Our city centre parking problem

In cities across Japan parking cars on the street is generally illegal

The road space is this narrow Japanese street is shared by pedestrians and cyclists

Cycle parking is common outside Japanese supermarkets

In Oslo, parking spaces have been removed to make room for a bike lane and extended pavement. Image Credit: Seth Piper

Street parking removed to make space for planters in Oslo. Image Credit: Seth Piper

Former road space is now used for events in Oslo. Image Credit: Seth Piper

Is street parking in our city centres ever a good use of space, and what are cities doing to remove it?

How do we make the most of the kerbside? 

The side of the road is a contested space most often used for parking of vehicles, or as a drop off space for deliveries and taxis. Sometimes it gets converted into bus lanes, and much more rarely into cycle tracks.

To help cities and towns measure the value of the kerb, Uber recently developed a tool to show how productive a kerb is. For example, if a kerb is used as a bus lane serving 200 people every hour, it is far more productive than as a parking space for ten cars and their owners over the same time frame.

Unsurprisingly the report found in favour of less space for parking and more space for taxi’s to pick-up and drop-off passengers, however at the heart of the report lies the fact that parking for vehicles in city centres is almost always the most inefficient use of valuable street space, especially when this could be used to increase capacity for people walking, cycling or using public transport.

Therefore it’s great to see cities increasingly asking the question ‘is it time to remove city centre street parking?’ and some taking bold steps to do so.

Oslo, the current superstar of parking reduction

In 2015 Oslo announced to the world its intention to ban cars from the city centre in just four years [1]. It subsequently backtracked a little but is on the way to effectively remove all motor vehicles except for those used for deliveries to businesses, people with disabilities, and residents living in the city centre (although 88% of residents living in the area do not own a car).

Ever since Oslo has been transforming its city centre. This was led by the removal of almost all parking spaces and the introduction of tolls to discourage driving. Removing parking has created space for public transport, walking and cycling. This is being carried out at a rate that shows cities can radically transform themselves in a short space of time.

Progress has been good – improvements have been made across buses and trams to improve services and speed up journeys, cycle infrastructure is being installed across Oslo in what was old parking space, and more space for walking and spending time enjoying the city have been created. It is hoped this will improve air quality, reduce carbon emissions and turn Oslo into a more attractive, liveable and importantly a more competitive city. The changes have had many vocal opponents, however, with elections around the corner in 2019, the majority of residents remain in support of the project.

People agree there are too many cars in most UK cities

Back in the UK most large cities are struggling to cope with the impact of too many cars – including congestion, air pollution and climate change. A recent RAC report found 65% of motorists think congestion levels have increased in urban areas due to more vehicles on the road [2].

And every transport planner knows the situation will get worse as the number of people and jobs found in our cities continues to increase. In Bristol just to maintain congestion at the current level, with expected population growth, the percentage of people commuting by car would need to reduce from 53% today to around 43% in 2036 [3].

The only way to reduce congestion in our cities is to make walking, cycling and public transport more attractive to people than getting in a car. Designing out on-street parking in city centres helps to create the space required for cycle tracks, buses and better pedestrian space, whilst reducing the incentive to drive. In England, for example, 50% of trips under two miles were taken by car [4] - many of these journeys could use other modes if they were attractive to people.

Is it possible to remove street parking across the entire city?

Oslo, however, is just removing parking spaces in the city centre. Are there examples of modern developed cities which have banned on-street parking at a citywide level?

In Japan, it is basically illegal to park on the side of the road unless there are signs to say it is allowed (which are about as common as cycling in Los Angeles). In fact in Japan when buying a car the customer will be asked for proof that they have a place to park before purchase.

Given the urban density of Japan most city residents do not bother owning a car and use bicycles and public transport networks to get about. Car parks are generally expensive and with typically few cars on most local roads it is easier and more attractive to walk or cycle for local journeys. In local neighbourhoods, bicycle modal share can be as high as 30% [5].

