For several generations transport has been left to find its own way, often served by specialised professionals with little interest in the wider picture. It has become the greatest cause of damage to the quality of our built environment and is now one of the greatest centres of concern of the public, be they Swampys trying to campaign against motorways at one end of the scale or worried parents anxious for their children s safety en route to school at the other end. Transport White Paper Prescott, in his launch of the Government s Integrated Transport White Paper, has said The public mood has changed. There is now a consensus for radical change . He is absolutely right.
Movement is as fundamental to our lives as eating and breathing is.
Urban design is about place making and the movement patterns within and between places. And yet the Integrated Transport White Paper barely refers to Urban Design. It is about rethinking the interaction between movement and buildings to counter the dead hand of the traffic engineer and others. I will come to it later. But first the White Paper.