Filtered neighbourhoods are key to Beelines success

Streets can be social spaces as well as transport corridors. Pop up community engagement sessions such as this street event help demonstrate the benefits of restricting access to cars.

In all the excitement over the 1,000 miles of Beelines walking and cycling routes to be built in Greater Manchester, it’s easy to underestimate the importance of the scheme’s 25 proposed filtered Neighbourhoods.

What are filtered neighbourhoods?  

The Beelines proposal defines a filtered neighbourhood as: “A neighbourhood where the movement of people is prioritised over the movement of motor vehicles. Typically this is achieved by creating cul-de-sac style access for cars but allowing through traffic for people walking and cycling. This approach creates spaces to play and socialise and enables more green areas to be created.”

These Dutch-inspired areas use filters, such as bollards or planters, which let pedestrians and cycles through, but block access to cars. Filters can be applied throughout a neighbourhood, calming the streets and encouraging people to walk or cycle.

Without filtered neighbourhoods making the local road network friendly to people cycling and walking, Beelines is unlikely to create the buzz we all look forward to.

That is because most people will not actually live on a ‘Beeline’ route and will need to use local roads in their neighbourhood to access them. This is a big problem because road safety concerns are the most common reason for people not cycling. In 2017, 62% of adults aged over 18 in England agreed that “it is too dangerous for me to cycle on the roads”.

Many Beelines also use parts of the local road network that are currently rat-runs for passing traffic avoiding the main routes.

Introducing filtered neighbourhoods across the local road network will reduce the volume of traffic and help make these roads safer and more convenient for people to walk and cycle. With creative additions such as colourful zebra crossings or plant pots, they will also make the areas more attractive places to live in, and help build the feel-good factor of Beelines.

The design and size of filtered neighbourhoods and the extent to which local people are involved in the decision-making will be critical to increasing cycling and walking levels in these areas.

Stockport Council has developed bold plans for a more widespread filtered neighbourhood as part of Beelines, which would have a real impact on local traffic flow. This could set a precedent for other districts throughout the City Region if the approach is right.

Learning from others

There are some interesting examples to learn from around the country.

Walthamstow embarked on the creation of filtered neighbourhoods as part of its Mini Holland programme, which led to a 16% reduction in motor traffic in the initial area and demonstrated how an ambitious council can start to deliver the environment where walking and cycling can flourish.

Cycle-friendly Cambridge, holding England’s cycling top spot with 54% of adults cycling at least once a week in 2017, has naturally and purposefully created filtered neighbourhoods around its city, restricting the ability for traffic to rat-run through residential areas or the city centre. This has created more cycle-friendly local roads that connect to cycle lanes and cycle tracks scattered around the city, to form an extensive and coherent cycle network.

Conversely, Milton Keynes is a notable example of how simply building cycle route infrastructure does not lead to the creation of a cycling culture. Despite a Dutch-style cycle network, Milton Keynes recorded only 3% of people commuting by bike in 2011 and 7% who walk. What Milton Keynes shows is that that are other factors that contribute to the creation of a cycling culture.

If we want people to walk or cycle we need to make it easier than getting in a car. This means using traffic restraint measures, such as filtered neighbourhoods, which may increase journey times for motorists whilst making it more attractive, safe and pleasant to walk or cycle.

Overcoming barriers

Yet we know from experience that filtered neighbourhoods are not easy schemes to deliver.

It is crucial to work with local communities at every stage of the process to help to communicate the benefits of restricting traffic to local people and businesses. Calmer streets are also more pleasant places for people who walk or cycle to stop off and buy their morning coffee, pick up some groceries or window shop, rather than rushing through by car.

Grassroots engagement was a key part of our work to develop Quietways in London, a network of cycle routes following quieter streets, parks and waterways.

In Newcastle, extensive work with local businesses and residents helped ensure the success of traffic calming and reduction of parking on local streets, while our project in Dumfries, Scotland put communities at the heart of new cycle and walking street designs.

If we are really serious about getting 75% of people living in Greater Manchester active or fairly active by 2025, we need to work with our local communities to discourage local car trips as well as build cycle and walking routes.

That will give Beelines the chance to fly.  

Follow updates on the Beelines and join the conversation

Blog: Beelines’ political backing is the key to success

• Cycling in cities
• Policy

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Are route-finding apps making streets more dangerous?

