STREET TALK

John Dales, Director

I’ve been writing a piece for Local Transport Today roughly every month for the past 15 years! The latest episode, published last week, was no.175 in the series which, since episode 105, has gone under the title of Street Talk. Since late March, in addition to the usual subscription-based hardcopy and online formats, LTT has been published in free-to-read format on the Issuu platform. On the off-chance that folk other than subscribers might be interested in reading my most recent three articles, a brief description of each and a link through to the Issuu publication are provided below.
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Planning for Walking? Whatever will they think of next?
This piece (on page 13) introduces readers to The Planning for Walking Toolkit’, published in March 2020 by Transport for London. Considering that walking is something almost everyone needs to do for at least part of every trip, that it’s free, that foot ownership rates are pretty close to two per person across the population, and that walking is the no.1 priority mode in virtually every transport policy document, it’s shocking that this is the only document of its kind in the land. But one is a lot better than none. Read it, and apply it.

The Wisdom of Crowding
This time (on page 21) I reflected on the fact that ‘the wisdom of crowding’ – on footways, public transport and even cycle tracks – is likely to remain highly questionable for a large swathe of the population for a far longer period of time than is strictly necessary; and that the period when it is considered necessary by public authorities may well be longer than many are currently hoping or expecting. This has brought the transport ‘numbers game’ sharply into focus for policy- and decision-makers, and made stark – even to those in Government! – the need to enable many more people to walk and cycle more. 
 
Better Engagement for Better Streets
This special episode (on pages p22-23) features guest contributions from Mark Ames of Strategic Cities and Simon Munk from the London Cycling Campaign. Its focus is on the pressing need for transport practitioners to change how we engage with local communities if we’re to bring more people with us and get more and better street improvement schemes delivered, and faster.

More information on the ‘how to’ of this is provided in the guide and supporting documents we’ve been preparing with LCC.
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