Planning

Rolling Backwards? The Pitfalls of San Francisco’s New Cycling Vision

This month, San Francisco released its ‘Biking and Rolling Plan’. As one of the most cycle-friendly cities in the United States with 472 miles of bike network, I was interested to see what they were proposing.

Fundamentally, the plan is proposing a different approach to many cycling plans in a couple of ways:

1. It is attempting to be a bottom-up approach, working with local communities to set priorities.
2. It is focusing on serving local daily needs, not commuting or recreation, before it has completed its core network.

While these are differences, many plans share similarities, including a focus on safety, continuing to build the network of bikeways, and connecting to transit.

Unfortunately, the plan lacks funding and targets or timescales, making it impossible to judge its ambition or hold decision-makers accountable for progress. I would argue that it is less of a plan and more of a description of how the city will decide on its cycling investment priorities if it ever finds any money.

Whilst the document's style may fit well in a highly progressive city like San Francisco, I expect it to be highly polarising in many jurisdictions where politics is more contested, and there is still a need to gain and maintain consensus on investments in active transport.

What Next?

Consider how you engage with local communities on cycling priorities. Would you benefit from a better balance between top-down and bottom-up planning?

Governance

Too Big to Succeed? The Hidden Flaws in Mega-Project Planning

The UK’s National Audit Office has reviewed mega-project governance and decision-making. Anyone following the trials and tribulations of the UK’s High-Speed Rail project, HS2, can understand why this was required.

The report identified different characteristics of mega-projects compared to major projects:

1. Often involve multiple government departments.
2. Have many stakeholders.
3. Strategically important and often transformational in some way.
4. Delivery is often complex, with high levels of innovation.
5. Carry high levels of risk and uncertainty.

The report believes that the UK's standard model of project governance does not work effectively for mega-projects where a single department is usually accountable. Once multiple departments are involved, there can be differing views about the project's reason and importance.

The report makes several recommendations:

1. Be clear about the need for a mega-project, its deliverability, affordability and the value it will produce, particularly in the early stages.
2. Develop a governance culture that responds and adapts to challenges but maintains focus.
3. Define a category for ‘mega-projects’ that may require a different approach to governance and specify the criteria for giving a project ‘mega-project’ status.
4. Make the roles and responsibilities clear across those charged with governance and those involved with decision-making; this is particularly critical where decisions and accountabilities stretch across a system or set of organisations;
5. For mega-projects, strengthen the project gateway and business case approval processes to ensure that the government is assured about the project's affordability, value for money, and feasibility before it is given final approval to proceed.

Comment

There is a particular idiosyncrasy for transport mega-projects - the need to integrate transport and land use. Otherwise, we end up with stations without development around them. Land use tends to play second fiddle as transport agencies run the project and focus on building the infrastructure. However, the outcomes depend significantly on the land uses around the infrastructure.

Next Steps

Are there any lessons for your mega-projects that align with the UK’s experience?

Research

From Cars to Communities: The Politics of Changing Our Streets

A significant challenge in transport is managing the change and stakeholder challenges when reallocating street space for bus lanes, active transport, and/or placemaking. This research provided some valuable insights:

The research identified seven types of attitudes when re-allocating street space in Munich:

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Note that an individual may be in more than one category.

The research also looked at what could increase acceptance of a street reallocation scheme, and three things were identified:

1. Introducing alternative mobility options
2. Creating public spaces for interaction
3. Adding greenery.

Targeted communication and participation processes also helped to improve acceptance of the scheme.

This research can help to inform the designs around street reallocation, communication and stakeholder engagement.

What next?

How can you build the outcomes of this research into your thinking around street space reallocation projects?

Research

Breaking the Car Habit: Can Microtransit Transform Regional Travel?

Regional areas tend to have high car dependency and poor alternatives. Therefore, I found this piece of research an interesting read.

Shared, on-demand transportation services, often using vans or buses, that offer flexible routes and schedules, sometimes known as microtransit, have become common around the world in urban areas. However, their potential in regional areas is still being explored.

This research looked at a pilot program in a regional area of Slovenia to see if, in areas with poor public transport accessibility and a sparse and dispersed population, a door-to-door microtransit solution could provide an attractive and more sustainable alternative to the private car.

The results show that participants perceive microtransit as a viable alternative, with public transport commuters finding it particularly attractive, whereas car commuters see it as being on par with the car.

The research looked at how people made decisions on what mode to use and what policies would support a shift away from the car. The research concludes that combining subsidising microtransit and higher parking prices is the most effective strategy for achieving a modal shift primarily from car to microtransit while not affecting public transport.

This approach of charging for parking and using the revenues generated to invest in alternative modes of transport aligns with the principles Donald Shoup set out in his book ‘The High Cost of Free Parking’ and my blog article last month on why commuter parking should not be free.

What next?

Are there locations where a pilot to introduce subsidised on-demand mobility services with paid parking would make sense?

Blog

The Hidden Housing Blocker: How Transport Policies Limit Supply

My blog this week looked at how transport policies can block housing supply.

Key Takeaways

Transport policies constrain housing supply in multiple ways:

• Parking Minimums
• Parking Maximums
• The wrong approach to Transport Impact Assessments
• Failing to integrate transport and land use planning.
• Tying up land unnecessarily.

Ironically, these policies also make transport systems worse by encouraging urban sprawl, increasing car dependency and worsening congestion.

These transport-imposed barriers can be removed through proper policy reforms.

What Next?

Do you need to review how transport is preventing housing supply?

Leadership

Leading the Charge: What It Takes to Reform Transport Policy

I have previously written about helping transport ministers become bold reformers. This week’s leadership lessons come from a podcast interview with a bold reformer, Lee Waters. He was the transport minister for Wales and made bold reforms: drastically curtailing road-building, introducing a national 20mph speed limit and putting in place the foundations of a European-style integrated public transport system.

Key takeaways:

• He had expertise in transport beforehand.
• Politics is hard, and many politicians are just trying to survive.
• Change is possible, but it is very hard, requires multiple levers to be pulled and is often resisted. To see sustained change, you have to change the rules of the system. Once a change is made, people do not want to go back.
• Politicians do not think much about transport before becoming transport ministers, so their thinking is often instinctive and orthodox - we need more car parking spaces and road capacity.
• We should recognise the concept of transport poverty, where people with low incomes are forced to spend a large proportion of their income on running a car.
• People try to fight with facts and evidence, but that will only take you so far. It is about feelings, self-identity, a sense of freedom and choice.
• Political leadership isn’t just about following public opinion. It’s about painting a picture of how things can be different, arguing for it and persuading people.
• There is nothing inherent in sustainable transport that makes it a left/right issue.

A key factor for Lee Waters was that he came into the role with a transport background. He is an exception rather than the rule. For most Ministers, we need to think about how we can give them the confidence and ability to challenge the system. Perhaps they need a trusted advisor who really understands the existing system.

What next?

How can you support a Minister in making change and becoming a bold reformer?

Innovation

Innovation: How quickly can you build a bike lane?

Answer: Very quickly. See this video.

Tool

Tool - What are the best places to put electric vehicle chargers?

This tool developed by the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Washington State Department of Commerce, uses over 100 public data sets to assist policymakers and planners in identifying optimal locations for new electric vehicle chargers.