life outside the box

Two Views From The Bridge

2012-01-25T09:43:00.001-08:00

Seen from the wonderful Millennium Bridge, London’s pedestrian-only link from the South Bank to the City of London, this view downriver of the stupendous Shard, nearing completion. And, in a window of Tate Modern, a reminder of our follies.

Video Logic from Virginia

2012-01-24T06:27:00.001-08:00

Here’s a nifty video: “Street Talk” of vox pops about the carfree diet that some punters are trying out in Arlington, USA. People who are saving time and money by not owning a car. As the man says “carfree is the way to be.” And if it can be done in the US of A…

Quote of the Week

2012-01-19T11:04:00.001-08:00

“I would never kill a living thing, although I probably have inadvertently while driving automobiles.”
Don Van Vliet (aka the late great Captain Beefheart)

Lewes Road For Clean Air

2012-01-18T01:15:00.001-08:00

Lewes Road for Clean Air & Bike Train is holding its Annual General Meeting and day conference on Saturday 4th February, 2-6pm at the Phoenix Community Centre, 2 Phoenix Place, Brighton, BN2 9ND (behind the Phoenix gallery opposite St. Peter's Church).
According to co-ordinator Duncan Blinkhorn, “It's been an eventful year for Bike Train, with our biggest ever ride involving 250 pedalling to Lewes for Bonfire Night, our first bike trains to schools including one with fifteen 7-9year olds from St Martin's Primary School to Stanmer Park plus weekly rides to Dorothy Stringer, Varndean & Patcham high schools and Davigdor Infants. Also our 'Bike to the Future' contribution to a utopian themed White Night. We have also welcomed the major £4.2 million government investment from the DfT's Local Sustainable Transport Fund for the Lewes Road and look forward to the improvements that this will deliver.”
Some of the activities planned for 2012 include:
- Bike Trains to B&H Albion matches at the Amex Stadium
- Bike Trains to schools and to other events
- Highlighting the problems of air pollution along the Lewes Road
- Updates on the £4.2 million LSTF programme
- What should a sustainable Lewes Road corridor look like?
- Developing a cycling vision for the Lewes Road
- Weekend Park & Ride
- Plans for the Brighton Bike Fest
More details from Duncan on 07944 152706

A Step in the Right Direction

2012-01-16T08:32:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Councillor Ian Davey for this story from the Brighton Argus on 12.1.12 about the rollout of more 20mph zones in Brighton and Hove (principally, on this occasion, Portslade). Here’s hoping that this is the first of many, which will eventually be joined up to give the city a 20mph default speed limit.

Resistance: Not Always Futile

2012-01-13T09:09:00.001-08:00

Seen in Lewes Road, Brighton: a bit of agitprop graffiti on the boarded-up window of an empty (new) shop. On the site of what used to be a petrol station. Which became a community garden. Which became a shop, which was, nearly, a Tesco, which the locals didn’t want…

Seascapes and Serendipity

2012-01-12T07:24:00.001-08:00

Working from home demands discipline, focus and commitment. But sometimes, being able to time-shift the workload means you can look out of the window, see the sunshine..…and down tools for a while. Which was how, taking a walk along Hove prom, I bumped into painter Andrew Roberts, taking advantage of a spookily warm and sunny January day to capture the seafront scene: here’s a link to some of Andrew’s Brighton paintings, and we look forward to seeing Andrew’s Hove works in the gallery. It’s odd that more artists don’t take paint the local seascapes – where are our contemporary Turners and Constables?

The Iron Lady On The Bus: A Challenge

2012-01-09T04:06:00.001-08:00

Meryl Streep is currently hoovering up plaudits for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the film The Iron Lady, just opened in the UK. (picture from deadline.com). Of course, Brighton has a particular resonance for Mrs T - the IRA attempted to blow her up, together with her cabinet, when they were staying at Brighton’s Grand Hotel (pictured here in 2005) for the 1984 Conservative Party Conference. Mrs. Thatcher famously favoured The Great Car Economy (although it sounds more like something Chairman Mao might have said, only about tractors). There’s also a belief that Mrs T called anyone taking a bus after the age of 26 “a failure,” although I can’t find a verified source. (Neither can Wiki). But it’s the kind of thing that she might have said – it’s akin to another of her epithets, which combines her dislike of economists and public transport, “You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.”

The nearest thing to the bus quote was uttered by Leolia, Duchess of Westminster, who said “Anybody seen in a bus over the age of 30 has been a failure in life,” mentioned in the Financial Times on 25 October 2008, and in a letter to the Daily Telegraph in 2006. (Note to the Duchess: seen in a bus?). It’s a safe bet that most duchesses haven’t had much experience of buses, but you might expect a Prime Minister to have been on a bus whilst ascending the greasy pole. Or maybe Mrs T took against the bus after some ghastly experience en route from Grantham to Westminster. Either way, many Brits seem to share the alleged distaste of The Iron Lady and the Duchess for public transport in general and the bus in particular. Which doesn’t help when it comes to persuading people that public transport is a viable alternative to owning a car. So here’s the challenge: find a verified citation of The Iron Lady actually making the famous “bus” quote.

Toilet Talk in Brighton and Hove: Clean or Dirty Hands?

2012-01-04T01:49:00.001-08:00

Here’s a letter from me, published in today’s Brighton Argus, about a budget proposal from the (Green) administration which will cut the availability (some closures, some reductions in hours) of public toilets in Brighton and Hove. This is bad news for all residents and visitors, but especially those of us who choose to walk around the city. I sent the draft to the three councillors mentioned in the letter, of whom two have replied: Tory leader Geoffrey Theobald noted, “The Conservative Group does not agree with closing all these toilets,” and Labour’s leader Gill Mitchell alerted me to the campaign and e-petition LOLA - Leave Our Loos Alone, that was launched just before Christmas, noting that it was a) non party political and b) gathering a lot of support.
I see that the Brighton Politics Blogger gave his “most Inspired Campaign of the Year to the Labour Party for LOLA, the campaign, to save public toilets from closure.” I also notice that his “Trend Setters Award goes to .... the Labour Party of the early 1990′s for starting the public toilet closure programme in Brighton.” Politics and awards aside, if signing the petition can help prevent some inconvenience, it's worth doing.
There is an organisation called the British Toilet Association, whose mission is to represent the interest and aspirations of 'away from home' toilet providers, suppliers and users of all types and to act as the catalyst for change in the pursuit of standards of excellence in all areas of public toilet provision and management. The BTA notes that:

Britain's public toilets were once the envy of the world
In recent years, significant number of public toilets have been closed down
We need more and better toilets

As a result, the BTA has set up a 'Where Can I Go' campaign to change attitudes to meeting a basic human need – provision of clean, hygienic and safe publicly accessible toilets that are available where and when needed for all types of users. And guess which organisation is listed as one of the campaign’s supporters? Step forward…

Quote of the Week

2012-01-03T07:23:00.001-08:00

“In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived.” Paul Bedford (hat tip to Dom Nozzi for this one)

A Flexible Friend

2011-12-31T03:21:00.001-08:00

I am often asked (especially by media types) the following question: “Don’t you ever miss not owning a car? Don’t you miss the spontaneity, the flexibility of just being able to jump in a car and drive off?” To which my (truthful) answer is, “hardly ever.” Behavioural economics says that human beings tend to value a loss at twice as much as a gain – so ‘losing’ something (a car) needs to be offset by double the benefits. We find that the loss – an occasional bit of flexibility and spontaneity – is more than offset by the gains – being thinner, fitter, having more money etc. But yesterday was one of those occasional days when we needed some flexibility: we were going to visit a friend in a distant part of the city, it was rather cold, and very wet. Getting on and off the bus with our loaded bags didn’t appeal. If there had been a car parked outside, we would have used it. But hold on. Around the corner there is a car. It’s a carclub car (a Zipcar, formerly Streetcar). So we got on the web at 2pm, booked the car for 3.00-6.30pm, and used it for our visit. Pretty spontaneous. Our flexible friend, a Zipcar VW Golf, cost us £17.50 (including petrol). Way cheaper than a taxi. Particularly when you use it to do some shopping on the way back. And the best bit of all? When we’d finished with our Zipcar, we put it back where we’d started, and walked away. Freedom without responsibility. (picture from Zipcar)

Short Cuts: Stuff About Cars in Books About Other Things

2011-12-30T06:12:00.001-08:00

As the year draws to a close, and as we have just passed the day when there are more cars on the UK’s roads than any other (apparently, 18 million cars took to the road on 23^rd December, this seems appropriate,
“Whereas most people, as they watched the coming and going of cars on a busy road, would see a normal, properly functioning traffic system, Stuart could only perceive it as an endless succession of narrowly averted accidents. He saw cars hurtling towards each other and considerable speeds, and missing each other by inches – time and time again, every few seconds, repeated constantly throughout the day. All those cars, he said to me, only just managing not to crash into each other. How can people stand it? In the end it became too much for him to contemplate, and he had to stop driving…
Watching the northbound traffic on the M6, you could see his point. Nobody seemed to think anything of taking a life threatening risk, just to shave a couple of minutes off their journey. I started to count the number of times people pulled out without indicating, or over take on the inside lane or tailgated someone remorselessly, or cut in on another car without giving it enough space.”
From “The Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim” by Jonathan Coe (pages 5, 6 & 202)

Plaster Caster and Seafood Pasta

2011-12-29T06:56:00.001-08:00

Brighton and Hove has more than its fair share of characters, whom you’re more likely to encounter if you’re outside the box: in the street on your feet. Which was how I bumped into Jamie McCartney outside Marrocco’s on Hove seafront. In between waxing lyrical about the seafood pasta, Jamie was being filmed by Swiss tv. Jamie’s vehicle of choice is a glittery pink Trabbant, a people’s car from the dying days of the eastern bloc. Jamie makes casts from human bodies – for aesthetic rather than medical reasons – and then turns them into personalised works of art. It seems that there are few body parts that have escaped Jamie’s plastering and casting, as you can see from his website. Jamie is a self-described “sculptor, alchemist, rascal,” and when I told him I might post something about him on my blog about being carfree in Brighton, he took a look at his Trabbi and said, “Like me, then.” Which sealed the deal. He said his next project is going to be photographic. Without using a camera. Sounds interesting….

