Active Travel Explorer
Lead Participant:
SPACE SYNTAX LIMITED
Abstract
Public description
Economic, social and environmental benefits are associated with safe active travel, with external benefits in the EU calculated at €0.18/km for cycling and €0.37/km for walking (driving costs €0.11/km) - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800918308097.
However, delivering successful interventions is complicated. This is evidenced by recent coverage of street closures that present the conflicting experiences of different stakeholder groups (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/01/car-free-neighbourhoods-the-unlikely-new-frontline-in-the-culture-wars?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other).
The same type of intervention does not work everywhere, and to understand what is most likely to work requires understanding of the cause of the problem (not just the symptoms), and who lives there. It is a multi-scale, multi-system problem, and if the larger-scale conditions do not make walking or cycling convenient, closing streets, improving public realm, providing street lighting, cycle-lanes or pedestrian crossings will not improve things.
A holistic approach is needed to refine interventions based not just on what works for cyclists or pedestrians, but which must also consider the other users and uses who are in the same street, at the same time. This is especially important for user groups who are very young or old, less confident or able-bodied, and less likely to respond to statutory consultation processes.
Solutions require working across traditional disciplinary and departmental silos. Tools to help plan interventions exist but work within these silos instead of across them, and focus on symptoms, not causes. High streets contain pedestrians, cyclists, schools, houses and shops, but are classified as main roads, and often have more traffic routed to them.
Space Syntax proposes a user-friendly, web-based tool, to support non-specialist users. It will explain how core urban systems (streets, land use, public transport) interact to make walking and cycling possible. It characterises the streets in a city to explain which users, uses and modes of movement are in the same space at the same time, and identifies where it is (im)possible to travel actively. They are compatible with census data enabling vulnerable communities to be identified and considered. The underlying IUM has already been produced for England, Wales and Scotland.
The Active Travel Explorer tool is targeted at local authority planners, transport planners and public health specialists. It will be designed to integrate with their workflows, and instead of overlaying existing datasets, will focus on answering a sequence of design questions to identify priority areas, then tailor specific interventions. This will enable better interventions to be implemented, delivering government policy and wider benefits to society.
Economic, social and environmental benefits are associated with safe active travel, with external benefits in the EU calculated at €0.18/km for cycling and €0.37/km for walking (driving costs €0.11/km) - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800918308097.
However, delivering successful interventions is complicated. This is evidenced by recent coverage of street closures that present the conflicting experiences of different stakeholder groups (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/01/car-free-neighbourhoods-the-unlikely-new-frontline-in-the-culture-wars?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other).
The same type of intervention does not work everywhere, and to understand what is most likely to work requires understanding of the cause of the problem (not just the symptoms), and who lives there. It is a multi-scale, multi-system problem, and if the larger-scale conditions do not make walking or cycling convenient, closing streets, improving public realm, providing street lighting, cycle-lanes or pedestrian crossings will not improve things.
A holistic approach is needed to refine interventions based not just on what works for cyclists or pedestrians, but which must also consider the other users and uses who are in the same street, at the same time. This is especially important for user groups who are very young or old, less confident or able-bodied, and less likely to respond to statutory consultation processes.
Solutions require working across traditional disciplinary and departmental silos. Tools to help plan interventions exist but work within these silos instead of across them, and focus on symptoms, not causes. High streets contain pedestrians, cyclists, schools, houses and shops, but are classified as main roads, and often have more traffic routed to them.
Space Syntax proposes a user-friendly, web-based tool, to support non-specialist users. It will explain how core urban systems (streets, land use, public transport) interact to make walking and cycling possible. It characterises the streets in a city to explain which users, uses and modes of movement are in the same space at the same time, and identifies where it is (im)possible to travel actively. They are compatible with census data enabling vulnerable communities to be identified and considered. The underlying IUM has already been produced for England, Wales and Scotland.
The Active Travel Explorer tool is targeted at local authority planners, transport planners and public health specialists. It will be designed to integrate with their workflows, and instead of overlaying existing datasets, will focus on answering a sequence of design questions to identify priority areas, then tailor specific interventions. This will enable better interventions to be implemented, delivering government policy and wider benefits to society.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| SPACE SYNTAX LIMITED | £74,551 | £ 74,551 |
Participant |
||
| INNOVATE UK |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ed Parham (Project Manager) |