Transport and Town Planning

Module 1
Transport and Town Planning: Achieving Effective Coordination
Issues which impinge on transport and town planning: widening availability of the private car; sustainable transport; choice, freedom and social responsibility.
Linking the generation of traffic with policies to accommodate it. How town planning policies affect transport planning and how transport policies affect land uses; the importance of recognising that the interaction is two-way and implications of this for policies in both town planning and transport.
Application of the principles. Introduction to the practical issues: how can progress be made in improving the coordination of land use and transport policies?
Traffic congestion; traffic congestion reduction packages; red routes.
Reducing traffic impacts in town centres; parking policy; bus priority in town centres.
Constraints encountered in achieving greater coordination and how these can be overcome to improve the effectiveness of both land use policy and transport policy.

Module 2
Transport and Town Planning Policy to Promote Social Inclusion
How social exclusion has arisen and the need for policies which will contribute to a lasting solution.
Understanding the problem. The field of operation - what is social exclusion and how might transport and land use policy contribute to relief? Transport and land use changes which have resulted in social exclusion - why the increase in travel over many years has been accompanied by aggravation of social exclusion. Mobility and accessibility; social inclusion and community sustainability; issues relating to community strategies.
Choice issues. Social inclusion and community sustainability. The significance of town centre policy for social inclusion.
Policies to promote inclusion. Effective and acceptable policies and projects. Short-term relief and lasting solutions. The costs of promoting inclusion.
Implementation. Engaging public and political support for effective policies; communicating issues and choices.
Initiatives to provide accessibility to work, shops, health and other issues.

Module 3
Techniques for Town and Transport Planning
Policy making methodologies; identifying issues, goals and objectives.
Collecting information; real and perceived information.
Forecasting; forecasting demand and needs; purposes; why do forecasts go wrong?
Identifying alternatives, evaluation and appraisal; lessons from the past: cost benefit analysis, evaluation, the New Approach to Transport Appraisal; policy integration - adopting technical processes to public policy requirements.
Economic issues in appraisal: measuring costs and benefits; issues with market and non-market values; time discounting; distributional effects of projects on individuals; risk in project appraisal. Policy integration.
Problems with project appraisal: why costs are not always what they appear to be.
Implementation, monitoring and review.

Module 4
Sustainable Transport Policy and Town Planning
Public transport passenger information; needs; criteria for deciding the form of passenger information; commercial interests of the operator.
Park and ride; Planning Policy Guidance Note 13; objectives; integrating park and ride with land use policies; the travel effects of park and ride; monitoring park and ride.
Bus lane policy; objectives; bus lanes and road capacities; who should be allowed to use bus lanes? Locations of bus lanes; bus lanes and road user charging; bus priority and light rail; evaluation criteria for roadspace allocation.
Demand-responsive public transport; a more comprehensive service than other public transport; modal split issues; the use of roadspace.
Cycling potential; issues; objectives and audits; barriers to cycling; realising cycling potential.
School travel schemes

Module 5
Planning for Town Centres
How the integration of policies might increase the chances of success in meeting objectives for the future. Towns, villages, suburbs and cities. Town centres and transport: understanding how town centres work.
What do we expect of town centres? Town centres and retail developments. Challenges and opportunities facing the high street.
Planning Policy Statement 6.
Implementing town centre policies: reducing traffic impacts in town centres; bus priority: issues with park and ride. Choice issues. Defining town centres.

Module 6
Improving the Pedestrian Environment in Town Centres
Issues affecting pedestrian conditions in town centres.
Policy context. Understanding how town centres work. What do we expect of town centres?
Issues for consideration in a strategy for walking; objectives for policies towards walking.
How pedestrian policies can contribute towards a land use/transport strategy.
Traffic calming.
Pedestrian subways: the ayes and noes.
Closed-circuit television as a means of improving the pedestrian environment.

Posted in: TOWN PLANNING