Street Talks

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February’s Street Talk

Tim Gill, Rethinking Childhood: There’s a salmon in my street – the outdoor child as an indicator species for the quality of urban environments

Picture the place where you grow up. How did you get around? Where did you play as a child, and hang out as a teenager? Now imagine children growing up today in that same area. How do you think their experiences would compare with yours?

It is often said that kids today grow up faster than they used to. As a statement about their everyday freedoms, nothing could be further from the truth – as we know from the seminal work of Mayer Hillman on children’s independent mobility. Anxious parents are often blamed for this shift to a more captive childhood. Yet parents have to deal with the environment that is around them. For decades, transport and planning policies have worked against creating the kind of compact, liveable neighbourhoods that help parents to untie the apron strings.

The everyday lives and neighbourhoods of city children were a key focus of the work of great urbanists like Jane Jacobs (who devoted a whole chapter of Death and Life of Great American Cities to the topic) and Kevin Lynch (who, after his seminal Image of the City, went on to spearhead UNESCO’s international Growing Up in Cities programme in the 1970s). Recent years have seen lively debate about both the future of cities and the changing nature of childhood. Yet there have been few serious attempts to join the dots.

Tim Gill argues that this has to change. Join us for February’s Street Talk to explore why children’s everyday freedoms matter: to them, to communities, to policy makers and to the planet. Just as with the salmon or the house sparrow, children’s presence in public space should be seen as an indicator of the quality of their habitats. Is the outdoor child becoming an endangered species?

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on 7th February.

Tim Gill is one of the UK’s leading thinkers on childhood. His work, which focuses on children’s play and free time, has a real, positive impact on children’s everyday lives. His influential book No Fear: Growing up in a risk-averse society was published in 2007. His consultancy clients include Barnardos, the Forestry Commission, the National Trust, Argent plc and the Olympic Park Legacy Company, amongst others. He appears regularly in the mainstream and specialist press, and on broadcast media. Tim blogs at his website, rethinkingchildhood.com.

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January’s Street Talk – full details

Stuart Reid, Director of Sustainable Transport and Communities, MVA Consultancy: Creating successful shared space streets

The difference between a street and a road is that a street must fulfil a range of functions above and beyond merely acting as a corridor for traffic. Streets are places and social spaces.

The concept of shared space seeks to improve the way a street functions as a place by reducing segregation between pedestrians and vehicles and minimising traffic related signs, signals and street furniture. It is an approach that challenges the assumption that separating pedestrians and vehicles always improves safety, instead aiming to create an environment that encourages drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to behave in a more co-operative manner.

Pioneered by the Dutch it is increasingly popular in the UK with schemes such as Exhibition Road raising the profile of shared space in recent years. It is however a design approach and philosophy that is not free from controversy. Questions have been raised about the impact of removing crossings and kerbs on blind and partially sighted people, about driver behaviour and whether this approach to street design is seen as a panacea that allows local authorities to claim they are putting the needs of pedestrians first without necessarily taking significant steps to reduce traffic volumes and impacts.

For the first Street Talks of 2012 we will be joined by Stuart Reid, Director of Sustainable Transport and Communities at MVA Consultancy to consider what makes a successful shared space street. Are the champions of shared space overselling the benefits or are the naysayers overstating the risks? Isn’t it all just a question of context? If so, where and when is shared space appropriate?

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on Tuesday 10th January.

Stuart Reid is a prominent figure in the field of sustainable transport, with a particular interest in walking and cycling. He has contributed to the development of national policy and key guidance for planning, process and design and has worked on behalf of central and local Government clients including the Department for Transport, Department for Communities and Local Government, Highways Agency, Countryside Agency and Transport for London as well as numerous local authorities.

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December’s Street Talk – The word from the street

7pm on 6th December 2011 at Look Mum No Hands, 49 Old Street, EC1V 9HX (in aid of RoadPeace)

At December’s Street Talk the following speakers will each have 7½ minutes to present their ideas for creating a more liveable London:

The first talk will start just after 7pm. Look Mum No Hands will be open as usual beforehand.

We’ll be collecting money for RoadPeace on the night, you can also make a donation here.

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December’s Street Talk

The word from the street – we want to hear from you

7pm on Tuesday 6th December at Look Mum No Hands, 49 Old Street, EC1V 9HX

For December’s Street Talk we want to hear from you. What are your hopes, fears and ideas for a more liveable London?

