The City of London Corporation is striving to put pedestrians first as part of its new 25-year transport strategy that will help to shape development and flow through the Square Mile.
The corporation wants to reduce the number of vehicles in the City, become a pioneer for zero emissions and pedestrianise some areas at particular times. Last month the authority published its draft strategy with consultation having begun this month. A final strategy is due to be submitted in the spring for approval.
At a session on Developing for the Transport of Tomorrow at EG’s Future of London event, Bruce McVean, strategic transportation group manager at the corporation, said: “What is radical about it is we are genuinely trying to put the needs of people walking around the City first. People on foot have to be the first priority.
Misleading headlines
“The streets are our public space and that journey from the Underground to the office desk can be more enjoyable if it is in a fantastic street that has fantastic space where you want to spend time, not just an overcrowded pavement with everyone getting in everyone’s way, which means starting and ending the day quite badly.”
Although pedestrianisation was a theme of the plan, McVean said the headlines after the draft plan’s duplication had been slightly misleading. It is likely that cars will not be completely banned from areas but most traffic would be excluded during commuter times. Exceptions would be made for people who are less physically able.
“Pedestrianisation is a bit of a dodgy word,” said McVean. “The headlines have been that vehicles will be banned from the Square Mile but what we are talking about is pedestrian priority and no vehicles at certain times of day. Our streets have to play multiple functions. You can’t take them all off streets as buildings need services and some people always need to be driven to the door for accessibility reasons. We know that the busiest times are 7-9, lunchtime and then 5-7. We might want to pedestrianise at different times of day.”
Skyscrapers as hubs
The start and end of the journey to and from work is something that landlords can and should look to improve by providing practical services, said Hannah Prideaux, business development director of District Technologies.
“People want to understand what the weather is doing,” she said. “They want to know if they are going to be late. One of the big bugbears that humans have is they don’t like uncertainty. It is about getting into a building more efficiently, using a phone rather than plastic cards for door access and using car parking sense to help you go to your space rather than having to drive around and around.”
With humongous developments being undertaken in the City and beyond in London, Iwan Parry, market development lead for new mobility at the Transport Research Laboratory, said these skyscrapers should be considered hubs in themselves and have their own transport strategies.
“We need to think of new infrastructure in connection to the buildings or homes that are being built and a hub of transport requirements. They need to be connected to transport hubs like Crossrail terminal,” he said.
Role of the Thames
The River Thames is rarely used by commuters and London dwellers, and Margot Orr Jones, director of future cities development at Jacobs, hoped that would change over time.
“The Thames can hopefully play a significant role,” she said. “It is that place in London where you can appreciate London as a whole and the more people that can share that experience the better. We have all had that experience of being tightly packed in the Square Mile with the rush around us and then coming out to the Thames and all of a sudden you see what London is like. That is amplified when you are on the Thames Clipper. London has got to capitalise on that and it is one of the unique things about London that makes it really special.”
Andrew Walters, national head of infrastructure planning at GL Hearn, said London must recognise its broader responsibilities to the UK as a whole when determining its transport strategy and that its connectivity to the regions had a huge bearing on economic prosperity.
He said: “Where London benefits from phenomenal levels of investment and unbelievable expenditure, other cities not so far away really struggle… In the context of why their city is struggling in terms of investment, jobs and proper quality housing their view of the world is very much coloured by the diamond sitting at the bottom of the country that powers it forward. How do we benefit from that, get to it and tie into the powerhouse of London? London needs to understand its real borders and boundaries are much larger than its boroughs.”
PANEL: Developing for the Transport of Tomorrow
Margot Orr Jones, director future cities development, Jacobs
Iwan Parry, market development lead for new mobility, Transport Research Laboratory
Hannah Prideaux, business development director, District Technologies
Andrew Walters, national head of infrastructure planning, GL Hearn
Bruce McVean, strategic transportation group manager, City of London Corporation
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