Mobility Matters

Mobility Matters Daily #294 – Transport appraisal and road space reallocation

James Gleave
3–5 minutes

Good day my good friend.

As much as I feasibly can, I try and steer away from social debates and political issues in this newsletter. But last week was the Transgender Day of Visibility. Many people who are transgender or non-confirming who are fighting an amazing fight for a group of people poorly understood in terms of their transport needs, and who face horrific prejudice every day. They need our support, and for any of you readers who are transgender – I am glad to have you as a reader!

If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.

James

The shifting debate in transport appraisal

Finally, we are beginning to ask the right questions of transport appraisal. For too long, we have been asking questions of detail to tweak the existing system of appraisal. Often focussing on questions of valuing journey time, and calculating the benefit:cost ratio of cycle schemes, to use two examples. After simmering down for a while – at least on the surface – people are asking more fundamental questions of practice of the use of the tools that we have created.

A fundamental thing that we almost never do is continually reappraise the benefits and costs of schemes. Partly touched on by Phil Goodwin, the costs (and benefits) of schemes are in constant flux. Yet our business cases are often a snapshot in time. The Five Case Model for business cases is based on best practice, but as research from Italy has shown, business cases need constant reappraisal in light of new objectives and changing circumstances. If the world changes, the case for schemes – even those with ‘settled’ business cases – needs to be remade.

New guidance for reallocating roadspace, as the Department for Transport begins to show its teeth.

Last week, the Department for Transport in the UK showed its teeth by penalising 3 Councils for not getting a shift on regarding active travel. Its followed that up by issuing new guidance on reallocating roadspace and its…pretty good to be fair. If you want to geek out, be my guest, but a particular highlight of mine is this right here…

We have seen many positive changes in active travel policy since then. Gear Change made clear the expectations on local authorities and others to provide genuinely game-changing infrastructure. The Transport Decarbonisation Plan sets out how enabling more active travel will contribute to addressing the challenges of climate change. The forthcoming revision of the Manual for Streets will highlight the continuing need to design streets with people walking, cycling and taking public transport as the priority. Active Travel England is now a reality and has the task of making sure walking and cycling provision meets the standard required to deliver these objectives.

This is a reminder, really, that change is a long term game. So be ready to play it.

Random things

These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. What you can do now is use a trend sheet and these links, and start tracking changes for yourself as part of developing your own strategy.

Something interesting

An extremely practical video for overcoming political issues.

Things for a better world

This is a weekly collection of transport strategies, experiments, and cool projects looking to create a better world that you should find out more about. Not only that, you should think about adapting and doing yourself.

Strategies

Experiments

Cool Projects

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Read this report on the Economic Impact of Public Transportation Investment by the American Public Transportation Association. It is rather good.

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