TfL Walking Action Plan

Walking Action Plan

Good afternoon Adrian

I am in our Local Communities & Partnerships team at TfL, and lead on engagement with organisations in Waltham Forest. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself, and share with you a plan we launched today.

Today we have launched our Walking Action Plan. The plan, which is supported by Public Health England, has an ambitious vision to make London the most walkable city in world, with a million extra walking trips taking place each day by 2024.

The Mayor of London wants to increase the proportion of people walking, cycling and taking public transport to 80 per cent of journeys by 2041, from 63 per cent now. He is investing a record £2.2bn in streets across London to make them better for walking and cycling, and to improve air quality.

Walking is an easy and affordable way for Londoners to integrate more physical activity into their daily lives. However, research shows that too many people are put off because of concerns about road danger, overestimating the length of journeys or worries about their levels of physical fitness.

The Walking Action Plan aims to help Londoners overcome these barriers by:

• Designing, building and managing streets for people walking, by delivering better public spaces, more walking routes and safer pedestrian crossings
• Ensuring that walking is prioritised in every new infrastructure scheme, through London’s first ever pedestrian design guidance and a range of other tools and analysis to support boroughs to deliver local schemes
• Enabling thousands more children to walk to school by doubling the number of Gold accredited STARS schools which champion healthy routes to school, and by supporting timed road closures, car free days and 20mph speed limits around schools
• Rolling out innovative new traffic signal technology that makes it safer and easier for people to cross roads, while minimising congestion
• Creating new ‘Active Travel Hubs’ at TfL stations, making it easier to walk as part of an onward journey

Major projects are already underway to enable more walking across London, such as Highbury Corner, where a new public space and new pedestrian crossings are being installed, and at Old Street where work will begin to transform the roundabout in 2019.

We will work with London’s boroughs and other partners to develop and publish London’s first design guidance for walking in 2019, which will help ensure walking is at heart of the design process for London’s streets.

The published plan is attached. Please take some time to read it, and share with any colleagues who may find it helpful. We are keen to hear your thoughts on the plan, and how you believe we can work together to meet our aims. If you would like to discuss the plan further, please contact me.

Best wishes

Peter Fletcher

Community Partnerships Specialist – North and Active Travel Lead | Local Communities & Partnerships

Public Affairs & External Relations | Transport for London

5 Endeavour Square, London, E20 1JN

020 3054 7208 (int 87208) | 07595 066919

peter.fletcher@tfl.gov.uk

www.tfl.gov.uk