The Living Streets Manifesto

Yesterday

For most of human history streets comfortably accommodated the full range of human activity. In villages, towns and cities, the streets were the place for socialising, children's play, public meetings, entertainments, demonstrations and social change. They were also routes for travel and the movement of goods, but until the motor age, there was a balance.

Today

The balance is lost. Streets are now traffic corridors, literally cutting swathes through local communities. Official attention is concentrated on passing traffic, not local lives. Streets have become dirty and dangerous. Communities everywhere are affected, but more seriously in towns and cities and in low-income areas.

Tomorrow

The streets can be given back to people on foot. The balance can be corrected to recreate Living Streets.

This is your action manifesto for Living Streets.

Check out your local public spaces and community streets. See how they score on our 'liveability' survey which is described fully in the manifesto below. Then help us do something about it.

For streets to add up to Living Streets, ten practical factors need to be in place and in harmony. Here they are and here's what our campaign aims to do about achieving them.

1. Get the 'walkability' right
2. Get the balance right
3. Get the traffic pressure right
4. Get the environment right
5. Get the upkeep right
6. Get the safety right
7. Get the relaxation uses right
8. Get the beauty right
9. Get the connections right
10. Get the information right

Check the liveability ratings of your street.

1. Get the 'walkability' right

High-density community, high demand for services.
Living Streets need people living on them, walking down them and overlooking them. They need enough people living nearby to make local social and economic life work. They need a mix of housing, shops, offices, pubs, schools and places of worship within reasonable walking distance. What doesn't work is placing low-density housing, shopping and office development on separate sites, forcing people to drive to fulfil their daily needs.

Action needed: We want government planning policies to use 'walkability' as a key test of the acceptability of proposed developments. New housing, supermarkets and business parks need to be located and designed so that people can reach everywhere easily on foot - particularly public buildings like doctors' surgeries and libraries.

2. Get the balance right

Streets designed for all purposes, not just traffic.
Roads are classified and designed with one overwhelming factor in mind: how much traffic they carry. This ignores the role of streets as social places. It ignores the fact that in many streets - particularly local high streets - there are far more people on foot than in vehicles. Roads and side turnings are widened and pavements narrowed to speed up the traffic. Barriers are erected to stop people crossing where they want. The lighting and street signs are designed for people travelling at speed in vehicles. The result: an unfair, ugly and intimidating environment for people on foot.

Action needed: We want streets re-classified to fit ALL the demands we make of our streets, because people live, shop and play there as well as driving through.

Once we have a new classification, we want the Highways Agency and local councils to audit and redesign all streets to reflect their different functions. We want to see more space given to those on foot or on cycles. We want our cages removed - all those railings and barriers. And we want junctions re-designed with walkers in mind - so that crossing is safer and easier.

3. Get the traffic pressure right

Appropriate volume and speed of traffic.
We know that heavy traffic kills people - over 4,000 children and 8,000 adults are killed or seriously injured every year by cars or lorries while walking or cycling. Traffic also kills communities, with parents' fear of accidents making streets no-go areas for their children. Research shows that the higher the traffic volume, the less time people spend outside - and the lower the likelihood they'll know their neighbours.

Action needed: We want the audit and re-design of a street to include a decision about how much traffic it should carry and how fast the traffic should be allowed to go. We want to see a sensible range from motorways at one extreme, to fully-pedestrianised areas with no vehicular access at the other. It should include "traffic calming" like road humps, Home Zones, pavement widening - and other measures that balance the needs of people and traffic. And the audit should lead to crossings being put where people find them convenient - not only where it suits the traffic flow.

4. Get the environment right

Well designed, clutter-free fully-accessible streets.
People have been squeezed out by encroachments onto their pavements and public spaces by buildings on one side and traffic on the other. We want a high quality environment for people using the street. We want people-friendly urban design standards to be set so that new buildings protect - and enhance that public environment.

Action needed: We want national design standards for the street environment. We want obstruction-free pavements that are wide enough for their busiest use and fully accessible to all users. We want the pavements made of high quality materials that wear well. We want to see better quality benches, bins and other street furniture - in the best locations. We want lighting that makes streets and public spaces safe and attractive - and clear signs so that people on foot can easily find their way. And we want pavement parking and paving cycling prevented.