Image credit: ©2018, Jonathan Bewley

New research into injury risk on Britain’s roads has implications for policy-makers, transport planners and people.

Dr Rachel Aldred, Reader in Transport at the University of Westminster, discusses new approaches to injury risk research, shares new analysis of the risks motor-vehicles pose to children, and provides some recommendations for policy-makers.

New analyses to understand injury risk

Last year I looked at cycling injuries, and cycling risk, in different London boroughs. Often policy-makers and the media focus on Central and Inner London, because that’s where we see clusters of serious injuries and deaths. But if we normalise the figures based on the amount of cycling, we find many Outer boroughs are riskier. Looking only at injuries, and not risk, gives only part of the story. Measuring how many injuries there are per-mile walked or per-hour cycled helps us to take account of differences or changes in the amount of walking or cycling.

Looking at levels of risk experienced by road users (like cyclists or pedestrians) helps us separate out the effect of activity levels. This is important for policy. We shouldn’t celebrate a reduction in pedestrian injuries if that’s only happened because people have stopped walking. The policy goal should be to increase walking while reducing the risk each pedestrian experiences; likewise for cycling.

New research and metrics are starting to reflect this approach.

Methods shed light on who and what causes injury risk

Looking at National Travel Survey data, I found that for pedestrians and cyclists, risk is mostly caused by motor-vehicles, and risk per-kilometre walked is much higher for disabled and lower-income people.

Per-mile or per-hour injury risk is important and is measured and analysed more than it used to be. But even that isn’t the full story about risk. We shouldn’t look only at risk experienced by the vulnerable, but also risk posed by those most likely to cause injury; who are predominantly in motor-vehicles.

Measuring and reducing the risk each driver poses to other people is an important aspect of road danger reduction. So often, people walking or cycling are told to plan their routes, to consider detouring to avoid injury risk, or to “dress for urban warfare”, as Peter Walker puts it. All of which make walking and cycling harder, when we should be making them easier.

What about driving? Are drivers expected to consider the risk they pose to others and plan routes accordingly? Quite the reverse: apps increasingly encourage drivers to plan routes based on small time savings. So I wanted to consider what effect this might have on road danger.

Are new technologies increasing risk?

Increasingly drivers are using in-car apps, such as Waze and Google Maps, that provide directions based on real-time traffic information. These apps may be fundamentally reshaping how drivers use the road network.

Is the main road busier than usual? Why not leave it to cut through a parallel residential street? No need to worry about getting lost if you are being directed at every turn.

Researchers have started to warn about the negative impacts of enabling drivers to use unexpected routes in the hope of reaching a destination quicker.

I worry that these services may be taking cars off busier roads where people expect them, and moving drivers onto side streets that aren’t designed for through-traffic. And the impact on pedestrians, especially children, does indeed look significant.

Do motor-vehicles pose greater risk on minor or major roads?

Earlier this year I published a paper which compared the risks posed by people driving on urban main and minor roads. Each mile driven on a minor urban road, results in 17% more killed or seriously injured pedestrians than a mile driven on an urban A road. For slight injuries, there are 66% more pedestrians injured per-mile driven on minor urban roads, compared to each mile driven on urban A roads.

“ In other words, if you drive a mile along a minor urban road, it’s more likely you will injure a pedestrian than if you drive a mile along an urban A road. ”

- Dr Rachel Aldred, Reader in Transport, University of Westminster

If a residential, back-street route is longer in distance than the main road, the risk of injury grows further.

Why would driving along minor roads be more likely to injure pedestrians?

Many reasons exist. For example, it might simply be that there are more pedestrians on those residential streets. Other reasons might be to do with street design: for instance, on minor roads there are rarely formal crossing points, so people must cross informally. People walking on residential streets may feel more at home and pay less attention to the lower levels of motor traffic on those streets. Or conversely one may pay insufficient attention when driving on residential streets, especially when following an app.

It’s probably a combination of factors. But the result is that if the proportion of driving distance on minor roads grows, we may see more pedestrians injured.

Gauging the risks posed to child pedestrians

I conducted some new analysis for this blog, inspired by Dr Audrey de Nazelle asking about the impact on child injuries. This new analysis focuses on children and covers both urban and rural areas.

