Plans for new housing and transport need to dovetail
◆ If there is to be a shift away from the car then developments must be well served with amenities, writes David Alexander
Edinburgh Council have announced ambitious plans for an enormous transformation of the city centre transport system. The proposal, entitled ‘Our Future Streets,’ is planning for forthcoming transportation needs with the aim of reducing car usage in the centre of the capital. This new proposal is an attempt to shift society away from the car toward public transport, walking, and cycling.
This is undoubtedly the way forward, but such a transformation must consider that many housing developments of the last half century have been developed assuming car ownership is required and that public transport was a secondary issue.
Closing off some routes does not necessarily decrease traffic but simply displaces it into other areas. This will potentially change existing quiet areas into busy car-filled streets transforming quiet residential places into noisy, less pleasant places – and hit house prices.
Individuals may find their route to work, or to visit family and friends, has become a circuitous tour which transforms a 20-minute journey into a 45-minute nightmare. Ironically, fuel consumption and travel distances may well be increased. This is because there has been too little coordinated planning of housing and traffic in the past. The two must go hand in hand and as more housing developments are created, they must be integrated with comprehensive infrastructure planning.
If you build 10,000 new houses in satellite developments around Edinburgh you can’t be surprised when roads become blocked at peak times, and traffic jams become the norm. To simply state that we want people to walk or get on a bike is ludicrous physically for most people, and often impractical for commuters. We have spent 50 years encouraging car ownership and to expect people to change their habits in a tenth of that time is impractical.
Good transport links are often a key element in buyers deciding where to move and without meticulously planning and integrating transport, services, shops, and lifestyle options you end up with people living in places where a car is essential. If there is to be a shift toward other forms of transport, then ensuring new housing developments are well served with amenities is essential.
Interestingly, there was an announcement last month that Edinburgh is to have a £2bn housing development near the capital’s airport which is specifically designed so that people can live there without the need for a car. The West Town development will have 7,000 homes, shops, schools, medical and social facilities but with an integrated design for living locally within the community.
This is the way housing developments used to be created. When car ownership was less common developers used to create whole, inclusive communities because they knew the majority of people were dependent upon public transport.
We live in cities composed of centuries of different housing styles and transforming the way we travel within those communities will take time, sympathy, and consultation with transport users to ensure we create a workable solution to a complex situation. Our cities are changing and housing and transport are two of the key factors in forming how we live in the future.