Walking and cycling in Japan is combined with extensive and efficient public transport systems for longer commutes – one in five of the 20 million rail commuters in Tokyo cycle to and from the station. These figures are impressive considering best practice dedicated cycle infrastructure is largely absent in Japan.

Where next for UK cities?

The UK is unlikely, at least in the short term, to ever become Japan but more and more UK cities are taking notice and enacting policies that make it harder to drive and easier to travel sustainably.

For example, the City of London has just announced plans to give pedestrians priority on half of the roads in the square mile [6]. Nottingham introduced the hugely successful workplace parking levy in 2012 to reduce parking in city centre workplaces and invest in public transport. Edinburgh is currently consulting on a range of measures that would help transform the city centre for people. And Bristol’s draft Transport Strategy is clear about the need to create funding for sustainable transport through the introduction of measures such as workplace parking levies, road user charging, or a clean air zone.

Importantly this isn’t a war on the motorist this is about making the city better for everyone – more attractive streets, places designed to improve our health and the environment, and globally competitive cities where people and business want to relocate to. These policies also benefit the people who drive - the reduction of often short and unnecessary journeys by car and van frees up road space and journey times for the remaining journeys that cannot use other modes.

So if we want to improve our cities both to live in and move around we must make walking, cycling and public transport more attractive than getting in a car. And one of the best approaches to do this is to remove on-street parking and put our kerb space to more productive uses.

Find out more and take part in the Edinburgh: Connecting our city, transforming our places consultation (closes 12 November 2018)

Find out more and take part in the Bristol Transport Strategy consultation (closes 2 November 2018)

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[1] The Guardian, 2015. Oslo moves to ban cars from city centre within four years https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/19/oslo-moves-to-ban-cars-from-city-centre-within-four-years

[2] RAC, 2017. RAC Annual Report on Motoring 2017 https://www.rac.co.uk/report-on-motoring

[3] Bristol City Council. Draft Transport Strategy https://bristol.citizenspace.com/growth-regeneration/bristol-transport-strategy/user_uploads/bd10559—bristol-transport-strategy-2018_webv3-2.pdf

[4] DfT, 2018. National Travel Survey 2017. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-travel-survey-2017

[5] Copenhaganize, 2017. Copenhaganize Index 2017: Tokyo http://copenhagenizeindex.eu/09_tokyo.html

[6] The Times, 2018. City of London Corporation plans to pedestrianise half of the Square Mile https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/city-of-london-corporation-plans-to-pedestrianise-half-of-the-square-mile-9p79qt3mq

• Air Quality
• Communities
• Cycling in cities
• Policy
• Walking

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Transport appraisal: a pathway to poor decision making?

What is the best way to make decisions about which transport schemes should be funded? When we know so much about the damage that is done by big schemes to move more cars over longer distances more quickly, how do we keep coming up with these as a preferred solution?

The standard approach to deciding which transport solutions are appropriate for overcoming challenges to the movement of goods and people is to stack up the cost of the scheme alongside the value of the benefits that the scheme would bring. As well as this economic expression of the costs relative to the benefits, a range of other factors are considered in making this judgement.

In England, this system is called WebTAG – the web-based transport appraisal guidance. Webtag lies at the heart of transport investment decision making. WebTAG is a very sophisticated toolkit. All sorts of models and assessment devices are included. Unfortunately, some of these are tools are weak, and serve to distort the decision-making process. Dubious modelling approaches to estimating questionable impacts lead to decisions that have huge impacts on the ways people choose to move. And these choices have knock-on effects on health and wellbeing, air quality, carbon emissions and place.

Sustrans is advocating significant changes to the transport appraisal system

We are proposing that WebTAG is reformulated to encourage a ‘least-damage hierarchical approach’ to scheme assessment. That is to say, for any given transport challenge, we should first consider the extent to which the challenge could be overcome by better supporting walking and cycling – the first tier solution.

