10 minute read
Realising active travel’s green potential
How landscape architects can use their design expertise to champion a green ambition for active travel networks.
Walking, wheeling and cycling networks are – by their very nature –green; helping people to reduce their personal carbon footprint through facilitating active travel. They have the potential to tackle many more of the challenges that the climate emergency presents, helping to build green and blue infrastructure through our cities, promoting biodiversity and sustainably managing surface water, while providing seamless connections to sustainable transport.
The climate imperative
In 2021, the UK Government set out targets to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy. Achieving modal shift to active travel was recognised as one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions in the transport sector: this led to a commitment to develop extensive active travel infrastructure across the UK, ‘...building first hundreds, then thousands of miles of segregated cycle lane and more low-traffic neighbourhoods with the aim that half of all journeys in towns and cities will be cycled or walked by 2030’.
Emphasis was placed on active travel in policy across all nations. However, recent budget cuts announcements in some areas have put these ambitions in jeopardy: in March 2023, the UK Government announced a £200 million cut to the active travel budget in England. In response, a coalition of organisations, including Sustrans, wrote to the Government urging them to reverse the cuts: “We were disappointed to see vital active travel budgets wiped away in England, at the exact time when they are most essential to the UK’s economic, social and environmental prospects”. Even more recently, funding for low-traffic neighbourhoods in England has been blocked, and an announcement made of a funding cut to the Active School Travel Programme in Northern Ireland. Against this backdrop, if the available funding is to be put to the best possible use, it is more important than ever to look at how we design active travel networks to ensure their full green potential is realised.
A lot of effort is being directed towards retrofitting urban streets: widening footways, reducing street clutter and introducing new dedicated cycle tracks. Retrofitting requires careful negotiation of discussions around parking and access to businesses and traffic management, in addition to introducing changes to the way in which pedestrians navigate their streetscape.
There are some projects, which are going beyond ‘simple’ retrofitting and including within their remit elements of both green and blue infrastructure.
Funding
The objective of much of the funding for active travel is targeted at creating routes that facilitate everyday journeys and give people an alternative to motorised vehicles. While there is sometimes mention of enhancing place or increasing biodiversity, there is often a risk of the scope of planned schemes being reduced before the point of delivery due to economic pressures. In many cases, it is these ‘additional’ elements that are omitted.
Differing professional perspectives
The composition of disciplines in project teams can impact the design intent of active travel schemes. Different disciplines will respond differently to any given brief: the team’s composition therefore impacts the design direction taken, and the design can be negatively impacted by a ‘silo mentality’.
Space in the street
Many of our streets were designed in the Victorian era: carriageways, footways, lighting, gas and combined stormwater sewers have been put under increasing pressure from substantial increases in the volume (and size) of vehicular traffic, the introduction of modern telecommunications, and the increased demands of public transport. More recently, the challenge for designers has become how to integrate active travel infrastructure alongside these often-competing demands for space, redressing the dominance of the car.
Isla Jackson, Director at Civic Engineers, says ‘It is important to join the dots up, rather than just pick one part of the problem and fix it in isolation; it needs a holistic approach.’
Maintenance
Maintenance is a challenge that faces many landscape schemes, including those featuring active travel infrastructure. Living organisms require varying degrees of care to thrive. When compared to an asphalt path, they require different skills and durations of maintenance to keep them healthy. Where do the funding, skills and long term commitment for this maintenance come from?
New directions for funding
It is policy that often drives the direction of funding. Thankfully, policymakers are increasingly realising the importance of linking multiple aligned objectives. For example, Scotland’s National Planning Framework 4, Liveable Places policy, includes the statement that proposals will be supported ‘...that will allow people to live, play, work and stay in their area, ensuring climate resilience, and integrating nature positive, biodiversity solutions’. This intent that should help drive wider-reaching requirements in funding criteria.
Greener Grangetown
Client: City of Cardiff Council, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Natural Resources Wales (Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru)
Landscape architect: Arup
A transformative project in a neighbourhood of Cardiff.
555m of ‘bicycle street’ where cycle users have priority
40,000m3 of surface water removed annually from the public sewer network
108 rain gardens created and 130 trees planted
‘This exciting scheme, and Arup’s extensive work to bring our initial thoughts and community feedback to life, demonstrates a different approach to managing our natural resources – one that looks at the whole picture rather than focusing on single solutions or individual parts of our environment. Not only does this scheme contribute to a healthy and resilient local environment, it also supports economic and social prosperity.’
Martyn Evans, Senior Policy Advisor, Natural Resources Wales.
Mark Bowman, Associate Director, Arup, says, ‘NPF4 embeds sustainable placemaking into strategic guidance, which will filter down into local development and transport plans, ensuring projects are not treated as “just” active travel projects. Whenever investing, this will encourage people to take more of a systems approach to ensure maximum value from design interventions.’
Breaking down professional silos
When looking at organisational structures, there are signs that lessons are being learned.
Some local authorities are already creating departments that take a more holistic approach. For example, The City of Edinburgh Council combines placemaking and mobility in a single department.
