And yet, York is criss-crossed with trails, footpaths, and alleys that connect us to those who walked in the city centuries before us. Their choice of routes has directly shaped some of our modern road, path and cycling networks.

York’s unofficial paths came to mind recently during the council consultation for a new path between the Salisbury Road area and Scarborough Bridge. There’s clear indication of where people like to walk here (but it wasn’t one of the options). It’s close by the willow trees along the riverbank – illustrated by the well-worn track caused by people and a fair few dogs walking on the grass.

These types of tracks are called ‘desire lines’ or ‘desire paths’. They’re often the most-direct route between two places. But they can also come from other reasons – the most scenic, the safest feeling, the most quiet.

The oldest human footprints found outside Africa are at Happisburgh in Norfolk. They’re c.900,000 years old, include footprints of children, and were made in wet mud that became fossilised. It shows the simple act of walking as the earliest way humanity engaged with and left its trace upon nature; desire lines are part of this ongoing story.

In York, desire lines are most evident in grasslands, seen across common lands such as the Strays, Hob Moor and Clifton Backies. They are shown as simple earthen footways on the earliest Ordnance Survey maps of York, or etched in vegetation in early aerial photographs taken over the city. No doubt these types of tracks were shortcuts in centuries prior to this.

Much of York’s urban centre is a legacy of desire lines formed in the centuries after the Romans. The Romans were rigid and predictable in how they planned fortified camps and towns; Eboracum was effectively a grid system to garrison 5,000 legionnaires. After the Romans left, and the city fell into ruin, it was the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings who weaved new routes between the Roman ruins: Blake Street, Finkle Street and Goodramgate are testament to this.

In the case of New Walk along the River Ouse, a panoramic esplanade created in the 1730s, and one of the earliest in the country, ironically even this is not spared. Parallel tracks on the bank of the river run alongside the Georgian elm tree-lined walkway. They may have been made by those who simply prefer the sunshine along the river than the dappled shade of ancient elms, but likely, too, by children, in particular, who prefer the variation of a track in grass, where tree roots and level changes add variation, much more fun than the boring predictability of the tarmaced New Walk path.

But what can desire lines tell us about York’s past?

Tangibly, they show us how parts of the city were once separate and even remote, requiring tracks to be trodden to connect them. They tell us where people were permitted to roam, or at least considered the risk of trespass worth it. Children, too, who are often excluded from the annals of history, are particularly apt at making new routes, in play or, historically, the consequence of work tasks given to them.

Desire lines also help identify historic sites that were important to people. These are diverse, ranging from a river landing where the RSPCA centre is today, the Terry’s chocolate factory when a major employer, the Knavesmire for the races (some things don’t change), and the Tyburn on Tadcaster Road, where people were executed (some thing’s fortunately do change!).

They also indicate that our forefathers weren’t too dissimilar from us: leading perceivably busy lives, or simply lazy enough to opt for the shortest route possible.

Some of the historic York desire lines went on to be formalised as official, constructed paths and roads. A simple pathway that cut across Micklegate Stray on the earliest OS Map of 1852 is today’s Scarcroft Road. Where better to build a road or speculative housing than where people are evidently coming and going?

As man-made routes showing where we want to go, and not told to go, for some, desire lines are seen even as mini acts of defiance; two fingers raised against the social control aspect of modern urban planning. Should we observe more where us ‘masses’ talk with our feet, to help how we do urban design in York? Should we welcome children, especially, to show us where and how fun can feature as part of our grand designs?

The post York’s ancient ‘desire lines’ – the city paths of tomorrow? first appeared on York Civic Trust.

York Civic Trust has played a key role in advising on the Local Transport Plan, as invited by the Council.

The Trust has said that it warmly welcomes this new Strategy, with its clear vision for the future of transport in York, its challenging but necessary objectives and its clear articulation of the actions which are now needed.

Tony May, chair of the Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, said: “We are delighted to see the results of our three years’ work with the Council, and are pleased to see that the Council has adopted many of the proposals which we put forward in our own 2022 Transport Strategy. The Council’s Local Transport Strategy offers the vision of a city of vibrant, active communities, with a greatly improved environment sustained by a greener economy.”

