What makes good street design? Quite a lot as it happens, with benefits for people, health and quality of life being the top factors. We asked Rebecca Jones, who is about to celebrate her first anniversary as a Principal Consultant at our London office, to tell us more.

I have been working in street design for a number of years now, and along the way I have learned a few things about what makes a good street! For me, a key place to start is considering the whole street environment – not just kerb to kerb. Streets perform both a place and a movement function, and as designers we need to understand where each street sits on this spectrum, and also establish if this is something we can look to change. We need to ensure streets work for all users, but in particular we need to look to prioritise sustainable and active travel modes where possible.

The Healthy Streets concept introduced an approach to street design that considers the wider functions of a street beyond movement, and recognises the importance and potential to transform our streets in to assets for all to enjoy. From a design perspective, making a street healthier can be as simple as providing wider footways or improving lighting, to more major interventions like protected cycle facilities or filtering a street to through-traffic. This is key, as streets make up 80% of all open space in towns and cities, space that can be designed to benefit the whole community.

It’s easy to feel like some of our streets are made with only cars in mind. With someone being killed or seriously injured on UK roads every 22 minutes◊, and fear of road danger being the most common reason people don’t cycle, it is key that we look to make our streets safer for all. When I am looking at improving a street for walking and cycling, my first port of call is to see whether the speed and volume of traffic can be reduced. When we think about slowing traffic, we might initially think of more traditional traffic calming measures such as speed humps, but other measures such as greening, narrowing the road and using different materials can all signal to drivers to slow down and take care. Reducing through-traffic also has to potential to transform any street into a healthy street at a relatively low cost, as without the worry of passing cars walking and cycling is more attractive, children can play outside, parents relax, neighbours get to know each other better and a more cohesive and safe community for people to live and work in is created. In turn, people are more active and less isolated, and the benefits of increased physical exercise and social connectivity can lead to major health improvements.

I started cycling as an adult when I moved back to London after university and couldn’t afford the Tube. While I was nervous at first, I found that once I experienced the freedom that cycling brings, I didn’t want to go back! If we want to see modal shift though, we need to make our streets safer and inviting for all, to ensure that people are able to make a choice as to how they travel.

An example of changing an existing street to be more people-focussed is one of my projects, Windmill Drive in Lambeth. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Lambeth Council trialled filtering this street that runs through the popular Clapham Common to through-traffic for several months. Following this successful trial, whereby the scheme was well-received by visitors and residents alike, I designed a permanent scheme for the street. The scheme aims to transform Windmill Drive in to a high quality urban realm environment that maintains its key movement function for pedestrians and cyclists whilst de-paving much of the street to provide enhanced planting and sustainable urban drainage systems. Additional features such as seating, cycle parking and insect hotels all help to transform this street into more of a ‘place’ for all to enjoy. The scheme is currently progressing so watch this space for updates!

Get in touch with Rebecca: [email protected]

Rebecca is a highway engineer and transport planner based in our London office. She has over ten years’ experience in the sustainable transport industry, and has worked within the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

Rebecca advises on street design, transport planning and sustainable travel for mainly local authority clients. Her technical expertise includes concept and detailed design of cycling and walking infrastructure, as well as GIS mapping, network planning, data analysis and project management. She has extensive experience of community engagement and co-design, and has worked on projects both in London and across the UK.

◊ https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/uk-road-safety

A recent report by Transport for New Homes Building Car Dependency warns that too many new developments are building in dependency on cars. The report notes that, despite the vision for vibrant communities set out in the NPPF, this is not what the planning system is currently delivering.

The report argues against the current emphasis on housing targets and recommends that planning policy should focus on identifying the most sustainable places to build. It states that building large new housing developments on greenfield sites near motorway junctions or bypasses encourages new traffic onto roads and adds to congestion by requiring people to drive for virtually every journey. In contrast, the report finds that brownfield sites are generally far more suitable for people wanting to walk, cycle or travel by public transport. It recommends that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is redrafted to require that all new development is designed around sustainable transport – walking, cycling and public transport.

What do we think about this proposal?

The NPPF undoubtedly needs to be strengthened to ensure new developments are as sustainable as possible, but the report misses a number of steps. Quite often, failing transport systems are the result of poor land use planning, and so we should first be talking about introducing a ‘brownfield first’ policy; policies to ensure we deliver higher density urban centre development and ‘transit-oriented developments’; policies aimed at putting amenities in the right places to reduce the need to travel; and, guiding local authorities to set intelligent parking standards and abolishing parking minimums. It is also important to remember that we have a huge housing shortage and a major demand for economic development and we need to have a balanced and open debate to avoid potential unintended consequences of changing planning policy.

The report is correct in that it is possible to deliver sustainable developments on greenfield sites. Urban extensions that connect to existing streets and public transport work well, but we would add that any urban development or new settlement needs to be large or dense enough to sustain the schools, shops and other amenities needed for liveability and localisation. So, giving developers more certainty about what is expected from them when they do this is very important.

The NPPF already says a lot of the right things about sustainable development and transport but we still end up with car centric developments. So reports like this are helpful to start the discussion with professionals to understand what barriers are preventing more developments coming forward that facilitate sustainable living.

