Coffee in the Square

Equality for Bicycles!

I visited Freiburg over the New Year and the information I picked up was very rich.  You will see quite a few blogs on the new developments there over the next few weeks I guess.  Something one of our traffic engineers said before I went away made me think quite a bit about street widths.  Here is a tram in a really narrow street in Antwerp.  So don't tell me that you need a really wide street for a tram! (You know who you are.)

We measured this street out as 6m wide - and you can see that a good metre and a half each side is the footpath.  So a tram takes up about 3m.  (If you look very closely you will see my dog Astrid waiting at the side!)  Yes and cars are allowed down here as well - but woe betide them if they try and park.

However a thorough-fare for all types of traffic needs to be designed differently.  Vaubanalle in Frieburg, is the main road that runs through the Eco suburb of Vauban.

This street is 35m wide. Download the info sheet for a detailed section and more images.  What's really interesting is the fact that the roadway section - two way traffic and a line of parking - is only 6m wide while the pedestrian/cycle track is also 6m wide.  Designing cities for cycles does not seem to mean less tarmac unfortunately.  But it does mean a different balance between car uses and other uses.

Mirror, mirrow on the wall which will be the biggest city of them all?

Price Waterhouse Cooper (or PwC as they now catchily call themselves) have just issued a fascinating analysis if the relative GDP of 150 major cities around the world and taken an educated stab at their relative success in 2020. Largest city economics in the world in 2005 and 2020 They have combined statistics for GDP with those for per capita income in order to arrive at a (relatively) equally valued output.  Using these statistics the number one ranking goes to Tokyo and according to the report London will be creeping up from number 6 to become the fourth largest capital in the world.  Tipped for the highest growth in real GDP are the great cities of China, that is Shanghai and Beijing, followed closely by Mumbai and the big Latin American cities.  Other far eastern climbers will include Seoul and Manila.

The study recognises the limitations of such an overview in particular by the slightly arbitrary way that the boundaries of such cities are drawn.  For example Greater London as defined by the GLA area would leave out a vast swath of commuter towns which rely completely on the London effect.  For example we could consider that Reading, Slough, Guildford, Luton and Basildon are all really the outer reaches of London.   

Of course what would also be interesting would be to compare the relative populations and the footprints of these cities.  London has very specific plans for physical and population growth, but its plans for economic growth are only inferred in The London Plan by an increase in employment.

I have a hunch that the Chinese cities with their mega growth plans may be underestimated in the stats and that existing major cities like London may be over estimated.  These figures were of course compiled by Englishmen!

Westminster's Folly

Parking in central London can be expensive and a drag.  But I have nothing against small green cars and even these need somewhere to park.  So underground car parks like the one in Cavendish Square just behind John Lewis and Oxford Street should provide a model for other developments.  This was rather miraculously built after the war, managing to maintain the fine Plain trees which now sit on top of the spiral car park.  (There is a similar car park in Russel Square which is one of the oldest squares in London - but that is a double spiral!).  Even on a gloomy day like today Cavendish Square provided a green respite from central London's hustle and bustle.

However the car park itself is gloomy and needs sprucing.  And the square, which is potentially beautiful, is cut off for pedestrians by roads on all sides.  I think that Westminster councillors must hate pedestrians.  They certainly have a fear of pedestrianisation and here the roads and footways have been configured so that there is NO WAY to access the gardens except by taking your life in your hands across traffic lanes.  There are no pedestrian crossing or lights. 
Yet the roads around here are only local distributor roads.  There is no need for traffic around here to go fast!
The New West End Company have obviously recognised the problem and in 2005 they conjured up a scheme with adjoining landowners Marchday Group PLC who are the freeholders of the square.  But since what is reported to have been a positive consultation nothing more has been heard.
It is simple schemes and partnerships like this could progressively improve central London, but Westminster, one of the richest of London Boroughs drags its feet.
What New West End Company realises, and what Westminster Councillors should understand is that Oxford Street is losing out to the dead - but admittedly convenient - hand  of places like Bluewater.  Central London has no God-given right to remain central.  The website gives no credits to the designers of the proposals.  (They probably were not paid anything!)

I'm sending this article to New West End Company and to my councillor - I am a Westminster ratepayer.  So we'll see what response we get.  (If any)

Milton Keynes Digital City

......................