5. Get the upkeep right

Clean, well-managed streets and public places.
Why should walkers endure clutter, litter, dog fouling, dumped cars, petty vandalism and graffiti? Is it any wonder people lose local pride and fear for their personal security? Opinion polls make clear that people give a high priority to a clean, well-managed public environment. Some enlightened local councils are waking up to this demand - but so far, too few.

Action needed: We want the Government to use management techniques like the Best Value regime to convert all councils into making street and public space maintenance a top priority. We want to see a more customer-focussed approach in councils' street management, by setting up schemes like ?one stop shops' for all street services.

6. Get the safety right

Well-lit and safe, day and night.
Personal security on the streets is of crucial importance. If people don't feel safe they won't venture out on foot. We can't have Living Streets without better design, lighting, policing and maintenance. We have to reduce both crime and the fear of crime. The reflex response to crime by some councils of closing rights of way on foot looks more like a retreat than a solution. Other, more constructive options must be pursued.

Action needed: We want Local Crime & Disorder Partnerships to identify a pattern of actions to help restore public confidence. We want streets and buildings designed to reduce the potential for street crime - and people's fear of it. We advocate a visible presence of police and other uniformed personnel such as Neighbourhood Wardens. We want to see improved street lighting, the regular cutting-back of overhanging trees and bushes for clear pedestrian sight-lines, and the replacement of subways with street-level crossing places.

7. Get the relaxation uses right

Places to sit, in locations convenient to walkers.
Why should walkers behave like vehicles - always keeping on the move? The only right enshrined in the Highways Act is to "pass and re-pass along the highway" and it's a sign of the times that most words we use to describe stopping in the street should have negative connotations - "loitering", "lingering", "hanging about". Our streets are as much for leisure as for work, places to chat to neighbours, read newspapers or to watch the passing scene. Living Streets need nooks and corners, benches and walls where people can pause and pass the time.

Action needed: We say you can't encourage walking without a policy that includes providing places for stopping. We call for the creation of new public spaces where there are none and better maintenance where there are benches and resting points.

8. Get the beauty and interest right

Attractive and interesting street environment.
Living Streets are as much about beauty and interest as they are about function and economy. Ugly streets deter walking. Attractive and interesting streets will encourage the same people who will walk miles in the countryside for the pleasure of it, or spend long hours - and much cash - in purpose-built shopping centres, to stroll once again on our urban streets.

Action needed: We want councils to shape their Town Centre Management Strategies and local walking strategies to make serious investment in new public art, tree planting and high quality lighting. Likewise, we want to see schemes funded through the Single Regeneration Budget, the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Local Transport Plans to include provision for more trees and more art.

9. Get the connections right

Convenient links to where you want to walk.
Living Streets are not islands. They must connect to the wider community, which means that rights of way on foot along streets and connecting alleyways need to be preserved. In new developments these rights of way - these linking walkways - should be insisted on at planning stage. Cul-de-sacs and blocked-off routes create closed pockets of community.

Action needed: We want national planning policies and local plans to include a presumption against the stopping-up of rights of way through villages, towns and cities. We also want estate developers to protect existing rights of way, including walking routes on their site plans within and through their boundaries.

10. Get the information right

Maps and signs to tell walkers where they are.
What we do so well for drivers, we can do for pedestrians. Some of the energy and expense that goes into channelling vehicles quickly and efficiently through our roadways - the lane markings, instruction and destination signs - should be spent on those walking the pavements. Street signs are often missing at pavement level. Directional information is rare and usually poorly presented. It's bad for the locals, almost impossible for visitors. Clear, helpful signs help rebuild pride in a local community.

Action needed: We will press councils to review local signs from a pedestrian's-eye-view as part of their local walking strategies. We want damaged or vandalized street-name signs promptly cleaned up or replaced. We want new local transport investment to include improvements to signage, to display local street maps and "places of interest" signs that show people exactly where they are and how to reach their destinations.

If you agree why not sign our manifesto?