We agree that there is need to address systemic failures created by the open framework but there is also much to do to solve the skills gap, the lack of pragmatism in the planning process, the ill thought through local policies and the lack of funding to support developments that tick all the right sustainability boxes but remain unviable.

What can be done to ensure homes are built around sustainable transport and what are the difficulties in establishing sustainable transport links in new and existing?

Choosing the right location is key to delivering sustainable development, moreover the mix of land uses and the design of new developments is important to ensure walking and cycling are the natural choice for short journeys and that public transport is accessible. This is what placemaking is all about, and it is why we believe that the NPPF should be placemaking led before it is transport solutions led.

Beyond that the new government guidance on local transport plans is expected to be published this spring, which will help local authorities develop plans that align with key sustainable transport policies such as Bus Back Better, Gear Change and the Decarbonisation of Transport Strategy and it’s important that local authorities are given the resources to refresh their Local Plans with this evidence as quickly as possible.

Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) are critical to the answer here, which show what new and improved active travel infrastructure is required. Gear Change and LTN1/20 Cycling Infrastructure Design also help by providing clear guidance to professionals on the quality of infrastructure required on new and existing highways. There is a huge amount still to do to upskill the industry in planning and designing sustainable places and PJA has been actively supporting the establishment of Active Travel England and delivering LTN1/20 training to transport professionals in the public and private sectors.

The biggest challenge currently facing the industry is in building a credible evidence base to quantify and communicate the benefits of sustainable development. This is less easy to demonstrate than the well-established traffic models because the empirical data is not there. We need better and focussed data on the beneficial impact of good development and infrastructure on trip making and mode choice. Unfortunately, the next Census output is unlikely to yield sufficiently robust data to this end. PJA alongside others are developing new approaches to this, but an industry standard approach is required which professionals, decision makers and examiners can get behind.

The future is brighter than people think, however. Today PJA is more regularly working on developments where 100% of infrastructure spend is given over to sustainable transport measures, and masterplans are being produced where 20-minute neighbourhoods can be considered a reality. As the next batch of greenfield developments are more difficult to make sustainable and the bar is being set even higher by policy, developers are willing to work much harder on the sustainable credentials of their sites to secure allocation in the Local Plan.

What is needed in rural areas, which have fewer options?

We need to be careful about proposing new developments in rural areas as they will be inherently less sustainable than more urban sites, due to the longer distances that people need to travel and lower densities to support public transport or investment in active travel infrastructure. Hence our view that rural developments can only be considered sustainable if they are big enough to be self-sustaining, or connected well enough to reduce the need to need to travel in private cars.

However, this needs to be balanced with wider policy considerations such as providing new affordable housing in rural villages meaning that some small-scale development will need to be accommodated. This doesn’t help the transport problem but exacerbates it particularly when the commercial model of rural public transport doesn’t work and there needs to be recognition that bus routes must be subsidised or alternative lower cost solutions found.

We should not let rural residential development off the hook. It still needs to be walkable to shops and services and supported by high-speed broadband, and possibly ideas such as community co-working spaces and mobility hubs, which could provide e-bike and car share and demand responsive transport solutions.

What needs to change for developers to deliver in more sustainable locations? Where do local plans or spatial planning come into this? What is the role of transport planners here?

While there are a number of factors that influence the identification of development sites, accessibility is a crucial factor which has a significant impact on the sustainability and success of development and therefore transport planners should play a key role in the identification of suitable development sites for Local Plans.

The planners need more input from the strategic transport planners to ensure that the land use mix is right, and that development is concentrated in areas that can most easily be upgraded to provide the accessibility it needs. The ability of local authorities to do this thinking supported by a robust evidence base has been weakened by funding cuts and shifting national policies and housing targets.

Local authorities should also make use of the skills and experience of transport planners in the private sector. PJA has produced many sustainable transport strategies for local authorities to support updates of their local plans. We consistently demonstrate that additional land can be allocated for development with mitigation strategies involving improvements to public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure to enable mode-shift from private motorised car trips.

What does the government need to do, given its focus is on electric vehicles?

Cars are going to continue to be a significant part of the transport mix for the foreseeable future so, in addition to resolving tax implications of a shift from petrol and diesel to all electric vehicles, it’s important that we get things right when it comes to charging infrastructure. Key considerations include ensuring charging points for cars parked on street don’t create trip hazards or obstructions on footways, or hinder opportunities to reallocate road space to more sustainable modes or lock in private car ownership. New building regulations require chargers to be at least 7KW for new development, which could mean significant infrastructure costs for new developments away from good quality grid connections.

Nevertheless it is incorrect to think that the government is just focusing on electric vehicles; active travel and public transport are key themes of the Decarbonising Transport plan. While electric vehicles are cleaner, we still need to solve issues such as particulate emissions from brake dust. EV’s are also not the solution to congestion, public health or road safety. The publication of Gear Change in July 2020 marked a step change in the expectation on local authorities and developers to build quality active travel infrastructure and this will be enforced by Active Travel England, a new Ofsted-style inspectorate that will be a statutory consultee on larger planning applications. This is a game changer and we should wait to see how it pans out.

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