If you were mayor what would you do to solve London’s transport challenges? How can London become a great city for walking and cycling? Where should London look for inspiration? What public spaces would you like to see improved, and how? How would you convince politicians that they need to take these issues seriously? What’s your commute like, what would you change and what would you keep?

We’d like to hear your thoughts on how and why London could be made a more liveable city. What you talk about and whether you use slides is up to you. You can be as light hearted or as serious as you like. Passion is more important than experience and the only rule is that you will have exactly 7½ minutes to present.

We still have a couple of speaking slots available, if you’d like to speak please send us a 150 word summary.

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October’s Street Talk

Oliver Schulze, Director, Gehl Architects: People first – putting the public back into the public realm.

The public realm is the social heart of any city, but social activities of all kinds continue to be squeezed out by efforts to accommodate rather than reduce traffic growth. When cities put cars before people the social and economic life the city suffers and no one has the option to opt out of the environmental impacts.

Join us and Oliver Schulze from Gehl Architects at October’s Street Talk for a journey from Copenhagen to the bike lanes of LA – via taco trucks, snowball fights in Times Square, surface parking lots, Starbucks and Disneyland – as we consider how to put the public back into the public realm. What needs to be done to ensure walking down the street or pausing to chat in a local square is a pleasure rather than a chore? What lessons can London learn from recent efforts to prioritise pedestrians in cities across the world, including New York and even car centric Los Angeles?

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open from 6pm) on 4th October.

Oliver Schulze is director of Gehl Architect’s design studio. He has worked on a diverse portfolio of international public realm design projects ranging from strategic urban planning initiatives at the scale of cities and regions, to the delivery of award-winning public spaces.

Gehl Architects – Urban Quality Consultants is a consulting firm offering expertise in the fields of urban design, city planning and architecture. They consider the lively and widely used public realm to be one of the most important keys to experiencing quality in cities. Their work is based on prioritising the human dimension in planning as well as the built environment’s effect on social interaction between people.

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July’s Street Talk

Road death is the leading cause of death for those aged between 5 and 40. You are four times more likely to be killed in a crash than from murder/manslaughter. The domination of our public spaces by motorised vehicles means that every time you step out, especially on foot or on a bike, you take a risk like no other – this is the price we pay for an over-motorised and car dependent society.

And yet the police allocate only a fraction of resources to enforcement, compared to that invested in preventing other crimes. Those injured by dangerous, speeding or drink drivers are not even included in counts of victims of crime statistics. Speeding vehicles was the most common type of anti-social behaviour reported in the British Crime Survey—until it was dropped from the survey.

Join us and Amy Aeron-Thomas, Executive Director of RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims and those concerned about road danger at July’s Street Talk to discuss the work RoadPeace is doing to challenge the justice sector’s tolerance of road danger, including the need for greater transparency and accountability, and highlight how this plays a key role in creating a safer and fairer city.

Amy Aeron-Thomas, Executive Director, RoadPeace: Towards a safer and fairer city – traffic justice in London. Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on 5th July 2011.

Amy first became involved with RoadPeace in 2000 whilst working for TRL on a DFID funded scoping study in community participation and traffic safety. With graduate degrees in Public Administration, Transportation Engineering and Planning, she has worked in over 14 countries in Africa, Asia, and Central Europe.

Her career began in the US where she worked as a transport planner, including promoting car ride sharing (in 1986). Her brother was one of the over 50,000 Americans killed on the roads in 1965. She is keen to promote evidence-based policy and links between researchers and campaigners.

RoadPeace is an independent national charity, providing practical and emotional support, and advocacy to those affected by road crashes; as well as campaigning for justice for road crash victims and for road danger reduction, with a focus on reducing the volume, speed and dominance of motorised traffic and promoting cycling and walking. RoadPeace was a winner of the Guardian Charity Award in 2008.

RoadPeace was founded in 1992 on the principle of road danger reduction (RDR). RDR focuses on making the road environment less dangerous by tackling danger at source through reducing the speed, volume and dominance of motorised traffic. It also takes into account the other negative consequences of inappropriate and excessive motor vehicle use such as fear and intimidation, environmental impact and public health issues. RDR differs from traditional road safety in that it adopts a wider approach that considers not only the quantity of death and injury by crashes, but also the effects of excessive and inappropriate motor vehicle use on the quality of life and the environment. It places a greater duty of care on those that pose the greater threat and argues for danger to be controlled at source.

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June’s Street Talk

Streets make up the majority of London’s public realm; as such they should be places where human movement, interaction and exchange take precedence over the need to keep traffic flowing.

