The toolkit is structured to provide planners and designers with a list of options for collecting and assessing data that can then be used to inform design decisions which impact on the walking environment across urban streets, footpaths, open spaces and physically permeable buildings and structures where people are permitted to walk.
This paper investigates the place of utility cycling (cycling as a means of transport rather than as a sport or leisure activity) under urban modernism in the UK. In many western contexts the dominant feature of urban modernism was its emphasis on accommodating private vehicles to the neglect of other forms of mobility. The result was the production of a ‘car-system’ with significant change to urban and rural environments.
The Mayor has asked Transport for London to put the Healthy Streets Approach at the heart of its decision making. Set out in ‘Healthy Streets for London’, this approach is a system of policies and strategies to help Londoners use cars less and walk, cycle and use public transport more often.
To achieve this it is important to plan a longer-term and coherent cycle network across London in a way that will complement walking and public transport priorities. This document provides a robust, analytical framework to help do this.
Author’s Foreword: Cycling on the Cusp of Greatness
I, like most professional transport planners, providers and researchers of my generation, have grown up thinking that cycling, though worthy, is of small significance compared with the great questions of cars, traffic and public transport, or the universal significance of walking.
Too many people in the UK feel they have no choice but to travel in ways that are dangerous, unhealthy, polluting and costly, not just to their own wallets but also to the public purse. Urgent action is required to address Britain’s chronic levels of obesity, heart disease, air pollution and congestion if we are to catch up with other countries in the developed world.
Bicycling in cities is booming, for many reasons: health and environmental benefits, time and cost savings, more and better bike lanes and paths, innovative bike sharing programs, and the sheer fun of riding. City Cycling offers a guide to this urban cycling renaissance, with the goal of promoting cycling as sustainable urban transportation available to everyone.
London has a long way to go to achieve the Mayor’s objective of a cycling revolution. Only 2 per cent of journeys in London are made by bicycle. This falls short of other UK cities like Bristol, Cambridge and Hull, and it is significantly less than the Netherlands – where 26 per cent of journeys are made by bicycle – and Copenhagen, which sees 36 per cent of work and study-related trips cycled.
