Category: Cycling

The Swedish solution – sustainable transport and new apartments

Sweden has a shortage of new homes but on our visits we saw a very different way of addressing the problem. Two development areas on the outskirts of Uppsala, some 60 km north of Stockholm, were good examples of this completely different Swedish approach.

The photo opposite is a view is of new homes at Kungsängen, where a combination of rented and privately owned accommodation is being built. The homes are generally six-story apartments, built as a quadrangle around a communal green area. Shops and services are at street level below the living accommodation. Sustainable transport is at the heart of the development.

The new area of Kungsängen carries forward the traditional grid of streets, characteristic of older Uppsala, with apartments overlooking a street on one side and a green area on the other. You can see here how each green quadrangle is different and may include sports facilities, sitting out areas, playgrounds, trees and more. There are large balconies and views over newly planted trees. Since there is little traffic, the place seems pleasant and walkable. The area includes the new Anna Petrus park built by the Municipality of Uppsala, and created in collaboration with local associations for skateboarding and other outdoor activities. 

By building apartments, albeit medium-rise, the density of population in the area is high. This means that local businesses are viable and many are located in the basement floor of the apartment blocks, such as this independent cafe and bookshop.


Municipal planners had early on decided that the fabric of the city and utility systems, must become more dense in order to meet climate and environmental requirements and demands for a high quality of life within the city. They have planned Kungsängen in detail with this in mind.

With sustainable transport integrated into every aspect of the development, much was to hand on foot or bike. For longer journeys across town, buses were frequent and affordable, and we were told by residents we spoke to that a car was not really necessary. However there was an underground car park for the residents in the block, and (in the winter) underground cycle parking too. Residents also had a basement area for personal storage and was an area for recycling too – no bins lining the streets!

The photo opposite is another new area of Uppsala called Rosendal. We travelled everywhere on modern buses although cycling would have been another easy option as cycleways were everywhere and part of a comprehensive network. Trams are also on the way to support the expansion of the whole area.

There were also frequent buses to favourite places to enjoy nearby forests and lakes, the idea being that enjoyment of nature is something that should be available to all citizens – you don’t have to drive.

The google view shows not only the arrangement of the apartments around streets, but also shows just some of the shops, restaurants and services that have opened in the new area. By building ‘in proximity’ not only are small businesses viable, but also public transport benefits from the high local demand for buses. Sustainable transport in Uppsala was it seemed, was increasingly becoming the usual way of travelling about and the planners were working hard with the town to keep it that way as thousands of new residents moved in. As explained in the vision ‘a well-developed public transport system will also promote equality, by allowing those residents who do not have a car to travel in comfort and safety’.

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Wichelstowe: a visit to Swindon’s new urban extension

We started from Swindon station. Swindon’s Signal Point building stands above the town’s train station, but has beeb unused and abandoned for a long time.
The centre of Swindon was in need of regeneration.
A 20 minute cycle ride from Swindon station and we found a path that took us straight into the new development.
East Wichel had been designed as a walkable place but parts lacked greenery completely.
It was great to find the UK Cafe and the Wichelstowe Fish Bar in the middle of the development next to a Coop convenience store.
The pub was easy to walk to on a local street.
After visiting East Wichel a cycle along a distributor road bought us to Middle Wichel which is still being constructed. It has a secondary school, seen here.
View of the extensive canaliside area in Middle Michel and footbridge in the distance.
New town houses in Middle Wichel.
Cycling back from Wichelstowe to Swindon along the canal.

In May 2024 Transport for New Homes visited a new part of Swindon called Wichelstowe, a large urban extension which has been slowly built up over the last 18 years since it was given planning permission in 2006. Swindon centre itself appears to be in bad need of regeneration with the Brunel Shopping centre having suffered the loss of many businesses. We started from Swindon Station.

Wichelstowe as an urban extension began as a collaboration between Swindon Borough Council and Taylor Wimpey in 2002 to jointly fund and provide infrastructure needed for housing on what was known as Swindon’s ‘front garden’ between the town and the M4 motorway. It has its own Wichelstowe wiki page.

The Wichelstowe development is large – 324 hectares and has a very long and complex planning history. The development will eventually have 4,500 homes. The planning history of the scheme involves complex decisions on every aspect of the estate and the original masterplan has altered over the years.

East Wichel has a walkable and village-like feel. The ‘Wichelstowe Design Code’ — imposed by the planning authority, requires most houses to have a different external appearance: no more than two houses in a row look identical. The restrictions also require most houses to be behind a small railed front garden, whilst each parcel of housing must contain some larger houses, some cottage-style houses, and a barn-style apartment building. 

The cycle ride from Swindon station took about twenty minutes. The development is not meshed with the streets of the existing suburban area, but is separate. Luckily we found a way across the green strip between the edge of town and the new estate and before long a group of new homes were welcoming us.

However some parts of the development like the one shown here, lack greenery, perhaps seen as too expensive to provide and maintain.

There is a small local centre in East Wichel with a convenience store and a restaurant and these are primarily designed for arrival on foot although there is parking. The inclusion of a small green area (in the distance in the photo) makes this part of the development feel more friendly. It was great to see an independent business in the development – a restaurant right in the centre. There is a playground and the primary school is incorporated into the development in a traditional manner on-street with limited parking. The pub is equally walkable to and handy for a quick visit.

After stopping at the pub for refreshment we followed the road to the other part of the development area, Middle Wichelstowe which is quite different from East Wichel. Whereas East Wichel has been designed for walkability and on a human scale, the more recent parts of this urban extension appear to be more around the car, in terms of road and junction space, and the general language of the scale of the layout.

The cycle ride to Middlewichel was on a long stretch of distributor road, with pavement, and at the end of it you could an area still partly in construction. Parents with small children were making their way along the road, presumably coming from the primary school and walking home.

The approach to Middle Wichel gives a view of the new secondary school there. The architecture in this part of the development is generally quite different from East Wichel and includes town houses as well as low-rise apartments. Roads are wide although with a 20 mph limit, but rather than a cosy parade of shops and eateries, the place seems to be centred on a very large Waitrose supermarket. The place is used by shoppers from far afield, because of the easy motorway access and the ample car-parking provided. A bus looks almost out of place at this scale of car-based development and seemed almost empty.

Near to the giant Waitrose was the Wilts and Berks canal and on its banks was a modern and landscaped bar and restaurant, making the best use of its waterfront position. It had a large car-park and obviously attracted people from a long way around the area. However may could walk.

Nonetheless the development has a reasonably good bus service for those who don’t drive or cycle (10-30 minute during the day from East Wichel to the town centre) but travel across Swindon to for example, employment areas, leisure centers, or the hospital is much faster by car than bus, because of having the change bus one or more times, and because Swindon is a low density town designed around link roads, distributor roads and roundabouts for the purpose of easy driving. That said the Swindon Bus Company runs some good cross-Swindon service from the newer parts of the Wichelstowe development and stop at the large Nationwide Building Society campus nearby too. We noted a first floor flat in a new apartment block for 200,000.

There were also a number of open spaces and these are being developed for the combined purposes of wildlife habitat and the enjoyment of residents – and there is the Wichelstowe ponds area by the M4 for walks and looking at swans, herons and other wildlife. A new access road is being built for the development. The southern access road, which crosses the M4 motorway to the east of junction 16, provides the fourth access to the Wichelstowe development .

The cycling route back into town ran along the canal for at least some of the way. The cycle route was great except that when it ended it was a matter of negotiating the traffic as usual.