Category: Uncategorized

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Or, why a draft guidance note and Sesame Street might just be the street design heroes we didn’t know we needed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

Or, finally, some common sense on LTNs

“[LTNs are] simple and cheap infrastructure which protects our public realm from the worst impacts of cars and drivers’ behaviour and encourages and supports people who choose or have no choice but to walk, cycle or get public transport. We need to do this to support vulnerable members of our society, to reduce isolation, to improve safety and accessibility.” – Campaigners for Save Our Safer Streets

It’s official! Don’t mess with LTNs. Leave them be. It’s good to see the law finally sticking up for something that saves lives.

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch!

#lowtrafficneighbourhoods #ltn #filteredpermeability #urbandesigngroup

Or, how something as simple as a side street crossing can support broader transport initiatives andhelp keep us moving

“[The side road zebra crossing is] a rare unicorn… effective, popular and cheap. I would like all boroughs to engage with it.” – Cllr Max Sullivan, City of Westminster Cabinet Member for Streets

I know they’re not enforceable, but, side-street zebras are still making a big difference for pedestrians. A war on the motorist? Hardly. Plus, longevity advice from a 96-year-old lady called Jean.

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch…

#zebracrossing #westminstercitycouncil #exercisesnacks #sideroadzebra #continuousfootways #nppf

Or, why getting your homework checked and listening to feedback is really important, Keir

“Many of the areas designated for the fourth generation of new towns are not actually standalone new towns at all – they’re modest expansions of existing communities, and some are regeneration projects within existing towns and cities. So the challenge will be to bring the prosperity, the excitement and the vision.” – Lee Shostak

From Bournemouth to Milton Keynes to Adlington… from cronyism to new town corporations to protests… what the heck is going on with planning at the moment?

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch…

#futureplaces #newtowns #newtownstaskforce #designcodes #affordablehousing #socialhousing #poole #bournemouth #miltonkeynes

Or, the thing that’s blatantly obvious by its omission

“Freedom is having a choice of different things, not just having one really bad choice. Freedom is living in a city like here, where you can breathe clean air and choose your lifestyle.” – Zorana Jovanovic Andersen

A quick look at the revised NPPF with only a mug of weapon’s grade coffee and some ulcer-inducing trepidation between me and the transport planning elephant in the room.

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch… 

#placemaking #walking #cycling #activetravel #newyearresolution #urbandesigngroup #udg