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 […]
Councils nationwide have signed up to climate emergency charters. So far so good. Yet all too often we find that sustainability targets and ambitions to support active travel are undermined by a narrow traffic-oriented approach to design. Many designers are used to working in a world where streets are for vehicular movement and nothing else, […]
Transport for New Homes, an organisation that advocates for creating new homes designed around walking, cycling and public transport, have released a scathing report on the state of new housing developments in England declaring most unfit in our quest towards carbon net zero. It was not hugely surprising that most of the brownfield housing sites […]
The press has reported recently that residents in Poundbury want to install upvc windows rather than wooden ones because they are “greener.” But the idea that upvc windows are “greener” than wooden ones is for the birds. Sustainability works at three levels. Firstly, manufacturing. Wooden windows can readily be created from sustainable forests. Upvc ones are 43% oil and […]
Create Streets deputy director David Milner explains how policies that enable a gentle intensification of our towns and cities is the best way to reduce the carbon emissions of transport. Transport is the UK’s worst emissions offender (27% of CO2 emissions) and an enormous consumer of energy produced in this country. It was a surprise […]
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 […]
Create Streets director Nicholas Boys Smith explains why long term sustainability depends on time honoured solutions not gimmicks. The bad news is that there is no single answer to developing sustainably. Anyone who says there is, is selling you snake oil. Passivhaus in the middle of the countryside anyone? A ‘sustainable’ building made out of […]
Create Streets’ research team asks the most important question in British transport policy There may be as many as 500 million e-scooter users annually now, happily gliding along streets across the world. Some have switched from larger vehicles trailing petrol or diesel fumes, and are now causing less congestion. E-scooters are one of the biggest […]
‘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 […]