Walking Strategy
5. Policy Mechanisms
To be successful, the strategy must recognise that increasing
walking is not a single, simple issue, but part of a wider, complex
social setting. A number of policy mechanisms will be required to
achieve the objectives and targets listed above. These mechanisms
must be integrated with each other.
They can be broadly described as programmes of
engineering, encouragement, education,
enforcement and enabling.
Engineering
The primary role of engineering measures in this context is to
identify a network of safe and convenient pedestrian routes which
link major attractors and residential areas. These will also be
suitable for the mobility impaired, such as elderly and disabled
people, unless some exceptional problem (e.g. gradient, historic
steps) prevents this.
The treatment of pedestrian routes should consider some or all
of the following measures, as appropriate for the
circumstances:
- Redistribution of Carriageway Space - make room for
pedestrians by increasing pedestrianised areas, widening footways,
etc
- Traffic Management – provide safer, more direct routes by
installing facilities such as crossings and pedestrian signal
phases, and by removing barriers to passage for the mobility
impaired
- Surface Maintenance - provide a smooth and well-drained
walking surface
- Traffic Reduction - achieve improved levels of
attractiveness and safety in shared space by restricting wheeled
traffic
- Traffic Calming - reduce wheeled vehicle speeds, improve
driver skills and behaviour
The Council will follow detailed new Guidelines for Providing
for Journeys on Foot, published in 2000 by the Institution of
Highways and Transportation. Appendix 1 contains a checklist for
good practice from the DETR’s ‘Encouraging Walking’.
Pedestrian Audit
Highway and land-use development schemes will be required to
provide improvements for pedestrians. To achieve this, a pedestrian
audit assessing the connectedness, convenience, conspicuity,
conviviality and comfort of routes and facilities for pedestrians
and those with mobility impairment will be required of any scheme
likely to have a potential impact on walking.
Pedestrian Networks
High quality route networks will be provided for pedestrians and
the mobility impaired, with priority given to:
- transport links in urban areas
- links between settlements which generate, or have the potential
to generate, significant amounts of
walking
- safer routes to schools
- development of leisure walking opportunities
The pedestrian network will primarily make use of:
- the existing footway network alongside public
carriageways
- other public rights of way: byways, bridleways and
footpaths
- routes where walkers have been granted permissive use, such as
towing paths and disused railway routes
In the short term, parts of the pedestrian network may have to
share space with all vehicles (in minor roads without footways, for
example) or with cyclists (on facilities designed or designated for
shared pedestrian-cyclist use). In the longer term these points of
possible conflict should be eliminated completely.
Local communities will be actively involved in the development
of local routes and networks.
Pedestrian Routes
Within the overall networks, priority will be given to improving
pedestrian routes as follows:
- Major routes serving utility walking trips relating to work,
school, shopping and similar trips. In particular routes from
residential areas to significant journey attractors, e.g. ‘safer
routes to school’, retail centres, major employment sites, public
transport interchanges, hospitals, other education facilities and
leisure
facilities.
- Other connecting routes used for utility
walking.
- Recreational routes which complement the Council’s strategies
for leisure and maintenance of Public Rights of Way. In particular,
priority should be given to routes which help to encourage healthy
family activity, such as access to local nature reserves.
The footway and footpath network will be improved through
measures such as:
- Traffic restraint and pedestrian-friendly traffic calming
measures, especially on rural roads without footways or usable
verges. However, the needs of access for emergency vehicles must
always be considered
- Constructing new footways
- Widening footways including build-outs at popular crossing
points
- Home Zones
- Helpful and attractive signposting, especially on routes used
frequently by visitors. The needs of pedestrians with impaired
vision must be considered
- Specific facilities to provide safe and convenient crossing of
carriageways and cycleways
- A range of improvements to help all pedestrians but
particularly the elderly and others with restricted mobility. This
might include dropped kerbs, textured pavement surfacing, seats,
toilets, bus stops and shelters in convenient locations, drinking
water. It should be borne in mind that different group have
different and sometimes conflicting needs – for example wheelchair
users may find textured pavements uncomfortable – and sensitivity
will need to be shown to achieve the best
balance.
- Action to reduce ‘clutter’ where possible on footways, in
pedestrian areas and on rural road verges, such as traffic sign
poles, retailers’ display boards and inconsiderately parked
cars
- Improvement of public rights of way which would have
significant benefits for facilitating travel on foot.
High Standards
Route networks will achieve high standards of connectedness,
convenience, conspicuity, conviviality and comfort. Design criteria
will follow nationally accepted good practice, for example
contained in the following publications:
- Guidelines for Providing for Journeys on Foot
(IHT)
- Pedestrian Policy for the Avon Area
- Encouraging Cycling (DETR)
- Traffic Advisory Leaflets from
DETR
- Transport in the Urban Environment (IHT)
Pedestrian Priorities
In B&NES’s hierarchy of road user priority, pedestrians and
disabled people come first. The Council will ensure that, in
balancing the needs of different modes, pedestrians are
disadvantaged the least of all.
This does not mean that pedestrians will:
- never encounter delays
- never have to make detours
- be able to walk at will across over public or private
land.