Join us and Andrew Cameron, Director of Urban Design at WSP Group for June’s Street Talk to discuss how London’s streets can be redesigned to reduce the dominance of the car, give priority to people and encourage walking and cycling. What are the key ingredients of a great street? How do we reclaim our streets as social spaces – places for loitering, strolling, sitting and gossiping?

Andrew Cameron, Director of Urban Design, WSP Group: How to make great streets. Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on 14th June 2011.

An engineer with a background in transportation, architectural engineering and urban design, Andrew is one of the country’s leading experts on planning for movement whilst at the same time creating great streets and enjoyable places. He has been involved in many regeneration and masterplanning projects for villages, towns and cities in the UK and overseas.

He has acted as an advisor to Government with The Urban Task Force and for The House of Commons Select Committees on Housing and Sustainable Communities. He is co-author of national and local design guidance, including Places, Streets and Movement, The Urban Design Compendium, Designing Streets and Manual for Streets 1 and 2.

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May’s Street Talk

As a nation we’re getting fatter – the prevalence of obesity in England has more than doubled in the last 25 years, and research by the Government’s Foresight unit predicts that by 2050 over 50% of adults and 25% of children could be obese.

Increasingly sedentary lives mean people burn fewer calories as part of their daily routines, including walking and cycling less. In London cars are used for 30% of 0.5km – 1km trips (a 5 – 15 minute walk), 50% of 1km – 2km trips (a 5 – 10 minute bike ride) and 60% of 2km – 5km trips (a 10 – 20 minute bike ride). 69% of adults and 35% of children do not reach the recommended levels of physical activity (at least 30 minutes a day five or more days a week for adults and at least 60 minutes every day for children).

Join us and Dr Harry Rutter, Director of the National Obesity Observatory at May’s Street Talk to explore the impact of these trends, consider how the built environment influences health and discuss what can be done to encourage more Londoners to travel actively.

Dr Harry Rutter, Director of the National Obesity Observatory: Moving towards a healthier city – active travel and health. Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on 4th May 2011.

Harry Rutter is a public health physician based in Oxford, England. He is the founder director of the National Obesity Observatory for England, and an honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Oxford where he teaches on both climate change and childhood obesity. He led the development of the National Child Measurement Programme childhood obesity surveillance system, is a member of the Department of Health Expert Group on obesity and of the current NICE review group on preventing obesity; he also sat on the management group of the Foresight Obesities project.

Harry is a founder member of the steering committee of the European Health Enhancing Physical Activity network; sits on the WHO Cycling and Walking Health Economic Appraisal Toolkit steering group; and jointly led work packages on two recent EU-funded projects on obesity, physical activity, and the built environment. He has a broad interest in the relationships between all aspects of transport, sustainability, built environment and health, in particular the health impacts of walking and cycling. He is also increasingly interested in the evaluation of public health outcomes within complex systems, and the development of tools to support evidence-based public health policy.

His personal website is at www.modalshift.org and he can be found on Twitter @harryrutter.

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April’s Street Talk

Mayor Boris Johnson wants to see a ‘cycling revolution’ that will result in a 5% a mode share for bikes by 2026. This would bring London in line with the current European average and is well below Berlin (current mode share 13%, target 18% by 2025). Let’s not even mention Amsterdam or Copenhagen.

What needs to be done to create a genuine cycling revolution and turn London into a great cycling city? Is segregated cycle infrastructure essential? What lessons can we learn from our European neighbours and from further afield? Join us and Jim Davis, founder of the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain at the next Street Talk to debate these issues and explore the role that cycling can play in helping to make London a more liveable city.

Jim Davis, Cycling Embassy of Great Britain: I want what they’re having – how the rest of the world is achieving a real cycling revolution. Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm (bar open 6pm) on 12th April 2011.

The Cycling Embassy of Great Britain acts as a conduit for best practice from around the World and aims to get standards, as opposed to guidelines, implemented to create cycle infrastructure that we can all be proud of and that people will actually want to use – as opposed to the largely circuitous, dangerous and unfit for purpose rubbish we currently have to put up with. They promote the bicycle as a mode of transport and are hoping to reach the approximately 97% of people that don’t ride a bicycle regularly as opposed to the 3% who do. The Embassy seeks to create links with other cycling organisations in the UK and around the World and are talking to various organisations who are working in a similar way.

Jim Davis is an occasional stand-up comic, founder of the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain and a former CTC Information Officer. In 2007 he raced his Brompton to 5th in the Smithfield Nocturne Folding Bike Races. He blogs as The Lo Fidelity Bicycle Club and tweets as thecyclingjim.