Things You Don’t See From A Car: Chain Pier plaque

2011-12-28T04:51:00.001-08:00

You wouldn’t see this plaque about the long-gone Chain Pier because it’s on the pedestrian walkway near the Aquarium Terraces in Brighton. And while we are on the subject of piers, it seems that the Palace Pier (or Brighton Pier, as the current owners insist on calling it) has not been sold.

Technorati Tags: Brighton,Brighton Pier,Palace Pier,Chain Pier

Season’s Greetings

2011-12-23T07:56:00.001-08:00

A bit of seasonal street art on a utility box in North Street, Brighton.

Park or Ride? Getting to the new Royal Sussex County Hospital

2011-12-22T08:55:00.001-08:00

There is a major plan to replace Brighton’s elderly Royal Sussex County Hospital with a brand new hospital. And it won’t be Private Finance Initiative. So far so good. Less good are the transport arrangements for the new hospital, which have attracted the ire of Friends of the Earth. FoE would like to see more focus on walking, cycling and public transport rather than “£10 million on a new car park.” When I looked at plans for the the hospital during the public exhibition, I was struck by a similar thought – particularly pertinent given the need to combat rising levels of obesity, pollution, climate change, etc. Brighton FoE is running a petition about this, and they are looking for more signatures to help get some positive changes. The deadline is 23 January 2012. The plans for the new hospital go to a Special Planning Committee of Brighton and Hove City Council on 27 January 2012.

Tony Magdi: Gone, But Not Forgotten

2011-12-19T04:47:00.001-08:00

It’s just over a year since I posted the sad story of local greengrocer Tony Magdi. Tony has gone, but it’s fitting that, around a year after his death, his team have re-opened the shop on Portland Road in Hove. The shop still features brimming bowls of fresh fruit and veg, sold in £ lots (Tony couldn’t be doing with copper). Whether the business plan still includes generous handouts of fruit and veg. to customers, we’ll have to see. But if you want to resist the AsdaTescoSainsburyifcation of the UK, supporting independent shops like Tony Magdi’s is a good place to start.

Dozy Bankers: Brighton Nat West Gets Anonymous’ed

2011-12-15T03:33:00.001-08:00

Couldn’t quite believe what I thought I saw from the bus this morning at 8.00 in Brighton’s Western Road: it looked as if the Nat West branch had been fly-posted by Anonymous (see previous post of 22.11.11)

Even more hard to believe, the bank staff seemed to be completely unaware that they’d been got - the posters were still there at 10.30, when I managed to take these photographs.

The Higgs Boson, Mary Portas and Britain’s High Streets

2011-12-14T05:32:00.001-08:00

Two things we learned yesterday about the nature of our universe: first, the news coming from the scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider: the Higgs Boson particle might exist. And if it does, it will be found. Probaby. By next year. Possibly. (picture from BBC shows a simulation of Higgs Boson)
Second, according to “retail guru” Mary Portas, Britain’s High Streets are heading in the opposite direction – towards oblivion. Mary Portas was asked by the British government to report on the decline of the High Street, and has published a report setting out her thinking. Although she doesn’t use these words, the fate of the High Street in the UK is clearly a Wicked Problem – with multiple causes and no single remedy. (picture from maryportas.com). Mary’s recommendations to halt the decline are listed below:
1. Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong
operational management team for high streets
2. Empower successful Business Improvement Districts to take on
more responsibilities and powers and become “Super-BIDs”
3. Legislate to allow landlords to become high street investors by contributing to their Business Improvement District
4. Establish a new “National Market Day” where budding shopkeepers can try their hand at operating a low-cost retail business
5. Make it easier for people to become market traders by removing unnecessary regulations so that anyone can trade on the high street unless there is a valid reason why not
6. Government should consider whether business rates can better support small businesses and independent retailers
7. Local authorities should use their new discretionary powers to give business rate concessions to new local businesses
8. Make business rates work for business by reviewing the use of the RPI with a view to changing the calculation to CPI
9. Local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes that work for their town centres and we should have a new parking league table
10. Town Teams should focus on making high streets accessible, attractive and safe
11. Government should include high street deregulation as part of their ongoing work on freeing up red tape
12. Address the restrictive aspects of the ‘Use Class’ system to make it easier to change the uses of key properties on the high street
13. Put betting shops into a separate ‘Use Class’ of their own
One of the facts included in the report is that, “Excluding Central London, high street footfall has fallen by around 10% in the last three years”. Mary attributes this to a range of factors, including internet shopping and the attractiveness of out-of-town (car-borne) retail. Especially where there’s free parking. There is much to support in the report, but it’s a pity that, for all the discussion of footfall, there’s not much consideration of how walkability can enhance the attractiveness and economic well being of our High Streets.
For Mary, the equation seems to be: free car parking = increased footfall => increasing viability on the High Street. It seems that she has fallen into the trap of underestimating the importance of pedestrian activity to the local economy, thinking that is common to retailers and was identified in a recent report from Living Streets.
According to Living Streets, ”a study in Bristol found that retailers on a local high street overestimated the proportion of shoppers arriving by car by almost double at 41% compared with the actual proportion of 22%. In fact, over half of the shoppers had arrived there by foot, and greater proportions had arrived by bus and cycle than those estimated by retailers. The retailers also underestimated how far pedestrians had travelled to get to the high street; over 60% lived within 1 mile, possibly explaining the greater proportion that walked, and pedestrians generally visited more shops than those arriving by car. This misconception of the contribution that pedestrians make to local shops may also explain the importance placed on features to support motorised access (e.g. public transport and parking) by retailers. Improvements to the public realm in Exeter City Centre……corresponded with an increase in footfall of almost 20% over the same period.”

One For The Road?

2011-12-12T08:10:00.001-08:00

An alarming story from the Daily Telegraph about drivers who killed after wrongly getting their licence back following a drink driving ban. According to the Telegraph, “almost 8,000 drink drivers have been handed back their driving licences without proper checks including two who went on to kill in subsequent motoring accidents.” Behavioural economics shows that people are really bad at assessing risks, and the fact that something like driving is so familiar makes it much more likely that we will underplay the risk. All those drunk drivers aren’t going to help the odds. Something else to consider next time you jump in a car.

The Things People Say

2011-12-08T04:37:00.001-08:00

Woman on till at petrol station (yes, really) as I handed over the money for a newspaper: “No fuel?”
Yours Truly: “No, I don’t own a car.”
Woman on till at petrol station: “Lucky You.”

Walk the Talk

2011-12-07T08:00:00.001-08:00

Nice short video about the joys of walking, from the Environmental Transport Association.

Overhearings

2011-12-06T04:32:00.001-08:00

Being a driver means being inside the box, which means you get to choose your own soundscape. On public transport there are fewer choices: you can cut yourself off with an MP3, or you can be immersed in the sounds of other people. Sometimes this is bad, as per the Racist Woman on Tram, ranting on the Croydon Tramlink, captured on someone’s phone, and then posted on Youtube (the woman is now Helping the Police with Their Enquiries). Less virulent, but also annoying is “sodcasting" - some stroppy teenager with a phone playing a tinny version of a song you don't like. But sometimes it can be very entertaining, you just never know. Here’s an exchange overheard on a recent bus ride, featuring an alarmingly cheerful (drunk?) Scotsman, and a bemused Spanish language student (he said he was from Barcelona. Where have I heard that before?):
Scotsman: “Do you know the difference between an elephant and a loaf of bread.”
Boy from Barcelona: “No.”
Scotsman, to everyone else on bus: "Whatever you do, don't send him to do the shopping."
Boom boom.

Is Behavioural Economics The New Social Marketing?

2011-12-05T02:55:00.001-08:00

In London last week for a packed Charity Comms conference on Social Marketing: Changing Behaviour Through Communications, where I co-presented with social marketer Viv Caisey. (Slides available here)

Lots of interesting discussion about values vs nudges, and whether, if the aim is to change behaviour, it’s necessary to change minds (a key differentiator for interventions which use social marketing vs those that use behavioural economics). If you were to ask that question of the UK’s Coalition Government, it would seem that behavioural economics is indeed the new social marketing when it comes to the policy choice for interventions aimed at changing behaviour. Elsewhere, the answer would be different.

And those signs? Old and new approaches to the same subject, spotted whilst walking through London’s jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden, en route to the conference.

A Dog Is For Life, Not Just Christmas

2011-12-01T09:15:00.001-08:00

Seen in the subway which links Brighton’s beachside walkway to the north side of King’s Road, near the Odeon. What is he doing there? Your guess is probably better than mine.

