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

…..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.

Street Art in Sheffield

Here’s some street art from Sheffield: a Banksy wannabe in Hunter’s Bar. Plus a kd lang meets David Cameron hybrid, a fierce warrior, and a Twitter sceptic in the city centre.

Outside The Box in Sheffield: Steel City Revisited

Avoiding the Royal Wedding with Republican friends in Sheffield, it was pleasing that the city has moved on from what Jan Gehl would probably have called an “invaded city” - one where a single use, usually car traffic, has usurped territory at the expense of the other uses of city space. Now, Sheffield is taking steps towards being a reconquered city – “where the powers that be are working to find a new, up-to-date balance between the uses of the city as meeting place, marketplace and thoroughfare.” This means a city centre that is connected, legible, and more attractive for pedestrians. The railway station was formerly a lay-by off a thundering stream of traffic. Now, an impressive stainless steel water feature shields pedestrians from the traffic, now tamed by narrowed carriageways and responsive pedestrian signals for crossing the road. When last I was in Sheffield, for a Living Streets annual conference, I gave the leader of the council Jan Wilson (who has, sadly, since died) a hard time because of the appalling pedestrian experience, starting with the station. I was sceptical about the changes which she promised were in the pipeline – wrongly. Sheffield has been transformed for the better. The policy doesn’t always add up - Sheffield continues to increase its car parking provision, sending out ambiguous signals to motorists with new multi-storey car parks which seem to say “Drive Here.”  But there’s a free bus which loops around the city centre, and the people who walk are treated to poems on the side of buildings – a poem by former poet laureate Andrew Motion adorns a Hallam University building, one of three poems found on buildings: Roger McGough has a poem on the glass of the Winter Garden, while verse by Jarvis Cocker adorns the side of student flats near London Road.

Which brings us back to where we started - the station, as featured in What If…? by Andrew Motion.
O travellers from somewhere else to here
Rising from Sheffield Station and Sheaf Square
To wander through the labyrinths of air,
Pause now, and let the sight of this sheer cliff
Become a priming-place which lifts you off
To speculate
What if..?
What if..?
What if..?
Cloud shadows drag their hands across the white;
Rain prints the sudden darkness of its weight;
Sun falls and leaves the bleaching evidence of light.
Your thoughts are like this too: as fixed as words
Set down to decorate a blank facade
And yet, as words are too, all soon transferred
To greet and understand what lies ahead -
The city where your dreamling is re-paid,
The lives which wait unseen as yet, unread.