The second tier for consideration would be local public transport solutions. The third tier would be regional level public transport solutions. And the fourth tier would incorporate more damaging solutions, such as large-scale road building.

There should be a de facto assumption that appropriate investment in walking and cycling should be implemented and tested for impact, and public transport solutions considered, before more damaging schemes become part of the investment package.

This approach would start to rebalance the decision-making process in favour of less damaging solutions

How would it work in practice? Let’s take an example of a scheme to build a motorway.

Sustrans recently worked on a report that was critical of the decision to ‘improve’ the M4 around Cardiff and Newport in South Wales. How could walking and cycling help with a problem of congestion on a motorway that enables movement between South West Wales and Southern England, and movement in the South East Wales area?

When one studies the origins and destinations of the trips currently made on the existing stretch of motorway, a very large proportion of them are relatively short. These may be between the cities, or the towns and villages in the wider area. Or they may be trips which circumvent a city centre – perhaps taking the long way round from one side of a city to the other. Providing alternatives for people making these trips could remove a substantial amount of the traffic from the motorway. Better options can support better travel choices.

So, we can make a really strong case that improving walking and cycling facilities, and improving public transport, within and between Cardiff and Newport can make a huge difference to the volume of traffic on the existing M4. Reducing the volumes of traffic on the existing M4 means that some of the trips that are more likely to be necessarily road-based (perhaps access to markets for producers in South West Wales) are less prone to disruptive congestion.

By investing in walking and cycling and public transport instead of building an extra section of motorway, which would before too long simply clog up with more traffic, we can offer a better solution to the challenge

However, appraisal mechanisms as applied to this particular challenge have only offered major road investment solutions.

This is why we think that rebalancing the approach to appraisal to encourage a first stage focus on less damaging, more equitable, healthier, cleaner solutions will be much preferable.

This blog summarises a part of Sustrans response to a recent Appraisal and Modelling Strategy consultation run by DfT. See our full response. 

[NB – Welsh appraisal uses Weltag, which is similar to Webtag, but different]

• Air Quality
• Communities
• Cycling in cities
• Environment
• Policy

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Millennium Cohort Study a vital resource for children's advocates, explains the Children's Society in new film

Childhood and adolescent mental health are the focus of a new short film from the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), launched today, World Mental Health Day (10 October 2018).

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Why walking and cycling are good for business

City Building receiving the Healthy and Active Workplace award at the Glasgow Business Awards

Councillor Anna Richardson, Lord Provost of Glasgow Eva Bolander and Sustrans Policy And Communications Manager Claire Daly at the Glasgow Business Awards

Our Workplaces Engagement Officer Jess Gillespie with staff from the NHS enjoying our new bags for walking shoes at the Glasgow Business Awards

We all know the benefits walking and cycling can have on our waistlines and pocket, but the benefits don’t have to stop there. An active workforce is a low-cost investment that will bring about high rewards for businesses large and small. That’s why we sponsored the Glasgow Business Award’s Healthy and Active Workplace category, where City Building scooped the prize for their efforts to make walking and cycling to work easier for their staff.

In this blog, Kirsty Rankin, Delivery Co-ordinator Workplaces Sustrans Scotland, highlights the benefits of walking and cycling for businesses.

Healthier, more productive workforce

Employees who cycle to work are healthier, happier and take fewer sick days than colleagues who drive or take public transport. Our survey of people who cycle on the National Cycle Network found they take nearly half as many sick days as the average UK worker. In addition to reducing absenteeism, which in 2016/17 cost UK employers £2.9 billion, walking and cycling to work can reduce presenteeism - when staff come to work whilst ill but have lower productivity. Investing in staff wellbeing is serious business.

As well as being great for existing employees, valuing staff’s health and wellbeing reduces turnover and makes organisations more attractive to potential new recruits. Having accreditations such as the Healthy Working Lives award and being a Cycle Friendly Employer can build your reputation as a workplace that cares about their workforce and strives to improve conditions.

