May is National Walking Month, which means there’s even greater emphasis than ever on making people more active. Here’s what it means from a transportation perspective.
A recent survey by AA Cars has found that a fifth of drivers are planning to reduce car journeys by walking or cycling more – a timely finding, in light of the upcoming National Walking Month of May.
Walking and other active travel measures are very much a part of any modern mobility programme, especially in urban areas, where emissions and particulates contribute to poor air quality. The big question for planners and engineers is how to facilitate a modal shift to walking.
Rachel Lee, policy and research manager at campaign group Living Streets says it all starts with the right planning.
The most important thing when planning is to have places to walk to: it's not just transport planning, it's planning in general and thinking about the location of services. It’s also about destinations as well as infrastructure – because it's no good having really good walking infrastructure if there's nowhere to walk to or within a convenient walking distance.
Any walking infrastructure also has to be fit for purpose, with footway maintenance needing to be a higher priority than it currently is. Lee explains that local authorities tend to spend money defending claims for trips and falls, instead of investing in ensuring that paths and pavements are in good condition.
Councils also need to consider spending on walking infrastructure as an investment in the health of the local community. Keeping the local population active through making walking easier can bring savings in the longer term, in areas such as social care.
The increasing proliferation of street furniture also causes problems for those using footways. In addition to the existing advertising boards, bins and other general street furniture, we’re going to see more on-street EV chargers, along with cycle and e-scooter racks over the coming years. As Lee points out: “There's a reluctance to take space away from the carriageway, so there's often an erosion of the pedestrian space – and, of course, the walking experience suffers.
“It's about viewing walking as a form of transport and actually giving it the same regard that you would give driving or cycling,” adds Lee. “It tends to be forgotten or an afterthought, but it's something that everyone can do. It has all these benefits of keeping you fit and healthy – and active and mobile as you age – as well as being obviously carbon neutral and low impact.”
Which brings us to Lee’s one top tip for traffic planners and highways engineers thinking about walking infrastructure: start walking. “Bring it into your own personal lived experience of walking. Once you start factoring it into your own everyday experience, then you'll start to understand where the challenges and opportunities are. It's on us all as individuals to make that initial step. Then we can start building in the extras around both the plans, the local cycling and walking infrastructure plans, the local plans, neighbourhood plans, at every level, thinking about how you can build in walking as well as cycling.”
As active travel increasingly becomes a part of everyone’s daily lives, improving walking infrastructure is an issue that’s going to run and run.
Or at least walk and walk.
Interested to find out more about National Walking Month?
Check out the CIHT ‘Planning for Walking’ guide
Want to know the best way to design for walking? We have all the information you need
Photo credit: Ben Costigan