However, York Civic Trust did express concerns about the lack of clear targets in the plan, and how the improvements would be actioned.

Andrew Morrision, York Civic Trust’s chief executive, said, “The only targets mentioned in the Strategy relate to the climate, and are presented without explanation.  In particular, there is no explanation of the need for a 20% reduction in car use.  We also need clear targets for air quality, health and accessibility so that people and businesses understand the benefits to be gained by changing their travel behaviour.” 

The Council has promised a five-year Implementation Plan for the Strategy to be released in Autumn 2024, which will cover how the Council plans to realise the Strategy.

On the Plan, Andrew Morrison said, “The Council need to be clear on how public support is to be maintained, how the necessary professional skills can be provided, and how the new measures will be financed.  We will expect to see, ideally by September, a clear programme of work which can be completed during this financial year.  We look forward to working with the Council on the development of that Plan.”

The post York Civic Trust calls for clear targets from the Council over new Local Transport Strategy first appeared on York Civic Trust.

The post Can York learn from other cities? first appeared on York Civic Trust.

York’s city centre is renowned for its exceptional wealth of preserved heritage, and yet remains an ever-evolving city.

Piccadilly, York Central, the Mecca Bingo site, Foss Islands Road, the removal of Queen Street bridge … just a few of York’s ongoing city-centre redevelopments.

But do we too often focus on redevelopment as simply changing individual buildings, sites or street layouts?

Do we operate in a ‘silo’ mentality, and fail to ‘join up the dots’ of how the city might best be transformed and experienced as a series of interconnected places? Indeed, have we lost the art of ‘vision’-thinking for York?

Such questions are timely. City of York Council is developing a York Movement & Place Plan. It aims to “identify how best to balance the needs of streets as travel corridors and as places where people live, shop, go to school and enjoy their leisure”. For it to succeed, however, it needs to embrace successful placemaking as well as combating the city’s ‘movement’ issues.

Two of York’s pre-eminent thinkers on the city’s future shape were the prominent local politician, J.B. Morrell, and Lionel Brett – the latter better known by his title, Lord Esher. In his 1940 book, ‘The City of Our Dreams’, Morrell outlined a vision for York that would also greatly inform the even more radical – and largely unadopted – 1948 postwar plan by York Corporation.

Morrell’s vision was dramatic. It included widespread demolition of buildings within touching distance of the city walls’ external ramparts. Why? To better present the walls – and free up space for an inner ring road! But he also had fine ambitions for Exhibition Square and the area around Clifford’s Tower as high-quality civic spaces; two locations in York that still require a substantial rethink.

Esher’s ideas for redesigning York’s city centre featured in his 1968 Government Report called ‘York – A Study in Conservation’. He targeted rejuvenating York by making the most of its heritage and yet making it a working city for a modern age. A small amount of pedestrianisation – a cutting edge and controversial idea then – clearing of poor-quality housing and dirty industrial businesses within the city centre, and generally thinking of how York might be experienced as a place to live and work in were at the heart of his vision.

Both men operated at a time when York welcomed, or at least was prepared for large scale change; a more confident age, perhaps. They also built on a Victorian and Edwardian tradition of bold interventions and redevelopment of the city centre.

Two examples are the creation in the 1830s of Parliament Street as the principal market area in the city, and the making of Duncombe Place through the clearance of Little Blake Street in 1859-64. Both resulted in a huge loss of medieval housing that we’d now consider utterly charming and highly conservable, which changed the character of the spaces and sacrificed some of the historic street layouts that had been established since the time of the Vikings. But they vastly improved the function of the city economically, by strategically connecting and creating open spaces, and, with Duncombe Place, improved the setting of The Minster.

One strength of Morrell and Esher’s visions is their consideration of redevelopment in human terms: how people might experience spaces, and not simply the architectural qualities of buildings and spaces being created. It’s a simple concept, but so often overlooked – especially when tempted to primarily find traffic solutions to aid movement between spaces.

But is a traffic solution really a successful solution without also improving the quality of the places it connects?

