Planning

For the last 20 years, governments have attempted to encourage a more sustainable approach to transport within spatial planning but have made limited progress.

Car parking and traffic still dominate housingdevelopments. Sustainable access to local services is poor. Sustainable approaches to transport are largely non-existent. The way we currently travel and thecontinued growth in road traffic are damaging our health,harming our towns, and contributing to climate change.

Human errors play a vital role in road crashes. This paper deals with the prevention of human errors by proper road planning, road design and improving existing roads within the framework of the Dutch 'Sustainable Safety' vision. This vision focuses on three design principles for road networks and for roads and streets: functionality, homogeneity, and predictability. A minimum safety level should be defined and agreed upon by all road authorities, national, regional, and local.

Urban utility cycling is being promoted widely due to various health, social, economic and environmental benefits. This study seeks to identify and rank which munic- ipal-level policies and other factors are most influential in increasing cycling as a means of everyday transport and improving the real and perceived cycling safety in car-oriented urban centres. This is achieved by identifying the key factors thought to influence cycle use and by establishing a hierarchy of effectiveness of municipal cycling policies.

The New Towns and Garden Villages built in the 21st Century must be exemplars of sustainable and healthy living, they must deal with the twin challenges of climate change and inactive lifestyles. Health and climate change affect every aspect of planning for new and renewed places with high quality active travel networks being key to good design.