The UK’s long-running struggle to align housing development with transport planning risks embedding car dependency into new communities before they are even fully built. According to Michael Solomon Williams, head of external affairs at the Campaign for Better Transport, integrating bus services into the planning process from the outset is essential if new housing developments are to support sustainable mobility.

Williams argues that the disconnect between planning and transport has structural roots. Housing targets set by central government create pressure on local authorities to approve developments, but without a strategic approach to how transport networks should serve them.

“New housing developments are built on their own basis in a way that often responds to targets set by central government,” he says. “Local authorities have their own targets to meet and they are keen to sign off development. What doesn’t happen is either a centralised or localised strategic approach to how the transport networks fit into that.”

The result is a familiar pattern: new estates built on the edge of towns or cities, with roads constructed first and public transport arriving later, if at all. In many cases, roads remain under the developer’s ownership until the development is complete, meaning bus services cannot be introduced early in the life of the community.

“By that point, car dependency has been built in,” Williams says. “If you then put on a bus, people say: ‘Well, that’s very nice, but I’ve got used to driving here.’”

Early-stage integration

For transport planners and highways professionals, this highlights the importance of embedding bus provision into development plans at the earliest possible stage. If public transport is not available from the moment residents move in, travel behaviour can quickly become car-centric.

“There are risks that car dependency increases and that social exclusion is exacerbated,” Williams explains. “The poorest segments of the population are the least likely to have access to a car, so if you build developments that depend upon car ownership, you create exclusion.”

Williams also argues that planning policy should place greater emphasis on brownfield development and higher-density urban housing, which can support viable public transport and active travel options. “If government sets a housing target, what it needs to do is prioritise brownfield sites and medium-rise development in urban areas,” he says. “That gives people access to jobs, leisure and opportunities without being dependent on a car.”

Policy changes could also ensure that new developments include public transport as a core requirement.

“There needs to be an obligation that new developments have public transport at their heart,” Williams says. “It shouldn’t be an afterthought.”

Connection opportunity 

Despite longstanding challenges, Williams believes that the current policy landscape offers an opportunity to improve integration. Recent reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and new planning legislation could help create stronger links between development and transport planning. “There’s been a lot of legislative energy around transport recently,” Williams states. “If we harness that moment, we have a unique opportunity to get this right.”

Looking ahead, Williams envisages a future where high-capacity urban transit systems connect major cities, supported by integrated bus networks that extend into surrounding communities and new developments.

“Success would look like 15 to 20 city regions with high-capacity mass transit, with buses feeding off those networks,” he says. “And wherever people live, when they walk out of their door, they feel the confidence to choose public transport first.”

Read more: Michael Solomon Williams’ BCoE blog can he found here
Read more: CIHT published “Buses in Urban Developments” in 2018, guidance that aimed to place bus services at the heart of development planning and urban transport, which you can read here.

Image: Bus stop in new housing development in Vale of Glamorgan, Wales Credit: Shutterstock