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Reducing the pollution and congestion caused by the car dependent society needs to be tackled from the perspective of how communities are planned and redeveloped. There are three guiding principles:
1. Reducing the need
to travel - by building residential areas a
t the right density close to a
mix of amenities and services.
2. Transport services: Ensuring communities are well served with appropriate transport services including cycle networks. Employers can offer carrots to encourage patronage through their travel plans. (see Car clubs for where people work)
3. Discouraging car ownership: Reducing the amount of car parking spaces available in a "low car housing development" and replacing private spaces with car clubs spaces. (What are car clubs?) The use of controlled parking or residential permit spaces in the streets surrounding a new high density housing development will prevent over spill parking.
These principles relate directly to a number of key policies:
Planning Policy
Guidance 13 (Transport) states that "land use planning has a key role
in delivering the Governments integrated transport strategy. By shaping the
pattern of development and influencing the location, scale, density, design and
mix of land uses, planning can help to reduce the need to travel, reduce the
length of journeys and make it safer and easier for people to access jobs,
shopping, leisure facilities and services by public transport, walking, and
cycling. The Guidance also states: "reducing the amount of parking in new
development is essential… to promote sustainable travel choices' (para 49).
PPG13:
The new Planning Policy Statement 3 emphasises the Government’s objectives for new housing to be built within sustainable and mixed communities, and making efficient use of land. Paragraph 16 states that consideration should be given to how easily accessible and well-connected to public transport and community facilities and services the development is. The statement also suggests that Local Planning Authorities should develop housing density policies having regard to:
– The desirability of using land efficiently and reducing, and adapting to, the impacts of climate change.
– The current and future levels of accessibility, particularly public transport accessibility, (Paragraph 46).
One of the key aims of the Local Development Framework as set out in Planning Policy Statement is to ensure that documents are prepared with the objective of contributing to sustainable development. PPS12 outlines the themes to be used for monitoring sustainable communities as those identified in the Egan review including environment, housing and built environment, and transport and spatial connectivity.
Local authorities, particularly in urban areas, are incorporating the concept of car free and low car developments into their LDFs and Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD), and some - eg the London Boroughs of Sutton and Islington - also have guidelines about the incorporation of car clubs into new developments as a way of achieving this.
The 2004 DFT
Accessibility Planning Guidance paper says it is important to "reduce
the need to travel, …by planning services in locations that are accessible by
public transport, walking and cycling."
Regional Spatial Strategies, which have become the statutory planning document for a region, contain Regional Transport Strategies. These aim to integrate transport and land use planning on a regional scale, and so potentially tackle directly the need to travel. Car clubs are being included in at least one of these as a way of reducing CO2 emissions and demand for private car use.
1. Homezones
Another initiative which promotes sustainable transport and liveable
communities is the Homezone. A Homezone is a street or group of streets where
pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles share the space on equal terms, with cars
travelling at little more than walking pace. The street is redesigned to create a
more space for pedestrians and children playing. Car clubs work well in a
Homezone as they offer a practical solution to the reduction of car parking
spaces and help promote the shared goal of reduced car use.
2.
Workplace Travel
Plans
Increasingly, new developments are being approved by local authorities,
subject to a travel plan being submitted with the application. The benefits to
the employers include avoiding congestion and parking problems on the site as
well as a reduction in the amount of space lost to parking.
The Department for Transport guidance on Residential Travel Planning (RTP) has been widely welcomed by local authorities, developers and consultants. It outlines clearly the contribution that car clubs can make in tackling parking through designing-out private car dependency from the outset of development planning.
Car clubs can be used as work place car pools where vehicles are available to employees, (and perhaps local residents), work place car clubs. Car sharing reduces single occupancy vehicles entering the site.
3. Section 106
agreements
Section 106 agreements are used to ensure the impact of a
new development on
the surrounding area is minimised. They are often used to manage increased
traffic in the area. Examples now exist of
s.106 agreements being used to ensure
that car club facilities become an integral part of the development. The
agreement is set between the local authority and the developer and can include a
commitment of funding or resources into the development of a car club. This
approach has been taken both by the London Borough of Ealing and Hillingdon and
the London Borough of Southwark.
In the s.106 agreement the developer is agreeing to provide the club with specified support, to the best of their endeavours. Ultimately it is the car club operator who runs the club and takes the responsibility and risks of delivering the service, not the developer.
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