Making Brighton and Hove A Walkable City

2011-11-29T08:29:00.001-08:00

At a well-attended public meeting organised by Brighton and Hove Living Streets, we listened and debated as the transport titans of Brighton and Hove City Council - Councillors Ian Davey, Gill Mitchell and Geoffrey Theobald - shared their views on how Brighton and Hove could become a walkable city.*
The councillors agreed that more could be done, and will be done, to improve the city for pedestrians, and the audience joined in a lively debate on what matters most to pedestrians, and how walking in the city could be improved.
Councillors and attendees came up with over 40 practical suggestions and ideas on how Brighton and Hove could become a walkable city, ranging from ambitious schemes like Valley Gardens to issues like 20mph speed limits, pavement parking, street lighting and dog poo. There was a call for more roads like New Road, and a welcome for planned improvements to the Lewes Road.
Living Streets Brighton and Hove plans to hold a follow-up workshop in the New Year to take these ideas forward. Email for details: livingstreetsbandh@gmail.com.
* A walkable city is where people select walking as their preferred choice of travel. Walkability is the extent to which walking is readily available as a safe, connected, accessible and pleasant activity. Walkable Cities have many health, environmental, and economic benefits. Factors influencing walkability include the presence or absence and quality of footpaths, pavements or other pedestrian right-of-ways, traffic and road conditions, land use patterns, building accessibility, and safety.

20’s Plenty for Brighton and Hove

2011-11-28T02:43:00.001-08:00

Rod King from 20’s Plenty gave a talk at last week’s meeting of Brighton and Hove Strategic Transport Partnership on the rationale for, and results of, a 20mph default speed limit in urban areas. It’s the nearest thing to a low cost silver bullet for encouraging modal shift, which in turn will cut road deaths and injuries, begin to tackle obesity as more people walk and cycle, reduce harmful pollution, and make Britain’s urban areas nicer places to live in, work in, and visit. It’s commonplace in the rest of Europe (30kph), and now seems to be taking off in the UK, where the 20mph limit will be in place in areas where about 7million people live. Brighton and Hove has taken the first steps towards extending 20mph speed limits, hopefully the prelude to a 20mph default across the city. Click here for a link to arguments and research that Rod used in his presentation.

Global Improvement Works

2011-11-25T09:33:00.001-08:00

Sign courtesy of We Are The 99% at Victoria Gardens in Brighton.

The Great Rail Fares Robbery

2011-11-23T01:15:00.001-08:00

Splendid poster featuring Prime Minister David Cameron, deputy Nick Clegg and Chancellor George Osborne, “Wanted” for the Great Rail Fares Robbery. It’s part of a protest against big increases in train fares being run by rail union the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, backed by the Campaign for Better Transport and Climate Rush which warns that fares will jump by 25% over the next four years unless the current formula for above-inflation increases is changed. The increases begin in January 2012, with rises expected to average 8%. The TSSA has given examples of how annual season tickets will increase by 2015 under the current formula, including Swindon to London, from £7,024 now to £9,009 (a rise of almost £2,000; Norwich to London, £6,540 to £8,388 (£1,848); Canterbury to London, £4,328 to £5,551 (£1,223); Guildford to London, £2,916 to £3,740 (£824) and Manchester to Liverpool, £2,536 to £3,253 (£717). None of which is an argument for owning a car, which still works out more expensive if you do the maths properly. But it definitely adds to the general view that “owning and running a car is cheaper than public transport,” when, often, it isn’t.

United As One, Divided by Zero

2011-11-22T01:30:00.001-08:00

This poster has started popping up around Brighton. Possibly linked to We Are The 99%. Possibly Not. Definitely intriguing...

Carfree in mid-Wales

2011-11-19T01:25:00.001-08:00

In this week’s giveupyourcar.com media blitz, a frequent comment from sceptics was along the lines “not owing a car might be ok if you live in a city or town, but what if you live in a rural area?” For some reason, Wales was often cited. So imagine my delight when this story popped into my inbox, sent by Jacqui, from…a village in mid Wales.
“I will confess that it wasn’t really of my own choice to begin with. On the 3^rd of August 2010 I had my driving license taken from me for a road rage incident. At first I was distraught but I’d hated driving for years, I found it so stressful. In fact so stressful that it was one of the reasons why I moved out of Bristol to the quiet country side of Mid-Wales. I’ve lived here for 13 years now, and until 2 years ago I hadn’t suffered road rage like I used to in Bristol. That is until Tesco moved into Newtown, Powys, and added a set of traffic lights to the main junction in town where there used to be a round-about, causing major traffic problems in town where there never used to be any. Traffic jams began growing to several miles long, on bank holidays they could reach up to 10 miles long! Suddenly just popping into town was no longer possible. You faced a long delay and major stress. This resulted in my loss of driving license, with a 12 month ban.
At first I researched the bus time-table and found that there were just 3 buses a day through my village of Kerry, 3 miles from Newtown. The first was 8.15am and the next was 10.50am. The first was too early as I couldn’t leave my daughter by herself before going to school and the second was too late if I had a lot to do in town. So I invested in an electric bike. I needed one with quite a beefy motor to get me up the steep hills home, so I bought myself an Ezee Sprint. Shortly after I bought myself a kiddy trailer, not for my daughter as she was too big for it by then but for putting shopping in, kind of like the boot of a car really! I can get all my weeks shopping in this and my bike gets me and all the shopping up the steep hills home with no problem. I once weighed the shopping out of curiosity to see how much I was pulling and it was 48 lbs.!
I am much fitter than I’ve ever been, I’m not stressed out all the time because of the two-fold benefits of cycling, 1) I don’t get stuck in the traffic and 2) the exercise gets those happy-hormones flowing! I just laugh when I see the traffic jams in town now, I just take the short-cuts and often get home before others do that are going my way. Plus the price of petrol no longer causes me anxiety, except that the price of food increases as a result. Admittedly the bike is only for short distances, up to say 10 miles. Any longer journeys I do on the bus or train. But I’ve saved so much money by no longer owning a car, that 6 months after losing my license I bought a new living room carpet costing £500, and 12 months later I bought a new double-glazed front door with side-panel, costing nearly £1700.
A car is just a bottomless pit into which we pour our money into. And it is possible to be car free. Only trouble is that today’s society is geared towards the car driver, with out-of-town shopping centres, shops out of walking distance from the nearest bus stop, and village shops nearly all closed. The whole of society would have to change before a lot of people could give up their cars. People in cities surely would have no trouble catching a bus to get where they want to go. It largely boils down to people not being prepared to take on a different lifestyle, it’s easier with a car and you have total freedom.
But there are ways to get to where you want to go other than a car, either by bike, bus, train or taxi. Some people might think that these things are too expensive but if you don’t own a car then you are saving far more than you would be spending. Most big cities already have bike lanes to make it safer for cyclists. 30 years ago I lived in Bracknell, Berks., and even then they had a whole cycle path network throughout the town and you rarely had to even cross a road. I have no intentions of getting my driving license back, as that would just be inviting stress back into my life. If I can do it at the age of 47 anyone can!”

Dave Gilmour’s Hove Beach Hut

2011-11-17T08:39:00.001-08:00

Still standing (under appeal).

On The TV, On The BBC

2011-11-15T09:58:00.001-08:00

As if to prove that the media tends to hunt in packs, my radio appearance on BBC Radio5Live, then BBC local radio was followed up in the afternoon with more radio gigs, plus an appearance on BBC News 24, the Beeb’s rolling digital news channel.
Having engaged with the great British phone-in public, it was time to go head to head on tv with Mike Rutherford, motoring correspondent of the Daily Telegraph - so no axe to grind there then. (I’m still looking for a newspaper with a Non-Motoring Correspondent. Or a Carfree Correspondent. I know someone who could fit the bill).
So here are a few nuggets:
Mike Rutherford: You need to live in the real world.
Yours Truly: I live in the same world as you Mike, I just choose not to own a car.
MR: Even if, as you say, 80% of the UK’s population live in urban areas, people will need to own a car so they can get away at the weekend.
YT: (the reply I didn’t get time to make) Mike, are you seriously saying that people should own the second most expensive asset they will ever have, so that they can use it on two days a week? Not to mention, last time I looked, the UK’s urban areas were linked with good networks of trains and buses to get you into the country, with loads of cheap fares available at weekends.

Roberto Perrone, Drivetime (!!) BBC Three Counties Radio
RP: Stephen, do you not like driving?
YT: Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in California in a convertible Ford Mustang with Pink Floyd on the stereo, that’s fine. Trying to drive round the M25 at five in the evening….
RP: Ah, but have you tried the A41?
BBC Radio Merseyside’s Simon Hoban, after a speaker from the Fair Fuel campaign seemed to indicate that the recession was due to the tax paid by motorists on fuel (hello, sovereign debt, banking crisis, credit crunch, anyone).
YT: It’s not just about the cost of fuel. What about all the other costs – depreciation, insurance etc. Where’s the e-petition on those?
Being variously described as “an organisation,” or “a campaign” was a bit weird, but I guess it’s all grist to the mill.

On Air, On The BBC

2011-11-15T04:45:00.001-08:00

My alarm call today came courtesy of BBC Radio5Live, paving the way for a radio “appearance” (down the line), first via a chat with Nicky Campbell on his breakfast show and back again for the phone-in. This was prompted by the pros and cons (overwhelmingly pros, in my view) of living carfree, in the context of today’s debate in the House of Commons about the projected increase in fuel duty from next January. Much reference to giveupyourcar.com, and a few mentions for upcoming book thefourwheeldetox (publishers, do get in touch!)

