footflow: planning for walkability
In the run up to the general election, the dominant narrative on planning and housing in the UK started to shift considerably. And since the publication of the draft NPPF the cards are on the table with mandatory housing need assessments and a range of proposed changes to increase housing delivery.
The consensus on the sacrosanct green belt has also been broken and replaced by a more nuanced debate on making use of low amenity value land in sustainable locations, now cleverly rebranded as the 'grey belt'. And perhaps more unexpected has been the re-emergence of New Town planning into mainstream political discourse. In combination, the above changes signal a more interventionist approach to site selection, and thus an opportunity to deliver real places rather than remote and disjointed housing estates.
It is widely accepted that this approach can only garner public support if people feel a sense of place. Ask the general public and people have a clear sense of what they consider to be places with a sense of meaning and character. And while these perceptions vary between different population groups, most can agree on which places don't have a sense of place and are just another 'housing estate'.
Where does the new government sit in terms of place and quality? To many in the built environment sector, the regular photo-ops of the fully hard-hatted duo of Keir and Angela at some particularly drab and unsustainable examples of volume housebuilder fare did not inspire confidence. And it was telling that during the election campaign debate on increased density was accompanied by imagery with loose historical references rather than trying to showcase high-quality new built forms. Yet it is encouraging that the recent debate about the removal of the term ‘beauty’ has brought a sharper focus on the need for greater clarity on what constitutes ‘quality’, how these factors can be measured, how communities are engaged in these discussions, how local design policies are formulated, and what safeguards are put in place to ensure that these design standards can stand up to the presumption in favour of development.
The role of walkability
It is virtually impossible to find a planning document that doesn't talk the talk about creating a sense of place. But in practice our current system of speculative site allocations churns out far too many spatially disjointed and unsustainable estates and retail parks. One key element of place that is too often missing is walkability, the simple ability to get to things we need within easy walking distance.
Many of my fellow transport planners will remember how the re-framing of mobility and access problems around the concept of car-dependency gained traction in the media where other transport narratives didn't. This is because it focussed on the lived experience of people, their lack of personal travel choices and the incessant chauffeuring demands placed on parents and carers.
Walkability is one element of placemaking that is inherently measurable. The footflow tool is thus launching at the right time to place evidence-based walkability and footfall metrics at the heart of planning new communities. footflow is designed to measure two things:
Pedestrian accessibility - how easy is it to walk to places I need and want to go to? Contrary to the conspiracy theories about 15-minute neighbourhood planning, it is clear that people place a high value on being able to reach a range of services and facilities in easy walking distance.
Estimated footfall - how many people do we expect to walk past a given building? This is a key metric to ensure that key services and facilities are located where they have sufficient footfall to sustain them.
The footflow team has been developing pedestrian movement analysis tools for over 15 years now. We understand that pedestrian accessibility and footfall metrics need to do the following if they are to play a role as key planning metrics:
highly granular to reflect movement at a human scale, on foot
consistent across existing and new neighbourhoods around the country
trusted by different professional sectors
presented in a meaningful way for public engagement.
We are currently testing the footflow tool in 10 local authorities in the UK. We will be publishing more footflow metrics when the tool is formally launched in the coming months.