Overview

Every journey begins and ends with walking or wheeling - either as a means of going to the destination, reaching the nearest point of public transport, or getting to a car/taxi. This includes movement on foot and wheeling using a wheelchair, mobility scooters, prams, pushchairs or buggies.

But walking and wheeling are often neglected by transport and urban planners whilst planning, upgrading, and maintaining infrastructure. We have come to the point where many people are not encouraged or do not feel safe to walk or wheel for reasons such as: poor lighting, uneven and narrow footways, and fear of being hit by other vehicles (like e-scooters or bicycles).

Land-use planning has not supported the provision of sustainable transport into new developments and therefore created a car-centric transport environment.

The group of transport experts convened by CIHT and Living Streets during the roundtable highlighted that the combined importance – but often neglected or unappreciated mode – of walking and wheeling needs a renewed focus by the government, by the profession, and by society at large. As such, this briefing has been developed to help advise the government and other professional institutions on existing challenges and potential solutions.

The panel of transport experts was asked a series of questions around walking and wheeling during the discussion to formulate a policy brief with a set of points of discussion for the sector:

1. Discuss whether the current target to achieve 50% of all trips in England being walked/wheeled or cycled till 2030 is still achievable.
2. Explore how we can improve walking and wheeling for women in terms of safety.
3. Are current infrastructure design/standards supporting walking and wheeling effective enough?
4. Discuss footways and maintenance issues associated with them.

You can read a detailed discussion of the issues associated with walking and wheeling in the full report. In the next section you can find a set of key messages that were discussed during the roundtable.

What can be done right now to improve walking and wheeling environment?

1. Ensure Department for Transport (DfT) looks at the walking strategies as part of new Local Transport Plans (LTP). Local plans and local transport plans should include proposed networks for the short, medium, and long term across all modes, including policies and conditions necessary for their delivery.
2. Conduct ‘potential for walking’ data analysis (granular data) as part of plan preparation to identify journeys that could be walked and replace short car trips.
3. There needs to be a ‘push’ from the Government to encourage local authorities to use the Manual for Streets (or any new walking design guidance) to achieve a real change. People in the sector will continue doing what they have previously been doing unless there is a requirement to follow the guidance built into relevant policies and plans (e.g., the National Planning Policy Framework, Local Plans and Local Transport Plans).
4. Street lighting design needs to recognise that the whole street - and not just the carriageway - needs to be illuminated. A sense of place can also be created through greater emphasis on ‘green streetscaping’ to make streets more welcoming to people who walk/wheel.
5. Institutions like CIHT should play a role in moving forward the idea that streets should be designed less in terms of ‘pure engineering’ (meaning the material qualities of footways). More attention should be given to how separate elements add up to create streets that people want to spend time in, such as: plants, good lighting, street cleaning and maintenance, etc. CIHT also has a number of valuable resources, such as Designing for Walking report or Creating Better Streets paper, that might come in handy for those involved in walking and wheeling.
6. Place pedestrians at the centre of every maintenance activity by incorporating footway improvements in a holistic approach to street works and highway upgrades. Better maintenance will save money in the long term.
7. Establish minimum standards for the level of acceptable defects on the footway.
8. Provide training for local authorities on best practices for designing streets for people walking and wheeling, efficiently using available resources, and placing pedestrians at the centre of every maintenance activity.
9. Review funding and provide better support for walking and wheeling infrastructure; and to fill the skills shortfall.
10. Proactively manage vehicle parking with pedestrians in mind. It is important for two reasons: limiting the supply of parking slots can encourage people to walk rather than drive for shorter journeys. Parking on the street, and indeed often on footways, limits the free movement of people who are walking and wheeling.

The following initiatives will take time to be implemented:

1. Planning and transport sectors must adopt a walking and wheeling perspective. Both sectors should work towards providing walking and wheeling routes that are continuous and navigable, forming a continuous network.
2. We need comprehensive walking guidelines (a walking equivalent to LTN 1/20 on cycle infrastructure design) and a coherent approach across UK nations. The Wales Active Travel Guidance is a good example of how a single document can provide consistent delivery of active travel infrastructure. Such a document would need to be regularly updated to include new infrastructure designs.
3. Review street design guidance in line with the Highway Code, which places pedestrians at the top of the road user hierarchy, to eliminate inconsistencies between desired and enabled road user behaviour.
4. Review vehicle design standards to ensure that their size is proportionate to the road space/traffic calming measures in place.
5. Improve and standardise data collection on pedestrian falls. The Department for Transport could establish a standard classification of footway faults consistent with the hospital admissions data.
6. Develop necessary skills – currently many people who are making decisions have been designing the environment for cars for many years, so it is a challenge to make a shift towards designing for active travel.
7. Walking/wheeling is an important part of every journey. A behavioural change in society towards active travel is needed. Local authorities will need more support towards this change. There is also a scope for a political campaign for walking and wheeling. Politicians need to understand the real benefits of walking and wheeling, and it is not only about the health benefits of active travel.

Desired outcomes of the proposed initiatives:

• Behavioural change in the society and within the sector towards active travel.
• Development of necessary skills and knowledge to deliver policies on walking and wheeling.
• Consistent and available data on pedestrian falls and the cost of poor maintenance.
• Application of guidelines on the design for streets for walking and wheeling as a part of a multi-modal transport system should be mandatory.

Help & Support

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