The Writing on the Wall…

2011-11-14T02:36:00.001-08:00

….as seen on Hove seafront. It could just be someone’s giant tag. Or maybe it’s a piece of Graffitinomics, displaying a succinct consensus forecast of economic prospects for the Eurozone in the context of the sovereign insolvency crisis driving bond market yield curves to the point of inversion, portending a deep recession. Or maybe both? You tell me.

11.11.11

2011-11-11T02:53:00.001-08:00

Today is Remembrance Day, with the annual two minute silence to commemorate the Armistice, the official end of World War One (at the 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month). This year it’s also Palindrome Day, when the numerical date reads the same backwards and forwards, something that none of us are going to see again. So, you could cower indoors to avoid the apocalypse that some are predicting. Or get out there and do something interesting instead.

Making Brighton and Hove A Walkable City: A Living Streets Public Meeting

2011-11-10T01:04:00.001-08:00

Living Streets Brighton and Hove is hosting a public meeting on "Making Brighton and Hove A Walkable City." A ‘walkable’ city is a city where people select walking as their preferred choice of travel for health and to relax, and one where walking is readily available as a safe, connected, accessible and pleasant activity. The meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday 28th November in the Function Room, The Lord Nelson Inn, 36 Trafalgar Street, BN1 4ED (close to Brighton Station). Confirmed speakers are:

Cllr Ian Davey: Cabinet Member for Transport & Public Realm, Deputy Convenor of the Green Group, Deputy Leader (Non-Executive) of Brighton & Hove City Council
Cllr Gill Mitchell: Leader of the Labour & Co-operative Group
Cllr. Geoffrey Theobald: Leader, Conservative Group
Stephen Young, Chair, Brighton and Hove Living Streets

If you know anybody who might be interested, please send them a link to this page – if you plan to attend, it would help to gauge numbers if you dropped an email to livingstreetsbandh@gmail.com. If you aren’t able to attend the meeting, but would like to keep in touch with Living Streets Brighton and Hove Group, you can send an email with “Update” in the header to the same email address.

Short Cuts: Stuff About Cars in Books About Other Things

2011-11-09T03:13:00.001-08:00

“24^th December. The house is filling up. Giles, Fred’s second child, and his wife Nicola arrived this afternoon, with their infant son Basil, aged nine months, having driven up this afternoon from Herefordshire in their black BMW 4x4, a huge high vehicle recently acquired in exchange for a Porsche to provide protection for their precious offspring. It has almost opaque tinted windows to foil potential kidnappers, and a sticker on the rear window “Baby on Board,” appealing to the consciences of drivers who might be intent on ramming them from behind.”

From “Deaf Sentence” by David Lodge (p181)

"Bikes not Bailouts"

2011-11-08T08:44:00.001-08:00

These guys are definitely outside the box – they have pitched their tents at Brighton’s Victoria Gardens.

Nudge and Shove: Behavioural Economics in The Smoke

2011-11-07T00:36:00.001-08:00

In London last week for a fascinating debate hosted by the Local Government Association and the British Heart Foundation on the role of behavioural economics in public health – should policy makers nudge or shove the public to take better care of themselves? One of the most telling points came from Professor Gerry Stoker from Southampton University: we need to get outside the labs, where most of the behavioural economics studies have been carried out, and undertake field experiments so that we can see what happens in practice. We should then use this evidence base, and do what works. Stoker has carried out a number of field experiments to test whether Nudges work, and has found that they do lead to shifts in behaviour – shifts which he described as modest, but significant. According to Stoker, “Nudge is a tool that we should use where possible, while still recognising its limitations.” Absolutely right. I made the point that, if you can find a Nudge that works, why wouldn’t you use it? After all, the “other side” is nudging us all the time – whether it’s getting us to smoke, eat the wrong kind of food, drink more than we should, or get in the car. Behavioural economics might not have the answer to all our problems, but, as someone said, “Every little helps.”

Great Graphic

2011-11-04T10:38:00.001-07:00

Spotted in an edition of Bricycles, the magazine of Brighton and Hove cyclists. It’s courtesy of Fred Pipes, who also has a website devoted to the weird cycle lanes of Brighton and Hove.

Blackfriars: Wake Up Boris

2011-11-03T11:53:00.001-07:00

Nothing to do with Brighton or Hove, except there’s a First Capital Connect train service which links Brighton Bedford, and goes right through the middle of London via Blackfriars. And at Blackfriars there’s a new station straddling the Thames, linking the north bank to the south bank by Tate Modern. This is a Good Thing, unlike the plans for revising the road traffic junctions at the new station. This has prompted the London Cycling Campaign to put forward an alternative scheme to make Blackfriars a better place not just for people on bikes but also for people on foot. Is Boris Johnson listening?

Haircuts R’Us

2011-10-31T04:22:00.001-07:00

Last week’s Eurozone summitry, and the supposed voluntary deal under which Greek bondholders will (may?) take a haircut (Kipper Williams cartoon from the Guardian) reminded me of this sign on a street in Toronto last year.

White Night meets Halloween in Brighton

2011-10-30T05:12:00.001-07:00

Typical Brighton – any excuse for a party! White Night is an all-night festival to mark the clocks going back. So it’s goodbye to British Summer Time, hello to those dark evenings. But at least White Night meant some choice opportunities, like the rare chance for a night-time visit to Brighton Pavilion. Plus around seventy other free events, mostly around the centre of the city. White Nighters joined Halloween-ers, with the “cultural quarter” rammed with pedestrians. Pity that the-powers-that-be didn’t go the whole hog and close the main streets in the city to traffic. Now that would have been worth celebrating.

Cats, Pigeons and Pavement Parking (again)

2011-10-29T05:05:00.001-07:00

Here’s my response to the letters in the Argus about pavement parking in Elm Grove, Brighton:
“Stephen Requena takes issue with my letter of 13 October about pavement parking in Elm Grove. He is right to say that, outside London, it is not against the law to park on the pavement – that’s why I was careful not to describe pavement parking as illegal. But the fact that something is not illegal does not mean that it is desirable. For example, it is not illegal to drink excessively, to elbow your way to the front of a queue, or to blow smoke in other people's faces - but all these behaviours are undesirable and inconsiderate. When undesirable behaviour persists, clear rules and sanctions are likely to be needed. This is what happened with pavement parking in London, which is why Living Streets is calling for a similar approach to be adopted in the rest of the country.”

Probably, The Saddest Street In Brighton

2011-10-26T11:41:00.001-07:00

Or at least a contender, the distinctly unregal King Street.

The Cat, The Pigeons and Pavement Parking: Letters in the Brighton Argus

2011-10-25T06:50:00.001-07:00

My letter to the Argus about pavement parking along Elm Grove has set the cat amongst the pigeons (or should that be the pedestrians among the cars?) with pro- and anti- letters prominent in today’s paper. My response follows.

Street Art of the Week

2011-10-24T03:26:00.001-07:00

Spotted a while ago near Ryde, Isle of Wight. A great question to ask, in this week of all weeks. Answers on a postcard….

Reclaim the Streets….Undermine the State

2011-10-20T03:57:00.001-07:00

So now we know. Making the point that cars dominate society and that we should do something about it is a threat to the state. Why else would a police spy infiltrate Reclaim the Streets? Better think carefully about that next street party you’re planning…..

Shoreham Farmer’s Market

2011-10-19T03:47:00.001-07:00

Shoreham Farmers Market is now back in its normal location after a £600,000 facelift to pedestrianize East Street. The market, which offers producers a local outlet to sell direct to the public, encourages healthy eating and more environmentally friendly and sustainable food production methods. It has now been going for over 10 years, and is probably the largest in Sussex. It runs from 9am to 1pm, and its best to get there early for the best produce. For those of us in Hove, Shoreham is our closest Farmers Market, just a quick ride along the coast on the 700 Stagecoach bus. The great thing about Shoreham Farmer’s Market is that it’s completely un-poncey: there’s a wide range of local produce, with around 70 stalls selling good food and drink, grown and made by locals, and sold at prices that give the supermarkets a run for the money. Sometimes including amazing things like these English melons, £1 each (very tasty they were too). Do yourself a favour, get along there on the second Saturday of each month, talk to, and buy from, the people who grow and make some of the best food you can eat, at prices we can all afford.

Brighton’s Argus Gives Cars The Red Light

2011-10-18T09:41:00.001-07:00

In a lead article on parking rage last Saturday, local newspaper the Argus did not pull its punches. It concluded, “The truth is there are too many cars in the city. Either businesses must be forced to provide parking for all their employees, tourists deterred from bringing their cars to the city or residents encouraged to give up their vehicles.”

Behavioural Economics Meets The Street?

