhoods, according to a new study from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Self-driving cars will “slow down and yield” to pedestrians and cyclists, said author Adam Millard-Ball, assistant professor at the university’s environmental studies department. “Autonomous vehicles could empower cyclists to ‘take the lane&rs

Trees and grass not only make town centres look greener, they make urban spaces healthier by reducing harmful particulates in the air. Scientists from EarthSense Systems and the University of Leicester published the results of a study into the effect of urban trees on air pollution. The results show a direct link between air pollution and green infrastructure, with trees and grass cover contributing to a reduction in concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The resea

The damaging effect of air pollution could be mitigated by the better design of roads and changes in driver behaviour, suggests the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The organisation, which provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care, has just published draft guidelines on Air pollutio

With a population of nearly 2.5 million people in its greater metropolitan area, Vienna is the largest city in Austria. The city is actively taking forward measures to improve sustainable transport, including stringent parking space management and improving conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. These policies are outlined in STEP 2025, Vienna City Council's Urban Development Plan, of which Andreas Trisko, Head of Department of Urban Development and Planning, City of Vienna, was a key contribu

A scheme that sees Croydon Council close a residential road so families can play safely outdoors has been voted the best in London. Croydon introduced Play Streets by making it easier for residents to apply for temporary road closures. More than 50 children and their parents from Love Lane in the Woodside area held their first Play Street event in September 2015. The event enabled residents to enjoy games in the sunshine while road was temporarily closed.  Love Lane’s Play Street ha

There is now considerable interest in how the transport sector makes places as well as connects them, says Jonathan Bray, Director, Urban Transport Group, in conversation with Juliana O'Rourke, programme developer for the Better Places Symposium and a director of the Better Places Network. The past focus on connecting places has been expressed via an interest in journey times and capacity and, although these issues remain important, there is now more attention paid to how well-designed and appr

For Mobility as a Service to succeed in cities, it should not just aim to meet the needs of travellers and service providers, but also contribute to the livability of places. James Gleave, Foresight Analyst, Transport Systems Catapult The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) has defined Mobility as a Service (MaaS) as 'using a digital interface to source and manage the provision of a transport related service(s) which meets the mobility requirements of a customer'. There are two core strengths

When the Maesteg branch line in South Wales reopened to passengers in 1992, the new train service operated Mondays-Saturdays only. The scheme was pared back to satisfy the Welsh Office, sceptical of the benefits of investing in local railways. Sunday services would have required additional revenue support, demand for travel on Sundays being lower than on other days. Two years later, the Sunday Trading Act 1994 provided for large shops in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to open for limited h

On 17 September Guardian columnist Deborah Or  took aim at people who use their mobile phones whilst driving. “What killed Lee Martin [a recent victim of a texting motorist] was the arrogance, stupidity, irresponsibility, lies and casual defiance of 30-year-old Christopher Gard [the motorist in question],” she said. “Gard… didn’t consider that he needed to focus and concentrate while driving a van at 65 miles an hour and this was not because Gard hadn&rsq

Many bridges have been built in recent years to provide routes for cyclists and pedestrians. However, with distressing frequency, these bridges have proved not fit for purpose.  In July a cyclist was seriously injured after he fell off his bike on the new Twin Sails Bridge in Poole. The cyclist, Andrew Gay, fell against barriers and seriously gashed his arm, which resulted in him needing 40 stitches.  There have been other incidents relating to this bridge, but nothing seems to have

The revised Traffic Signals Regulations and General Directions (TSRGD) could serve as a major boost for those developing new systems. Among the driving forces behind the changes were cutting the number of road signs, making them easier to understand and removing some of the red tape around their specification, said senior Department for Transport engineer Sally Gibbons.  These changes are designed to help ease the process of designing and specifying road signs and signals, said Gibbons at

The winners of the Cycle Planning Awards 2016 were announced at Glaziers Hall, Southwark last night. With 90 entries submitted, which were then whittled down to a shortlist of 32, there was fierce competition for the eight categories, judged by a panel of respected figures from the world of cycling.  The chair of the judging panel was Philip Darnton OBE, executive director of the Bicycle Association. Other members of the panel were:  Dr Rachel Aldred, senior lecturer in transport at W

A research programme is seeking to identify the key components needed to develop community wellbeing. Place and space are essential elements in developing a feeling of community wellbeing. This was among the initial findings of a programme carried out by The What Works Centre for Wellbeing, a consortium of four universities and five civic organisations. The team, which is carrying out a Community Wellbeing Evidence Programme, contacted an “extensive national mailing list of stakeholders&

An expansion of London’s congestion charge zone and the introduction of a workplace parking levy could help restrain traffic growth, Sustrans has told the London Assembly’s Transport Committee’s investigation into traffic congestion. Sustrans called to a full feasibility into the introduction of an extended, usage-based road charging scheme for London, covering as much of Greater London as feasible. The charity suggested that such a study would need to consider the potential c

Plans for a safer and simpler gyratory system around King’s Cross have received the backing of the majority of people living, working or passing through the area who responded to a consultation. The plans, developed by Transport for London (TfL) and Islington and Camden councils, include new road layouts and better facilities for pedestrians and cyclists, which were supported by 70% of those who responded to the consultation held earlier this year. TfL says the next step is to consider a

Transport for London has published a new map of zones 1 and 2 of the London Underground, showing how many steps it takes to walk between neighbouring stations. Oxford Circus to Tottenham Court Road is 900 steps; Leicester Square to Covent Garden 400; Victoria to Green Park 1,900; and Euston to King’s Cross St Pancras 1,200. The Walking Steps Map is intended to encourage travellers to walk rather than take the Tube for short journeys, helping to relieve pressure on the Tube network. The map

Plans for a North-South Cycle Superhighway linking King’s Cross and Elephant & Castle have been approved by the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL). The 5km route, also known as Cycle Superhighway 6 (CS6), will be either fully separated from traffic, or on quiet back streets. At its northern end, the route will connect both with the planned Quietway 2, and Central London Grid routes. This will allow cyclists to travel safely to Hackney, Walthamstow, Camden and Swiss Cottag

A new version of the London underground map that shows how many footsteps it takes to walk between stations in Zones 1 and 2, has been introduced by Transport for London (TfL). The new map is the first official version in the world to show the number of steps between stations. It follows TfL's Walking Tube map, launched last year, which shows the walking times between stations.  London Mayor Sadiq Khan says the map will be a fun and practical way to help busy Londoners who want to make wa

Modest improvements at street level can be more effective and satisfying than expensive, highly designed interventions, believes Hank Dittmar  It seems like London is awash with grand transport projects. These range from CrossRail to HS2 to the Cycle Superhighways and the Garden Bridge, and they all promise to transform this world city through big money, big engineering and big design. In all the focus on big projects, I fear we are ignoring the impact that many small actions can have in t

The number of residents cycling in Wandsworth has increased at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country, according to new data published by the Department for Transport (DfT). The DfT’s Local Area Walking and Cycling Statistics: England, 2014/15, reveals that the south London borough’s highest annual cycling statistics increased from 18% to 31%, a 12.5% increase over the period between 2013/15. This was followed by South Norfolk with a 10.6% increase and Barrow-in-Furness on

Social media and interactive websites are key to encouraging communities to participate in the consultation process, believes AECOM’s Hugh McCarthy With the world becoming increasingly urbanised and people often living closer together, public engagement is more important than ever to transform streets and places and deliver the best outcomes for all. While experienced transport specialists can design and implement effective active travel infrastructure, the process also requires communit

Creating places rather than mere developments is vital for the future success of the capital as well as the health of its citizens, argues Patricia Brown  Cities such as London are complex ecosystems, buffered by competing forces of needs. At its base level, the ‘Maslow Hierarchy of Needs’ for cities is relatively simple; our citizens need an education, an affordable place to live, and the ability to feel safe and secure as they move around their city.  Yet over the past

Plans to remove part of the roundabout at Highbury Corner and replace it with a new public space has been supported by the majority of residents, according to Transport for London (TfL), writes Patrick McDonnell. TfL has published the results of a joint consultation with Islington Council on improving cycle and pedestrian facilities at Highbury Corner.  Under the proposals, changes to Highbury Corner would include: • Closing the western side of the roundabout to create two linked pu

London’s deputy mayor for transport, Val Shawcross, has made some welcome statements on reviewing the transport disaster that is currently Oxford Street, particularly in the pragmatic and practical approach of taking this in stages, beginning with more pedestrian weekends, and a three-stage ‘conversion’ plan, an obvious requirement when you start to make a closer study of the area (‘Shawcross sets out ambition for traffic-free Oxford Street’ LTT 22 Jul).  As a

Measures to improve air quality across Greater Manchester have been approved. An updated Greater Manchester Low-Emission Strategy (LES) and Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) were agreed at a meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on 29 July. The documents, which were also ratified by members of the Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) Committee, will be finalised and published later this year ahead of air quality and emission reduction programmes being implemented. The AQA

More than 15,000 fines have been issued to motorists who have flouted a traffic ban on a route in Waltham Forest over the past year. The Orford Road scheme in the Walthamstow Village area is part of the Mini-Holland programme funded by former London Mayor Boris Johnson to make routes safer for cyclists and pedestrians.  Orford Road has been designated a traffic-free route between 10am and 10pm with the exception of the W12 bus service.   A fixed camera captures contraventions, which

Collaboration and emotional engagement in urban regeneration can deliver far reaching social and commercial benefits, believes Project Centre’s Sam Neal, who is speaking at Transforming London’s Streets Human beings are creatures with feelings and emotions in everything we do and everywhere we are. It’s odd, therefore, that areas at the heart of our everyday lives

Safety must be the most important element of road design, superseding traffic flow and capacity, writes Peter Siemensma, senior transport planner at Arcadis With the number of people cycling in the UK steadily increasing, there has also been a rise in fatal collisions. In the UK, 100 cyclists have died this year, as well as 409 pedestrians. This is an issue that cannot go on and vulnerable road users must be protected by providing safe infrastructure. In the past, infrastructure in the UK was

Oxford Street will be pedestrianised by 2020, the mayor of London's office has announced. All traffic, including buses and taxis, will be banned from the shopping street as part of mayor Sadiq Khan’s plans to reduce air pollution in the capital. Valerie Shawcross, London's deputy mayor for transport, told the London Assembly on Wednesday that the plan was to ban all traffic along Oxford Street from Tottenham Court Road as far as Marble Arch.