Take a look at the two images above.  They struck me as remarkably similar.  The one on the left was drawn by a dissident Argentinian scientist who became an artist, the one on the right was drawn by an eastern European immigrant. They both date from the '60s.  The one on the left is "art" the one on the right is "town planning".
I came across the painting by Victor Grippo in an exhibition which is on (until 4th February) at the Camden Arts Centre London.  The image reminded me so much of a file image I had copied some time ago from the original designs for Milton Keynes. 
Why are they both so similar?  I think its the influence of the printed circuit which was a popular image at the time and anticipated the rise and rise of computers.
What I think those town planners failed to realise is that the city is not logical - people and traffic do not move round it as electricity moves around a circuit board.  Traffic is much more haphazard.  Given no other motive people will walk in straight lines, but they will deviate to see a view, to follow a crowd of to get to a destination.  The circulation system is much more like that of the human body.  There are routes but there is ebb and flow.  If one route is cut off or damaged another route may form.  But if the beast is fundamentally wounded it may expire.  The loss of importance of a river crossing - or the like often signals the death of a city, just as the bringing of a canal, a motorway or railway can breath new life into the animal that is the city.
However the city analogy with a body breaks down in one key respect, which these town planners also failed to realise.  The plan for Milton Keynes religiously separates cars, pedestrians and public transport.  In reality many modes can and in my view should take the same route!

London, Hampstead Garden Suburb

 

This is the Institute at Hampstead Garden Suburb.  I decided to revisit the suburb in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the development of Milton Keynes this week. Hampstead is to me the archetypal English Garden Suburb of which Milton Keynes is a sort of americanised bastard. Of course the styling is the first difference.   But as I walked around, on what turned out to be a sunny but bitingly cold day, I realised that the central square of Hampstead Garden suburb has no commercial activities.  Instead it has three churches and three schools - if you include the Institute which was once the focus of adult education.
Even though this model of large houses and long tree lined avenues is difficult to reconcile with public transport provision and we would expect everyone to go by car, there were in fact quite a lot of people just walking around.  In fact the institute now runs a series of walk and talk days, which sound very good.  I had stumbled upon one of them.  The course leader is a trained councillor and I could see that everyone was walking and talking and I'm sure the effects on the psyche and the health were great.  They pointed me in the right direction of a cafe, which of course is at the edge of the scheme on a main road - just where shops ought to be.  Its interesting how often we are encouraged to keep neighbourhood centres in the centre of things, but of course in small scale places they can not survive.  In Hampstead the focus is spiritual and educational and I'm pleased to see that the walking tours are continuing the tradition.  This is a much better focus that retail!
Obviously others agree with me. The going rates for purchase of a house start at £1million and goes up to £4Million!  I've included a series of images which you can download.  Though I'm not  a fan of retro the detailing is very fine and all the houses seem to be in very good condition.  My only regret is that there are very few smaller scale units, or flats.

The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit

Please take a look at this website from Detroit - and weep.  Its amazing for a Londoner like me to see such extraordinary buildings unused.  I'd like to know what steps are being taken to bring them back into use but the website does not seem to tell me.

More later ...     Detroityes.com

Chicago - New City Plan

I'm planning to go to Chicago to check out their regeneration programme.  I would recommend their Central Area Plan to anyone who wants to see how it should be done.  I can't vouch for the strategies, but they do read well on the page!

View Chacago Central Area Plan

Chelmsford - Is this all there is?

Chelmsford - Essex

-

UK

A lovely sunny day and we just need to stop somewhere on the A12 for a late breakfast coffee.  So we stop at the Wild Bean Cafe at the BP petrol station there.  As petrol stations go this one is not the worst.  In an effort to increase the all important market share petrol stations have been vying with one another to increase the quantity of goods on sale. This one sells food, papers and mags, flowers, coal, car accessories and has a little café – where the coffee is OK. And my husband

Mike

would also like to vouch for the general yumminess of the biscuits.

However I would like to ask the question; “Why can’t these service stations be better designed?”  And who decides on the use of space?  There was a lot of unexciting grass verge. But would it be so expensive to create a small eating out area?  Could there not be some better landscaping?  In the end we had to drink our coffee sitting in the front seat of the car?  Couldn’t the loos be nicer – just a bit brighter and a bit cleaner?  I’m sure they would sell more if the place was more attractive to linger in.  And lastly why is the station not linked by cycle and pedestrian routes back into the town? Don’t locals need car accessories too?

When we were in

Finland

we noticed that in the lonely north, where settlements are very sparse and spread out that the gas station had become the centre of the community.  People would walk there to get their daily papers.  The café was full of happy locals and they sold souvenirs of the region as well.  (They do this in

France

too by the way)  But the main difference was that the place was clean and well landscaped and looked distinctive.

I suspect that it has something to do with our high wages.  If  someone from BP or the Wild Bean would like to comment that would be great…and if you have been to an exceptionally good petrol station recently do tell all.

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=2001318