Can Manual for Streets 3 & the Next Round of Local Transport Plans Accelerate the Delivery of Better Streets?

Emily Walsh our Associate Director at SYSTRA Ltd discusses ’Good Streets’ being at the heart liveable places and decarbonising transport – and, despite lots of good guidance the difficulties in delivering them. MFS 3 and new guidance for LTP’s are both due out – can they help?

THE TROUBLE WITH STREETS

All of us have a street we love, whether it’s a busy shopping street or a quiet tree lined street we amble along with our dog. Good streets are at the heart of liveable, sustainable places and are also critical to the delivery of active, sustainable and decarbonised transport.

But there is often an ongoing battle for space and changes to streets are frequently made in an uncoordinated way. The outcome is streets which are often poor for some users, vehicle dominated and unattractive. The street users most affected, particularly on busy streets, are often those walking, wheeling and cycling – or trying to. This negatively impacts on people’s health and on local economies, in particular local centres and high streets.

This observation is not new. In 1998 Places, Streets and Movement was published by the government as a companion guide to DB32. Its aim was to improve street design in new development. Manual for Streets 1 (MFS 1) followed in 2007 and MFS2 in 2010, which applied the principles of good street design to busier non-trunk road streets – bridging the gap between MFS1 and Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. This was followed in Scotland by Designing Streets in 2010 and in Ireland the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets in 2013.

In the last few years, the National Design Guide, Streets for a Healthy Life and Inclusive Mobility have been published and design codes are also currently being produced in 25 pilot areas across the UK which, amongst other things, will seek to improve street design as part of new development. Good street design is also a fundamental plank of the Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy through the ‘Healthy Streets’ approach and Transport for Greater Manchester recognise the importance of good streets through their ‘Streets for All’ strategy.

SUSTAINABLE PLACES NEED GOOD STREETS – BUT DELIVERY IS PATCHY

So good street design is accepted as being critical to the delivery of both liveable places and to the delivery of a sustainable, inclusive transport system. Since the publication of ‘Places Streets and Movement’ in 1998 many schemes have been delivered which transform what were inhospitable urban highways into humane and inclusive streets. But there are still many examples of existing urban streets which remain overengineered, cluttered, vehicle dominated and unattractive. There are also many examples of recent highway schemes, including some schemes to support sustainable transport, which don’t fully deliver the ambitions of the Government’s ‘Manual for Streets’.

Streets in new developments are also often still poorly designed. In 2019 the Place Alliance undertook a review of 142 significant housing developments in England. The overall conclusion was that most new housing development was mediocre or poor. One of the areas of design which was most frequently identified as poor was street design.

HOW DO WE ACCELERATE THE DELIVERY OF GOOD STREETS?

So how can we address this? Amendments to the NPPF (in England), and the new guidance on design codes may well drive further improvement to new streets through the strengthening of Local Planning Authorities ability to refuse poorly designed development. Independent design review will also support this and is a material consideration in the planning process.

Updated policies and technical guidance are obviously important but often not clear about how to deal with competing demands in existing streets. For example, LTN 1/20 (for cycling) and Bus Back Better both provide very valuable mode specific advice but very little guidance about how to address the complexity, trades offs and strong emotions that changes to real streets involve.

Good Streets need to be designed taking account of all issues and opportunities. Designing is not simply applying standards or being only focussed on the needs of one or two transport modes or not at all on the ‘place’. All the activities which a street is supporting as well as those that need to be encouraged should be considered. Local sentiment and knowledge should be understood. People of different ages and abilities doing lots of different things at different times of the day and night need to be understood!

This can only be done through a design process that develops an understanding of all issues and opportunities; place as well as transport; people’s feelings as well as function and how proposed changes will impact on all these things. Not doing this means not only missing opportunities to make improvements which have wider benefits, it also means that proposed changes may have unintended negative consequences or simply lack support.

THE ROLE OF MANUAL FOR STREETS 3 AND LOCAL TRANSPORT PLANS

Good Streets need to be designed taking account of all issues and opportunities. Designing is not simply applying standards or being only focussed on the needs of one or two transport modes or not at all on the ‘place’. All the activities which a street is supporting as well as those that need to be encouraged should be considered. Local sentiment and knowledge should be understood. People of different ages and abilities doing lots of different things at different times of the day and night need to be understood!

This can only be done through a design process that develops an understanding of all issues and opportunities; place as well as transport; people’s feelings as well as function and how proposed changes will impact on all these things. Not doing this means not only missing opportunities to make improvements which have wider benefits, it also means that proposed changes may have unintended negative consequences or simply lack support.