Blog

Or, the importance of embedding walking and cycling in the design of our new towns

“What’s missing in the rest of the world is courage. Mayors could say: ‘This is my opportunity [to leave a] legacy,’ but most will not dare.” – Audrey de Nazelle

In Paris, cycling has been embraced to the max under the mayorship of Anne Hidalgo.

There’s a city that regardless of the backlash, has done much to shake its “car-centric reputation.”

Can we do the same here?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#transport #manualforstreets3 #placemaking #cycling #15minutecity #groningen

Or, can we really deliver safer streets for women and girls?

“For too many people in this country, walking is not simple or straightforward. For too many, particularly women and girls, it comes with a calculation – a constant, exhausting mental calculation – about safety, lighting, routes and risk. Rather than get excited about the destination, too many are forced to fret about the journey.” – Lilian Greenwood

It turns out there actually is an overlap between placemaking and the VAWG Strategy!

But, are there enough women in the placemaking professions to push the agenda for women-centric streets or are we just going to end up with more DMRB nonsense?

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch!

#placemaking #activetravelengland #vawg #manualforstreets #mfs3 #nppf #vawgstrategy #paris 

Or, an unusual way of preventing war

“With universal immobility war is now unthinkable.” – Automania 2000

If you’ve got a quick nine minutes, grab your coffee and take a look at this film. This, folks, is motornormativity and carspreading to the max, a vision of the future in which, thanks to an obsession with cars, war has become impossible… so maybe not all bad?

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch!

#automania #automania2000 #motonormativity #carspreading

Or, the steps being taken to make London’s streets safer

“Yes, of course, I have an armoured vehicle. But if that’s the evidence, I think it’s a message I’ll be sending to the police as well, saying actually, you do realise, God forbid, if you hit a child in an SUV, you’re more likely to kill that child.” – Sadiq Khan

Finally! A clamp down on the insane rise of SUVs in London.

SUVs are 77% more likely to kill a child than traditional cars in a collision. For children under 9, the risk is three times higher. 

Is it the war on the motorist or a bit of common sense?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#placemaking #carspreading #visionzero #suv #motonormativity

Or, why the 21st-century new town might actually look a bit like 1920 (but with much better coffee and pastries)

“In Panorama you can do everything with your feet. Your whole life is in Panorama. It is not a 15-minute city, it is a two-minute city.” – Jean Didier Berger, former Mayor of Clamart

We can keep building the same car-dependent, “nowheresville” sprawl that blights the countryside. 

Or, we can embrace the “renaissance”. 

We can bury the cars, lay the tracks, and build towns where people can get about comfortably and affordably without having to rely on a car.

It’s not about reducing car ownership. It’s about creating an environment where reducing car journeys is the natural outcome.

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch!

#createstreets #townsandtrams #placemaking #trams #tramwayrenaissance #newtowns 

Or, why a draft guidance note and Sesame Street might just be the street design heroes we didn’t know we needed

“I have an affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighbourhood of man and enjoy the sweet security of the streets.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

According to Cher, women are the real architects of society. I agree. 

Find out why in this week’s Sketch…

#placemaking #genderresponsiveplanning #NPPF #TfNH #womenssafety #urbandesign101 #amirite #sesamestreet #equalityact #streets

Or, why we’ve spent twenty years obsessing over bin lorries while ignoring the “forever hum of fear”

“It is therefore recommended that as a starting point for any scheme affecting non-trunk roads, designers should start with MfS.” – Manual for Streets 2 (1.3.2)

As Jan Gehl says, “you get what you invite”. If we continue to invite motonormativity and car-dominated sprawl, we invite isolation and intimidation. But if we invite women back into the public realm by designing specifically for their safety, we automatically make the street safer for everyone else: children, the elderly, and even the lads on the Graham Norton Show who thought clutching a phone was a joke.

Find out more in this week’s Sketch…

#urbandesign #womenssafety #manualforstreets #equalityact #janejacobs #motonormativity #placemaking #amirite #placemakers #nppf #urbandesigngroup

Or, why it takes 50 years to build seven villages but only ten seconds to realise the pavements are too dangerous to walk on

“Gilston is more than just a construction site – it is a test of whether Britain can still build communities that last.” – Jamie Grierson

Let’s face it, Gilston has much to do if it’s going to successfully provide the proof of concept for the government’s 1.5 million-home target. But if it takes 20 years to clear the legal hurdles and another 25 to finish the job, hopefully without the value engineers getting their mitts on it in the meantime, we aren’t solving a crisis, we’re now managing a multi-generational legacy project.

Find out more in this week’s Sketch…

#gilston #placemaking #newtowns #janejacobs #womenssafety #urbandesign101

Or, why our new town driveways are at risk of turning into a staging area for the Texas Rangers

“This boom in US-style pickup trucks is lifestyle over practicality in exchange for parking mayhem and dangerous roads. City leaders must act to discourage these menacing vehicles from our streets. How is it acceptable to have a vehicle so tall that children cannot be seen?“ – Oliver Lord, Clean Cities

There’s nothing childish about designing places to create community.

So, why are we actively putting children at risk?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#carspreading #motonormativity #placemaking #SUV #roadsafety #janejacobs #walking #amirite #jangehl

Or, how the draft NPPF just gaslit half the population

“[The draft NPPF has] no references whatsoever to women, girls, gendered safety, or violence against women in the built environment. This omission matters. The places we design and build shape how safe women and girls feel when they travel, work, socialise and grow up. Planning policy is one of the most powerful structural tools the state has to prevent harm before it occurs. If the NPPF is silent on gendered safety, we embed risk and inequality into the fabric of every new development.” – Anna Sabine MP & Gideon Amos MP

Is it really true that, in the eyes of the government, if you’re a woman or a girl, your safety and any misogyny you might encounter while out and about has nothing whatsoever to do with planning?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#placemaking #womenssafety #NPPF #urbanism #janejacobs #amirite #newtowns #urbandesign