Dr Angela Raffle and Dr Adrian Davis
Health sector and transport sector working
together
Why bother?
• Because Health Sector generates a significant
amount of travel – we need to reduce the impact
• Because our overall transport system has profound
impacts on health – we need to make these positive
• Because mutual understanding and trust, sharing of
expertise, and combining forces makes sense where
we have common goals
‘In England no person would
walk if he could possibly help it’
Comment from a visitor from abroad in 1557
– quoted in Thomas K ‘Man and the Natural
World’
‘English rule has certainly
benefited Ireland, as even the
poorest now ride on horseback
where before they ran on foot
like animals’
Comment from Sir William Petty in 17th
Century – quoted in Thomas K ‘Man and
the Natural World’
Some myths that get in the way
• That Traffic means vehicles. That high vehicle speed is a goal in
itself. This distorts attention from fact that reliable efficient
movement of people and goods is what matters
• That GDP is an end in itself. In truth it is local long term
prosperity that matters
• That less single occupancy private vehicles is automatically bad
for business. The evidence is it can be very good for local
business
• That resource depletion can safely be ignored, Even
Lloyds/Chatham House says it can’t.
• That the sustainable/healthy travel lobby are naïve zealots. We
try our best not to be
How efficient is
transport?
• “Tank to wheels”
• Per person
• Mostly for typical
occupancy levels
From Mackay 2009
Reflections on cross sectoral working
•
•
•
•
•
Outright hostility
Passive resistance
Polite but patronising/tolerated/arms length
We’ll use it to just get money out of them
Pretend to go along with it whilst really
thinking they are troublemakers
• Actually on this issue if we work together we
can do it better
• We trust them, we’ll look for joining forces
wherever possible
Minutes travel by bicycle
from the nearest Community
Health Staff Base
Yellow – 0 to5
Orange – 5 to 10
Red – 10 to 15
Major scheme design principles
Snow Hill ex expressway Birmingham, google transport route hasn’t kept
pace with the paradigm shift that the satellite photo reveals
Ashford
West St before,
4 lanes one
direction, barrier to
walking/cycling, ‘boy
racers’, excessive
speeds
Ashford, West St, after. Congestion gone, 21.5
average speed, noise air quality improved
Major scheme design principles
•
Multidisciplinary working from the outset, and community engagement
strategy and communications from the outset, starting with all walk the route
together
•
Mapping of current and future walking and cycling flows to inform design
from the outset. Continuous, direct, convenient, safe, attractive. Planned for
not just grudgingly accommodated.
•
Serious and careful attention to bus stops, and interactions between buses
and other modes
•
Calm vehicle speed designed in through perceived carriageway width,
frontages, trees, layout, materials etc
•
Parking (cycles and vehicles) designed in from outset
•
Preserve existing natural and historic features, green infrastructure,
sustainable drainage
We care about making the West of
England a great place to get about
in, and we want the health sector
to be helping you in your work
towards this goal