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Or, what the Finns can teach us about designing successful new towns

“There are features I think are important like variation, like roads that aren’t all straight so you get a natural variation in the road” – Keir Starmer

What do we want our towns and cities to be:

• Places where walking, cycling and public transport are the natural choices?
• Or places where driving remains the norm, cars are too big for standard parking spaces and the increasing incidence of potholes and fatalities due to the increased weight of cars is ‘just one of those things’?

Find out in this week’s Sketch!

#bridge #helsinki #mini #motonormativity #walking #cycling #publictransport #carfree #newtowns

Or, Can you give me 1,213,385 reasons not to become a flaneur?

“Too much urban space is allocated to cars in cities – including free parking at the taxpayers’ expense for which little justification exists.” – Giulio Mattioli, transport researcher at Technical University, Dortmund

So, it turns out that cars are getting bigger and can no longer fit into standard parking spaces. Large SUVs, which exceed 1.8m in width or 4.8m in length would overhang perpendicular spaces and trap the occupants inside due to the proximity of the car parked next to them.

As cars are getting 1cm wider every two years, we clearly have a problem. Are we just supposed to start giving even more land over to cars for parking?

I take a look in this week’s sketch…

#walking #motonormativity #pavementparking #carspreading #creativity #flaneur #manualforstreets

Or, what omissions in the NPPF mean for active travel and the quality of the built environment

“In its rush to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this Parliament, is the government sidelining beauty as a trivial aesthetic obstacle to the political objective of increased housing supply?” – Ike Ijeh

Perhaps Keir Starmer should have just gone to Specsavers…

#NPPF #LTN1/20 #planning #transport #transportfornewhomes #officeforplace #cycling #placemaking #activetravel

Or, what our nearest continental neighbours can teach us about designing for the very young

“… thinking about it, you see many children in a city like Copenhagen… if you see a city with many children and many old people, using the city, the public spaces, then it is a sign that there is a good quality for people in that particular city.” – Jan Gehl

This week I’m taking a look at the Urban95 Academy Working Paper “Early Childhood Development and Cities”, written by Katie Beck and Marie Kaune.

So here’s a challenge for you: take a moment to imagine you are 95cm tall – the height of a healthy three-year-old. Is there anything you’d do differently to approach placemaking in your town or city?

Read more on Substack!

#urbandesign #streets #manualforstreets #whittingtonestate #jangehl #hammersmithbridge #cycling #placemaking

Or, what former Top Gear presenters can tell us about road safety

“Wales’s 20mph speed limit has cut road deaths. Why is there still even a debate?” – Peter Walker

About a million years ago I rode a motorcycle on the road for the very first time.

It. Was. Brilliant!

I was travelling at the heady speed of 20mph and it felt like I was breaking all kinds of land speed records.

In actual fact I was going so slowly the instructor had to tell me to speed up!

And this is why, if I ruled the universe, everyone who wanted to learn to drive a car – and was able to do so – would first have to pass their motorcycle CBT.

Unless you’ve felt the force of the wind against your head and chest you have no real idea what speed is.

In the car bubble you are so cocooned from reality and distracted by the television that being expected to watch your speed becomes a major inconvenience.

But could it be that there are some benefits to driving slower?

Well, some of the results are in…

Keep reading on Substack!

#jeremyclarkson #jamesmay #cars #20mph #nationaldesignguide #transport #newtowns #motonormativity #designcodes

Or, how a lack of control over some highways authorities will crash the government’s new towns aspirations

“It is staggering how much damage transportation planning did to cities in the short period of the life of the car.” – David Burney

Why oh why are highways authorities permitted to continue using outdated guidance when we know that doing so puts vulnerable road users at unnecessary – and potentially fatal – risk?

Find out on Substack…

#placemaking #janejacobs #jangehl #manualforstreets #urbandesigngroup #udg #LTN1/20 #nationaldesignguide #nationalmodeldesigncode #gearchange #NPPF

Where once we were creating a thoroughbred of a scheme that people would have travelled from all over the world to marvel at, all we’re going to be left with now is its arse – The Urban Sketch Writer

Let’s step off the merry-go-round of global politics for a moment, give thanks that the US is now supporting Ukraine once again and distract ourselves with the news that Transport for New Homes are back with their latest report: What is being built in 2025? In search of the station…

Perhaps not the snappiest title but it represents the fourth piece of research from TfNH that concludes – once again – that for the most part we are building homes in the wrong places.

To regular readers of this newsletter this will come as no surprise.

It’s a common theme.

Perusing the contents, what we seem to be really good at delivering here in the UK are…

Find out the answer on Substack!

#publictransport #bus #walking #cycling #transportfornewhomes #sustainable #sustainabletransport #poundbury #homes #newtowns #masterplanning

Or, what a French gastronomic delicacy has to do with life and death

“People living in LTNs talk about hearing more birds, a stronger sense of community, and the pleasure of seeing young people on bicycles on roads which are much safer.” – Laura Laker

The subject of LTNs – like Trump’s re-election, Brexit, HS2*, or being sat at a table where someone goes ahead and orders that pungent French Andouillette sausage that’s made of tripe – can literally split a room and ruin a pleasant evening with friends…

Keep reading on Substack!

#placemaking #20mph #jangehl #tomflood #LTN #lowtrafficneighbourhoods #streetexperiments #waronthemotorist

Or, how a sweary creative writer is influencing the new town discussion…

Find out more on Substack >>>

#groningen #activetravel #bus #publictransport #newtowns #urbandesign #janejacobs

What the Mirror can teach us about life as a built environment professional

This week: Eyeballs, CEOs and Cold Rice – or, what the Mirror can teach us about life as a built environment professional.

The thing I love about writing on this blog or on Substack is that I’m not likely to be kicked off it anytime soon. Whether one person reads this or 10,000 is irrelevant. However, things aren’t so peachy everywhere. A piece in the latest Private Eye (1642) tells us that hacks at the Mirror are now expected to “… hit personal targets for how many views their stories receive on the paper’s website each month…” regardless of the topic.

For some reason this edict has failed to boost morale. A union rep who sent a letter representing concerned editorial staff to the editor was immediately placed on gardening leave and all traces of her existence were removed from the office. Thankfully she was already working her notice period and due to leave for pastures new in a few weeks anyway. Some might call an earlier than planned exit merciful under the circumstances.

But even so.

How on earth are we supposed to know what combination of words is going to get our stories read?

And is getting a minimum number of eyeballs on our work actually the least of our worries?

In case you’re wondering what bad management practices at mainstream newspapers has got to do with the built environment, a recent article in Dezeen has shared the results of a working conditions survey into the architecture and design industry. While not a completely scientific investigation…

Keep reading on Substack!

#transportfornewhomes #placealliance #BBBBC #RTPI #urbandesign #refuseugliness