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January 14, 2005
New report published
The Department of Transport has published Attitudes to streetscape and street uses and its full of interesting results from questions asked in a national survey about people's views on local traffic problems and their potential solutions, their local street environment and sense of community, and priorities for street uses.
Some headline findings are
Over half of people thought that traffic in their area was dangerous to pedestrians and other road users - although this was less likely a view the more cars a household has, or from better off people or those living in rural or quiet roads
If their street were to be redesigned, the three activities that most respondents thought should have priority were parking for residents, children playing and walking
The majority agreed that the streets should be somewhere safe for children to play in, that they should be a good place to stop and talk to neighbours, and that they should contain soft landscaping. However, over half of respondents said they would not be prepared to park an extra fifty metres away from their homes in order for the street design to accommodate these things
When asked whether they would like to have a say in the local authority's redesign of their street, a large majority agreed. A smaller proportion said that they would actually be prepared to do some work towards improving the quality of their street
When asked what physical qualities people looked for in a street when choosing a place to live, the three attributes chosen by the largest proportion of respondents were: feeling safe when walking around, a good general environment and a well maintained street
The majority of respondents thought that the type and the quality of the street was important when choosing somewhere to live
Four in five respondents thought that it was important for their street to be a high quality environment.
The report notes that answers varied according to whether there were children in families and for low and high income groups.
A sample chart shows the sort of data in the report...
Instead of just being used for getting around, how important is it for a wider mixture of activities to be possible in the public spaces in your area? - responses by number of household cars or vans
The research demonstrates that this is a topical issue and gives new insights. It is well worth a good read, and can be read on the computer or downloaded for printing out.
Posted by martin at January 14, 2005 8:59 AM
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