May is National Walking Month – the annual celebration of walking and streets organised by Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking.  As the charity marks its 90th anniversary, it has a campaign to make streets fitter for walking for everyone, whether they are aged nine or 90. I am a Trustee of Living Streets and I am passionate about the many benefits that arise from making places more walkable.

A new Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is being introduced in London, to reduce harmful emissions from traffic and improve air quality. Those who drive polluting vehicles into the city centre will face a daily charge – £12.50 for cars, motorcycles and vans, and £100 for lorries, buses and coaches – on top of the existing congestion charge. By October 2021, the scheme will expand to cover an area 18 times larger.

Cities around the world are changing to become more “walkable”. As more and more people move to cities, the benefits of encouraging people to walk are clear. Aside from making the urban environment more pleasant, safer and less polluted, improving a city’s walkability can also ease traffic congestion and improve public health.

We all know that getting at least 30 minutes of exercise a day will have an incredible impact on our health and wellbeing. But how do you fit that half an hour in when you’ve got commitments at home and a busy work schedule? The team at Beryl are big advocates of active commuting; finding your way to the office by bike, scooter, skateboard, or simply on two feet, be it walking or running. Claire Rampen, Head of Growth and E-commerce, shares why she loves swapping the bike for a commute on two feet.

The UK Government launched its Clean Air Strategy last week claiming that it wants to halve the number of people living in areas with particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) above guideline limits set by the World Health Organisation.

Happy Holidays from PTRC

I think we can all agree that 2018 has been a whirlwind of a year. Can you believe the Olympics were in this calendar year? It blows my mind. Can you also believe that we were talking about football coming home only 150 days ago? From crazy weather to an even crazier news cycle, 2018 was definitely something to write home about.

The 17th Annual Transport Practitioners’ Meeting (TPM) will take place on the 10th – 11th of July 2019 in historic Oxford. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 25 January 2019. TPM is the annual meeting place for all transport planners, placemakers, highway engineers and urban transport designers. TPM brings the wider transport and built environment community together for two days of world class networking, idea sharing and lively debate.  

Last month, DfT published a consultation on priorities for developing our appraisal and modelling guidance (WebTAG). Our appraisal framework aims to provide as full a view as possible about the wide range of impacts transport has on the economy, environment and society. 

The London Plan is the Mayor’s primary mechanism through which to coordinate London’s evolution and development over a 20-25 year period.  A full review of the 2016 London Plan was commissioned shortly after the election of Mayor Sadiq Khan. Following this review, the latest London Plan was published in draft in November 2017. This reflects the Mayor’s priorities for London over the period up to 2041. Following the recent public consultation, the Plan will be examined in the Autumn and published a year later. Given the Mayor’s transport remit, it is no...

Transport has caught the public imagination recently with talk of driverless cars, widespread adoption of electric vehicles, delivery drones and all manner of applied technology alongside some less desirable but more predictable transport headlines relating to railway woes and traffic congestion.  Some or all of these new ideas will add to the mix of options we are familiar with but there is no consensus on what will definitely happen.  There is a heightened expectation that our means of travel will change but there is no certainty that this will be achieved as quickly...