Consider the new ‘frontage’ scheme for York Railway Station, for example. It provides fabulous opportunities to reshape how people arriving by rail access the city centre, to see their route as a space they move through, experience, and engage with. How might a transformed Rougier Street and area along North Street lead them to a more pedestrian-friendly Ouse Bridge, and then, say, to Clifford’s Tower as part of the Castle Gateway project? Equally, how can improvements to the public realm and access in Lendal, Coney Street or Exhibition Square interact with people arriving via a route using Scarborough Bridge and the Museum Gardens?

We’ll each have different visions for the city centre’s redevelopment. But there’s merit for us in following Morrell and Esher’s lead in considering how such changes will be experienced, enjoyed, and interconnected.

The post We need some proper visionary thinking about York’s future first appeared on York Civic Trust.

In 2019 over three quarters of residents surveyed told us that congestion, pollution and carbon emissions from transport were serious problems for York. We established a Citizens’ Transport Forum, which met in February 2020 and told us that the Council needs to be bold and visionary in its approach to transport in order to tackle these problems.

The Council agreed to start work on a new Local Transport Plan for York in January 2021, with the aim of producing a draft for consultation in January 2022. They invited York Civic Trust to provide advice on what might be included. The Council conducted its own Our Big Conversation survey in the summer, and found that among York residents congestion was a serious problem for 90% of people, pollution for 82% and transport’s impacts on climate change for 80%.

Yet the Council has decided to defer publication of its Local Transport Plan, without indicating when it will appear. The Trust have worked hard over the last year developing proposals for a new transport strategy. We do not claim to have all the answers, but we are clear that the options need to be discussed, and a consensus reached so that the Council can start to take action.

We have therefore decided to bring together our proposals in a Transport Strategy for York which we plan to launch in February 2022. We hope that this will stimulate the debate on future transport policy which is urgently needed, and that we can see significant progress on the ground within the next two years.

Professor Tony May, Chair of the Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, said:

“York’s Local Transport Plan is now over ten years old, and much has changed since then. Most other historic cities have already updated their transport strategies. The government will soon be instructing all local authorities to produce new Local Transport Plans, and to demonstrate how these will lead to reduced carbon emissions. It has made clear that future funding will be dependent on the quality of these Plans. Any new Plan will be contentious, and it is crucial that the Council starts the debate on alternative approaches soon. We hope that our new Strategy, to be launched in February, will stimulate that debate.”

The post York Civic Trust set to launch new Transport Strategy for the city first appeared on York Civic Trust.

The City of York Council has agreed to develop a new Local Transport Plan to replace the one issued a decade ago, which will be published for consultation in 2022. The Trust were invited to provide advice on what might be included in the new Plan, and have now submitted our initial proposals.

Last year the Trust convened a Citizens’ Transport Forum, with 100 members drawn from across the city to discuss the city’s transport needs. In its report, Towards a Transport Strategy for York, the Forum argued that any new Local Transport Plan “needs to adopt a holistic, bold and visionary strategy which achieves significant changes in travel behaviour in the immediate future”.

We have taken that as our starting point, and looked for ways in which the city’s transport system can contribute positively to the challenges of reducing carbon emissions, improving the environment and public health, supporting the economy and making it easier for people to take part in everyday activities.

The Trust’s 16-strong Transport Advisory Group, which draws on expertise in all aspects of transport policy, has spent the last few months reviewing the 2011 Local Transport Plan, suggesting the focus for the new Plan, and developing specific suggestions for improving public transport, walking and cycling, making it easier for people to travel less, and managing car use and the road network.

Among the suggestions in its initial proposals are:

· Giving pedestrians greater priority and more direct routes when crossing roads

· Developing a connected, continuous and safe cycle network

· Using park and ride sites as local access hubs, with more orbital bus services

· Local centres and community hubs to support working from home

· A parking policy to help manage levels of car use

· Using traffic control and communications technology to discourage through traffic

Professor Tony May, Chair of the Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, said:

“Since the Council’s current Local Transport Plan was produced a decade ago, much has changed, with electric cars, bikes and scooters, ride-hailing services such as Uber, increased online shopping and now more working from home. At the same time we have new commitments to carbon reduction and air quality, and need to support economic recovery. We have gone back to first principles and asked what sort of city we want, and how can transport best contribute. We have looked in turn at each of the forms of transport, and at how they can best support one another. We have looked internationally for examples of good practice.

