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Street Talks, 22nd January – The quick, the cheap and the temporary

The quick, the cheap and the temporary: Speeding up the transformation of London’s streets and public spaces 

6.30pm, Wednesday 22nd January at The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6EJ – in partnership with Sustrans London

Is it time London learnt to loosen up and lighten up in its approach to the design and delivery of cycle infrastructure and other public realm improvements?

Over the last few years New York has been rapidly reclaiming street space for pedestrians and cyclists using little more than ‘paint and planters.’ Temporary and pilot projects are now being refined, adapted and made permanent. Should London be doing the same?

We hope you can join us for the first Street Talks of 2014 when our panel of speakers will explore the potential for quick, cheap and temporary projects to speed up the transformation of London’s streets and public spaces:

  • Hannah Padgett from Sustrans will explain how the Pocket Places project in Peckham is using temporary and semi-permanent interventions to transform unused spaces along Rye Lane and stimulate debate about the future of this important local high street;
  • Brian Deegan, who pioneered ‘light segregation’ for cycle lanes on Royal College Street, Camden and is one of the authors of Transport for London’s new Cycle Design Standards will consider the importance of adaptability when delivering cycle infrastructure; and
  • Hackney Council’s Ben Kennedy will present a series of case studies at a range of scales – from on-street cycle lockers to a pilot project to test the potential for pedestrianising the Narrow Way on Mare Street.
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Street Talks, 5th December – Cycling lessons for London with John Dales

Street Talks with John Dales, Director, Urban Movement – Cycling lessons for London: Conclusions from TfL’s International Cycle Benchmarking Study

Please note that this talk is being held at Look Mum No Hands, 125 – 127 Mare Street

We hope you can join us and John Dales for our next Street Talks when we’ll be discussing the conclusions from an international study of cycle infrastructure commissioned by Transport for London.

The study, which will inform the updated London Cycling Design Standards, looked at how a number of cities where cycling has been growing strongly in recent years have designed and built new cycling facilities. Cities visited for the study include Berlin, Dublin, Malmo, Minneapolis, Munich, Nantes, New York, Seville, Stockholm and Utrecht.

John will present the study’s findings and consider the lessons for London and the UK. Subject to availability Phil Jones, Managing Director, Phil Jones Associates and Mark Strong from Transport Initiatives, who were also part of the study team, will join John for the discussion.

7pm, Thursday 5th December at Look Mum No Hands, 125–127 Mare St, E8 3RH (Map). Look Mum No Hands will be open as usual beforehand for food and drink.

John Dales is Director of Urban Movement, a consultancy specialising in transport, movement and streets. John is a traffic engineer, transport planner and urban designer with 29 years’ professional experience that spans from strategic transport planning to concept design.

Well known as a champion of better town and city streets, he was Director being responsible for Urban Initiatives’ Movement + Streets portfolio before founding Urban Movement. John is an urban realm design advisor to several UK local authorities, including the City of Edinburgh, the London Borough of Ealing and Southend Borough Council, as well as a Design Review Panellist for Transport for London and Urban Design London. He is a Trustee of Living Streets, was a contributing author to Manual for Streets 2, and is a former Board member of the Transport Planning Society. He’s an experienced trainer of other transport practitioners, a regular conference speaker and chair, and has been author of a monthly article in Local Transport Today on ‘Transport in Urban Design’ since 2005.

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Street Talks with Phil Jones – Designing for active travel, 8th October

Street Talks with Phil Jones, Managing Director, Phil Jones Associates – Designing for Active Travel

As a nation we’re getting fatter and taking less and less exercise, barely a week goes by without obesity making the headlines.

Over 60% of UK adults do not meet recommended minimum amounts of physical activity and few people have the time or inclination for regular visits to the gym; as Liam Donaldson, the then Chief Medical Officer, argued in 2004, “For most people, the easiest and most acceptable forms of physical activity are those that can be incorporated into everyday life.” Our streets need to provide a safe and attractive environment that enables people to incorporate physical activity into commutes, journeys to school, trips to the shops or visits to friends.

We hope you can join us and Phil Jones at the next Street Talks when we’ll be exploring what London and the rest of England can learn from the Welsh Assembly’s Active Travel Bill, which requires local authorities to continuously improve facilities and routes for pedestrians and cyclists. How does the Bill work and what’s its relationship to the emerging technical guidelines that Phil is helping to draft. Would the introduction of a similar legislation in England make a difference to the way TfL and London boroughs approach walking and cycling? Or is this just another administrative burden? Would new guidance on active design help ensure the necessary changes to London’s streets are delivered quickly and consistently across the city?

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

Phil Jones is Managing Director of Phil Jones Associates. He specialises in achieving synergy between transport planning and urban design, with the aim of creating places and spaces that meet aesthetic, social and functional aims. He has extensive experience in the planning and design of streets and other infrastructure, with particular expertise in traffic analysis and transport planning.

