It’s July 2020 and we’ve just experienced the warmest and driest Spring on record. Exercise is restricted to local areas to reduce the spread of the virus and traffic levels are at their lowest in decades. Walking and cycling levels go stratospheric.

Buoyed by the public’s newfound enthusiasm for active travel a raft of funding, policy (Gear Change) and technical guidance for infrastructure (LTN1/20) was announced to rebalance streets from conduits for cars to streets for people.

One year on, the government has marked its own homework with the Gear Change: One Year on document but does the hype match the reality and do the new funding and legislative announcements go far enough? Or is the can being kicked down the road on some of the more difficult issues?

Our new Manchester consultant Harriet Haldenby and PJA active travel lead Chris Sibthorpe give their verdict.

Emphasis
The Gear Change One Year on document rightly showcases the progress that has made over the year – after all, it is designed to inspire. Many of the case study examples of success are from our cities and large towns focusing on commuter travel. However, if active travel is to be a mode of choice for short trips then it needs to reflect the diverse nature of our geography and our journey purposes. It needs to reflect that 65% of trips are everyday trips such as to see friends, go to the doctors or stock up on groceries. It also needs to recognise that market towns need to be better connected with their surrounding rural hinterlands against a backdrop of reduced bus services and that protected cycling infrastructure might not be an option in historical centres. This is essential if the vision is to benefit all areas and move forward with both scale and conviction.

Removal of schemes
How many times have we seen well intentioned schemes watered down or removed completely as a result of opposition from vocal minorities? The strengthening of funding sanctions against local authorities that remove a scheme before it’s had time to bed in is welcome. This not only reinforces the need for objective scheme monitoring but also places renewed emphasis on getting the basics right first time round such as robust data collection and thorough stakeholder engagement focusing on a basket of issues rather than just those relating to transport. We owe it to the quiet and often supportive majority.

Active Travel England
The formation of Active Travel England was perhaps the most eye catching of all the announcements made in Gear Change as it will be a statutory consultee. This will alert all those engaged in development that they will no longer be able to pay lip service to active travel provision. But will the proposed thresholds for Active Travel England involvement run the risk of creating a two-tier system where the larger sites embrace the new standards but smaller developments default to the current modus operandi aided but not necessarily abetted by under-resourced local authorities?

And what about those local authority officers who are still wedded to the notion that the most important factor is highway capacity? Will this stifle ambition? We eagerly await the detail but the involvement of Active travel England might just be the catalyst for organisational change and the removal of siloed thinking.

Pavement Parking
We’ve also spotted the passing reference to pavement parking, confirming the Government’s intention to act on this thorny subject. No announcement has yet been made, but one of the options being considered is to give local authorities the power to enforce against obstruction of the pavement. This is the way the Welsh Government is going, and we’re working on drafting the detailed guidance to local authorities for them at the moment (read about that here). It’s likely that the Department for Transport is watching very closely.

The policy and funding is now finally catching up with the rhetoric. It but it will be incumbent on us as professionals to deliver a walking and cycling legacy that our children and grandchildren can be proud of.

Chris Sibthorpe, Director

Chris has over 20 years’ experience in development planning, sustainable transport and transport strategy development. Chris specialises in the provision of walking and cycling advice for both public and private sector clients and has also appeared as an expert witness at examinations and appeals.

Get in touch with Chris: [email protected]

Harriet Haldenby, Consultant

Harriet is an urban designer based in our Manchester Officer. She has 3 years’ experience working in planning and design, most recently working as part of a collaborative design team on health and travel-focussed projects. Having been particularly focussed on the role of the community in design projects, Harriet has developed an interest in how the spaces and places we design interlink with the way we travel, and its impact on our quality of life.

Get in touch with Harriet: [email protected]

Find out more on our active travel services here

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