We would like to hear from everyone about the ideas which attract support, those that don’t, and suggestions that we might have missed.

The proposals are available on our website, along with our review of the 2011 Local Transport Plan and overview of the approach that we have adopted.

The post Be bold and visionary in your new Local Transport Plan, says York Civic Trust first appeared on York Civic Trust.

York Civic Trust and York Cycle Campaign have teamed to develop a response to this challenge. In a report published today and presented to York City Council, they explain the short-term need:

The effects of the lockdown impose serious threats to York’s tourism, retail and leisure industry. We will need to return to fuller employment, education, shopping, leisure and tourism if the city is to remain vibrant. Yet we know that social distancing will need to remain in place for some time to come, reducing the capacity of pavements, cycle lanes and bus services alike. With the government still discouraging people from using public transport, there is a real danger that car use will rise to levels above those before the lockdown, and result in even worse levels of congestion and pollution.

But the potential for transformative change is also key. Just before the lockdown started, York’s ground-breaking Citizens’ Transport Forum concluded that the Council “needs to produce a holistic, bold and visionary transport plan which achieves significant changes in travel behaviour in the near future.” Our response to coming out of lockdown offers an unanticipated opportunity to commence this process.

The policy document focuses on enabling and encouraging:

· residents who are able to do so to access the city centre, local centres, colleges and workplaces on foot and by bike;

· primary and secondary school children to access their schools on foot and by bike as an alternative to using school buses or the car;

· commuters from outside York to switch to park and cycle;

· tourists and day visitors to walk and cycle from their arrival point in York and throughout their stay.

It offers a series of improvements which can be made throughout York to help walkers and cyclists, and suggests using much of the funding available from government to implement these. But it also accepts that further action will be needed where the transport network is most constrained. The attached map illustrates the key proposals, which include:

· widening pavements at many locations in the city centre and on the approaches;

· park and cycle facilities at all six park and ride sites, with high quality cycle routes to the city centre;

· improvements to the orbital cycle route and new links from the villages;

· improvements to the cycle route from Micklegate Bar to Stonebow, including a bus-only section across Ouse Bridge;

· innovative schemes to give cyclists priority at Lendal and Skeldergate Bridges;

· improved crossing facilities on the Inner Ring Road to avoid pedestrians having to cluster at traffic lights;

· a bus-only section on Gillygate, where social distancing is particularly difficult.

Professor Tony May, chair of York Civic Trust’s Transport Advisory Group, said:

“If we can reallocate road space to allow as many people as possible to access York safely, this in turn will support the recovery of business and tourism. We have called upon the voluntary contributions of many experts to help develop this programme. We fully appreciate that the programme which we outline above is substantial, will require significant initial investment and continued resources for maintenance and enforcement, and will in parts be controversial. But it is essential that York adopts a visionary programme of this kind if it is to be successful in responding to the government’s challenge.”

Kate Ravilious, of York Cycle Campaign, said: “We’d like everyone to be involved and next week we’ll be launching a Commonplace interactive map for residents to suggest where space for walking and cycling is needed. Meanwhile, we’d like to see the Council keep people safe and address priority locations immediately. Our petition, which asks the council to make space for walking and cycling during the Covid crisis, now has over 1500 signatures, demonstrating that residents want to see this change,”

“We would like to see the Council start consulting immediately on the longer term proposals in our list, set targets for achievement. monitor the impacts of implemented schemes and publicise and promote the results,” adds Professor May

We look forward to working with the Council and other stakeholders on this programme, in order to achieve the transformational change which the government, our Citizens’ Transport Forum and, we are sure, our Council seek.”

For more information, please contact Ben Pilgrim on 0778 995 1781. To download the report please click on the link below

The post Transforming travel and protecting the public: how York should respond first appeared on York Civic Trust.