Impact on the environment

As well as being committed to staff health wellbeing, a lot of businesses are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

By encouraging staff to walk or cycle for more journeys, it’s a quick and easy way to reinforce your commitment to combatting climate change.

If the journeys made on the National Cycle Network during 2012 had been by car the potential CO2 emitted during the year would have been 883,904 tonnes, at a cost of £51.2 million.

Supporting staff to make positive travel choices

Encouraging your staff to walk or cycle to work is an easy win when it comes to improving workforce wellbeing. Sometimes it’s as simple as helping people find safe pleasant routes to work, or putting them in touch with buddies they can share the journey with. 

There are funding opportunities for workplaces to make changes to their facilities, such as installing showers and cycle parking – an initial investment which doesn’t come with large maintenance costs.

There are also plenty of incentives for employees to leave the car at home, such as cycle to work schemes and fun active travel challenges. If you’re looking for a place to start, the Scottish Workplace Journey Challenge is a great way to get your workplace excited about commuting actively.

Find out how your business could reap the benefits of walking and cycling.

• Commuting
• Economy
• Workplaces

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Ethnic minority children tend to set their sights highest when planning future careers, research finds

Children from some ethnic minority groups are most likely to aspire to university and aim for well-paid jobs, a new study has found.

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The Bristol Transport Strategy needs to offer something radical

Bristol Transport Strategy consultation 2018 is open now

Now is the time to engage in the process and let the Bristol City Council know what you think the priorities should be for the Bristol Transport Strategy

The Bristol Transport Strategy consultation launched last week, and I can hear you asking - ‘so what?’.

While it might not strike you as the most scintillating news, this single document will underpin everything that happens with the city’s transport system for the next 18 years.

It’s potential to influence is significant. Rather surprisingly, it’s the first time such a document has existed in Bristol - in living memory at least - and discusses for the first time, exactly how the city is going to face up to the challenges of congestion, poor air quality and the problems in the current system.

It ticks all the right boxes

As these things go, it ticks all the right boxes. It talks about the need for dramatic carbon reductions from the way we move, the need for more walking and cycling and for real measures to cut the number of vehicles on our streets.

All this is set against the backdrop of an additional 100,000 new homes and 80,000 new jobs in the region during the same period. So there is no time to stand still - if the city fails to move at pace on any of the measures it sets itself, it will be falling backwards, quickly. 

We can already see tensions emerging - streets full to capacity at peak commuting times, busses that are full to bursting, pedestrian crossings with people crammed two or three deep on the centre waiting for the lights to change, and people cycling seemingly everywhere.

The transport strategy needs to offer something radical

The simple fact is that we’ve not been keeping pace with the rate of population increase. So the Transport Strategy needs to offer something radical - a step change in the way we consider and deliver transport improvements for the city, and importantly, we need them now.

There are some radical ideas, although none of which haven’t already been done in other UK cities, or that are already under development. The headline grabber is the underground metro, but more realistic are ideas such as road user (congestion) charging, a workplace parking levy, comprehensive walking and cycling networks and a ring of park and rides.

But, we’re not likely to see change very soon. Metrobus took the city 12 years to deliver from concept stage to near completion. And that’s a big problem. For instance, the city has been discussing park and ride for the M32 for what feels like a generation. Workplace parking levy was considered in 2013, but dropped.

We cannot build our way out of congestion

There are too many proposals in the document that won’t be in place for years, and there isn’t a single one that will be easy to deliver. All will need strong political drive and commitment to achieve because they all require space taken from motor vehicles.

There’ll be plenty of cries of a ‘new war on the motorist’ I’m sure, but we simply cannot build our way out of our current congestion levels and all the health and wellbeing problems it causes.

And that’s a big problem. Too many of the proposals rely on something else happening first. Because we’re wedded to the status quo, and elections aren’t won by removing car capacity, cycling improvements on our main roads won’t happen before park and rides (nor will bus improvements).