People working in a business development project in Bristol can now use a locally developed online portal to find others to share their journey into work across a range of modes. The Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone (BTQEZ) has opted into joinmyjourney a free-to-use portal that enables staff to find walking, cycling or commuting companions to share their journeys, either regularly or as a one off trip.

Councils across England are being asked to bid for a share of the Department for Transport’s £60m Sustainable Travel Access Fund. The fund has been launched to encourage councils to offer sustainable transport initiatives which can improve access to jobs, skills, training and education. The cash will support projects over three years from 2017 to 2020.

A £60m fund is a "significant contributor" to the resources available for the Government's strategy to increase cycling activity, the DfT has said. The revenue-only Access Fund is designed to complement other funding, most notably the competitive capital fund, the Local Growth Fund, bids for which have to be led by local enterprise partnerships. The Access Fund, in contrast, is aimed at local transport authorities in England outside London. They will need to "articulate a strategic narra

Chris Harrison has joined design and public realm consultancy Project Centre as an associate director.  Harrison was formerly traffic manager with the London Borough of Waltham Forest, where he led on the £27m Mini Holland Programme to encourage and support cycling and walking within the borough.  He was also involved in the development and implementation of the borough’s movement and parking strategy for London 2012 Olympic Games and was the borough’s traffic manag

The High Court has refused disability campaigner’s a judicial review of Reading Borough Council’s decision to switch-off a pedestrian crossing in the town centre.  The lights at the Target Junction, a crossroads at one end of the pedestrianised Broad Street were switched off in 2015. Guide Dogs says the decision has made the area a “virtual no-go area for many people living with sight loss”. Unity Law launched a legal case against the council on behalf of guide do

A multi-modal app-driven approach to transport in San Francisco has led to a dramatic fall in car usage in the US city, according to Timothy Papandreou, chief innovation officer and director at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). Speaking at the Imagine Festival in Milton Keynes on Tuesday, Papandreou said that SFMTA had set itself the target of reducing car use from 60% to 50% of miles travelled by 2018. But thanks to a range of ‘connectivity’ measures it achieve

Cancelling the proposed Garden Bridge over the Thames in central London will cost the taxpayer more than building it, London’s new mayor Sadiq Khan has said. Khan pledged last summer to scrap the pedestrian bridge if elected mayor, saying it didn’t represent value for money and the taxpayer contribution could be put to better use pedestrianising Oxford Street.  He has now changed his mind. “From the point at which I became mayor, it was quite clearly in London taxpayers&

Just so you know, this is the second time in the past year that I’ve used Stevie Wonder lyrics for my title. I trust the reason for my using these words this time will become clear. Last month, as during every May since 2011, I walked to work. My office is around 12 miles from my home, so one commute on foot per year is the most I can really manage. But why even one? Well, in 2011, I became a trustee of Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. Living Streets designates May as

Dublin City Council has come under fire for pressing ahead with plans for a pedestrian and cycle plaza days after a consultation on the proposals closed. The Irish Times has reported former transport minister Noel Dempsey has written to the council attacking it for issuing contracts for a scheme to close College Green to traffic after the consultation closed on the 24th May. He was reported as saying that he was surprised that the tender was issued prior to "any response to or consideration of

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Heathrow Airport has appointed a cycle officer to help increase the number of staff cycling to work. Ali Jafarey is leading a one-year partnership between the airport and sustainable transport charity Sustrans. The partnership will work to make the airport’s cycle routes safer, more accessible and train airport colleagues to feel more confident on their bikes.

The City of London and the borough of Camden have removed low-level plastic/rubber blocks that separate cycle lanes from the rest of the carriageway after numerous instances of pedestrians tripping over them. The City of London installed ‘mini-orcas’ on the inside of the white line separating a cycle lane from the rest of the carriageway on Aldgate High Street but removed them after four weeks. A spokesman explained the background to LTT: “The traffic separator devices, known

Councillors in Croydon have agreed to give cyclists permanent access to a busy pedestrianised street at all times of day, despite opposition from groups representing the elderly and partially sighted, and the owners of adjacent shopping centres. The decision affects North End, a north-south shopping street close to West Croydon railway station. Surveys show  thousands of pedestrians use the street each hour of the day.  North End was pedestrianised in 1989, with cycling permitted in

As elected mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby was able to fulfill his long-held ambition to turn the Nicholas Place car park into a public space. “As council leader I could never have made the major improvements to the space that is now Jubilee Square,” he says. Before becoming mayor it had proved “impossible” to change the site due to “a combination of contentious issues” such as removing the car park, moving bus stops and cutting down a tree.  The council estima

The discovery of a slain king under a car park and the emergence of a football team that has defied the odds have both played a key role in raising the profile of Leicester. The East Midlands city attracted global media coverage in 2012 when the skeleton of King Richard III was discovered under a council car park. After DNA testing confirmed that the remains belonged to the last Plantagenet ruler, reinterment took place at Leicester Cathedral last year. This has prompted the arrival in Leiceste

Over 8,000 NHS workers across Bristol and South Gloucestershire can now use a specially-developed journey sharing app. North Bristol NHS Trust is the latest organisation to sign up to joinmyjourney, a free-to-use scheme that enables staff to find walking, cycling or commuting buddies to share their journeys, either regularly or as a one-off. The Trust has committed to reducing carbon emissions, and monitoring the impact of travel and transport across its sites, which include Southmead, Co

The road sign that signifies children crossing has been given a makeover by its designer, Margaret Calvert, over 50 years. The release of the remastered sign marks the finalisation of major overhaul of the UK’s traffic signage regulations. The UK’s current system of traffic signs came into effect on 1 January 1965, following the Anderson Report and the Worboys Report of 1961-63. The graphic designers employed for both were Margaret Calvert and the late Jock Kinneir. The system produ

A mile? Five miles? A bit more or less? If you are a typical adult who doesn’t count every step or heartbeat with a hi-tech wearable fitness monitor, it’s a safe bet that your answer will be some version of ‘I haven’t a clue’. After all, for most of us walking is something we do in between other activities, almost unconsciously, barely giving it a thought. We walk to the car, bus, Tube or train, but the real business of getting from place to place, the stuff we con

This year the government will lay out a process to be followed by councils in planning walking and cycling routes through the Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans. To help councils decide where to build these new routes we have developed the Propensity to Cycle Tool (PCT).  The model, funded by the DfT, helps planners to identify areas of greatest unmet demand for non-motorised modes. It uses origin-destination data, initially commuting data from Census 2011, and allocates trips to the

“Cyclists and their powerful backers are destroying London for the rest of us,” media personality Janet Street-Porter said in a column in The Independent on 25 March. “By championing bikes to such a ludicrous level, as his ‘legacy’ project, [London mayor] Boris [Johnson] is as blinkered as the car lobby and lorry drivers. “I’ve finally had enough of Boris Johnson – the man who has brought a wonderful city to its knees in the name of cycling,&rdquo

 LTT was amused to receive a picture from a reader who is less than impressed with London mayor Boris Johnson’s cycle superhighways. It’s not, however, the only example of the bike lanes being put to unexpected uses. The Evening Standard reports a fleet of minicabs being spotted driving up one superhighway late at night. A few days later the paper reported that the superhighway on the Victoria Embankment was “being overrun with joggers”. “Bike riders are being

The Labour controlled Exeter Council has pledged that cycling, walking and park & ride will be boosted if it retains council control in May. It has promised to introduce smart ticketing on buses and trains.  The cabinet said it would set up a Transport Board to serve the city, bringing together transport providers, the public sector, cycling groups and others to develop a strategic plan to improve transport and reduce congestion, arguing the rural dominated county council, which is for

Six well-known figures from the world of transport took part in a contest to secure ‘virtual funding’ at Smarter Travel LIVE! held at ArenaMK last month. More than 700 delegates attended the two-day event, organised by Landor LINKS and hosted by Milton Keynes Council. Hosted by the TAS Partnership, the I’m a Transport Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here! session proved popular with delegates. The six transport ‘celebrities’ competed for the virtual £250,000

A traffic calming trial outside a south London primary school has prompted feedback showing that 91% of residents believe vehicle speeds went down significantly. The trial was prompted by growing concern after 12 collisions near Richard Atkins Primary School resulting in injury between 2010 and 2014, four of which involved children under the age of 10. Lambeth Council changed the road layout on New Park Road to slow down traffic and create a safer, more pedestrian-friendly zone. The new layout

THE publication of the DfT’s first-ever cycling and walking investment strategy this week received a lukewarm response from active travel campaigners who said it lacked the funding to turn the statements of ministerial ambition into reality. Transport minister Robert Goodwill said the Government was “determined to make this country a cycling and walking nation, comparable to the very best in the world”.  The DfTsaid the strategy marked a “major shift from short-ter

