Public Transport

This Review contains articles on a variety of topics relating to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). ITS United Kingdom publishes two reviews each year, with the support of its Members.

Designing Streets is the first policy statement in Scotland for street design and marks a change in the emphasis of guidance on street design towards place-making and away from a system focused upon the dominance of motor vehicles. It has been created to support the Scottish Government’s place-making agenda and is intended to sit alongside the 2001 planning policy document Designing Places, which sets out government aspirations for design and the role of the planning system in delivering these.

Sustainable travel initiatives have the potential to add real value to the next round of Local Transport Plans (LTP). This guide seeks to complement statutory LTP Guidance by providing support for developing a sustainable travel business case based on the latest evidence and good practice from around the country.

The document contains information including web links and good practice examples on schemes and resources to help local authorities when considering the needs of older people for transport planning.

The Policies and Good Practice Handbook is a reference tool for authorities in preparing and developing their LTPs and will be updated on a regular basis. It is not part of the statutory guidance. Given the number of links, authorities will need to prioritise according to their needs. Although the Handbook is categorised by policy area for simplicity, it is important to note that more can be achieved by linking these policies and work areas to maximise the impacts of the policy intervention as well as budgets.

This document is statutory Guidance to support local transport authorities in producing Local Transport Plans.1 The Guidance applies to local transport authorities in England outside of London required to produce a Local Transport Plan under the Transport Act 2000, as amended by the Local Transport Act 2008. The statutory framework for Local Transport Plans is explained in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 sets out the national policy framework within which LTPs should be developed, including the national transport goals and challenges, the changes in wider legislation and policy which affect local transport, and in particular the new relationship between central and local Government as set out in the Local Government White Paper in 2006. The national goals and challenges replace the shared priorities of LTP2 guidance. But these priorities - accessibility planning, congestion, air quality and road safety - will continue to be essential elements of LTPs. Chapter 4 of this Guidance sets out practical advice on how local authorities should develop and deliver their plans. Specific policies and best practice are not part of the statutory Guidance but are referred to in the accompanying Policy and Best Practice Handbook

The Secretary of State for Transport asked the UK Roads Liaison Group to review lessons that can be learnt from the events of winter 2008/9 and to recommend what steps could be adopted by highway authorities, producers and suppliers of salt and other stakeholders to ensure England is even better prepared should similar events occur in future. This review makes recommendations in four themes: 1.Winter service resilience 2.Preparation for and operation of winter service 3.Communications 4.Procurement The review presents a package of recommendations to develop and improve highways service in winter. It is important that the recommendations are considered as a whole by all parties involved. The recommendation that highway authorities adopt a winter service resilience standard will ensure that preparation for winter service is more rigorous and that more resources, especially salt, are available to respond to severe conditions (Recommendation 8).

The aim of this Framework is to assist Authorities and bus operators on approaches to the development of Park & Ride facilities.

The use of motor vehicles within historic town centres raises many conflicts – vehicle access is essential for the local economy to thrive – but it can detract from the character and amenity of the public realm and cause damage to the buildings. This paper explores how local parking arrangements for different classes of vehicle may mitigate this dichotomy. The nature of historic town centres and the definition of the public realm and its main functions are discussed. The Principles defined by the Historic Towns Forum (HTF) for historic street design and maintenance that are most relevant to vehicles are listed. The changing nature of vehicle use in and through our historic towns is noted and the parking provisions which should be attractive to different classes of vehicle users are analysed.

Setting out the practical and policy responses to climate change that are needed to ensure our towns and cities are sustainable places. Climate change is one of the world’s greatest and most urgent challenges. But it also offers an opportunity to redesign how we think and organise our lives. Hallmarks of a sustainable city sets out the practical and policy responses to climate change that CABE believes are needed to ensure our towns and cities are geniunely sustainable places. The publication will be of interest to the people that lead local authorities – council leaders, chief executives, senior directors and heads of service – as well as national and regional government, development agencies and voluntary organisations. Sustainable Cities, our new website, offers clear priorities for action and highlights places that are getting it right.