In both types of area, and for slight and more serious injuries, we see substantially more child pedestrian casualties per-mile driven on minor roads compared to A roads. The same is true for child cyclists (whereas considering cyclists from all age groups, risks posed by drivers on A and minor roads are similar).

Urban Risk

Specifically, on urban roads, driving a mile on a minor urban road is twice as likely to kill or seriously injure a child pedestrian, and three times more likely to kill or seriously injure a child cyclist, compared to driving a mile on an urban A road.

Rural risk

The gaps in rural areas are even bigger, which may be related to the high default speed limit and lack of footways on minor rural roads. Each mile driven along a rural minor road is nearly five times more likely to kill or seriously injure a child pedestrian than each mile driven along a rural A road.

Perhaps this is not surprising. Children are more likely to be allowed out on minor roads unsupervised – particularly on their own street or streets close by. Given the ongoing reduction in children’s independent mobility, a small patch of streets around their home may be all that’s left to them (if anything).

But drivers today are armed with knowledge about how best to save a minute or two or avoid a traffic jam by cutting through these apparently quiet streets. Unfortunately, this means putting people walking and cycling, especially children, at greater risk of injury.

We need to weigh up whether our children’s safety, health, and ultimately, freedom are acceptable prices to pay for a minor convenience for drivers. I would argue that we adults (most of us are drivers, unlike children) have made the wrong choice.

So what policy recommendations can we draw from this new analysis?

First, Highway Authorities should do more to restrict through-traffic from minor streets. For instance, by using bollards or planters which allow access but cut off ‘rat-running’. This will help counter the tendency for motorists to cut through side streets and put children at increased risk of injury. At the same time, we need to make main roads safer too, for instance by reducing speed limits and improving crossings.

Second, app providers need to reconsider their routing systems, to put more weight on child safety and less on driver time savings. They are unlikely to make the change of their own accord, so as a first step, governments and transport authorities should be calling on them to do so.

Third, there is a strong case for reducing rural as well as urban speed limits. The default urban speed limit is 30mph and increasing numbers of urban streets are 20mph. Yet speed limits on single carriageway rural roads – usually without footway provision, often narrow and with poor sight lines - are generally set at 60mph. While drivers encounter relatively few pedestrians and cyclists on such roads, collision severity tends to be worse given the higher speeds. Even a 20mph reduction on minor rural roads from 60mph to 40mph could make a big difference to injury risk in the countryside.

But in the meantime, do you drive? Walking or cycling is the best way to keep our streets safe and healthy. But for journeys that you still need to make by car, please if possible choose the main road route, helping reduce the risk that you will injure a child.

• Read more of Dr Rachel Aldred’s road injury research

• Find out more about the Department for Transport’s open Call for Evidence on the future of mobility

• Find out more about the Transport Commissions Inquiry on Active Travel

• Find out more about the joint policy recommendations of Sustrans, British Cycling, Cycling UK, Living Streets and The Ramblers and the Bicycle Association: Moving the Nation

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Quietway 2 redefines everything I know about cycling in London

“I’ve watched with growing interest as cycling infrastructure in London has emerged, evolved and improved”. Photo credit: Jonathan Bewley, ©2018

The Quietways initiative is redefining active travel in the capital. Photo credit: Jonathan Bewley, ©2018

Hannah is a project officer working on improving walking and cycling in London and has been with Sustrans since March 2018. In this blog, she shares how London Quietways have changed the way she travels in the city she loves. 

Having lived in London my whole life, I have experienced first hand London’s developing cycling and walking infrastructure, and attitudes towards it.

I have been cycling in London for over 12 years and my two-wheeled journeys have taken me across multiple areas of the city, from central London to various far-flung outer boroughs; north, south, east and west.

I’ve watched with growing interest as cycling infrastructure in London has emerged, evolved and improved. I’ve enjoyed cruising along cycle superhighways and pootling around my local “mini-Holland”. However, I didn’t expect any new initiatives to revolutionise my experience and entire perception of cycling in London.

Quietway 2 has revolutionised my commute

The revolution to my commute came in the form of Quietway 2 (Q2). Linking Walthamstow to Bloomsbury, Q2 is my new route to work at Sustrans’ London office in Farringdon, offering a pleasant journey. 

