CREATE STREETS

We're delighted to announce that our MD David Milner has been appointed to the government's Transport Capital Review Panel. This role will see him contribute to shaping the future of UK transport infrastructure investment. 🚉 Many congratulations David! https://lnkd.in/ekREFYdw

How the humble hedgerow saved the planning system... Tony Burton CBE reflects on the pivotal role that hedgerow protection played in the establishment of a plan-led system in UK planning law. You can read all about it over on our blog here - https://lnkd.in/etaYJ_N7

Trams enjoyed their heyday back in the 1920s when they were the workhorse of urban travel in 200 towns and cities across the UK yet, a full century later, Louise Haigh MP believes they could once again help solve the chronic state of public transport outside London. On Thursday she will unveil her Integrated National Transport Strategy in Leeds, the largest city in Europe without a rapid transit system. Work has begun on a £2.5 billion tram network, whose first phase will connect it with Bradford. She will cite the success of a 12-mile tram network in Dijon, best known for its mustard and Burgundy wine. When Peter Conradi visited it on Friday, it was running at three minute intervals, despite the first heavy snowfall of the winter. It is so reliable that private car usage is falling: at 53% of trips in 2016, it is forecast to drop to 38% by 2030. It also integrates buses and micro-mobility on ticketing and signage. If it can do it, why not also here in smaller cities such as Chester, Reading and York? Read the full story with pictures and graphics in today's The Sunday Times https://lnkd.in/ewKR8q2Y Our transport policy has in recent years often been hopelessly distracted [who can forget Boris Johnson's fanciful proposals in 2021 to span the Irish Sea with a 25 mile tunnel, which Peter Hendy, now our rail minister, said "should be looked at very seriously"] Meanwhile France and Germany have been getting on with the job. Only nine British cities have a tram or metro, compared to 30 French cities and 60 in Germany. Every French city larger than 150,000 has a light rail or metro system, while we have 30 of that size which lack any form of rapid transit. This really matters, because poor public transport has halved the effective size of many British cities, stranding millions who are unable to commute to work in their city centres within 30 minutes. Centre for Cities found that this figure drops to a fifth of the 2.5m people who live in Greater Manchester, and a third of those in Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds. The good news is that Keolis Group, the firm in charge at Dijon, also operates the Docklands Light Railway in London and Tramlink in Nottingham, so, hey, why not here too? Nottingham's achievements over the past decade show what is possible, with a mixture of carrot (efficient services) and stick ( a workplace parking levy which raises £10m a year). But it will need self-discipline and cost control if the plan to bring back trams is not to go the way of recent half-baked schemes. [ Not just HS2, but Restoring Your Railway, a partial reversal of Beeching, and Demand Responsive Transport, a sort of Uber in areas unable to support scheduled bus services] CREATE STREETS and Britain Remade point out in an excellent report, Back on Track, that it costs twice as much (£87m) to build a mile of tramway in Britain than in the rest of Europe. With thanks to Michael Solomon Williams Stephen Joseph

Beautiful work Mark! #Create Streets Foundation

We met the inspirational Nicholas Boys Smith MBE and his outstanding Create Streets Team to learn about their important, cutting edge work on creating beautiful communities. 💕 Dr Paul Harvey Sarah Longthorpe Thank you Create Streets. 🙏

The newest Create Streets Foundation course 'Creating Gentle 'Density is a two-day urban design master-class taught over two Saturdays by Create Streets’s experienced urban designers. If you want to learn gentle density design principles and how to create beautiful and sustainable places, then this is the course for you! Find out more and register your place here - https://lnkd.in/eviM_iCS

Tom Noble and Eleanor Jane Broad on the Create Streets team joined a really engaging conversation this afternoon on how to make our streets more climate resilient, discussing raingardens, parking and green front gardens 🌳- Climate Resilient Streets 2024

Yesterday, another rewarding day teaching Design Coding for Sustainable Development for the second time this year at University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education alongside my CREATE STREETS colleague Ed. A great bunch of students, both in person and online. Hopefully back again next year!

Create Streets and Campaign for Better Transport are together working on a new mission 'Tram Network', which will support more cities to create tram lines and work with government and industry to reduce their cost. Besançon in France (population 120,000) managed to build a modern tram for half the cost of comparable networks. How did they do it? • Simple, standard designs • Overhead wires instead of new “wireless” tech • Standardised stations • Basic, short 23m trams • 7 companies bid for the rolling stock contract rather than the usual 3 • Cars are banned from the streets the tram runs along to avoid conflicts and street redesigns • In France, utility companies bear most of the cost of moving and upgrading their assets The tram has proved very successful and today is used by 40,000 passengers daily. Recently, the city has added new, longer trams to boost capacity. If you want to get involved with the Tram Network, drop us a line at contact@createstreets.com to help us get 15 tram lines under construction within 5 years. 🚋 Check out our latest blog where Robert Kwolek explores a case study in France which has valuable lessons for how we can build cheaper, better #trams - https://lnkd.in/eApAZNVi