A few people (well actually quite a lot) have asked me what I think of recent announcements and media reports on “the war on motorists.” Here’s my reply. I suspect it may annoy everyone. But I nevertheless think that it’s correct and the best route to more homes, a more productive economy and happier and […]
There was nothing wrong with Pavilion Road ten years ago, a mews just off Sloane Square. On the other hand, there was little assertively right about it: a potpourri of converted Victorian stables, parked cars, crude tarmac and some charmless but inoffensive 1960s flats. PG Wodehouse once wrote of a similar (fictional) street off Leicester […]
A note on our winning street by Create Streets Director, Nicholas Boys Smith Streets have this habit of hanging about, the most ancient and timeless features of our urban infrastructure. However, Peter Pan-like, they are also forever young. For whereas their routes may be their original routes, the actual experience of moving down them is […]
Create Streets Head of Research Ben Southwood explains why street votes goes with the grain of British care for place and neighbourhood. Place is emotional and rightly so. Britons are conservative about their neighbourhoods. They take pride in them. They wish them to remain green and pleasant. Many planning reformers have failed because they misunderstood […]
Create Streets head of research Ben Southwood explains how agglomeration is the key to economic success, and why this means that more gentle density in the UK can help us Most value in the world today is created by people working together. Natural resources like oil, or agricultural land, are still responsible for a substantial […]
Create Streets head of research Ben Southwood explains why low traffic neighbourhoods seem to be popular. Road use is a paradigm example of the famous ‘tragedy of the commons’. Most goods have prices, so consumers think twice before using them. When goods are free at the point of use, like roads, people tend to consume […]
Lessons learned from studying customer behaviour patterns in convenience and proximity It is a well-known fact to the food industry that consumer convenience relates very strongly to the time consumers have available to make a purchase and then get on to do the next thing in their day. What is striking are the parallels between […]
‘Moving on, moving better?’ Rachael Unsworth questioned in last week’s blog post, considering what cities can learn from the current crisis. With our present lives on hold it also brings about the time and opportunity to rethink our future, and the way that we design and live in our cities. City-makers from everywhere are responding […]
Urban geographer and director of Leeds Walking Tours, Rachael Unsworth, asks how we can learn from the lockdown. Across the UK, quite rightly, city leaders are planning for life after lockdown. Where I live, in Leeds, City Council Leader Judith Blake has told the Yorkshire Evening Post ’Our task will be to reset and restart […]