2011-10-17T03:08:00.001-07:00

Behavioural economics is about how our brains process information and respond to the cues that surround us - frequently in ways that differ from what economists would deem “rational.” This came to mind at a workshop I attended in Brighton last week. Not a workshop about economics, but a workshop about streets and the psychology of streets. The workshop, based on the Department for Transport’s Manual for Streets, was run by an organisation called Places Matter. The workshop was designed to give participants an overview of Manual for Streets, outlining the principles of successful street design. Naturally, there was a visit to Brighton’s “trophy” street scheme, the award winning New Road. But we also went up to Brighton Station, a thorny challenge, where scoping out a new scheme is soon to be subject to public consultation. Thinking about streets is now moving away from formal modes of control beloved by traffic engineers to thinking about what people actually do in streets: getting the “right” kind of behaviour on streets needs a more subtle approach than just rules and regulations. The keynote presentation at the workshop was from Martin Stockley, a designer/engineer/practitioner and a thinker about streets.
Some of Martin’s key themes:

There is no single answer to how a street should be.

Conflicts are inevitable but probably can’t be solved: we should aim to let people interact and resolve (not solve) conflicts.

Manual for Streets is about controlling less, allowing more.

Civility is the name of the game.

The focus should be on “allowing regulations” to encourage “normal” behaviour.

It’s not normal to have to wait (eg to cross a road)

Local authorities are confusing “risk aversiveness” with “liability aversiveness.”

We need to aim for acceptable safety, not absolute safety.

Barriers on streets are perceived to increase safety, whilst actually increasing danger.

Vehicle speeds need to be lower.

Streets should be where people can act normally, not be regulated and controlled.

The streets are ours.

More of Martin’s thoughts on streets in this video. Naturally, filmed on the street.

Pavement Parking

2011-10-13T07:02:00.001-07:00

Pavement parking is currently a major problem in the Elm Grove area of Brighton, and it’s a Living Streets campaign.www.livingstreets.org.uk So I put on my Living Streets hat, and was pleased to see that my letter on the subject is the lead in today’s Brighton Argus. It’s going to be interesting to see the comments.
“We need to be clear that nobody has “the right” to park their car on the pavement: pavements are for pedestrians, not cars. The problem is that, in many areas, like Elm Grove, there is not enough space on the street to accommodate all the drivers who want to park there. This does not mean that rather than finding somewhere more suitable to park, and continuing their journey on foot, drivers should simply drive up onto the pavement and park there. Cars which block pavements make it difficult, and potentially dangerous, for pedestrians, particularly people with mobility problems, or with children in pushchairs. Cars on pavements also cause damage which costs money to get repaired (and makes walking more hazardous). Health and environment experts say that it’s important to reduce car use, by enabling and encouraging more people to walk as part of their daily routine. This means that we need not just connected street networks and 20 mph speed limits, but uncluttered pavements. It’s clearly essential that everybody works together to try to ensure that a practical solution is found to this situation, whether in Elm Grove or anywhere else in Brighton and Hove. It’s equally clear that the current situation cannot continue.”

A Member of Parliament Takes To The Street

2011-10-12T01:13:00.001-07:00

Three cheers to Tim Loughton, Tory MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families in the Coalition Government. Not for anything he may or may not have done on the policy front, but because he holds a monthly surgery for his constituents on the road during Shoreham Farmer's Market. It’s a great example of how a street can be so much more than what Jan Gehl calls “a traffic sewer.”

Cars and Shopping: Salience, Supermarkets and Farmers Markets

2011-10-11T01:06:00.001-07:00

Cash is king, or so they used to say. These days, we mostly use other forms of payment – whether it’s standing orders and direct debits for regular payments or credit cards for pretty much everything else. The move away from cash is a big psychological factor underlying the growth in personal debt - spending money on credit cards is so easy, and it isn't real money, is it? It's also another reason why people prefer to shop in supermarkets rather than in real markets, like this one in Shoreham, West Sussex. It's not just that it’s easy to drive, and park, at a supermarket, but supermarkets take credit cards while real markets tend to deal in cash. Behavioural economics tells us that salience, the “noticeability” of something, is a key factor when we make decisions. Salience is why marketeer's use attention-grabbing words like 'new' and 'free.' Another type of salience comes with things that hurt - the “ouch” factor that suppliers would prefer to avoid. Cash is salient because handing over hard earned notes creates pain that we’d prefer to avoid. Unless, of course, you prefer to live within your means, pay as you go, and keep a grip on how much you’re actually spending. In which case….get yourself to a market a.s.a.p.

Outside the Box at Nixon McInnes Social by The Sea 2011

2011-10-10T06:39:00.001-07:00

One of the reasons people sometimes give for owning a car is the need to make multiple trips on the same day. I had one of those days last week – starting off at home in the west of Brighton (Hove, actually), then travelling across the city to teach at Lewes Road, then back into central Brighton for an engagement before returning home to Hove. No car was needed for this itinerary, which could have been tailor-made for using a Saver ticket from the local bus company: £4 bought on the bus, £3.20 if you buy it online. No fuel costs, no parking charges or hassles. The trip into central Brighton was to carry out an engagement for social media agency Nixon McInnes. I spoke at “Social by the Sea 2011,” an invite-only mini-conference on social media attended by some of the UK’s biggest charities, including WWF-UK, Oxfam GB, RSPCA, Age UK and Childline. I’d been asked by Max St. John, Nixon McInnes’s lead consultant for non-profit and the public sector, to speak in a slot tagged “Inspiration” - the subject being what Behavioural Economics might mean for the people in the room, their organisations, and their clients. It was a great opportunity to meet an interesting bunch of people, doing good things. Here’s hoping that a bit of behavioural economics could help them do even more.

Carfree: David Mitchell

2011-10-06T06:01:00.001-07:00

“I’m even worse off for cars than I am for doorbells. I have none, battery or otherwise, and neither do I have a driving licence, so even if I bought a car, it would be no more than a cramped metal shed for which I had no planning permission.” (Photo from Wikipedia)

Column in The Observer, 11.9.11

Street Snapping

2011-10-05T01:55:00.001-07:00

I wouldn’t call myself a “street photographer.” But I do take photographs in the street and in other public places – some of which end up on this blog. But taking photos on the street has become slightly fraught, for a variety of reasons which include terrorism paranoia, moral panics about child safety, and our increasingly litigious culture. My own brush with mis-informed PCSOs in Brighton & Hove eventually resulted in me making a complaint to the Chief Constable of Sussex. So it was great to see the presentation from Brett Jefferson Stott of London Street Photography. He spoke at Brighton and Hove Camera Club and showed a film (Stand Your Ground) about what happened when six photographers took to the streets of London. Despite the misguided attempts of security guards to prevent the photographers exercising their legal rights, the police officers shown on film were all perfectly sensible, and allowed the snapping to carry on. Clearly, they’d read the “All forces guidance letter” sent out in August last year, which confirms that taking photos in a public place is perfectly legal. It’s quoted below. Happy Snapping!

“There are no powers prohibiting the taking of photographs, film or digital images in a public place. Therefore members of the public and press should not be prevented from doing so. We must acknowledge that citizen journalism is a feature of modern life and police officers are now photographed and filmed more than ever. Unnecessarily restricting photography, whether for the casual tourist or the professional is unacceptable and undermines public confidence in the police service. Once an image has been recorded, the police have no power to delete or confiscate it without a court order|”

(All forces guidance letter, 26th August 2010 from Andrew Trotter, Chief Constable, Chair of ACPO Communication Advisory Group).

A Tale of Two Towns: Cars in King’s Lynn and Bude

2011-10-04T03:35:00.001-07:00

We’ve recently been Outside The Box in King’s Lynn in Norfolk, and Bude in Cornwall: two waterside towns that have benefitted from significant investment in place, and all the better for it. But cars have been treated very differently in each town. Along the Bude Canal, the quayside refurbers have bitten the bullet and removed the cars. In King’s Lynn, the refurb. has turned the quayside into a carpark. No prizes for guessing which is best for ambling pedestrians, for chance encounters, for drinking coffee and shooting the breeze. And in King’s Lynn the desecration continues inland, where the splendid and historic Tuesday Market Place is normally just a great big car park. It’s hard to imagine that a civic asset like this would be used as a car park in any European town with a sense of pride and place: as the pictures show, if you really want to spoil the look of a place, nothing beats a load of parked cars.

Camp Walkers On The Wealdway in Kent

2011-10-03T06:03:00.001-07:00

The Wealdway is a long distance (c82 miles) footpath that runs from Eastbourne to Gravesend through the beautiful countryside of East Sussex and Kent. In Kent, many of the footpath signs feature this somewhat camp character.

Fifty Miles

2011-09-29T05:23:00.001-07:00

Cited in the Guardian on 24.9.11, fifty miles is the distance covered each week by the average 'parent taxi' as mum and dad ferry kids between after school activities. According to Tescocars.com. Apparently.

Commonwheels are go

2011-09-28T07:39:00.001-07:00

I’ve received an email from Commonwheels , a social enterprise car club. Happy to oblige with a mention. They have cars in the following locations:

Anstruther - (Wheelshare Franchise)
Ashton Hayes (Cheshire) - Franchise (Electric Car)
Carlisle
Cumbria - Kendal & Staveley
Dunbar - (Sparewheels Franchise)
Durham
Eastleigh
Gloucester
High Wycombe
Lewes
Middlesbrough - Easterside Electric Car!
Newcastle & Gateshead - Including an electric car
Norfolk - Aylsham, Cawston & Reepham
Northumberland - Prudhoe
Norwich
Oxford
Poole
Portsmouth
Reading
Swindon - (GOCO CAR Franchise)

Beijing Subway Graffiti Shock

2011-09-27T01:03:00.001-07:00

I guess this is a tag, but it’s something I didn’t expect to see on the Beijing Subway. Don’t know whether this is Made in China or a personal import.