My thoughts this month have been variously inspired, prompted and provoked by a few titles and headlines I’ve come across in just the past week. These come from three particular documents, all of which I urge you to read (they’re available online). In order of publication, they’re a report on the London ‘Mayor’s Vision for Cycling, Three Years On’; the Department for Transport’s consultation on its Draft Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy; and an ar

The Scottish Parliament is under pressure to amend the Scottish Government's draft budget to transfer one per cent of the funding for trunk roads and motorways to active travel. Ahead of a vote in the Parliament, a coalition of organisations led by Spokes is appealing to MSPs in the Scottish press to not spend £820m on building major roads whilst only spending £41m on improving walking and cycling paths. The organisations, also including Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, Friends of the E

Xavier Brice (pictured) has been appointed the new chief executive of Sustrans, succeeding Malcolm Shepherd who is retiring, having held the position since 2008. Brice will take up the post in June and joins from Transport for London, where he is head of the ‘fit for the future’ stations transformation programme, introducing new operating models to London Underground stations. He describes himself as a “lifelong cyclist and long-time supporter of Sustrans”. Brice was prin

Funding of £20m for active travel projects is to be made available in 2016/17, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced.The government says it will “look favourably” on bids that support its manifesto commitments to double cycling and reduce the numbers of cyclists killed or seriously injured. It is also seeking schemes that support access to work, skills, education or training, for example, by improving cycle-rail links. Transport authorities in England, excluding Lond

Transport for London (TfL) has launched the third edition of its Streetscape Guidance, a document designed to the standard for how the capital’s streets and public spaces will look and feel in the years to come. The document was launched as part of the Streets Ahead exhibition at New London Architecture (NLA), which runs until the end of February. The Streetscape Guidance focusses on finding the right combination of materials and using leading-edge design to create streets and public spa

The number of car club bays in Waltham Forest is to go up from 37 to 45 to reflect a rise of nearly 60% in car members over the past year. There are now more than 4,000 car club members in the borough, said the council. Funding for the eight new ZipCar bays has been sourced from Section 106 payments that developers are obliged to make towards improvements in infrastructure in the local area. A second car club service is provided by DriveNow, which launched in the borough in February 2015. While

Beat the Street, the programme that gets residents to compete against each other to see who can walk, cycle or run the furthest, has released figures that show that significant numbers of participants are driving less. The programme, run by the firm Intelligent Health, involves players tapping a special card on sensors called Beat Boxes placed about half a mile apart around their town. At least two Beat Boxes must be tapped in an hour for a player to score points for their team. As well as comp

Councillors in Edinburgh have over-ruled objections to proposed signed-only 20mph limits on residential streets and shopping areas across the city.  The city-wide 20mph limits will be implemented in six phases beginning with the city centre and rural west Edinburgh in July and ending with the southern fringe of the council area in February 2018.  A network of 30mph and 40mph roads is being retained but the 20mph limit will apply to many important roads, including Queen Street in the

Vehicular traffic may be banned from streets outside more schools in East Lothian at the start and end of the school day, under council proposals.  In 2014 the council introduced experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) to ban moving traffic on two roads outside schools in Haddington between 08.30 and 09.30 and 15.00 and 16.00. The aim of the ‘school streets’ is to improve road safety and encourage children to walk/cycle to school. Last summer councillors agreed to make t

Transport for London is making changes to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists in and around the notorious Bow Roundabout in east London.  New signalised pedestrian crossings are being installed across Bow Road and Stratford High Street as well as crossings to link Bow Road and Stratford High Street via the roundabout.  Non-signalised crossings on the A12 Blackwall Tunnel northern approach slip roads will be removed.  The ‘early start’ signals for cyclis

Regular cycling and walking reduces the risk of all causes of death by 30%, according to a review of the evidence in the U.S.A review of 30 health impact modeling studies quantifying the benefits from walking or cycling due to increases in physical activity, and the resulting risks from exposure to air pollution or crashes, have "demonstrated that health benefits from active travel outweigh risks," says Active Living Research. And this is the case, it says, even with a US cycling fatality rate f

Just 4% of women frequently travel by bike in Wales, new figures from the Welsh Government have revealed. The report says that 6% of the population in Wales aged 16 or over make active travel journeys by bike at least once or twice a week (9% of men and 4% of women). Figures for the proportion of children who cycle to school were also low; in 2014-15 just 2% of primary school children typically cycled to school, with 5% cycling a distance of up to one mile. The proportion of secondary school c

The DfT is to change the way short walks are recorded in the National Travel Survey (NTS), in an attempt to correct their under-reporting. NTS participants are currently asked to record short walks – those over 50 yards but under a mile – only on the final day of their travel diary (day seven), in order to reduce the reporting burden on participants.  In 2013 an experiment found that more short walks were recorded if participants were asked to report them on day one. A repeat

The DfT has declared that increasing the number of people choosing to walk or cycle will help reduce congestion and therefore "support the delivery of our long-term economic plan to eliminate the deficit". The statement comes in its timetable for publishing its cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS), in which it sets out that the Government wants "walking and cycling to become the norm for short journeys". The DfT says that the CWIS will include "results to be achieved" and "standards t

Chancellor George Osborne announced a £580m new ‘Access’ fund for sustainable transport in Wednesday’s Spending Review. The funding is made up of £80m revenue and £500m capital to be awarded over the next five years. This represents a continuation of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), a programme launched by the Coalition Government in 2010 offering £560m to projects that promote changes to travel behaviour. The DfT says that next month it wil

When you bear in mind that the source quote dates back only as far as 1989, it’s rather amazing that the notion that ‘If you build it, they will come’ now finds itself in common usage. Of course, what the ghostly voice in Field of Dreams actually whispers is ‘If you build it, he will come’; but I offer you that fact purely to help you with some future movie quiz, not as a discussion point for this article. In my professional field, where the talk is more often of v

The Chancellor has found £500m to continue the Local Sustainable Transport Fund this Parliament. There will be £100m available in 2016/17 and each of the following years, the Comprehensive Spending Review documents reveal. The LSTF was a programme to promote changes in travel behaviour secured by the Lib Dem transport minister Norman Baker in the last Parliament and was due to end after the current financial year - although former transport minister Baroness Kramer wanted the L

Improving public transport services will do little to cut traffic levels without “constraints” such as road closures, pedestrianisation and road user charging, according to Dr Steve Melia, Senior Lecturer in Transport and Planning, University of the West of England.Speaking at the Intelligent City Mobility event, held at KIA Oval, he said: “Every measure that takes motor traffic off the roads frees up space for someone else.” In his book, Urban Transport Without the Hot A

After many years of progress in road safety in Great Britain (GB), recent figures suggest that casualty reduction trends may have come to an end. 1,775 people were killed on GB roads in 2014; this was 62 more than in 2013, and more than in 2012. While these are the three best years for road safety since records began, the fact that the figures are no longer falling is cause for concern. Every single person killed on our roads represents a tragedy so it is vital that, as a nation, we avoid being

Imagine an unexpected knock at the door from a police officer, come to tell you that the person you love most in the world won’t be coming home today, or ever again, because they have been suddenly, violently and needlessly killed in a road crash. By the end of today, five more families across the UK will have gone through this horrifying experience. Scores more will be facing up to a serious injury in a road crash. Brake is a road safety charity, best known for our work campaigning for s

My aim is a fairer, more civilised world. I work through road safety as I’ve twice been road injured by being cut into by drivers. Roads are the biggest risk that my family faces daily. Britain’s roads are far more dangerous than is appropriate or civilised. It’s also not fair or cost effective to allow so much danger in our public realm. Better public health and exercise patterns require us to prevent injuries, particularly on our home streets. Many of the road danger reduct

In the calendar year 2014 two elderly pedestrians were killed on the A49 road in the vicinity of the small town of Church Stretton, Shropshire (population 4,700). These deaths had a large impact on this small town, affecting many people and extending well beyond the boundaries of close family and friends. Both of those killed were well known and both were physically active and going about their normal everyday tasks. The World Health Organisation conclusion quoted in this article is clear and ac

Last year subways in London carried posters quoting the Roman politician, philosopher and lawyer Cicero: The safety of the people shall be the highest law. Were Cicero alive today, what would he make of the laws and practice relating to our traffic and that 25,000 people were reported killed or seriously injured on UK roads in 2014? Or of the terrible scale of death and injury in many newly-industrialising countries? Despite big falls in casualties in the past three decades, road traffic injury

The Intelligent City Mobility event starts with a plenary session, called The Car and the City, which addresses the question: What role should the car have in future urban mobility? To answer this question we must first understand why cities exist. Quite simply, they are unsurpassed when it comes to bringing people together. Their unique ability to comfortably accommodate so many people so close to each other makes them unparalleled as places to shop, work, learn, trade, create

On 5 October The Times reported: “An eight-year-old passenger and a pedestrian were killed when a double-decker bus crashed into a supermarket while being driven in a controversial ‘shared space’ road scheme.” Despite then implying that the accident happened because the driver of the bus had lost control of his vehicle, the paper then re-emphasised the point that the accident had occurred in a shared space area (the article was headlined “Deadly bus smash was on a

With apologies to Stevland Judkins (later Stevland Morris, and later still Stevie Wonder), my purpose in using his famous lyrics is simply to give a fresh perspective on a familiar problem: the remarkable preference that many people have for instinct over fact; for received wisdom over, well, wisdom. I should say here that I have considerable fondness for human intuition. Indeed, the need to exploit my ‘striker’s instinct’ is how I have always justified my blatant goal-hanging

A new bridge that is solely for the use of pedestrians and cyclists was officially opened in Reading last week. The Reading Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge, which crosses the Thames at Caversham, is part of Reading Borough Council’s LSTF package of measures which aims to create an additional 7,200 daily bus trips, 12,050 daily walking trips and 2,300 daily cycle trips across the town, whilst cutting congestion by up to 10%.

