Thriving Cities: Integrated land use and transport planning
A new report from the Passenger Transport Executive Group on land use planning and transport! Nothing new but good reading!
The report…highlights the Government’s forthcoming National Planning Policy Framework as a key tipping point for whether transport provision for new development will be an afterthought (with all the sprawl and congestion that implies) or whether transport and land use planning will be integrated in a way that ensures green, smart and efficient development.
In highlighting good and bad practice from the UK and beyond, the report shows how much the functioning of towns and cities can be improved when transport is central to land use planning. It concludes: ‘…the evidence leads to one compelling conclusion: where sustainability of transport is an integral consideration in the land use planning process, non-car modes of travel become dominant, but where development proceeds without due regard to transport considerations then car dependence is the outcome.’
The report recommends ‘three golden rules’ for future planning policy
- All major development should be public transport centred
- All major development should aim to achieve a design where car journeys are a minority of mode share
- Development should primarily occur as infill, or at least adjacent to, major centres
The report also calls for local authorities, and Local Economic Partnerships, to be encouraged to proactively draw up highly sustainable masterplans for development sites of key significance – including for new Enterprise Zones. More widely planning processes (like those for major planning applications) should universally include the bodies responsible for local transport.
Worth a watch on a sunday morning! A short, hugely creative video by BIG and Kollision called ‘Loop City’ also on show at “what makes a liveable city_”
It proposes that Copenhagens finger plan can be used as a inspiration for a new rail corridor linking Copenhagen with the Øresund Region.
Not only that…it also suggests that with some creative and brave thinking, the new line need not be restricted to becoming a spine for the development of new places. It could also serve as a spine for the flow of energy, waste, flora and fauna. In essence it could become “a line of dense urbanity pumping life into the development areas”…!
Cool soundtrack too!
Interesting article on trams in Bordeaux
The impact of the tram on the city should not be seen just in terms of moving people around. It has had a much wider impact on the structure of the city and the way in which new development is allowed to take place. On the periphery of the city, the three tram routes define growth corridors along which development can take place. The new routes have defined new parts of the city where people live and work.
Just providing transit opportunities does not make a Transit Oriented Development, it requires a diversity of real estate opportunities as Peter Calthorpe illustrates in this video.
