john whitelegg living streets june 2014 putting sustainable transport at the heart of elections

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