I have been cycling from Walthamstow to Central London and the City for six years, primarily via main roads. I’m very used to jostling with traffic and wrestling for space, so you can see why it had never occurred to me that my daily commute could be peaceful, relaxed, safe, and spacious.

When cycling on the Quietway, I almost forget the dicey, stressful, smoggy struggle that is, all too often, the norm for many busy roads on my usual commute in the capital. Instead, I find the miles tick by serenely.

Furthermore, my new saunter has not seen an increase in travel time. The route is pretty direct and where I may lose time making more turns, I save time avoiding repeated traffic lights and congestion.

Breathing freely

I have a lasting dilemma over wearing a pollution mask. I have no love for the sweaty, stinky neoprene nose-bag, however, I am also deeply troubled by my growing knowledge of the negative health impacts of vehicle exhaust fumes.

On the Quietway, that dilemma is removed. I can cycle eight miles through London completely mask-free and breathing freely, without the usual wincing as I choke down lungfuls of diesel.

Cycling for everyone

I also enjoy the diversity of the Quietway users. Amongst the commuters are children on their way to school, parents pushing buggies, people popping to the shops; walkers and cyclists of all kinds, from toddlers on tricycles to riders in lycra and everything in between. It’s genuinely lovely to share this space in a relaxed and considered way with so many users and to experience the sense of community and connectivity that comes with it.

To conclude, I am a Quietways convert.

The Quietways initiative is redefining active travel in the capital as the nourishing, energising, pleasurable experience it should be, which is key to getting more Londoners walking and cycling.

I love cycling and walking in London and I’m excited to continue to be part of travelling down, creating and shaping and generally taking back healthy London streets that benefit everyone. 

Find out more about our work with London Quietways

• Air Quality
• Commuting
• Cycling
• Cycling in cities
• Health
• Lifestyle
• Liveable cities

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Transforming the heart of Scotland's capital

I have always enjoyed Edinburgh in August, right from when I arrived as an international student, to now, as a parent of two young ones. Edinburgh welcomes the world for an unforgettable month of theatre, comedy, art, music and dance. And as residents, we have a whole host of cultural treats at our doorstep, from acrobats and opera to Shakespeare and slapstick, and so much more besides.

As well as showcasing this world-leading celebration of the arts, this month is also the time when we show off our fabulous Capital to many hundreds of thousands of visitors from right across Scotland, the UK and all over the world.

At this time of year, more than any other, the spotlight is on Edinburgh. It highlights our considerable attractions as a Capital and UNESCO World Heritage Site but also, inevitably, sheds light on aspects on which more work is needed if we’re to retain our reputation for offering excellent quality of life. 

Congestion is a problem for all urban centres across the globe and Edinburgh is no different. With the population of the city almost doubling in August, our already busy streets and public transport come under substantial pressure, particularly around the city centre.

And with increased congestion comes a drop in air quality, not to mention the frustration caused by getting stuck in queues of traffic as people try to get across town to go to work, meet friends or see a show.

Enter stage left a powerful new public consultation exercise, entitled “Edinburgh: connecting our city, transforming our places”, which I’m delighted to say got the go ahead from the Council’s Transport and Environment Committee last week. Supported through Sustrans Community Links Programme, this far-reaching prospectus has the potential to be a real game-changer in how Scotland’s Capital looks, feels and functions.

For eight weeks from early September via the Council’s Consultation Hub, the document will seek feedback to inform three inter-related projects currently in progress under the Council’s leadership, namely the Edinburgh City Centre Transformation, which I am taking forward during my one-year secondment to the Council, Low Emission Zones and the City Mobility Plan, which succeeds the existing Local Transport Strategy.

All of these are guided by the principle of putting people and place at the heart of city design. They’re about creating a city which works for everyone, through attractive, liveable public spaces, with sustainable and active travel made as easy as possible and with people’s overall health and wellbeing centre-stage.

As we discuss and plan city centre improvements, we need to make sure that everyone, including those with mobility impairments and vulnerable users, can enjoy all the city offers in a safe, accessible and welcoming way. Transport – when done well – is an enabler. The way we design our spaces has a tangible and lasting impact on our citizens’ quality of life.

Our vision is a city where cars are less dominant, where traffic volumes and freight are properly managed, where goods are moved efficiently and sustainably around and, when necessary, through the centre. A city that recognises that some people have accessibility or mobility needs, and enables those who rely on vehicles to get around safely and easily.