There were 1,775 reported road deaths in 2014, an increase of 4% compared with 2013, according to Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: Main Results 2014, published last week by the DfT. Pedestrians accounted for three quarters of the increase in fatalities between 2013 and 2014, with pedestrian fatalities increasing by 12 per cent from 398 in 2013 to 446 in 2014. The number of people seriously injured in reported road traffic accidents, meanwhile, increased by 5 per cent to 22,807 in 2014

Waltham Forest hosted this year’s London Cycling Show and, not surprisingly, the council’s Mini-Holland plans featured prominently in the conference programme. More than 200 delegates gathered for the conference and exhibition, organised by Landor LINKS, at the art deco Walthamstow Assembly Hall on 15 September. The day before the show Waltham Forest launched Mini-Holland, with the official opening of the Orford Road scheme in Walthamstow Village. Deputy leader of council Clyde Loak

Several streets in Edinburgh are now closed to cars during peak hours as part of a bid to make it safer for children to walk to school at the start and end of the day. The first phase of the School Streets scheme was launched on 22 September, which was World Car Free Day. The initiative aims to create a safer, more pleasant environment. The scheme promotes travel to school by walking and cycling. It is hoped this will, in turn, reduce congestion and pollution in the area. City of Edinburgh Coun

Sustainable transport charity Sustrans showcased a new way of trialling physical changes on a London street yesterday to busy streets as part of its celebrations to commemorate 20 years of the National Cycle Network. Inspired by the interlocking bicycle chain, the Sustrans’ ‘Street Kit’ is a modular temporary street furniture system that can be situated in a parking bay or on the carriageway, reclaiming space from motor vehicles.

A new phone app has been developed that informs cyclists and pedestrians which routes have the best air quality. CleanSpace, created by electronic engineering graduate Piñuela Rangel, uses air quality data from sensors, which is interpreted by the Environmental Research Group at King’s College, London University and from personal CleanSpace Tags fed into the app. The sensors measure carbon monoxide levels as a surrogate for vehicle pollutants, such as fine particulates known as PM

I wonder if you’re familiar with Rule 170 of the Highway Code. You certainly should be if you hold a driving licence, and exercise the privilege it grants you. Rule 170 tells drivers to “take extra care at junctions”, going on to say they “should watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way.” Rule 8 clarifies these relative priorities from the pedestrian’s perspective: &ldqu

My goal is a kinder, more civilised world. My focus is on road safety, as roads are where I’m most likely to die early. I’ve twice been injured on roads while cycling by drivers cutting me up from the left. Road deaths and serious injuries in Britain are rising, especially for the vulnerable, such as cyclists and older people. The costs associated with our dangerous roads are huge – the equivalent of £500+ per person per year if we take into account injury and damage onl

A proliferation of tactile paving could be implemented on streets if councils strictly adhere to new draft guidance from the DfT, a street designer warned this week.  The DfT’s consultation document says tactile paving should be used to demarcate the boundary of carriageway and footway wherever there is no level change between carriageway and footway, or a level change of less than 60mm. In these circumstances, the Department says the boundary between footway and carriageway should

Transport for London is to procure an automated predictive signalling system that adjusts traffic signal timings in response to short-term forecasts of traffic conditions.  The system will predict likely congestion and then take active steps to prevent it occurring, or minimise its effect, Alan Bristow, TfL’s director of road space management, told members of TfL’s finance and policy committee. Bristow said the system would be “at the heart” of a new surface intell

The London Borough of Camden is installing ‘stepped track’ cycle lanes, where the lane is set at a different height from the adjacent footway and carriageway. The lanes are being installed on Pancras Road, beside St Pancras International station. The road joins Royal College Street to the north, where Camden has already installed ‘light segregation’ cycle lanes that are segregated from motorised traffic by plastic Armadillos and plant boxes.  Works on Pancras Road

Firstly, a big thank-you to all of you who attended the Active Travel Network launch dinner. There are some photos from the event available here. We hope that you enjoyed the launch event, and many people have been asking what is next, and we are asking you, the members to make suggestions. The website will be launched this summer and provide a directory of members with individual profile pages for you to edit, this will be a searchable directory of expertise. We plan to include a ‘docum

Labour candidate Sadiq Khan and Lib Dem favourite Caroline Pidgeon in the contest for London Mayor have backed Oxford Street pedestrianisation after TfL said it was a possibility. Khan said: "We are one heatwave away from pollution levels not seen since the 1950s. That is bad for London and catastrophic for Londoners' health. That's why I will make pedestrianising Oxford Street, and turning it into a tree-lined shoppers' paradise, a major project for TfL. It won't be easy but it will be worthwh

The DfT has reported "significant increases in walking in England" as measured by the amount of people regularly walking at least ten minutes at least once a week. In England as a whole 47% of people walked at least five times a week, up from 44% for England the year before. There were increases of 12% or more in the percentage of people walking five times a week in ten local authorities in the year to 2013/14, led by Leeds, Corby, Guildford, Blackpool, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Birmingham and Leic

The London Borough of Croydon is to consult on introducing 20mph limits across the borough’s residential streets.  Kathy Bee, Croydon’s cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “We plan to assess demand one area at a time over the next three years, starting with residents in the north who already tell us speeding is a problem there.” The council estimates the programme could cost £1.5m to implement, spread over three years. Consultation on the nort

Dundee City Council is to consult on implementing 20mph limits in the city just months after the council rejected the idea saying lower limits were ineffective.  The council’s city development committee has accepted a motion from Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson asking officers to develop a policy for 20mph zones and limits and, as a first step, consult local communities on where 20mph would be appropriate.  Macpherson tabled a similar motion to the city’s fu

The London Borough of Waltham Forest is to close a number of residential roads to through vehicular traffic as part of its TfL-funded Mini-Holland project to encourage cycling.  The borough implemented temporary street closures in Walthamstow Village last September/October to assess their impacts on traffic flow and gauge local opinion. The council reports a 22% fall in traffic across the area – about 5,600 fewer vehicles a day, though traffic increased significantly on a number of r

I’m currently working on the ‘Near Miss Project’, which looks at how everyday non-injury incidents affect cyclists. The level of carelessness and even hostility many cyclists experience are staggering. A classic example is the MGIF (Must Get in Front) driver. The MGIF driver can’t bear to be behind a cyclist, and even if there isn’t enough room, they’ll squeeze past. They often then get stuck in traffic almost immediately. Perhaps many drivers don’t rea

Not surprisingly, the dominant topics of conversation at this year’s Smarter Travel were how the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) had re-shaped the active travel agenda, and whether teams would secure the funding needed to build on their achievements.  Representatives from the LSTF regions gathered at the Landor LINKS event, which attracted a capacity crowd of over 500, including local government officers, new technology entrepreneurs, urban designers, campaigners, academics a

The questions above represent a wide diversity of those that are often asked, in one form or another, and more or less politely, of people whose work involves some aspect of urban design. The questions are also of the kind that practitioners like me often ask of themselves. I challenge myself with such thoughts because I want to do a better job this time than I did last time. I want to learn, from both success and failure; I want to apply what I’ve learned; and I want to reflect construct

The Mayor of London and London Councils have approved a ban on any lorry not fitted with safety equipment to protect cyclists and pedestrians. The proposed 'Safer Lorry Scheme,' Britain's first, was backed by 90% of Londoners responding to a consultation. It will require vehicles of over 3.5 tonnes to be fitted with sideguards to protect cyclists from being dragged under the wheels in the event of a collission and Class V and Class VI mirrors giving the driver a better view of cyclists and pede

I was reading about the negative cost benefits of the Elephant & Castle project (‘Journey delays give Elephant & Castle makeover a negative BCR’ LTT 23 Jan). It occurs to me that, like cycling, the value of urban realm improvements is hard to assess.  What is an improvement? I would like to include a reduction in pollution, both chemical and others such as noise. Others may wish to include the vista of the location. There is a value to the work the City of London has do

Future governments will have to prepare a cycling and walking investment strategy for England after the Government amended the Infrastructure Bill in response to a campaign by active travel supporters. The cycling and walking strategy will be modelled on the investment strategies that already exist for the rail network and the strategic road network. “It would be ironic to have a road investment strategy without having a walking and cycling strategy alongside it,” said transport mi

A SCHEME to transform the northern roundabout at Elephant & Castle in south London into a pedestrian-friendly environment has a negative benefit:cost ratio because the monetised delays to vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians outweigh the monetised benefits.  Transport for London and the London Borough of Southwark are pressing ahead with the project, however, with TfL saying the scheme has a strong “qualitative business case”.  Elephant & Castle’s northern rou

The London Borough of Camden plans to implement ‘stepped track’ cycleways on some streets in the West End, whereby the cycle lane is built at a different height to the main road and footway.  The borough had been planning to implement cycle lanes on Gower Street, Bloomsbury Street, and Shaftesbury Avenue using  ‘light segregation’ such as  ‘armadillos’ but has instead opted for ‘stepped tracks’, similar to those on the Old Shoreham

My first column of 2015 brings me back to a subject that is very close to my heart and which, frankly, should be very much higher that it is on almost every transport practitioner’s agenda. More than that: irrespective of what the ‘agenda’ requires – what the polices are, what the brief states, what the politicians say – walking should be foremost in the minds of all professionals tasked with any work affecting urban highways. Even (dare I say it?) in their hearts.