Sheffield’s Grey to Green project was made possible, in part, by council stakeholders having confidence in the ability and knowledge of the design team. According to Roger Nowell, of Sheffield City Council: ‘that allowed us to take the risk on Grey to Green … to build confidence in our design and highways teams that this was do-able to use green to manage blue’.
Designing streets for people
Opportunities should be seized to reallocate space to ensure that streets are designed predominantly for people.
In Paris, Hidalgo’s ‘Plan Velo’ to create a cycle-friendly city by 2026 involves removing more than 70% of on-street parking spaces. Closer to home, Lambeth Council’s kerbside strategy is another ambitious plan to reclaim at least a quarter of roadside vehicle parking space to facilitate active travel, create spaces for people to enjoy, build climate resilience, reduce traffic emissions, and thereby address a key pledge set out in their Climate Action Plan.
At the heart of any active travel project sits a community: through engagement, project teams gain understanding of what matters to the community, then use this to design appropriate schemes. A successful example of this approach has been a design for Kincardine, in Scotland, where the landscape architects on the project, ‘[HarrisonStevens,] considered how the high street will be used and activated, responding to the needs of the community, and they’ve pushed for green and blue infrastructure in any space gained in the redesign of carriageways and junctions’.
Thinking creatively about maintenance
The challenge of ensuring adequate maintenance is one that requires innovative thinking: Mike Harrison, of Harrison-Stevens, shared some approaches they have taken on recent projects. Firstly: ensuring that resource is appropriated to the latter stage of contracts to enable them to monitor and advise on maintenance activities post-completion. Secondly: looking for maintenance input to come from sources other than the client, and to energise and involve local community groups.
In Sheffield, they took a different approach by comparing the costs of maintaining existing assets in the carriageway with the costs of maintaining the proposed, greener assets. When drainage gullies, railings and the potential for potholes were taken into account, the difference was found to be negligible.
The role for landscape architects
Active travel networks often have the potential to do far more than just facilitate the movement of people. Landscape architects have the perspective and expertise to take a lead role in identifying and delivering greener opportunities.
As a profession, we must:
Challenge assumptions about what the development of active travel infrastructure can achieve and positively influence design decisions
Question and persuade funders of the imperative to think holistically
Apply our established skills in placemaking alongside designing green and blue infrastructure, working collaboratively with other disciplines to deliver change
Empower clients and local authorities with the capability to do more in response to the climate emergency through sharing knowledge and ambitions
Champion new thinking.
Change can be scary: it requires people to embrace new approaches. In the words of Henry Ford – admittedly not someone frequently quoted in an article looking at active travel – but relevant here: ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.’
Grey to Green Sheffield
Client: Sheffield City Council
Landscape architect: Sheffield City Council with Robert Bray Associates, planting design by Nigel Dunnett and Zac Tudor
An economic and environmental regeneration strategy that liberates and reallocates road space to create a greenway to enhance biodiversity and delivers a SuDS response to an area prone to flood risk.
1.3km of new footways and cycle paths
Planting beds which capture pollutants (both airborne and particulate matter), preventing them from reaching watercourses
Enhanced biodiversity and habitat for insects
Collaboration is key to a thriving sustainable city and the success of Grey to Green is down to the joined-up efforts of the city, the universities, businesses, and local communities.
Source: GreytoGreen.org.uk/innovation
The climate imperative
In 2021, the UK government set out targets to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy. Achieving modal shift to active travel was recognised as one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions in the transport sector: this led to a commitment to develop extensive active travel infrastructure across the UK, ‘...building first hundreds, then thousands of miles of segregated cycle lane and more low-traffic neighbourhoods with the aim that half of all journeys in towns and cities will be cycled or walked by 2030’.
Emphasis was placed on active travel in policy across all nations. However, recent budget cuts announcements in some areas have put these ambitions in jeopardy: in March 2023, the UK government announced a £200 million cut to the active travel budget in England. In response, a coalition of organisations, including Sustrans, wrote to the government urging them to reverse the cuts. Even more recently, funding for low-traffic neighbourhoods in England has been blocked, and an announcement made of a funding cut to the Active School Travel Programme in Northern Ireland. Against this backdrop, if the available funding is to be put to the best possible use, it is more important than ever to look at how we design active travel networks to ensure their full green potential is realised.
Jon Rowe is a chartered landscape architect working in the Sustrans Scotland Design team. Projects include Cambridge North railway station, Aviemore Community Hospital and leading the delivery of new National Cycle Network urban projects in Scotland.
The following people kindly contributed their time and expertise to this article:
Mark Bowman, Associate Director, North Active Travel Lead, Arup. Roger Nowell, Natural Flood and Water Management Coordinator, Sheffield City Council. Giulio Ferrini, Head of Built Environment, Institute for Human Rights and Business (formerly Head of Built Environment, Sustrans London). Mike Harrison, Creative Director and Co-Founder, HarrisonStevens. Isla Jackson, Director, Civic Engineers. James Travers, Associate Director, Civic Engineers. Jonathan Clarkson, Creative Co-ordinator – Placemaking and Urban Design, Angus Council.