The argument will be that there’ll need to be an alternative in place for all those drivers to switch to first. But that’s always been the argument, and firmly puts the egg before the chicken. Despite record levels of bike and bus use in the city, congestion hasn’t got any better because people are buying more cars and there are more people.

So, what happens if park and rides aren’t deliverable? Or, the underground metro is costed at more than the £4billion already estimated? What will happen then? Will we be left with more of the status quo? Will the bus and cycling improvements have to keep on waiting?

Make your opinion count and tell the council

Regardless of what I think, it’s important that people’s views are heard. This transport strategy will have too great an influence for people not to sit and wait for whatever comes.

Now is the time to engage in the process and let the Bristol City Council know what you think the priorities should be. It’s too important to let another generation pass us by - after all, by the time the strategy period is over, my four-year-old daughter will be old enough to graduate from university. Decisions taken now will influence how she’s able to get to school, to visit friends and travel to her first gig in town.

Find out more and take part in the Bristol Transport Consultation. Consultation closes: 2 November 2018

• Air Quality
• Commuting
• Cycling
• Cycling in cities
• Economy
• Environment
• Health
• Leadership
• Lifestyle
• Liveable cities
• Policy
• Public transport
• Walking
• Workplaces

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To transform the school run we need to close roads to cars, not make it harder to cycle

Children enjoy travelling actively to school. Image: Brian Morrison ©2018

This week there has been a lot of publicity around Stanley Park High in Carshalton, South London, which has enforced a new registration scheme that requires all of its pupils to carry number plates on their bikes.

Similar stories have also emerged of schools banning cycling or making helmets compulsory in the last year. They say they support active travel to school but policies such as this only create more barriers for children who would like to cycle, walk or scoot to school.

Addressing the core issue

Bold action is required to transform the school run. The answer to this seems simple –  remove cars from the roads leading up to the school gate and build better cycling infrastructure, rather than enforcing rules which will ultimately discourage cycling.

This is imperative as the UK is facing a major public health crisis. Nearly a third (31%) of children aged 2-15 are overweight or obese in the UK and as many as 42% of children get less than half the recommended one hour of physical activity a day.

Additionally, over 2,000 schools are in areas with high levels of air pollution which is damaging to children’s health.

Transforming the school run, so that more parents and children can travel actively, provides a great opportunity to address both of these issues. The average journey to primary school is just 1.6 miles, a distance which can be walked, scooted or cycled easily by most people and from our research we know that most children and young people would prefer to travel actively. And, for every child who walks, scoots or cycles to school, there is one less car contributing to our toxic air.

The issue that schools should be addressing is the negative impact of cars on the school run. As many as one in four journeys during the morning rush hour are on the school run and road transport is responsible for 80% of the pollution where legal limits are being broken.

Cars not only contribute to congestion and air pollution but also make it more dangerous for people to travel actively to school. Not to mention, the biggest barrier to more people walking and cycling is safety concerns. This is often caused by the number and behaviour of motorists on the road, creating a vicious cycle that forces more and more people to drive.

Ultimately, a combination of road closures and dedicated cycling routes near schools will play an integral role in improving safety for children to walk and cycle to and from school, and in helping encourage a car-free, active lifestyle.

Closing roads outside school gates

Sustrans is launching a new programme in 2019 – Sustrans School Streets – to support local authorities, schools and local communities to close the roads around schools to motor traffic at drop off and pick up times and therefore opening roads up to people. This approach has been pioneered in a number of places including Hackney and Camden in London, Edinburgh and Solihull. We want to build on the success of these projects.

It’s a simple idea, but we know it’s not easy. We’ll be bringing together the evidence on where this has been done before, providing practical guidance for local authorities and schools, and working directly with schools and communities through our project officers. The Big Pedal 2019 will also have a specific focus on demonstrating the potential for School Streets and we’ll be supporting as many schools as possible to close the road to traffic.

Would you like to receive more information about Sustrans School Streets? Get in touch

Find out more about our work in Schools

• Schools
• Young people

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