School Travel Plans

							                                 Clevedon’s
                                 Walking and Cycling Strategy

                                 - problems, opportunities and
                                 developing a future vision




Steve Murrell
Halcrow Group Limited

19th June 2008
Town Council Offices, Clevedon

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                                 Workshop Structure

• Presentation (20 minutes)
  - Travel and development trends
  - Walking and cycling as transport: benefits and barriers

• Group discussion (45 - 60 minutes)
  - View of current facilities/infrastructure
  - Opportunities – to create a better environment

• Further questions/next steps (20 minutes)




                                                              2
                         Halcrow’s Study Team

   Sustainable Transport Planning Specialists




Graham Dean       Dan Carey         Steve Murrell


           Cycling officer – Jonathan Gall

                                                    3
                                 Purpose of the study

• Walking and cycling strategies for the four principal towns:
  Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare, Nailsea and Portishead
• Strategies to be closely aligned with North Somerset’s
  vision and targets for transport, as contained in the:

               - Joint Local Transport Plan (JLTP)




           ‘Go for Life’ Health Strategy -
                                                             4
                    Walking and cycling’s benefits

• The most energy-efficient modes of transport
• Available to all – social inclusion
• Daily activity (walking/cycling) brings health benefits
• Active people benefit through:
  - reduced risk of illness/conditions/musculoskeletal health
  - positive mental health
• Inactive people have almost 2x the risk of dying from
  coronary heart disease than those regularly exercising
• ‘only 37% (men) and 24% (women) currently meet the
  minimum requirements for activity in adults’ Go for Life
       .......… to mention but a few benefits!


                                                            5
                 Joint Local Transport Plan (JLTP)

• JLTP (the West of England sub-region)
  + Approx 1 million residents; providing 500,000 jobs
  + Traffic growth 3x national av. 2016 =~20K vehicles
  = ‘the impact of such growth on an already struggling
  network would be catastrophic’ JLTP

• Clevedon
  + Residential expansion/economic growth imbalance
  + Increased prosperity : increased car ownership
  = ‘significant proportions of the rising populations .…
  commuting to jobs in the Bristol area’ JLTP


                                                            6
                     Traffic and congestion impacts

• Road capacity issues: Kenn Rd, Ettlingen Way
• 7 cars or vans owned/operated per 10 people > age 17
• Environmental cost (CO2 emissions, air/noise quality
  issues, damage to landscape/biodiversity)
• Physical effect on public realm (quality of life, road safety,
  community severance - barriers to vulnerable users)
• Financial costs (casualties, public health, congestion,
  pollution, highway schemes/legislation, to the individual)
  - ALL accentuated by high vehicle flows




                                                                   7
                                         Travel trends

• Rising car ownership is not the major transport problem
  - increasing patterns of car use for daily trips
• 2001 JLTP area census
  - 1/5th of work journeys are < 2km; yet 45% by car
  - an additional 1/5th are 2-5km; yet 68% by car
  - Almost 50% of all car journeys are < 8km (5 miles)
  = Major potential for walking and/or cycling!
• Yet, average distances travelled by foot/cycle have fallen




                                                           8
                   Outlined solutions in the JLTP

• Developer-funded contributions to sustainable
  transport: walking/cycling/bus/rail measures
• Future development strategies: residential/employment
  - location: minimising journey lengths; accessibility
  - residents/visitors persuaded to switch travel modes
  - better provision/integration of non-car modes




                                                          9
Clevedon development up to 2026




                                  10
                                                Accessibility

• Accessibility – how easy a job or essential service is to
  access, for people from all age/mobility/income groups
• Location of jobs/services can make access troublesome
  - dispersed services harder to access by foot, bicycle or
    public transport = inconvenience!
• Barriers to accessing services by foot/bicycle:
  - physical (roads, railways, gradients, poorly designed or
    maintained routes/lighting/public spaces, poor info.)
       - people with ill health/disability/mobility issues often
         suffer most
  - social/attitudinal (fear of crime, feeling of isolation)

                                                                   11
           Group Discussion: why, what & where???

• Specific barriers in Clevedon hindering walking/cycling
  - physical, attitudinal

• Shared-use paths – conflict/benefit??

• On-road cycling vs. off-road cycling

• Quality, extent and knowledge of existing routes

• Specifics to encourage you to walk/cycle more regularly
  - crossings, routes, traffic/speed calming,
    trip-end facilities, street furniture, information
                                                            12
                                            Next steps

• Draft Clevedon walking and cycling strategy: Sep. 2008
• Strategy will act as a blueprint for helping NSC to:
  - prepare future works programmes using JLTP funding
  - secure developer funding/external grants
  - work with developers to ensure new developments are
    accessible by foot and by bicycle
• Proposals will be prioritised over medium-long term
• Further questions?

To submit further ideas/queries please email or telephone:
sustainable.travel@n-somerset.gov.uk or 01934 426 253
                        THANK YOU!
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