Creating healthy streets for sustainable cities – delivering public health benefits through redesigning London’s streets

ABSTRACT

London’s physical inactivity crisis is having a significant negative impact on the population’s health. Making walking and cycling easier for daily travel is the most effective and equitable way for most Londoners to stay physically active and hence improve their health. The Mayor’s £2.3 bn Healthy Streets programme is a systemic, evidence-based approach to creating streets and transport networks that support active travel. It is “joined up government” in practice - integrating policy, planning and delivery across health, transport spatial planning and environment. Delivering Healthy Streets is not without its challenges, but the benefits for the city are huge.

KEYWORDS:

• public health
• waking and cycling
• transport policy
• sustainable cities
• joined-up working

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Casualties in Greater London during 2018, TfL, July 2019. The new system of recording collisions introduced by the Metropolitan Police in 2016 has led to improved accuracy in the recording of injury type, but it has also led to more injuries being classified as serious rather than slight.

2. The 10 Healthy Streets Indicators are: Pedestrians from all walks of life; Easy to Cross; Shade and shelter; Places to stop and rest; Not too noisy; People choose to walk, cycle and use public transport; People feel safe; Things to do and see; People feel relaxed; and Clean air.

3. See Joined-Up Government, Bogdanor, V. (ed), OUP 2005.

4. The statutory European Union tender procurement process for large contracts using the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Plowden

Ben Plowden is a Director in TfL’s Consulting and International Operations directorate.  He has held a number of senior roles in TfL, including MD of Communications, founder Director of TfL’s Smarter Travel Unit, Director of Strategy and Planning and Director of Project and Programme Sponsorship for TfL Surface Transport.  Prior to joining TfL, he was a leading national environmental campaigner, including senior roles at CPRE and founder Director of the national charity Living Streets.   Ben is a non-executive director of the Connected Places Catapult, a Visiting Professor at UCL and an external lecturer at the LSE and Oxford University.