Quote of the Week

2011-09-21T01:12:00.001-07:00

In my work as a consultant to a UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union, I was recently required to take a couple of short online courses on “Security in the Field.” Among the topics covered were how to deal with child soldiers in the field (never, but never, ask if you can take their photo), how to find North using a wristwatch (an old Boy Scout trick), and what to do when people start shooting into the air (find some thick concrete and get under it). Less dramatic, but equally sound, was what to do with food from dubious sources (“Boil it, cook it, peel it, or leave it.”) All useful stuff, which I hope I’ll never need it. One of the most striking bits of information was that “Over 50% of hostage victims are taken from vehicles.” Good enough to be Quote of the Week. And a great reason to try and avoid getting in a car when you’re somewhere dodgy.

The Strange Case of Dave Gilmour's Hove Beach Hut

2011-09-19T05:25:00.001-07:00

Walking along Hove seafront, I often turn my ears towards Dave Gilmour’s house, hoping to hear a bit of guitar escaping from an opened window – maybe from Comfortably Numb, surely one of the all time great guitar solos? It has been interesting to watch progress at this splendid house, where Mr G has clearly spent a shedload of money restoring it to what appears to be its original splendour. I noticed a while ago that a slightly overgrown beach hut had been installed in the little off-road parking space by the side of the house, apparently for bike storage. Now, the powers that be have ruled that the beach hut is in breach of planning rules and it must go. Clearly, rules are rules, and planning is a contentious area, especially at the moment, as this article by Simon Jenkins on the government’s proposed changes to planning guidance points out. But the beach hut ruling seems like overkill, especially when you look at what’s next door to Dave Gilmour’s house – the scarcely ornamental Spa Court, and then Benham Court. Both of which presumably received planning permission at some time. And it would be unfair to mention the other excrescences that mar the streets of our fair city – apart from the Jubilee Library, it’s hard to think of a single building in Brighton and Hove constructed since 1960 that has any merit. If in doubt, take a look at the King’s West Centre, or the Council’s very own Brighton Centre.

Short Cuts: Stuff About Cars in Books About Other Things

2011-09-18T09:16:00.001-07:00

"Even in the everyday world of the present, an anxiety to survive manifests itself in cars and clothes for far more rugged occasions than those at hand, as thought to express some sense of the toughness of things and of readiness to face them."

From 'A Field Guide To Getting Lost' by Rebecca Solnit, p80 (Solnit also wrote the wonderful book “Wanderlust,” a rich, deep meditation on walking).

Tiananmen Square – It’s Public Space, But Not As We Know It

2011-09-14T03:05:00.001-07:00

Tiananmen Square - at 400,000 square meters - is the world's largest public space. But it isn't a public space as a European would understand it, a place for idle dawdling, chance encounters and civic contemplation (not to mention the occasional riot or demonstration). The square was created by Mao as a rejection of China's feudalism and a projection of communist power. Tiananmen is bounded to the north by the square kilometre complex that is The Forbidden City, home to China’s emperors for 500 years, and being in the square is a reminder of who actually runs China - it's full of soldiers and police officers, and there’s constant surveillance. Visitors to the tomb of Chairman Mao (the Maosoleum?) are marshalled by security guards, and when it’s close to closing time, they will megaphone visitors to hurry things along. And one thing you won't find is any reference to events which occurred here in 1989.....

On Foot in Beijing: Food for Thought

2011-09-13T00:58:00.001-07:00

Spotted whilst walking around a food court near the Bird's Nest stadium in the Olympic park. Not sure whether it's the name of the establishment, the signature dish, or the result of eating here. I wasn't brave enough to find out.

Shared Space, Beijing style

2011-09-12T02:35:00.001-07:00

Drivers in Beijing seem to have a binary conception of the space around them: first, there’s the road, to be used when their vehicle is in motion; second, there’s everywhere else, including the pavement, to be used when their vehicle is not moving.

Shown here, some choice examples from my Beijing wanderings. Time for a Beijing branch of Pedestrian Liberation.

Beijing On Foot: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2011-09-10T07:27:00.001-07:00

The Good

Most of the city is laid out on a grid pattern, making for easy navigation
Many streets are tree- lined
The risk of crime is pretty low, if you exclude the risk of being scammed, in any number of imaginative ways
Some streets are pedestrianised, although many of the more recent ones are just outdoor linear malls
Wandering around what's left of the old hutongs, where traffic is restricted by the architecture and the often winding lanes
Plenty of free public toilets, a legacy of the time when many of the old hutong houses had no plumbing
The extensive subway network, for when the walking gets too much
The few Blue Sky Days, when the white haze gives way to sunshine and clear air

The Bad

The sheer physical scale - it's a huge, sprawling city, the Los Angeles of Asia (complete with smog), so distances for walkers can be daunting
The quantity of motor traffic, and the speed, pollution and noise it produces
A series of humongous ring roads and expressways, with torrents of traffic which can require annoying and sometimes hazardous detours
In summer it’s hot, humid and hazy. In winter it's cold, windy....and hazy
Sudden lack of access due to closure of footways, seemingly for 'security' reasons
Pavements not always in a good state of repair, and there are many hazards to watch out for, such as impromptu mechanic's workshops on the footway
Pavement parking - drivers seem to see the footway as an extension of the road, only with fewer restrictions
The destruction of much of historical Beijing, which has taken with it much of the sense of place
Hard- to-fathom bus system, with distance-related fares

The Ugly

Constant need to avoid prodigious amount of spitting - either ground level results, or airborne expectorations
Some gross smells emanating from side alleys

Bikes in Beijing, Brighton and Hove

2011-09-09T04:49:00.001-07:00

According to songstress Katie Melua “There Are Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing.” Or there were, in 2005. Based on my observations last week, not any more. Katie would have to change the title to “There Were Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing, But Now There Seem To Be Just As Many Cars,” which sadly does not scan too well. I grew up with images of pedestrians braving battalions of bikes and streams of cycles in order to cross the road in Beijing. Now it's torrents of traffic. While other countries are embracing bike hire schemes and trying to tame the car, Beijing has gone in the opposite direction, and unleashed the car. Crossing the street is a risk to life and limb - signalled intersections have a countdown for pedestrians while the green man is lit up, but drivers seem to think that giving way to pedestrians is optional - they are likely to weave around you, often at speed, whilst you're crossing. Which is alarming. And the pollution caused by all these cars is something else. Meanwhile, in Brighton, hoping not to go down the Beijing road, the council is consulting on plans to introduce bike lanes onto the Old Shoreham Road. You can have your say via the consultation portal.

Outside The Box in Beijing

2011-09-08T08:01:00.001-07:00

During the last couple of years I have been contracted as a consultant to a UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union, for whom I have written studies on climate change and the ICT sector. The ITU recently asked me to give a presentation as an expert on such matters at a seminar on green ICTs in Beijing, co-hosted by the ITU and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It would have been rude to refuse, so I duly turned up in Beijing last week, having decided to tack on a couple of extra days – my first visit to Beijing being a chance to check out the capital of the next global superpower (ironically, videoconferencing did not seem to be an option). Beijing catapulted into public prominence during the 2008 Olympic Games, which saw a boom in construction with iconic structures like the Bird’s Nest stadium. Less visible, but more useful was the expansion to the Beijing Subway, which is still ongoing. The subway is fast, frequent, clean, air-conditioned, extensive, inexpensive (2 CNY or about 20 pence, to go anywhere) and seems efficient. Many of the stations have public toilets, and the trains have illuminated maps to show progress, plus announcements in English. It's also the only subway system I've encountered where bags are x-rayed in a security check before you descend to the platform - presumably a bit more of the Olympic legacy (although the operators seemed pretty bored, and I never saw anyone stopped for a closer inspection). If you don’t mind sharing the train with what sometimes feels like a large part of Beijing’s 22 million population, the subway is definitely the best way to stay cool and beat the sprawl in this global megacity.

Street Art Seen in Split

2011-08-29T01:44:00.001-07:00

Enough said.

Street Art vs Graffiti

2011-08-26T09:08:00.001-07:00

Fascinating programme on Channel 4 about the King Robbo vs Banksy feud, and differing attitudes to graffiti (exemplified by KR) vs street art (that’s Banksy). Here’s some street art seen around Hove. Definitely not by Banksy.

Carfree: Howard Jacobson

2011-08-25T00:17:00.001-07:00

Novelist and winner of last year’s Man Booker prize for “The Finkler Question,” Howard Jacobson confesses to being overloaded with shirts, and spending his time at the gym sitting reading the papers. But in The Inventory in last weekend’s Financial Times magazine (20/21 August) he also says “I don’t have a car.” It’s not that he couldn’t afford it – the Man Booker prize is £50,000.

Quote of the Week

2011-08-21T04:40:00.001-07:00

“You don’t buy a cow when you want a pint of milk.”
Who said it? Me actually, referring to car ownership versus car hire when I was talking on the radio last week. I said it during a live www.GiveUpYourCar.com piece on LBC’s evening radio phone-in with Iain Dale. I got my 12½ minutes of London phone-in fame in a conversation with Ian that went from the rational to the surreal. Here’s a sample:
Ian: “If you don’t have a car, how would you do what I have to do tomorrow: go to Sky Studios in Osterley in the morning and pick up a puppy in Bedford in the afternoon?”
Me: “I probably wouldn’t be going to Sky Studios, but if I did, I’d do what I’m actually doing this weekend – I’d hire a car.” (It’s parked at the kerb outside my place right now).
The conversation then took a surreal turn, centring on the likelihood and consequences of the puppy disgracing itself in a hire car vs your own car. (One of the more bizarre reasons I’ve encountered for owning a car).
In fact, I might use public transport – train and tube to Osterley and then train to Bedford. A puppy will fit into a pet carrier – some friends collected the ducks for their pond in a cat box which they took on the train (presumably, making sure the cat was out of the box first). Which just shows that being carfree occasionally means you need to get your ducks in a row. Boom boom.