A backbench Lib Dem rebellion has been launched to require a walking and cycling investment plan alongside the Government's road investment plan. Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert said that the £241m recently announced by the Deputy Prime Minister for cycling is the biggest single investment in cycling ever, this "still falls short of what we really need". The co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group urged - in a report announced at Landor Links' Cycle City Expo - that investme

I start with apologies to anyone anticipating a piece entitled ‘Nothing works without walking’. I promised this last month, but this will now be my New Year message. I go on to apologise to Peter Benchley for misusing a famous quote from ‘Jaws’ as my title. This month’s thoughts were prompted by several headlines I’ve read in recent weeks that focus on some very big numbers; and by the fact of it occurring to me that there’s often an inverse relationshi

  Sustainable local travel in England faces a challenge. Policy makers make positive noises about the value of walking and cycling for local journeys but the dedicated funding to support it will hit a brick wall in 2016 with the end of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF). Over the last four years, the LSTF has begun to revolutionise the way people move around our towns and cities, but letting it end in 2016 will not bring about the cycling revolution that Prime Minister David Came

I’m a big fan of Bill Bryson’s books. His Notes from a Small Island – in part, a wonderful layman’s take on urban design in Britain – is one I urge you to read. But it’s one of his non-travel books I’m really thinking of this month: Made in America: an informal history of the English language in the United States. It sounds pretty dull, but it isn’t at all; and it challenged my innate sense of the superiority of the Queen’s English over the v

The DfT is inviting local authorities in England to bid to form partnerships with the Government to improve conditions for walking and cycling.  The Department says partner councils will receive “access to supporting tools and incentives, including knowledge sharing, priority access to funding, and sector expertise”. They could also be first in line for any new funding streams for the modes. Councils can submit expressions of interest on an ad hoc basis. They must have, amongs

Boris Johnson has done more – much more – than any other politician to raise the political profile of cycling. But his eight-year tenure as London’s mayor will end 18 months from now and there’s no guarantee his successor will pursue the cycling agenda with the same gusto. Johnson is therefore determined to drive through big changes for cyclists in his final months and none is more ambitious – or controversial – than the plans for two almost completely segrega

This morning (15 October), I was woken by BBC Radio 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell announcing that the London Health Commission (LHC), in a new report, was recommending that the Mayor and other major London authorities should use their respective powers to make more public spaces smoke-free. Though this is just one of 64 recommendations that the LHC makes, it was plainly the one considered most ‘newsworthy’, doubtless because it’s the one most people are most likely to get most

The DfT has launched a consultation on a national cycling and walking delivery plan with the aim of making cycling and walking "the natural choices for shorter journeys". The Department wants a doubling of cycling and over half of children walking to school within a decade. However, the document only contains an "aspiration" for cycling and walking schemes to receive minimum funding levels of £10 per person per year by 2020/21 and no firm commitment. The strategy is described as

Carfreelondon is a campaign to free up London’s streets for the majority of London householders who do not own a private car. I want to redress the balance of London’s streets to truly represent the changing face of London, where more and more people living here choose to cycle, walk or take public transport, or use all three modes! Private cars are not only unsustainable in terms of space, congestion and pollution but also restrict the free movement of those wanting to use cleaner

TRANSPORT FOR LONDON, working with the University of Loughborough, has produced research indicating that changes to the design of HGV cabs could save the lives of significant numbers of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. The Loughborough Design School, a school of the University of Loughborough, was commissioned by TfL to show that realistic and economical changes to HGV cab designs can lead to tangible increases in the road safety of the roads for all, TfL says. The project was joint funded b

Cycling or walking to work is better for people’s mental health than driving to work, according to new research by health economists at the University of East Anglia and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR). In particular, active commuters felt better able to concentrate and were less under strain than if they travelled by car, their report says, and the researchers also found that travelling on public transport is better for people’s psychological wellbeing than drivin

Residents of England made fewer trips last year than at any time since the National Travel Survey began in 1972/73. Each person made an average of 923 trips in 2013 – down 16% on the 1,094 recorded in 1995/97, and 4% below 1972/73.  The DfT uses 1995/97 as a baseline for much of the NTS because it was when a methodological change was introduced.  Walking and car trips both show steep declines. The average number of walking trips per person has fallen 30% since 1995/97, from 29

Place and movement hierarchies increasingly form part of accepted thinking about the way we manage streets. For instance, they’re used in UK guidance such as Manual for Streets (MfS) 1 and 2, and Jones et al’s Link and Place (L&P). The methods seek to balance street functions more effectively, paying more heed to ‘place-ness’ and reminding us that streets are more than conduits for motor traffic. I worry, however, that the dichotomy between ‘movement’ and

Local sustainable transport fund projects have been allocated a further £65m so they can continue into the next parliament.  The DfT highlighted that its funding for 2015/16 levered in local contributions, including from the local enterprise partnership's Local Growth Deals, that take the total spend for the successful programmes to over £440m. Winners include South Yorkshire's £72m In Motion! All Together Better Travel initiative; East Sussex's £46m Better Ways to

The london Borough of Wandsworth is to hold a design competition for a new pedestrian/cycle bridge across the Thames despite continuing opposition from Westminster City Council to the bridge’s proposed location.  The bridge would link the Nine Elms regeneration area on the south side of the Thames (which includes the former Battersea Power Station site) with Pimlico in Westminster.  The Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership has proposed locating the crossing midway between the existin

Councillors in Cambridgeshire have approved revised designs for bus stops on two busy roads in Cambridge as part of a package of measures to give cyclists more priority.  The plans for Huntingdon Road and Hills Road include segregated cycleways with ‘floating bus stops’, whereby the cycle lane continues round the back of a bus stop, enabling cyclists to overtake stationery buses without entering the carriageway. The original design envisaged locating the bus shelters and the b

Flashing road studs have been installed on a pedestrian crossing in a retail park near Nottingham to improve road safety. Pole-mounted sensors activate the studs when a pedestrian is on the crossing. The system at the Giltbrook retail park uses LED warning signs from Swarco, studs supplied by Rennicks UK, and FLIR’s C-Walk pedestrian detectors. “The studs can be used on any privately-owned retail parks, leisure sites, bus stations, even hospitals,” explained John Swift of Renni

This month’s heading goes out to all you Helen Shapiro fans – you know who you are. Of course, the title of her 1961 hit actually ended with the word ‘happiness’; but then, as the saying goes, the key to happiness is health (and a short memory!). The reason I want to talk about transport and health this month arises from two principle sources. The first is the publication by Transport for London of what it calls “the world’s first Transport Health Action Plan

The DfT is to permit a new design of road crossing, similar to a zebra, that will allow cyclists to cross without having to dismount from their bicycles. The law currently requires cyclists to dismount and push their bikes across a zebra crossing. The Department committed to trialling a new form of crossing that cyclists could ride across in the 2011 document Signing the Way. “While we have been unable to authorise a trial of such a crossing in the interim, we have worked with stakeholde

The transport secretary has been urged to speedily adopt measures to improve lorry cab designs backed by the European Parliament, which would remove blind spots. Organisations representing cyclists and pedestrians wrote to Patrick McLoughlin after a story in the national press suggesting that two governments are seeking a 10-year delay through the Council of Ministers, which has to approve the proposed directive next month. It was reported that Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks are conc

Roads minister Robert Goodwill has pledged to swiftly review the DfT guidance on pedestrian crossing timings after criticism that the guidance walking speed is not adequate for older people. Goodwill said in the Commons yesterday that he would look into the situation given research suggesting that three-quarters of elderly people cannot get across before the signals change. "We are reviewing the situation. The updated puffin crossings have movement detectors, which allow extra time to be given.

Last issue’s front page story about Transport for London ceasing to install Puffin pedestrian crossings generated discussion on LTT’s LinkedIn group, with most contributors praising TfL’s announcement. “I think the TfL decision is absolutely right,” wrote retired transport operations planner, Robert Bolt. “All across the world, with the exception of Puffins, pedestrians crossing the road can see either a light or a countdown that gives them confidence as to h

As most of you doubtless recall (no?), my first article in these pages (August 2005 – this is episode 111) anchored its raison d’être in a piece of Government guidance entitled ‘By Design’. Published in 2000 by the then Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the then Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, By Design was something of a landmark document.  As hinted at by its subtitle – ‘Urban design in the planni

A 20mph speed limit on the Euston Road and an Ultra Low Emission Zone covering Euston station are among the ideas being studied by Transport for London and the London Borough of Camden in a masterplan for the area. A Euston Area Plan (EAP) and accompanying transport strategy have just been submitted for examination to the Planning Inspectorate by Camden, the Greater London Authority and Transport for London.   The EAP is a response to the Government’s plans to make Euston the termin

Councillors in Solihull are being urged to drop plans to replace signal-controlled pedestrian crossings with informal courtesy crossings as part of a public realm scheme. Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council plans to replace two signalised crossings with informal ‘courtesy crossings’ as part of the Solihull Gateway project in the town centre, focused on Station Road and Poplar Road.   But the Royal National Institute of Blind People and Guide Dogs are fighting the plans, sayi

No more Puffin pedestrian crossings are likely to be implemented in London, Transport for London said this week, despite  Puffins still being the DfT’s preferred form of crossing. Puffin (Pedestrian User-Friendly Intelligent) crossings were developed by the DfT and first authorised in 1996. They have the green man/red man pedestrian indicators on the nearside of the road in contrast to traditional crossings, which have farsided signals (Pelican crossings at mid-block and farside pede