We want a city whose layout actively encourages and promotes healthier – and cheaper – transport like walking and cycling and where a truly integrated public transport system with smart, flexible ticketing enables residents and visitors to get reliably and safely from A to B.

Improved civic spaces where residents and visitors can enjoy spending time amid the hustle and bustle of city life are another key aim, as are better wayfinding and transport hubs to help people navigate their surroundings. Enhancing the city centre and our town centres by making them easier and more pleasant to get around will boost the retail and tourism sector as well as local businesses.

There are a number of truly bold and ambitious ideas on the table in the forthcoming consultation, all of which come directly from numerous workshops held in the spring with a huge range of groups, from school pupils, community councils and private sector organisations, to transport providers, third sector bodies and businesses.

I’m both excited and daunted by the prospect of the lively discussions ahead in the coming weeks. Excited because this is a huge opportunity to do something really transformational in our city; daunted because it’s bound to be sizeable task evaluating all the feedback we receive and pulling out the key issues raised.

When I took on this role earlier this year, I wasn’t sure at what stage we would be in August. Leadership from City of Edinburgh Council, the passion and commitment of the project team, the rigour and integrity of the process and the invaluable support from my Sustrans colleagues, has provided a platform for an ambitious but realistic vision for Edinburgh.

More details on the  "Edinburgh: connecting our city, transforming our places" consultation

• Cycling
• Cycling in cities
• Economy
• Environment
• Liveable cities
• Policy
• Public transport
• Walking

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Degree subject matters more than university status if you want to become rich, new research shows

Choosing the right field of study is more important than attending an elite university for those aiming to become a top earner by middle age, according to new findings from the UCL Institute of Education.

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Moving people along the stages of behaviour change

Our online travel challenge is an online competition in which participants log their sustainable and active journeys to work. The latest Scottish-wide workplace challenge ran in March 2018 with over 3,700 people taking part across 300 workplaces, and over almost 60,000kg of carbon saved. When I was asked to share best practice methods for implementing behaviour change, I spent some time reflecting on why our challenge seems to be so successful.

The diagram below shows the Transtheoretical Behaviour Change Model which is currently used by professionals around the world and is based on counselling and other behaviour change theories.

(Pro-Change Behavior Systems, Inc, 2014)

 

Our challenge seems to address every step of this behaviour change model, it really seems to speak the language of a wide range of people.

During my transition from non-cyclist to cyclist a few years ago, I went all the way through these stages. I am now at the maintenance stage, I can cycle and I do cycle, for as many of my journeys as possible!

The Challenge is a great tool for people like me to help them maintain their current levels of activity. They are recognised for their hard work, benefit from incentives and can benchmark themselves against others. However, what I am finding most interesting is the way that it gets people involved during the early stages of behaviour change. 45% are new, returning or occasional cyclists – this is a big deal. 

The idea is to move people through the stages by enhancing the understanding of the pros and diminishing the value of the cons. So those people at the preparation stage thinking “I want to do it, how do I do it?” can look at the information pages, they can see which colleagues are already travelling actively and maybe link up to cycle or walk together. It gives them that final nudge.

People who are contemplative – those thinking “I can’t do it” - see all their colleagues getting involved and are able to realise that it is within their grasp.

Even the pre-contemplative – that hardest to reach group – want to get involved, as the status quo begins to change and they see that there are actually a lot of people travelling actively and sustainably (and enjoying it!), they start to become aware there are other options.

That is what it is really about – getting those people to try it out for the first time, helping them experience it. Getting people off the starting line, so to speak. And if they are anything like me, perceptions of how hard it is going to be do not materialise. Once people try it, and keep doing it throughout a challenge, their behaviours are more likely to stick. 

Ultimately the challenge reduces single car occupancy, and engenders competition and collaboration within workplaces. It is becoming one of our most impactful and accessible programmes for organisations:

• increasing the amount of cycling (55%) and walking (46%) of participants
• reducing the distance travelled by car each day in 72% of participants
• 45% are new, returning or occasional cyclists 

Researchers talk about it taking 21 days to form a habit, others say two months. Either way, the stats above are based on Find out more about our online Workplace Travel Challenge

• Commuting
• Health
• Workplaces

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June research news highlights

Selected highlights of journal papers and other research published in June using CLS study data.

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