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Or, when it comes to new towns, can we actually learn from the mistakes of the past?

“One casualty on our roads is one too many… there is nothing to be gained by playing politics with speed limits – only people to be injured and lives to be lost” – Sadiq Khan

We know 20mph limits save lives. So why are councillors and their advisers who want to revoke them and reinstate 30mph limits willing to put themselves at risk of being held personally liable when the injury rates and fatalities inevitably go up?

Further, what does this mean if we want to support the government’s plans for “well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive” new towns?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#20mph #urbandesigngroup #newtowns #manualforstreets #pedestrians #cyclists #motonormativity

Or, what going out for a run can teach us about street design

“Someone slowing down, staring, shouting, even if it’s not always criminal, it can have a huge impact on people’s everyday lives and stops women from doing something as simple as going for a run. We have to ask: ‘Is that person going to escalate? Are they a sexual offender?’ We want to manage that risk early.” – Insp Jon Vale

It’s official: women experience harassment while running. But what can we as urban designers do to help the police in tackling this issue?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#womenssafety #running #urbandesign #statutoryduty #highwayauthority #streets #amirite #placemaking

Or, what the loss of art nouveau métro stations can warn us about the erosion of cultural sustainability

“It may be surprising to foreign visitors but the French have never really liked art nouveau. There was great opposition to [the] Métro entrances. While visitors saw them as marvellous symbols of the belle époque Métro, Parisians criticised it as what they called spaghetti style and couldn’t understand why tourists liked them.” – Fabien Choné

Art nouveau is just one ‘layer’ of architecture in a city, as is arts and crafts, art deco, modernism all the way through to googie, brutalism, blobitecture and new classical. They all have a story to tell. They all have meaning. But at what point can we truly decide that “that style’s no good any more, we don’t like it, let’s demolish it and replace it with the next big thing.” Will future generations thank us?

Should we be doing more than we are to preserve the legacy all around us in our cities? 

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#paris #hectorguimard #metropolitain #urbanmemory #culturalsustainability #urbicide #artnouveau 

Or, transport planning in Wales takes a huge retrograde step…

“Say all the roads go back up [to 30mph] and casualties go up again too. What is an acceptable death toll that justifies getting to work two minutes faster? That’s what people who want to get rid of [20mph limits] need to answer.” – Phil Jones

Should the Welsh government to grow a backbone and stand behind its 20mph policy? Or has motonormativity made us so detached from reality that we are no longer interested in offering our neighbours and communities a little basic civility?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#20mph #30mph #philjones #welshgovernment #wrexham #finland #manualforstreets #activetravel #equalityact #pedestrians #cyclists #speedlimits #motonormativity

Or, why it’s odd to encourage people to walk more when you can’t give them anything to walk to

“We are building homes on the fringes of towns in places that have very little public transport, where teenagers have nowhere to go independently. Our volunteers saw developments with no corner shops or cafes, no sense of space.” – Steve Chambers, Transport for New Homes

Why are we building new housing estates with no facilities? Despite the NHS wanting to get Britain walking and cycling more, what’s the point if there is nowhere for people to walk or cycle to? When passing one of these nowheresvilles, I often find myself wondering what the people who live there actually do in the evening or on a weekend.

Let’s investigate in this week’s Sketch…

#LTN #LTNs #walking #cycling #publictransport #20mph #urbandesigngroup

Or, the challenges of getting people to travel sustainably while designing primarily for cars

“We will partner with Active Travel England, local authorities and other government departments to identify simple changes that can substantially boost active travel rates to help spread this best practice and reduce physical inactivity.” – NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England

If we truly want to support the NHS and get serious about getting people active there comes a point where we have to take a deep breath and make the decision that we’re now, after all these years, finally going to put pedestrians, wheelers and cyclists first no matter how painful that might be to drivers.

Amirite?

Find out more in this week’s Sketch…

#ltn120 #DMRB #manualforstreets #pedestrians #cyclists #shareduse #activetravel #activetravelengland

Or, how the chief medical officer for England has entered the active travel urban design debate

“What we’ve got to do is build between the places people care about: from their homes to their shops, to their place of worship, to the school and so on. We’ve got to think about that in a really serious way.” – Prof Sir Chris Whitty

Twelve regional mayors in England have signed up to a plan to create a “national active travel network” that initially will focus on access to schools and create 3,500 miles of routes that safely link schools to homes, town centres and transport hubs.

So far, so good.

But are all political parties fully on board? The answer may surprise you.

Find out more in this week’s Sketch…

#LTN #schoolstreets #urbandesign #activetravelengland #sirchriswhitty #walking #cycling #mayors #activetravel #mentalhealth

Or, what the antics of a chicken – I mean penguin! – could possibly teach us about successful new towns

 “… Charley has an idea – inevitably, a lightbulb appears above his head – then literally flies through his workplace’s roof before landing, along with all his neighbours, in a council meeting. (People so rarely use yogic flying to attend planning consultations these days.)” – Jonn Elledge

At some point, public engagement events will be run to gauge opinion on the government’s planned new towns. Might it be useful to have a short info film available in an accessible animated format to explain some of the core principles and ideas behind them?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#pedestrians #cycletrack #bus #aardman #feathersmcgraw #15minutecity #lowtrafficneighbourhoods #ltn #ltn120 #culturalquarter

Or, why we should look to the past for a vision of the future of our new towns

“You need a prince to make a town in an intellectual sense. Developers want to make money. If they cared about architecture, they’d become architects. I’ve had so many projects that never came off because they had no sponsor, and not because they were utopian. I just want to build a town that’s normal.” – Léon Krier

At the time Poundbury was criticised for being twee and pastiche to the max, but today, in urban design terms, there is much to be said for this particular take on Dorset vernacular.

It is actually a proper mixed-use development – housing, shops, schools, health facilities, a pub and cafés and some larger scale commercial / industrial all mixed together.

But: why aren’t we learning its lessons as we embark on a significant house-building agenda over this parliament?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#leonkrier #newurbanism #urbandesign #poundbury #janejacobs

Or, how can urban design improve economic and public health?

“We want to rejuvenate Oxford Street; establish it as a global leader for shopping, leisure and outdoor events with a world-class, accessible, pedestrianised avenue. This will help to attract more international visitors, and act as a magnet for new investment and job creation, driving growth and economic prosperity for decades to come.” – Sadiq Kahn

Let’s invest in walking-friendly environments as the default before building yet more roads we cannot properly maintain. We know they deliver significant economic, social, environmental and health benefits and don’t cost the NHS £billions every year. Maybe they’ll even save the NHS a few bob into the bargain. 

But why is this such a bitter pill for so many engineers to swallow?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#pedestrianisation #oxfordstreet #motonormativity #urbandesign