But it will mean that, for example,
- the timing and phasing of traffic signals will permit safe and
prompt crossing for pedestrians
- crossing points will be as direct and convenient as
possible
- maintenance inspections of footways and action to remedy
defects will be at least as frequent as they are for the
carriageway
Pedestrian Route Maintenance
Bath & North East Somerset Council will strive to undertake
prompt, high standard structural surface maintenance, sweeping,
salting, vegetation control and lighting maintenance on recognised
pedestrian routes. Statutory utilities will be required to
reinstate to a high standard after any work which affects
pedestrian space.
Footpaths and verges which form part of key pedestrian routes
will receive a high priority for maintenance.
Protecting Access
Bath & North East Somerset Council will ensure that
development does not sever routes used by pedestrians or disabled
people, unless an acceptable alternative can be provided. Efforts
will also be made to protect identified potential future routes
where resources have not yet been found to construct them.
Development Contributions
Bath & North East Somerset Council will make use wherever
possible of planning agreements and obligations to improve the
transport infrastructure, with particular regard to aiding
pedestrians and the mobility impaired.
Monitoring Demand
Bath & North East Somerset Council will ensure that
pedestrian infrastructure developments are informed by the results
of regular monitoring of pedestrian flows, and by travel surveys of
a sample of residents.
Public Transport
Bath & North East Somerset Council will seek to ensure that
pedestrian routes and facilities are integrated with fully
accessible public transport operations and infrastructure, to
facilitate walking as part of longer journeys.
Particular attention will be paid to provide informative maps to
identify safe and convenient routes to stations and bus stops.
Access for All
Bath & North East Somerset Council will strive to ensure
that measures to facilitate walking do not conflict with measures
to aid cyclists, public transport users and disabled people, and
vice versa.
Encouragement
The establishment of a physical infrastructure will be of little
benefit if it does not operate in the context of a constantly
improving background of pedestrian friendly facilities and
attitudes.
Reducing Road Danger
Bath & North East Somerset Council is a signatory to the
Road Danger Reduction Charter and will continue to develop a road
danger reduction strategy to reduce traffic danger at source
through engineering, enforcement and education measures. This will
form the basis of measures to ensure that pedestrian casualties are
reduced as walking increases.
Walking and Business
Bath & North East Somerset Council will continue to work
with other local employers to develop commuting and business travel
policies that increase opportunities for pedestrian-friendly
practices. It will promote walking as an important mode in
workplace Transport Plans, both for the journey to work and on
company business. The benefits to an employer of a healthy
workforce can be stressed.
Walking and Schools
Bath & North East Somerset Council will motivate schools to
encourage and facilitate walking as a means to improve the safety,
fitness and independent mobility of school children, whilst
reducing traffic danger and congestion around schools. Development
of safer routes to school will allow children to make regular
journeys by foot. This will be additional to the Council’s
programme for encouraging cycling in secondary schools for similar
reasons.
Promoting Walking
Bath & North East Somerset Council will add to the impact
and effectiveness of its Walking Strategy through sustained
complementary publicity and promotional efforts and by
incorporating walking into its efforts to reduce pollution and to
meet Local Agenda 21 commitments.
Better conditions for walking will help groups which suffer from
social exclusion. Elderly people and families on low incomes can be
particular encouraged to consider walking once local conditions
have been improved.
Walking is an excellent way for visitors to explore Bath and the
other urban centres. Tourists will be encouraged through
appropriate literature and advice to consider guided walking tours
rather than using motorised transport when sightseeing.
Guided or self-guided tours also have a role in rural areas, for
example as part of the Countryside Agency’s Walking the Way to
Health programme. The production of trail guides will be an
important part of this process, in conjunction with the Tourist
Information Centres and the authorities managing the Cotswold and
Mendip Areas of Outstanding National Beauty (AONBs).
Education
Training and advice are essential to increase safety and
enjoyment among the child pedestrian population.
Training Children
School-based pedestrian training schemes are currently being
piloted in a number of B&NES schools, at reception, infant and
junior levels. Bath & North East Somerset Council will be able
to offer pedestrian safety training to all resident junior school
children within five years.
Enforcement
Compliance with road traffic regulations assists the safety of
all road users.
Policing
Bath & North East Somerset Council will endeavour to ensure
action is taken to reduce obstruction and dangerous or illegal use
of vehicles in public space, both where it has its own powers and
in partnership with the Police.
Personal safety is an issue which troubles many people and is an
undoubted deterrent to walking in a number of parts of the
Authority. Facilities which are separate from traffic are
particularly prone to cause worry, and better lighting, more
visibility by other people and more surveillance by police and
Council officers must all be considered.
Enabling
Appropriate resourcing is essential to monitor, implement and
support the Walking Strategy objectives.
Information
Bath & North East Somerset Council will undertake
comprehensive collection and analysis of data to determine the
history and progress of the Walking Strategy – with specific
reference to pedestrian numbers and safety – to inform the future
development of the strategy.
Funding
Bath & North East Somerset Council will identify and pursue
sources of funding, both from within and outside the Council’s own
resources, sufficient to meet the objectives set out in the Walking
Strategy.
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