“WHY IS Britain such a dangerous place for walkers?” Guardian columnist Nick Cohen asked on 6 April. “Tramping through the countryside is a joy, but our towns and cities provide a hostile environment for pedestrians, so why do governments always put the interests of motorists first?” Cohen then noted that: “Not one of the Metropolitan Police’s 32 boroughs lists the enforcement of traffic law as a priority. Deaths on the road are to today’s criminal just

Two hundred years ago it was hard to move much faster than walking speed. Horse-drawn carriages made slow progress on poor roads. With the coming of the railways in the 1830s, we were able to move faster. Towards the end of the nineteenth century the motorcar on improved roads set us on course for mass mobility.  Travel has always been constrained by time, the 24 hours of the day with many activities to be fitted in. An hour a day seems to have been the average amount of time for travel fo

Oliver Carsten’s demolition of “our” “road safety performance” (Letters LTT 21 Apr) is a welcome first step by a senior academic to catch-up with what the Road Danger Reduction (RDR) movement has been saying for decades. But stating the very obvious should be just that – only a first step. Carsten makes the obvious point that some people (the “vulnerable road users”, so called because – like most travellers on the planet – they happen t

Liverpool City Council is studying an intriguing new way to improve cycle safety. Officers told members last week: “We should look at cycle safety campaigns introduced elsewhere, including the campaign in Newcastle around giving cyclists a wide birth.” In the last issue this column reported from Maidstone in Kent where reader Malcolm Bulpitt stumbled upon ‘Pedestrians prohibited’ signs being used to alert drivers to a pedestrian crossing. Well, we’re pleased to r

Many thanks to Malcolm Bulpitt for sending in these pictures from Maidstone in Kent. “Our borough council has recently spent millions on a partial shared space scheme in the town centre but has received complaints from pedestrians, some of whom are apparently unhappy about crossing the main road without a formal controlled crossing facility,” he explains. “The planners’ response (I am sure a traffic engineer would have known better!!!) has been to put up the signs shown i

There are two, maybe three, reasons why I’m writing about a street called Exmouth Market this month. The first is that, since we moved just after the turn of the year, it’s now the street where my office is. The second is that it received the Academy of Urbanism ‘Great Street’ award in 2011. The (maybe) third reason is that, although it was off my previously beaten tracks, I once strolled along it in 2006, took a few photos while doing so, and have often referred to it si

It may be pushing it to suggest that the humble pedestrian is an endangered species but official figures do not make happy reading for those who believe in the power of two feet. According to the Government’s National Travel Survey the number of trips we make by foot each year fell more than a quarter (27%) between 1995/97 and 2012.  Huge numbers of people enjoy walking as a recreational activity but walking advocates have long struggled to get it taken seriously as a transport mode.

It is no surprise that Rod King (Letters LTT 24 Jan) tried to refute many of the points I raised in my Viewpoint article on 20mph speed limits. I will not go through all our points of disagreement, as readers who wish to compare our arguments can decide for themselves, but there are a couple of statements he made that cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. Mr King rather contemptuously dismisses the use of the 85th percentile principle for setting speed limits on the basis that it is “a re

London’s modal shift from private to public transport, cycling and walking continues apace, and is the main theme behind TfL’s annual Travel in London publication now in its sixth year. The 250-page document – which generally reflects the 2012 calendar year and the 2012/13 financial year – says that journey stages in the capital by private transport have declined from 46% in 1993 to 33% in 2012, whereas those made by public transport have increased from 30% to 44% during

Transport minister Robert Goodwill has said the police should use discretion in enforcing the law against pavement cycling.  Goodwill has told new campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists that he supports guidance originally issued by Labour Home Office minister Paul Boateng following the introduction of fixed penalties for pavement cycling. The guidance states: “The introduction of the fixed penalty is not aimed at responsible cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out

Pedestrian campaign group Living Streets is calling for an extra three seconds of green man time on pedestrian crossings to allow the elderly to cross in comfort. The group says research by University College London’s department of epidemiology and public health has found that many people over 65 walk much slower than the current assumed walking speed of 1.2 metres per second in the DfT guidelines for pedestrian crossings. For men the average speed was 0.9 metres per second and for women

Do you ever just sit, or stand, and watch people go by? If you don’t, you should. If you do, maybe you should do it some more. The life of a town or city is to be seen in its streets. By which I mean, streets are where many people do lots of things. However, while this may make them fascinating places to be in from a personal perspective, it makes them extremely complex fields of professional endeavour. The things I do in my local high street vary both enormously and unpredictably: depend

Have you ever had a visit from a personal travel planner? No? Well, if your doorbell rings next summer (and you live in England), there’s a reasonable chance you’ll be greeted by a cheery adviser, eager to offer you maps and advice about local cycle routes and bus services. And, if you’re really lucky, you may even receive a free seven-day bus ticket!  Thanks to funding from the DfT’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund, perhaps as many as 200,000 homes will be targete

A "landmark" law to require local authorities to plan comprehensive walking and cycling networks in Wales has been granted Royal Assent by Her Majesty the Queen. The Active Travel (Wales) Act - which is considered to be a world first - makes it a legal requirement for local authorities in Wales to map and create fully integrated transport networks that consider the needs of walkers and cyclists. The Welsh Government says that the Act, by requiring councils to connect key sites such as workplac

Manifestations of the ‘one-track-mind’ approach to street design may be as comprehensive as entire philosophies, like: “segregation should be the keynote of modern road design”, which was enshrined in UK highway design policy from 1946. Or they may be a fixation with just one mode of transport, like: “we need more/free parking”; pedestrianisation that makes whole streets (even whole centres) dead after the shops shut; excessive bus priority zeal; or an unwilli

The National Assembly for Wales this week strengthened the nation’s Active Travel Bill  as it passed its final legislative stage.  Assembly members approved a series of amendments tabled by the Labour administration’s culture and sport minister John Griffiths.  One places a duty on ministers and local authorities to “promote” walking and cycling. “We wanted to be explicit about it,” Griffiths told LTT. “I think it’s valuable to hav

Proverbially, there are lies, damn lies, and what? No: the time-honoured answer is not ‘The outputs from traffic models’; nor is it ‘Eric Pickles’ take on high street parking’; nor is it even “The Alliance of British Drivers’ Twitter feed”. The answer is, of course, ‘statistics’. The thrust of the maxim is that we should be on guard against the way numbers are used to make a case. The numbers themselves may be accurate, and their use

A?Labour Government would place new duties on local authorities in England to support walking and cycling.  Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle told MPs this week that Labour would bring forward legislation similar to the Active Travel (Wales) Bill that is currently passing through the National Assembly for Wales.  “We should learn from Wales and extend to England its active travel legislation, which sets out clear duties on local authorities to support cycling,” she s

Camden has delivered several projects in the past eight years or so to improve the walkability of the southern section of the borough, and its economic vitality. One of the first projects undertaken to encourage walking was the creation of a small public space in Museum Street in Bloomsbury, near the British Museum, and Tim Long is keen to point out how well this scheme has worked. “By closing just a short section (20 metres) of road to motor traffic the streetscape was completely changed

Swindon Borough Council Cycle Loan Scheme Swindon’s cycle loan scheme is an innovative and engaging project that allows commuters to borrow a bike for free before deciding whether to buy one outright. The scheme is run by an organisation called Recycles, a social enterprise set up as part of the Salvation Army in Swindon. Recycles provides a pool of 30 bikes of various shapes, sizes and styles, including electric and folding bikes. The enterprise also provides employment for people who

PACTS, the Parliamentary Advisory Committee for Transport Safety, has a long record of careful evidence-based policy campaigning. Its recommendations are always taken seriously and often, when the time is right, put into practice. They pay strong attention to research, especially research based on empirical outcomes in the real world; this in turn relies on a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of official statistics, and their most recent report is a case in point. The report, S

The National Assembly for Wales has voiced disquiet about the Welsh Government’s decision to allocate the promotion of walking and cycling to a different ministerial portfolio from the rest of transport. In a ministerial reshuffle earlier this year, an economy, science and transport portfolio was created led by Edwina Hart. But the promotion (though not the funding) of walking and cycling was passed to the minister for culture and sport, John Griffiths (LTT 22 Mar). The Assembly’s

Traditionally urban space design has always favoured vehicle movement over pedestrian movement and the need for high quality transportation infrastructure in order to promote urban growth and to facilitate the movement of goods and people is well understood and illustrated in every aspect of today’s modern cities. But now we are witnessing a shift in design trends and policy and it is no longer the case that the car rules supreme; indeed, urban space designers are increasingly becoming mor

Sydney is Australia’s largest and most densely populated city, with a population of 4.6 million. The city’s central business district (CBD) covers an area of approximately 2 square miles, is bounded on two sides by water and contains 32 million square metres of floor space. More than 180,000 people live in the city of Sydney, sharing the space with about 20,000 businesses. Every day approximately 400,000 people arrive to work in this area, and another 500,000 travel to the city for s

How do people navigate through a building, a train station or an airport? What happens when you need to evacuate an area, or if a number of exits have to be shut for various reasons? Will the occupants still make it out safely?    MassMotion enables engineers to create complex pedestrian simulations very easily using standard 3D model data from software such as Revit or ArchiCAD. Engineers can then quickly perform sensitivity analysis and ‘what-if’ scenarios, measure

One hundred and one years after the compulsory appointment of medical officers of health by local authorities, the NHS Reorganisation Act 1973 set in train the removal of the public health function from local authorities. Consequently, most transport planning practitioners working today will have no recall of this 1970s milestone (and not all public health practitioners will either). Public health has spent most of its life within municipal government.The sanitary reform movement of the 19th c

Edwina Hart has taken over the transport portfolio in Wales from Carl Sargeant in a ministerial reshuffle. Hart adds transport to her existing economy portfolio. But, in a surprise move, walking and cycling have been taken out of transport and passed to the minister for culture and sport, John Griffiths. He will have responsibility for taking forward the Welsh Government’s Active Travel Bill.

