The Department for Transport published ‘Reallocating road space in response to COVID-19: statutory guidance for local authorities‘. These instructions to highway authorities promote the reallocation of road-space to encourage walking and cycling. Their aim is to relieve pressure on roads and public transport, and to enable social distancing on pavements.
In response, the Landscape Institute’s Technical Committee has developed a draft technical guidance note, Seven Design Principles for temporary highway infrastructure, for consultation. Landscape Institute is keen to get further input to these draft principles from members and fellow professional bodies.
Landscape architects have a primary role in the design of our public realm and that includes streets and spaces in urban areas. The aims of the Seven Design Principles are to:
- ensure proposals consider non-movement functions; and
- help members challenge potential over-engineering, which may be an inefficient use of resources and can incite bad driving behaviour
The guidance note has initially been drafted for England, but we are of course keen to make it relevant to all regions of the UK; so would in particular welcome input from experts and regulators in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We would also be keen to hear from anybody willing to endorse the final publication.
The consultation draft of Seven Design Principles for pop-up highway infrastructure is available here. Please forward any comments to technical@landscapeinstitute.org by Sunday 31 May 2020.
Image Credit: Flickr User – European Cyclists’ Federation