Co-ordinating urban and transport planning

The co-ordination of transport investment and urban planning at the regional, sub-regional and city levels should use urban design to get the right density and location of activities of use.

Oliver James

This can reduce travel energy consumption and CO2 emissions through promoting public transport usage, walking and cycling to reduce car dependency. Urban structure is only one factor behind the rationale for travel; there are also other socio-economic, attitudinal and contextual drivers.

The carbon impact of movement patterns is highly dependent on the way towns and cities are laid out and the relationships between uses. The Commission for Integrated Transport is developing good practice guidance on settlement patterns and the demand for travel. Key principles for new and retrofitted development cover a range of scales:

Develop at higher densities

Planning policy statement 3 (housing) advises building over 30 homes/ha, particularly where public transport accessibility is good. London, for example has developed a development location strategy based upon accessibility within the London Plan. Public transport orientated development is a key concept. Historic London suburbs such as Ealing, Chiswick, Richmond and Hampstead are all developed at relatively high densities around the Underground network. Other places which illustrate the potential for developing at relatively high densities around the public transport network, often using intermodal hubs, include:

• Kings Cross and Hammersmith Broadway, London
• Vancouver and Toronto, Canada
• Euralille, France
• Utrecht Centrum, The Netherlands
• Stockholm City West, Sweden
• Zentrum Zürich Nord, Switzerland

Further examples of relatively high development densities orientated around a tram system include:

• Strasbourg
• Grenoble
• Freiburg im Breisgau
• Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm
• Boston

Concentrate development within existing urban areas

Development should be concentrated within existing major urban areas, and well related to surrounding urban areas. Development in existing communities below 25,000 population size is likely to be associated with lengthy average travel distances. If possible, development should be located where there is high access to public transport and poor access to the strategic road network to reduce the potential for car dependency. In addition to improving the viability of sustainable travel options this also provides opportunities to integrate local energy networks.

Northstowe and Sherford offer examples of development beyond the urban area, but linked via a public transport route. Particular attention is needed in such developments to offer a sufficient quality of public transport linkage to the neighbouring urban area and ensuring public transport is provided at the start of the development to prevent residents becoming reliant on their cars from day one.

Traditional neighbourhoods that are based on networks of streets, rather than cul-de-sac layouts, tend to make walking and cycling easier for people because they are more 'permeable', whilst ‘pedestrian pockets’ can be developed where densities are higher. In such places the pedestrian environment can be greatly enhanced and well maintained (Broadgate, London). At the neighbourhood scale, consideration must be given to the mix of uses to ensure that people can live close to where they work and go for their leisure activities. An effective jobs-housing balance (1.25-1.5 jobs/population) can be achieved.

At the site level a mix of uses, including employment, housing, retail and other uses can be delivered at close proximity in mixed-use quarters; integrated retail, commercial and residential uses to minimise the need to travel (Malbosc, Montpellier provides an example).

At the building scale homes can be designed more flexibly to support live/work arrangements. Information systems provided handheld devices can provide real time displays for local transport information. Work places should provide changing facilities, showers and cycle provision to enable staff to cycle or run to work.

Government departments and their agencies such as passenger transport executives, regional and local planning and transport organisations are critically important in ensuring cross-disciplinary and cross-authority working; this is particularly important in ensuring the co-ordination of urban and transport planning.

Priority: encourage public transport, walking and cycling
Tags: transport, regions and subregions, cities and towns, neighbourhoods, buildings and spaces