The State of the City: Transport in Brighton and Hove

2011-08-19T09:46:00.001-07:00

The local council has published the “State of the City Report”, which aims to provide an accessible overview of the city, its characteristics & key issues. The ultimate aim is to “create a shared sense of priorities.” Whether it succeeds or not in that aim, it certainly provides a good overview of Brighton and Hove in terms of the economy, health, crime and population. Here’s the section dealing with getting around, on transport in Brighton and Hove.

“Our city is a regional transport hub with good road and rail links to London & adjoining cities and towns along the south coast, London
Gatwick & London City airports, as well as the two ports of Shoreham and Newhaven.

11% of our principal roads are described as in need of “consideration of maintenance work” an increase on 8% the year before. The proportion of non-principal roads also classed as requiring maintenance is 6.5%..
Traffic congestion is the local issue residents think “most needs improving”. Vehicle ownership was low at 0.9 per household, compared to 1.1 across England in 2001.
Transport makes up 25% of our carbon emissions compared to 32% regionally & 26% nationally. Road vehicles are the greatest contributing factor to poor air quality in Brighton & Hove with the main pollutants being Nitrogen Dioxide & particulates (PM10).
4,100 residents are estimated to be affected by noise from traffic. The Department of the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs published their “noise maps” in 2010. Over 2,000 of our dwellings are considered to be in “important areas” for monitoring & actions to minimise the effects of traffic noise pollution; 1,400 of these are “first priority”.
Our road safety record is improving. Two people were killed on our roads in 2009 compared to 16 in 2005. 143 people were seriously injured in road accidents in 2009 compared to 145 in 2005.
We have three rail lines which terminate at Brighton station, & eight rail stations in the city. 19,250,000 people passed through our eight rail stations in 2009/10.
Bus patronage has increased from 30.2 million journeys in 2001 to 41.1 million in 2009/10. 12 per cent of residents reported regularly using the bus for travel to work in 2001. In suburbs, where bus service provision & frequencies are lower, residents are more likely to use their cars to travel to work.
3% of residents cycle to work, in line with the national level.
Most of our city has very good accessibility to services such as doctors, food shops, schools & the city centre. 50% of the city’s areas (83 of 164 areas) are in the 20% least deprived in England according to this measure of the 2010 Indices of Deprivation. Ovingdean is the most deprived area of the city with regard to access to key services such as Post Offices, supermarkets, General Practitioners & schools.”

Quote of the Week

2011-08-16T02:23:00.001-07:00

Duncan Blinkhorn is one of the people featured in a photo exhibition by Climate Connections on Brighton seafront near the bandstand. Underneath Duncan’s photo is this great quote, “If it’s broke, fix it. We can’t wait for permission or fashion or elections to do what’s required. My journey towards carbon freedom has been to ditch the car, shift to renewables, stop flying, talk to neighbours, green-up derelict land, challenge polluters, take over the roads with bikes, be fearless, keep smiling and have faith that, if we are many and determined, a change is gonna come.”

Croatia: Where Are The Cars?

2011-08-15T01:01:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures taken in Croatia this summer – Split, and the islands of Vis and Hvar: beautiful. But something is missing. Surely the urban planners could have carved out some parking spaces along the quays, in front of the cafes, and alongside the boats? All that space – just for people who want to stroll, enjoy themselves, walk and talk, eat and drink.

Trams: Sexy or Sexist?

2011-08-12T10:44:00.001-07:00

Not a question I’d normally ask. Until I saw this in Zagreb.

Street Art in Red Bologna

2011-08-11T02:07:00.001-07:00

As you might expect from a city known as Red Bologna, the street art tends to the political. Here’s a sample.

Ped(estrian) Bologna

2011-08-10T07:54:00.001-07:00

Bologna is sometimes known as la Grassa (the fat one) because of its food-centricity, sometimes as Red Bologna because of its architecture and politics: you can stroll along the Via Antonio Gramsci or take the bus to Rosa Luxemburg. Transport plays a major part in Bologna’s story - Bologna station is seared into Italy's collective memory not because it is one of the country's most important rail hubs, but because of the terrorist bomb attack which killed 85 people at 10.25am one day in August 1980. The attack was attributed to the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari, and there have been long-standing suspicions that Italy's secret services were involved, due to the explosives used for the bomb and the political climate in which the massacre happened. But it has never been proved. This clock, forever at 10.25, commemorates the awful day. Bologna was a shock return to cars and traffic after Venice. But though it has streets and not canals, Bologna is good for pedestrians - “Ped Bologna”? The well preserved medieval centre is renowned for its elegant and extensive arcades, of which there are around 38 km in the city's historical centre (over 45 km in the entire city). So it’s possible to walk for long distances sheltered from rain, snow, or, at this time of year, hot summer sun. Public spaces are well used - there's a cinema festival in the main square Piazza Maggiore - thousands of people sitting under the stars watched giant black and white images of Marlon Brando “On The Waterfront.”

In Milan, Cars Suck And Trams Rock

2011-08-09T04:14:00.001-07:00

Cars Suck, according to this sticker in Milan. Trams, on the other hand, rock. Especially if they are as old as this one, near Milan's main rail station.
But any city is immediately improved by trams, no matter how old they are. Milan is no exception.

Quote(s) of the Week

2011-08-06T10:11:00.001-07:00

Here are some quotes/scary facts to think about next time someone (not you, obviously) mentions their weekly drive to the supermarket, or topping up the shopping at an oh-so-convenient local supermarket. It’s from an article in today’s Guardian by John Harris. Something to remember when, in the not too distant future, there are no independent shops left. When every British High Street offers identical shops. When you’ll have to go abroad to experience the charm and satisfaction of shops that offer diversity and real competition. Read on…

“There are just over 8,000 supermarkets in the UK, and they account for 97% of total grocery sales.
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons take 76% of that market. Their share of non-food retailing currently stands at 14%, a figure up by 75% since 2003.
In the two years up to November 2010, planning permission was granted to 480 stores run by the Big Four, which works out at one supermarket every other day.
Since 2008, they have accounted for 87% of the retail floor space given planning permission.
In May, Channel 4 News reported that by 2014 retail space operated by the Big Four was set to increase by 20%: as its report put it, "an expansion drive on a scale never seen before".

Verses On The Vaporetti

2011-08-04T01:27:00.001-07:00

Inspired by London's Poems on the Underground here is a link to what loosely translates as Verses On The Vaporetti, although I’m slightly puzzled by the need for it: I can understand why you might want to contemplate some inspiring verse when you’re trapped on the tube in London. But bored on the boat in Venice? Are we nearly there? Oh not, not the Grand Canal again? Now where are those poems? Mind The Gap.

"Street Art?” In Venice: A City Without Streets

2011-08-02T00:46:00.001-07:00

Although the ambassador to Charles VII of France said in 1495 that the Grand Canal was "the most beautiful street in the world," and although it is full of traffic, it isn't like any other street. And nor are any of the other canals. But no streets doesn’t mean no street art. Here’s a selection, starting with some political satire on the Vogalonga boat race around Venice, continuing with some trenchant commentary on the Venice Bienniale arts festival, and ending with a cheeky bit of street art/opportunism from Marc-Antoine Leval, who needs to do his homework - this isn't Banksy's signature.

Venice: Pedestrian City

2011-07-29T10:19:00.001-07:00

Venice is the world's only pedestrian city: Great for walkers. Bad for bikes (banned), buggies, wheelchairs (although some vaporetti are wheelchair-accessible, there is the small matter of all those bridges), hydro-phobics, petrol heads and traffic engineers, not to mention Google Streetview (no streets for that Google camera car). As well as getting around on foot, Venice does have public transport in the form of the water buses run by ACTV (vaporetti are the larger variety, while the slimmer and faster boats which ply the inner canals are motoscafi. The double-decker motonavi, more like small ferries, ply the Lido). Most canals in the city are too small for public transport and the larger craft can only pass around the outskirts of the city or through the central, wider canals. All other areas can only be reached by foot, or the eye-wateringly expensive water taxis. Sometimes known as La Serenissima, Venice may be quiet, but it isn't silent - the main canals are commercial arteries, full of chugging boats delivering passengers and supplies, removing garbage, ferrying the living and the dead (we saw a coffin on a water-borne hearse). The boatmen shout out, engines throb, horns hoot and toot (this is Italy) and an occasional speedboat passes by with a sound system set to max (pimp your keels?).
Pictures by Yours Truly show tube-style map of the actv public boat network, real time boat stop information, and a motoscafo approaching a stop.