THE CONTEXT for the following comments is set partly by some work I’m currently doing to explore further the extent to which the ‘place’ value of streets and spaces can credibly be monetised, and partly by my rant a couple of months back relating to how conventional modelling outputs are often little more than “numbers masquerading as facts”. What I want to talk about is a classic case of the following: “Not everything that can be counted counts; and what rea

The DfT has published a method for monetising the benefits of pedestrianisation and other urban realm schemes. The method is explained in a research report commissioned by the DfT from consultant Atkins and the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds. The research was completed in January 2011 but only released last week. In a note accompanying the report, the Department says: “WebTAG [transport appraisal guidance] currently has no guidelines for monetising the benefi

Methodist pioneer and evangelist John Wesley visited these parts, on foot, in 1757. Whilst his reception in some of the surrounding villages was less than friendly, he received a warm welcome in Golcar. He commented that the people of Golcar were “as gentle as lilies when compared with the uncouth and ignorant peoples of Bolster Moor and Scapegoat Hill”. Which is possibly how Golcar folk came to be known as ‘Golcar Lilies’ though I’m aware of at least five other exp

Transport has always fascinated Dave Merrett. As a child he ran the school transport society; it wasn’t all steam trains, there was Scalectrix too. He went on to become a civil engineer in British Rail’s bridge design and assessment team. Today, at the age of 58, he still works part-time for Amey on Network Rail’s bridge assessment contract. But it’s through his political career as a York city councillor that Merrett has been able to put his wider ideas about transport in

The Welsh Government  plans to ringfence a proportion of its Regional Transport Plan Grant to ensure local authorities deliver walking and cycling schemes in support of the forthcoming Active Travel (Wales) Bill. The Bill will require Wales’ 22 local authorities to map walking and cycling routes, and to make “continuous improvement’ to the routes. Publication is expected in February and the Bill should complete the Assembly’s legislative processes by October, becomi

The number of car and vans available to households in England and Wales rose by 14%, from 23.9 million to 27.3 million, between 2001 and 2011, newly published data from the 2011 census has revealed. In London, however, the number of ‘car-free’ households increased significantly over the decade. The Office for National Statistics data shows that the 3.4 million increase in the number of cars/vans available in England and Wales over the last ten years broadly matches the increase in

NEW GUIDANCE by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on how local authorities can enact measures to boost walking and cycling (see p4) was greeted with rage by The Daily Mail on 28 November. Describing the guidance as “Nanny watchdog’s plan to get Britain fit”, the paper focused on just one aspect of NICE’s suggestions, stating that: “Drivers should be charged more for parking to make them walk instead, health chiefs said yesterday.&rdquo

Transport for London is beginning work to improve conditions for cyclists and pedestrians at the first of 50 road junctions on the Barclays Superhighways and Transport for London Road Network. The aim is to have changes to ten junctions completed by the end of the year, a further 15 by mid-2013 and 25 more by the end of 2013. For each junction, TfL consults a small group of stakeholders including the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) and Living Streets on three-four options.  After receivin

While it seems that most of the transport planning profession is convinced there is a strong evidence base for the impact of Smarter Choices (they usually top the list of the most effective measures in the TPS annual survey), there are still some who can’t reconcile them with the use of traditional transport models. In these models, the so-called “soft” measures seem always downplayed and inadequately (sometimes wrongly) represented. For smaller scale schemes, this is not a pr

When I see an adult on a bicycle”, HG Wells allegedly said, “I do not despair for the future of the human race”. The notion that active travel is a “good thing” is not new. But the political and practical treatment of active travel has changed significantly in recent years, not least in London. The idea of “active travel” is imprecise. It is generally taken to mean walking, cycling and wider behaviour changes stimulated by travel demand management (TDM

The UK’s experience in travel behaviour change tools is advanced and has spanned 15 years in many areas. Transport authorities in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East have rolled out travel plan programmes using best practices from the UK. In August, the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) launched its first travel plan programme to determine whether success in travel behaviour change achieved in the UK and elsewhere can be replicated there. The programme, branded as Tr

Reggie Tricker has joined the City of Edinburgh Council as a professional officer to lead the city’s street design guidance and marketing of walking and cycling. Tricker moves from Somerset County Council, where he has been travel plan co-ordinator for the last five years.

Councillors in Ashford this week resolved to emphasise the accident reduction benefits of the town’s shared space scheme in an effort to change a perception among many local residents that the scheme is unsafe.  Monitoring shows that the number of personal injury crashes fell from 14 in the three years before the scheme was implemented in 2008 to seven in the three years after implementation. The shared space was implemented as part of a wider change to the ring road that saw it c

The latest accessibility data from the DfT tells us that the average minimum travel time to the seven key services analysed (employment, primary school, secondary school, further education, GP, hospital, food store) was 14 minutes by public transport/walking, nine minutes by cycling and six minutes by car. These times were 33 seconds longer than in 2010 for public transport/waking and around 12 seconds longer than in 2010 for both cycling and by car. As in previous years, the statistics tell us

I have a soft spot for London Bridge. The station, that is. I first set foot on it early one Friday morning in the summer of 1983 – a bleary-eyed 12-year old, having travelled with my dad on the overnight train from Edinburgh for a weekend’s trainspotting in the capital. I watched agog as train after train pulled in, disgorging thousands of commuters on their way to work in the City. I’d never seen anything like it. This spectacle of human life continues today. During the wee

Researchers have advised against installing farside pedestrian signals at Puffin crossings, despite their work showing such signals are popular with pedestrians. TRL and consultant Halcrow were commissioned by Transport Scotland and the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation (SCOTS) to trial the use of farside pedestrian signals to complement the standard nearside signals at a Puffin crossing in Edinburgh. Puffin crossings have progressively replaced Pelican crossings since the 1990s. Wh

The main attraction for me and many others when visiting the Danish city of Odense is the building in its old town that was the home of Hans Christian Andersen. His name came to mind recently after I had paid my first visit to the ‘acclaimed’ Exhibition Road, Kensington, shared space scheme, as it was Andersen who wrote ‘Kejserens nye Klæder’, the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes. If shared space is the fashionable new outfit that our towns and cities are me

This month's title references a 1980s advert for Kia Ora, a brand of ready-made squash that seemed to be the only drink you could buy at cinemas when I was growing up. The reason I quote the advert’s catch-phrase, ‘I’ll be your dog”, is that it was used to convey the impression that, to obtain a carton of the specified elixir, it would be worth submitting to almost any indignity. And since submitting to almost any indignity seems to me to be what most of us walking in tow

Local authorities in Wales look set to become the first in the UK to have a duty to deliver a network of walking and cycling routes under legislative plans published this week by the Welsh Government. The Active Travel (Wales) Bill will require the 22 councils to identify and map a network of routes that are safe for walking and cycling – comprising both traffic-free routes and on-road provision. They will then have to identify and map the enhancements required to create a “fully

You may think I often use this page to ‘go off on one’, but this month I’m in need of a full-on cathartic rant. The issue that’s got me close to seething point is the proliferation of stupid signs in the streets and spaces used by thousands of people every day. Although these signs ostensibly warn us about things we should be aware of or avoid, their chief purpose is to cover the backside of pusillanimous individuals who seem to fear, above all, that they may get blamed f

Oxfordshire County Council has pledged to work with cyclist and disability groups to address their concerns about plans to convert a busy signal-controlled road junction outside the city’s railway station into a boulevard. Frideswide Square acts as a gateway to the city centre and its northern edge is fronted by Oxford University’s Säid Business School. The council’s plans will see traffic signals and road markings removed, pavements widened, the carriageway area greatl

A significant safety feature of the new V40 model of car recently launched by Volvo is what is believed to be the first commercially available automotive airbag design intended to save the lives of pedestrians and cyclists, rather than drivers. The U-shaped airbag covers the uprights of the windscreen and the area where the wipers are fixed. The airbag uses sensors fitted along the front bumper that can detect if a person has been hit and at what speed. They then trigger the bonnet to open and t

A question for you: what’s your favourite Local Transport Note? Come on; don’t try to pretend you haven’t got one… Like a true geek, my personal top pick is relatively little-known, being 2004’s LTN 1/04 (Policy, Planning and Design for Walking and Cycling). This rarity, along with its sibling 2/04 (Adjacent and Shared Use Facilities for Pedestrians and Cyclists), has already long been superseded, both by later LTNs and, especially, 2007’s Manual for Streets

Transport for London is to roll-out pedestrian countdown technology to 200 traffic signal locations across the capital. The £3m programme will begin this summer and should be completed by the end of 2014. The roll-out follows trials at eight sites, which TfL says have shown the popularity of the signals. Countdown tells pedestrians how many seconds remain of the ‘blackout period’ between the green man being extinguished and the red man appearing. TfL plans to cut the green ma

An eye-catching £4.5m bus station opened by Transport for London just seven years ago could be swept away in a major redevelopment being planned by the London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth wants to pull down Vauxhall bus station, which sits adjacent to Vauxhall’s rail and Tube stations, to create space for a new high street. The plan is part of a programme to create a ‘Vauxhall Heart’ and reduce the dominance of transport networks on the area. When the bus station opene

“Modal shift to walking and cycling, improvements to public health, enhancing social capital and the economic vitality of places”. All these claims, and more, have been made for shared space. So strong is the belief in this country that shared space is good for pedestrians that Manual for Streets 2 recommends it as “more desirable” to pedestrianisation in some contexts. But are these claims justified? The recently published Shared Space Local Transport Note (LTN 1/11) cl

