john whitelegg living streets june 2014 putting sustainable transport at the heart of elections
TRANSCRIPT
John Whitelegg
Living Streets June 2014
Putting sustainable transport at the heart of elections
Groundhog Day
• Mayer Hillman
• Design of First Pedestrian-Oriented New Town in the UK (with Jonas Lehrman), 1956
• Hook New Town design (1961)
..and again
• Walking is Transport (Policy Studies Institute, 1979)
…and again
• Rod Tolley (editor)
• The greening of urban transport. Planning for walking and cycling in Western cities (1997)
So what do we know?
• Walking is very healthy
• Walking is very cheap
• Walking is convivial
• Walking nurtures high quality urban design
• Walking has carbon reduction potential
• Walking reduces air pollution
• Walking is a public health issue
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Obesity Walk, Cycle, Public Transit
Appleyardresearch
replicated in Bristol
by Josh Hart, Living Streets
(2008)
www.livingstreets.org.uk
-27%
• UK National Travel Survey, 2012, reports a 27% decline in walking in the period 1995-2012
Jan Gehl “Cities for People”
• We have extensive information about what can and should be done
International charter on walking
• 34 actions that can be implemented quickly and inexpensively
The bigger picture
• Vision Zero
• Zero carbon
• Think Space
• Think Time
Amount of space required to transport the same number of people by car, bus or bicycle
What can a government do?
Outer layers
• Internalise external cost so that all modes pay the full costs imposed on society as a whole
• Eliminate subsidy
Inner layers
• Implement all the urban design principles in Gehl (2010), pages 232-245
• Reallocate highway space
• Reallocate highway time
• Adopt full network planning for walk/cycle
• Total system-wide, default 20mph limits
• Real democracy at local level