Phil was part of the team that produced Manual for Streets for the DfT, a comprehensive guide to the design of urban and residential streets published in March 2007. More recently he worked on national policy/guidance on street design for the Scottish Government, published in 2010 as Designing Streets and was joint editor on Manual for Streets 2 for CIHT/DfT/CABE. This document extended the principles of MfS to busier urban streets and was published in September 2010.  Phil has now been appointed by CIHT to help lead the updating of their comprehensive guidance document Transport in the Urban Environment.

His project experience includes acting as technical adviser on the DfT’s Mixed Priority Routes research study; working on the Telford and Kings Lynn Millennium Communities, designing shared space schemes in London and Auckland, and developing transport strategies for major urban extensions in Falkirk, Cheltenham and Leicester. He has led and worked within multi-disciplinary teams on many masterplanning studies for commercial and residential developments and has appeared as expert witness at around forty Public Inquiries.

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Street Talks with Ben Addy – DIY Streets, 2nd July

Street Talks with Ben Addy, London Communities Manager, Sustrans  – DIY Streets

In an age of austerity and localism Sustrans DIY Streets projects allow communities to develop affordable solutions to make their streets safer and more attractive places to live. The DIY Streets project in Haringey, which ran from 2010 – 2012, led to a 10% average reduction in traffic volume at monitoring sites; a 23% increase in traffic travelling 20mph or less; a 61% increase in residents who felt the street was attractive and a 34% increase in residents who felt the street is place to socialise.

We hope you can join us for July’s Street Talks when Ben Addy, who leads Sustrans DIY Streets work in London, will explore how local residents and other partners can work together to create high quality urban environments that promote sustainable travel and are safe and pleasant to live in and visit.

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm on Tuesday 2nd July 2013 (bar open from 6pm).

Ben Addy is the London Communities Manager with Sustrans.  He is responsible for managing the Communities projects in London – including DIY Streets and Pocket Places. Prior to his current role, Ben delivered a two-year DIY Streets project in Turnpike Lane, London Borough of Haringey. Ben has an MA International Studies from the University of Denver and has extensive experience working on social justice projects and campaigns in both Europe and North America.

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Second annual Hackney Cycling conference, 6th June

We’re delighted to be supporting the second annual Hackney Cycling Conference which is being held on Thursday 6th June at Hackney Town Hall.

The conference will explore the potential to turn recent high level political support for cycling, ambitious policy statements and successful campaigns into real change on the ground and create conditions that encourage a significant increase in the number of people riding bikes.

Speakers include:

  • Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney
  • Andrew Gilligan, London Cycling Commissioner
  • Prof. Phil Goodwin, University of the West of England and author of the APPCG report ‘Get Britain Cycling’
  • Dr Adrian Davis, Bristol City Council on the Bristol model for collaboration on public health and transport
  • Prof. Harry Rutter, Public Health England and Halsa Consulting on cycling risks and benefits
  • Chris Procter, Design and Engineering Manager at Hackney Council on the principles of permeability
  • Sophie Tyler, The Means on cycling and retail
  • Oliver Schick, London Cycling Campaign in Hackney on building local support for road space reallocation
  • The Canal and River Trust on managing shared space on Greenways
  • Mark Strong, Transport Initiatives on designing for different kerb-side needs

Hackney Town Hall, Assembly Halls, Mare St (entrance from Reading Lane), E8 1EA, Thursday 6th June, 9am-4pm.

You can register to attend and find more information here (registration fee £25).

The Hackney Cycling Conference is organised by Hackney Council and supported by London Cycling Campaign in Hackney, Movement for Liveable London, Transport Initiatives, SKM Colin Buchanan.

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Video – presentations from masterclass on campaigning for 20mph, 1st May

Rod King, 20’s Plenty for Us

Caroline Russell, Islington Living Streets

Jeremy Leach, 20’s Plenty for Us and Jacqueline Saunders, Camden Council

Videos produced by Brian Jones from Media for the Web. The masterclass was part of 3Space’s Re:THINK festival and was held in association with 20’s Plenty for Us and Living Streets.

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Street Talks with Cllr Vincent Stops and Trevor Parsons, 4th June

Street Talks with Cllr Vincent Stops, Hackney Council and Trevor Parsons, London Cycling Campaign in Hackney – Hackney: Lessons from London’s most liveable borough

Many different factors – topographical, historical, economic, social, demographic and political – have contributed to the borough of Hackney becoming arguably the most liveable in London. We hope you can join us for Street Talks in June when Trevor Parsons and Vincent Stops will explore these factors, outline the many problems and constraints which still remain, and discuss strategies for overcoming them.

Upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PN at 7pm on Tuesday 4th June 2013 (bar open from 6pm).

Vincent Stops has been a councillor in Hackney for 11 years. For two he was the lead member responsible for transport, streets and environment issues. For the last seven he has been the Chair of Planning. During all that time Vincent has promoted the benefits of a great public realm, great built environment and the importance of bus, cycle and walking. Vincent has worked in transport policy for several years.

Trevor Parsons lives in Hoxton and tinkers with computers. He became involved in his local London Cycling Campaign group when it appealed for help in the struggle against the building of the M11 Link Road. He has remained active at the borough level ever since, and claims the first use of the word ‘permeability’ in relation to planning for cycling.