Unseen power of engineers and transport planners

Guest post from Mark Philpotts, the founder of City Infinity,

Engineers and transport planners are sometimes criticised for the quality of transport within and connecting to new developments. In some cases this might be entirely fair, but more often I think it is because they are having to play the hand dealt to them, and in my experience they are often invited to the game far too late.

Any development will of course be influenced by local planning policies, and developers have a wide range of motivations that sit behind what they do. What I do know is that they quite rightly want to know what is expected of them, and for any requirements to be agreed and fixed as early as possible, but this can be where some of the transport problems come into play.

New Road Rainham – the redevelopment of life expired tower blocks near Dover’s Corner has included the retention and improvement of an old shared-use path to provide a high quality walking, wheeling and cycling link through the site serving new residents and the existing community.

A classic in my practice over the years has been cycle parking. Local policy varies widely with the more forward thinking authorities trying to lever in minimum cycle parking standards. While this is largely a good thing, there is a risk that it become a numbers game leading to weird spaces being filled with two-tier racks suitable only for racing bikes. By the time the transport planners and engineers are appointed to assist with submissions, the spaces are often fixed and it’s really hard to get things changed.

I’ve seen so-called accessible cycle parking which includes non-standard and adapted cycles being provided in basements and first floors which are accessed by lifts that are either too small or have single door entry – accessible cycle parking needs people to be able to get from street to parking spot without having to dismount. My message is get everyone in the team appointed early enough so that the correct insight can feed into the whole design process.

Barking Riverside – the wider development has a walking, wheeling and cycling network being delivered alongside new homes and which has been connected to Cycleway 42 which gives onward connectivity to Ilford Town Centre and other Cycleways.

There are so many wasted opportunities. For walking, wheeling and cycling, permeability is incredibly important, and development is a fantastic chance to open up new active travel routes. It might not be possible to leave a tunnel to nowhere in a proposed building, but there are certainly opportunities to be had with developments that are on corner plots, that fit between existing streets or which could even feed other areas with a little bit of negotiation with an adjacent landowner. OK, the last one is a little trickier, but bringing in engineers and transport planners with finding permeability as part of the brief really helps, especially as that can help elevate the quality of the transport assessment or statement for a submission.

All of this goes for the local authority engineers and transport planners too. Consultation with them often comes too late and in some cases once the application has been made which puts good ideas up against the clock. In my experience, transport planning teams are not involved in development management enough. I also don’t think people realise how powerful engineers in the highways department can be and this power can be harnessed for better outcomes or it can be a drag on progress. In some cases, the person who reviews planning applications for the highways department ends up as just that, the only person in situations where we need wider experience for better advice and ideas.

Flame Tree Path, Romford – a 60 metre walking, wheeling and cycling link that creates both local permeability and a secondary emergency access to the last phase of the redevelopment of the former Harold Wood Hospital site.

I would also like developers to challenge the local authority transport professionals more. If I am a good developer who genuinely wants to leave a place better than I find it and perhaps make my development as attractive as possible, then I want my transport contributions to count. This might be within the site or it might be through planning agreements for off-site works. Maybe developers should be constructing that last little link to their buildings as a high quality cycle track and footway? Yes, it ends at a hostile local authority road, but there’s then a bit of pressure on the local authority to also do better.

Harrow Manorway, Thamesmead – redevelopment of an old and overcapacity dual carriageway to create an urban boulevard which integrates sustainable modes and the wider redevelopment of the area.

None of this is intended to denigrate other professionals in the planning process who have important jobs to do in terms of leading development projects or feeding in to them, but the transport side of all of this consistently fails to deliver. Equally, it cannot be fair to expect developers to pick the slack for decades of missed opportunity, but they could raise their game for sustainable mobility and ensure at the very least, they future-proof their development as much as they can.

Mark Philpotts is the founder of City Infinity, a sustainable mobility design consultancy where he is applying 30 years of civil engineering experience in the public and private sectors to developing
better streets and places. He has also been a writer and blogger for over a decade under the pen
name “The Ranty Highwayman”. www.cityinfinity.co.uk