PLANNING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT AROUND PEOPLE'S NEEDS

ABSTRACT Planning Sustainable Transport around People’s Needs This paper reviews sustainability-driven spatial planning policy from the perspective of ordinary citizens as they seek to travel, live and work, and carry out... [ view full abstract ]

ABSTRACT
Planning Sustainable Transport around People’s Needs

This paper reviews sustainability-driven spatial planning policy from the perspective of ordinary citizens as they seek to travel, live and work, and carry out their daily lives within the sustainable city. The original definition of sustainability contained social, economic and environmental components. This paper argues that there has been an over-emphasis upon the environmental aspects, at the expense of social considerations, especially gender, creating a dissonance between the sustainability and social equality agendas to the detriment of achieving inclusive urban design. Policy examples from transportation and land-use planning indicate that sustainability-driven planning policy is working against the creation of inclusive, equitable and accessible cities with particular reference to the needs of women. Sustainability policy is set at too high a level to engage with the realities of everyday life. It is concluded that there is a need for a more user-related, social perspective to be integrated into sustainable planning policy. Public transport needs to go where the people want to go, between the different land uses and facilities. In order to enable women and men of all ages to travel comfortably and easily it is important to make transport systems accessible and usable, with adequate ancillary facilities.