About this time last year, East Heath Road was closed for 2 days for resurfacing. The flow of cars and lorries through South End Green dried up and for two sunny spring days we had the sort of public space that foreign cities enjoy. Could we – a neighbour asked me – not get the road resurfaced every month?
From an interview in The Guardian:
As an academic Gehl became a revered advocate of the view that cities should be built, organised and shaped to meet the needs of people on the ground rather than to gratify the abstract concepts and grand ambitions of planners and politicians.
He shares many of the concerns expressed at our meetings, that the humanity of the places we live in gets sacrificed to “smooth traffic flow”. It is now ten years since he wrote Towards a Fine City for People, a vision of a city where Londoners have priority over vehicles, and he’s disappointed so little has been achieved in the decade since.
Neighbourhood Plans can’t set policy for roads and traffic. But planning for a neighbourhood where people matter more than cars – that would be a start.