Delighted as I was, last week, to see the work of my colleagues featured positively in a double-page spread in the London Evening Standard, one particular statement within the piece struck me as rather odd, to say the least. The article was about the changes currently in hand at Britannia Junction in Camden Town, and the paragraph in question ran, “It is hoped the £1.3m project will mirror the success of Exhibition Road in Kensington and Chelsea.” There are many comments I cou

The DfT’s new guidance on shared space street environments is based on flawed research and makes exaggerated claims about the benefits of the design, according to academics. They add that the flagship Ashford shared space scheme in Kent is actually disliked by many local people. The comments come in a new paper by Simon Moody and Steve Melia from the University of the West of England’s Centre for Transport & Society. Melia, who has authored this week’s Viewpoint, review

Great Queen Street is a busy mixed-use street of shops, restaurants, offices and flats located on the edge of Covent Garden in Central London. The street was the focus for the first scheme in the recent trend of removing traffic signals and is DfT best practice for creating shared space. Great Queen Street was redesigned to encourage walking by the Clear Zone Partnership, which brings together the London Borough of Camden, the City of London and Westminster City Council, and was set up to crea

German transport modelling software supplier PTV has launched a new product, VISWALK, for the microsimulation modelling of pedestrian movements. “One of the special features of VISWALK is dynamic routing,” explains Tobias Kretz, a product manager at PTV. “Pedestrians, just like vehicle drivers, usually try to arrive at their destination as quickly as possible. Often the quickest route is very similar to the shortest route. However, there are situations where this rule does not

A huge revamp to traffic  signing policy has been unveiled by the DfT in its new Signing the way report. The changes will be implemented in phases. Amendments to the current version of Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions (TSRGD), published in 2002, will come into force in November, prescribing many of the currently non-prescribed signs that are frequently authorised by ministers. A full revision of TSRGD, to implement the more substantive regulatory changes, will be taken f

My title this month references the best-known song from the 1965 musical ‘Man of La Mancha’. My favourite version is by Matt Munro, though it’s been covered by almost everyone, including Elvis, Andy Williams, the comedian Tim Vine (on Celebrity Fame Academy!) and a Honda advert. Sung by the character Don Quixote, it’s subtitled ‘The Quest’ and is about striving for a noble, but probably unreachable, goal. I wonder if ‘Shared Space’ is one of these.

The sheer difficulty of significantly boosting walking and cycling levels in Britain has been highlighted by new research suggesting that many people think the modes are unsafe, impractical and even abnormal ways of getting about. The academic team behind the research say only a major programme can overcome the barriers and change a culture in which cars are seen as the default option for short trips. One of the key recommendations is the provision of “fully segregated cycle routes on a

Transport for London has outlined how its new corridor-based approach to traffic management aims to smooth traffic flows on some of the capital’s busiest roads. Twenty-three corridor managers have been appointed to look after one strategic radial, orbital or central London route each and  ensure that vehicular journeys are completed within five minutes of a typical 30-minute journey. The arrangements formally started last month, but the managers began preparatory work last year and

On 15 April The Independent launched a campaign to ‘save our cyclists’. “Urgent action is needed to protect cyclists from lorries and buses, with 230 cyclists killed or seriously injured every month on Britain’s crowded roads,” the paper said. “The long-term trend had appeared to show improving safety for cyclists, with the number of deaths nationwide falling from an average of 186 in the mid-1990s to 104 in 2009. But concern is growing that the boom in cyclin

Over 1.3 million people die each year on the world’s roads and more than 50 million sustain injuries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that road traffic injuries will rise to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. And, unlike some other leading causes of death, road traffic collisions affect the young and the otherwise healthy and are the leading cause of death for young people aged 10-24. Road deaths and injuries occur in a large number of small and dispersed &lsquo

Siemens has introduced a new range of pedestrian detection sensors, the Heimdall range, and showcased its new products at the recent Traffex show at the NEC in Birmingham. Using advanced radar technology, Heimdall pedestrian sensors are largely immune to changing environmental conditions including sun and shadow, snow or fog, Siemens says, ensuring reliable detection in all weathers. At the heart of each detector is a planar radar antenna system and a sophisticated digital signal processing eng

A thorough review of traffic signal policy is called for this week in a new report published by the RAC Foundation. The report, Every second counts, urges councils to assess whether all their signals are necessary and consider if signal strategies are giving undue priority to pedestrians over motor traffic. It also says the DfT should revise its traffic signal guidance. Report author Irving Yass says  DfT data shows the number of traffic lights installed on Britain’s roads increase

Local Authorities should ‘nudge’ people into walking and cycling more and using cars less, according to the White Paper. Nudging, it explains, “emphasises the importance of those who control the context in which choices are made, thinking carefully about how to ensure the design of products/processes/environments works with human behavioural tendencies to encourage ‘good’ choices’.” The Department illustrates the type of interventions that could consti

The First DfT-sponsored research project to investigate the actual evidence behind the theory of the ‘shared space’ urban design concept is close to delivering its results, MVA Consultancy’s Stuart Reid told LTT’s Shared Spaces conference last week. And the preliminary findings are, Reid added, that a well designed shared space scheme can significantly alter the ways in which the various types of road/street users interact with each other. The objectives of the research

The Older I get (50 this year!), the more I’m concerned that too many people are just too young to get the cultural references with which I liberally sprinkle my outpourings. So, just in case you think my title and subtitle this month are odder than usual, they hark back to ‘Do the Strand’ (a 1973 release by Roxy Music) and to ‘It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It)’ (first sung by Ella Fitzgerald in 1939 and later ruined by the Fun Boy Three

MODAL SHARE: Public transport up as car use declines Public Transport's share of journeys in the capital has dramatically increased over the last 20 years at the expense of car travel. The share of journey stages (the component parts of a trip) made by public transport grew from 30% in 1993 to 41% in 2009. At the same time, stages made by private transport (car or powered two wheelers) fell from 46% to just 37%. The percentage of stages made on foot has remained almost stable – droppi

Many Transport models over-estimate future urban car traffic growth, according to a report commissioned by the DfT. Consultant WSP was appointed to review the urban congestion programme (UCP), set up by the previous Government, which focused on reducing congestion in the ten largest urban areas of England. Local authorities in each area set targets to tackle congestion over the five years to 2010/11 and received performance-based reward grants. WSP says the programme appears to have helped c

Transport for London (TfL) has published the third version of its Traffic modelling guidelines intended to provide updated advice to support TfL and London boroughs in managing the road network to ensure smooth traffic flow across the capital. The guidelines, produced by the traffic directorate within TfL’s streets division, provide overarching guidance on the appropriate standards of traffic modelling required when proposing a traffic signal scheme on London’s urban network. The ne

I’m going to kick off this month by, well, kicking off. I’ve just been strolling around the two largest town centres in a London borough that shall remain nameless and, by doing so, have had brought back to me just how inept a good deal of contemporary urban realm design still is. In saying this, I acknowledge that you may be thinking, “Well, he would say that about the work of his commercial competitors, wouldn’t he?”. Two things on this: firstly, it’s in rec

Though occasioned by the Tube strike, these are not comments on the strike as such, the strength of the case or the merits of the strategy adopted by either side. One of the things I learned from my parents was how little value are strictures by richer people about what poorer people ought to do, and my dad in particular had a lot of friends among bus drivers and conductors (so much so that walking through the West End with him, as a child in the 1950s, was almost always punctuated by shouted gr

Fifteen years ago Sustrans hit the jackpot when it was handed a £43.5m cheque from the National Lottery Millennium Commission to develop the National Cycle Network (NCN). Since then, the Bristol-based charity has never looked back. The network of traffic-free paths and lightly trafficked roads grew to 5,000 miles by 2000 and in the last decade it has more than doubled to stand at 12,600 miles today. The NCN remains Sustrans’ flagship project but the charity has also developed many n

Visually impaired pedestrians would find it easier to navigate round Britain’s streets if there was greater simplicity and consistency in the application of tactile paving, according to a new report. The report, by the Government’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre, also calls on local authorities to assist the visually impaired by placing tactile navigational information on street poles. Ross Atkin

High streets and other streets with significant pedestrian flows should be designed to keep vehicle speeds at or below 20mph according to eagerly-awaited new guidance published by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation this week. Manual for Streets 2 follows on from the Government’s original Manual for Streets guidance on residential street design published in 2007. The new document aims to bridge the design gap between streets covered by the 2007 document (now termed

The new Manual for Streets 2: Wider Application of the Principles, published earlier this week by the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT), is intended to form a companion guide to Manual for Streets (now routinely referred to as MfS1), which was published in 2007 (LTT 12 Apr 07). “Whilst MfS1 focuses on lightly-trafficked residential streets… MfS2 builds on the guidance,” the new publication says. “Exploring in greater detail how and where its k

Having found it difficult to discuss the guardrail removal programme with Transport for London, it is gratifying that they have responded to my Viewpoint article. Dana Skelley does not dispute the statistics revealing escalation in pedestrian casualties on London’s roads, but claims that this did not occur on TfL’s roads. Dana’s rather simplistic analysis does not, however, contradict mine, because it neglects important factors. One is that removal of guardrails by TfL increas

The eigth Annual Transport Practitioners’ Meeting took place in York this year and, amongst other things, featured the presentation of the sixth Urban Transport Design Award. With Urban Initiatives sponsoring the UTDA, it has been my privilege in the past to hand out the engraved lumps of glass to the winners. This year, however, it was the gloved hand of none other than Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal that actually passed the award to the tearful recipients, and I’m sure the l