Outside the Box in Europe

2011-07-26T06:49:00.001-07:00

Just returned from a carfree trip around Northern Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, staying in apartments and travelling around on public transport - trams, trains, buses, ferries and catamarans. Although it wasn’t planned as such (with the obvious exception of Venice), one thing really stood out: from small islands in the Adriatic to big Italian cities like Milan, the rest of Europe is serious about re-balancing public space for the benefit of people who aren’t in cars. The rest of Europe seems to really get it - cars don’t get to go wherever their drivers want to, at the expense of all the others users of public space.
Some of the most striking things:
- Large areas of many cities are now pedestrian zones. Even the car-mad Italians have got rid of the cars in the centre of Milan, around the Duomo

- Cyclists and pedestrians seem able to co-exist peacefully in the carfree zones
- Increasing numbers of cities have bike rent schemes modelled on the Paris Velib: we saw them in Bologna, Milano and Ljubljana
- More cities are getting car club/car rental schemes
- Some cities provide free transport services to help people get around in the areas where cars aren’t allowed
And then, we come back to Brighton and Hove and find……a move to reduce the amount of time when George Street, Hove’s main shopping street, is given over to pedestrians. Welcome back to the Stone Age…

D2D: Door to Door Journeys Without A Car

2011-07-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Interesting report published last month on “Door toDoor Journeys” (a.k.a. “D2D” Journeys) by the Campaign for Better Transport. UK users of public transport know that the dream of integrated transport remains some way off. The report gives examples of good and bad practice, and the findings should be required reading for every politician, planner and environmentalist. As the Campaign for Better Transport says, if public transport is to be a real and attractive alternative to cars, it needs to offer the same kind of door-to-door service that cars do. “This is not impossible, as experience in some parts of the UK and in many other countries shows.” The report highlights four main elements that are needed to integrate transport. These are:

Giving people good information before and during their journeys
Making sure that the interchanges between different public transport services don't act as a barrier (and that walking and cycling access and facilities are good)
Getting transport services to connect with each other
Having tickets that allow services to join up in a simple and transparent way

My experience is that, compared with many other European countries, the UK doesn’t score well on many of these criteria: Brighton and Hove is good, but, for the UK, still exceptional. Here we have: real time information from the bus company; main interchanges which are broadly ok; some transport services which connect – and some that don’t; and some tickets that allow joined-up services, mainly between the bus company and the train operators: infuriatingly, there is no interoperability of tickets between our two main bus operators, Brighton and Hove Bus Company and Stagecoach. What is even worse is that there used to be – until Stagecoach (allegedly) pulled the plug on the deal. You can get the full version of the report (2.3 Mb) here.

Quote Of The Week

2011-07-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking." Friedrich Nietzsche

Short Cuts: Stuff About Cars in Books About Other Things

2011-07-13T02:44:00.000-07:00

“Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another" by Philip Ball (p193)

"How would you feel about spending a whole working week in every year sitting in a box the size of a large cupboard with nothing to do, unable to get up, stretch, sleep, read or watch tv? Well, if you live in Washington DC, Boston or Denver you may be doing that already. And in Los Angeles are likely to be experiencing a full week and a half of it. I'm talking about sitting in traffic jams."

Quote Of The Week

2011-07-04T00:43:00.001-07:00

It's the Fourth of July, US Independence Day, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain, America is now dependent on the auto and the oil that fuels it. Here's a pertinent quote from urbanist Jim Kunstler, "The 20th Century was about getting around. The 21st Century will be about staying in a place worth staying in."

Walking On Water - Brighton Pier Is For Sale

2011-06-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Even the most devout pedestrians don't often get to walk on water, but Victorian engineering smarts gave us the chance with magnificent iron piers in many British seaside resorts. Now one of the most iconic (dread word, but justified) is up for sale. Brighton Pier, still known to locals by it's original moniker of Palace Pier, has been put on the market by owners Noble Group. "Strong interest" is reported from potential buyers for the pier, which played a starring role in the book and the film Brighton Rock, and featured in a couple of Carry On films. An economist might say that, though formerly part of Brighton's pier duopoly, the Palace Pier has been a monopoly supplier of pier-based services since the demise of the Grade I-listed West Pier - reduced to a marooned island of twisted ironwork after being battered by storms and fires. Whoever buys the pier (assuming that this isn't some kind of publicity stunt), here's hoping that pedestrians are able to carry on walking on water.

Quote of The Week

2011-06-29T14:32:00.001-07:00

"All cars are getaway cars." Ross Best

A Member of Parliament Goes For A Stroll

2011-06-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

Spotted walking along Brighton seafront last Sunday, Brighton’s (somewhat windswept) Green MP Caroline Lucas, with, I think, her son. So what’s the big deal about that? Well for starters, in all the time that I’ve lived in Brighton and Hove, with it's three MPs, I never saw a single one of them just Going For A Stroll. True, I often saw a harassed-looking Celia Barlow (who?) heading for the train station, but that was my only 'al fresco' spotting of a local MP. In fact, friends tell me that you’d have been more likely to bump into our (former) local Labour MPs at their maison secondaires in the south of France. While it’s true that MPs spend a lot of time dealing with constituents, it seems impossible that they can really understand what's happening in their constituency without getting out and about on foot from time to time – and I don’t mean canvassing in the run-up to an election. So the message for Dr Lucas and MPs in general? Stroll On.

The Low Carbon, High Impact Way to Get Your PC Fixed

2011-06-21T03:11:00.000-07:00

For a Windows user, there’s only one thing worse than the BlueScreen of Death. And that’s the BlackScreen of Death, accompanied by a series of annoying beeps when you try to re-boot. When this happened to me, a bit of Googling revealed a local tech guy who could come and take a look at the ailing machine. Generally, I like to use service providers who are local, independent and, where possible, low carbon. So when Hove-based pchelpman rocked up on his bike and fixed my pc, I was well impressed: goodbye BIOS beeps, goodbye Black Screen of Death, hello working pc. “Geeks on Wheels” is already spoken for, but Stephen the pchelpman seemed happy with “Geek on A Bike” or maybe “Geek on Two Wheels”? You can find him at www.pchelpman.co.uk

“Making City Centres More Prosperous Means Providing More Car Parking.” Right? Wrong!

2011-06-18T02:06:00.001-07:00

…..and here’s the evidence to prove it. Any government department or local council wanting to promote economic vitality in urban areas (that should mean all of them) must take a look at this new report, Making the Case for the Walking Environment, published by Living Streets and produced by a multi-disciplinary team from the University of the West of England and Cavill Associates. The report brings together and evaluates the multiple health, economic, social and environmental benefits of investment in walking friendly public spaces.
Key findings include:

Investing in walking environments can support local economies by increasing footfall, improving accessibility and attracting new business and events
Investment in the walking environment is likely to be of equal or better value for money than other transport projects
Retailers and residents express a willingness to pay for improvements to the walking environment, while good quality public realm increases the value of both residential and commercial property
Residents of walking friendly neighbourhoods are less likely to be depressed or to have poor mental or physical health
People walk more when they feel their neighbourhood is safe, well maintained and lively, while increased walking in a neighbourhood is associated with better perceptions of safety and greater social interaction.

It’s worth quoting at length from Chapter 4, How Cost Effective Are Investments in the Walking Environment. “Two studies have summarised the cost-benefit ratios of transport projects in the UK. The first… indicates higher benefit-cost ratios for walking and cycling projects than other project types. However, the average benefit-cost ratio for walking and cycling projects is based on only two projects. The second study derived benefit-cost ratios for different amounts of expenditure for ten different types of transport project. This study is perhaps more appropriate as it reports the range of cost-benefit ratios, instead of an average, and considers a broader range of types of project….The highest value for money transport projects are smarter choices, pedestrian and cycle schemes, local safety schemes and some bus schemes (especially bus priority schemes). This suggests that investment in the walking environment is likely to be of equal or better value for money than other transport projects.”
The report includes several case studies of schemes based on pedestrian prioritizing, from Melbourne to New York and Copenhagen. Closer to home, it was good to see a name check for Jim Mayor of Brighton and Hove City Council, who contributed information for the report’s Case Study of New Road in Brighton. And this blog has already covered the area around Sheffield Railway Station. This report should be required reading for anyone who cares about improving our urban environment. Not to mention getting better value for money. And improving the state of the economy.

Banksy and Hanksy: Bristol and Brighton

2011-06-17T09:03:00.001-07:00

A bit more street art, one by Banksy on a wall in Bristol – almost a pilgrimage site now. And one seen on a hut on Brighton beach a while ago. Dirty Beach indeed!

Own A Car, Get Burgled

2011-06-16T01:09:00.001-07:00

The BBC reports today that the motor industry says it is winning the war against car thieves due to better security features. Short of loading them onto a trailer, new cars are nearly impossible to steal without the keys, which are now encoded. Over the last seven years car thefts have fallen by around two-thirds, and thefts were mostly of vehicles without encoded keys, usually cars more than three years old. But more amazing than all of this, the motor industry says 80% of thieves use the vehicle's keys and around a fifth of home burglaries are carried out in order to steal them. Which sounds like another great reason for not owning a car.

Living Streets Talk the Walk

2011-06-13T09:15:00.001-07:00

Living Streets held its Supporter’s Conference in Waterloo, on London’s South Bank at the weekend. Click here for the Impact Report, which looks back at significant Living Streets developments over the last year. The keynote preso was from John Dales of Urban Initiatives, who talked the walk using photos he’d taken on his walk to work. Refreshingly for an urban planner, the leitmotif of John’s talk was, “Street life is wonderful, mysterious and complex. It can change in a few yards, and its quality depends on your mood, your mood and your agenda. One size never fits all…Design for how real people live.”