by Kiron Chatterjee, Professor of Travel Behaviour
I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the third edition of the Pedestrian Pound at the House of Commons on 25th November in a packed Committee Room 15. The Pedestrian Pound demonstrates that pedestrian friendly environments are key to turning around our struggling high streets and town centres. As one of the authors, I was intrigued to see how it would be received.
The Pedestrian Pound is an initiative of Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. I was part of the UWE team commissioned by Living Streets in 2011 to write Making the Case for Investment in the Walking Environment, which reviewed evidence of the economic, environmental, health and social benefits of investment in walking friendly public spaces. Two years later in 2013, this led to Living Streets bringing out the first edition of the Pedestrian Pound which focussed on economic impacts and made the ‘The business case for better streets and places’. A second edition was published in 2018 which updated the evidence.
So why a third edition and why now?
High streets and town centres are struggling with the long-term increase in online shopping and the consequences of the pandemic and cost of living crisis. However, they play an important role in the economic and social vitality of local communities. We also face existential threats from climate change and poor population health. It is increasingly apparent that walkable environments, accessible to all, can counter economic decline and contribute to better health, more connected communities and reduced environmental harm.
In this context, Living Streets saw the need for a new version of the Pedestrian Pound with updated and compelling evidence for the wide-ranging benefits of high quality walking environments. Living Streets wanted this to help make the case for better streets to national politicians, local authorities, business improvement districts, campaigners and professionals.
At the heart of the third edition remains the evidence on investing in the walking environment and this has been updated for 2024. The scope of the evidence has been widened to go beyond economic impacts to also consider health, community and environmental impacts. The range of walking interventions considered has been extended to include ‘software’ changes to the walking environment, which alter the user experience (e.g., events, new services, marketing, policy changes), in addition to ‘hardware’ changes to the physical environment.
As well as the main Pedestrian Pound report, there are a number of supplementary documents for practitioners. There are separate country annexes for those wanting to understand the context and key policies and mechanisms for delivery of public realm and walking improvements in England, Scotland and Wales. There is an evaluation briefing aimed at those wanting to know how they can evaluate the benefits of a scheme (either proposed or already implemented).
The Pedestrian Pound and its supplementary documents
Producing this work involved a considerable effort from the research team led by Lisa Hopkinson of Transport for Quality of Life with Beth Hiblin, Martin Wedderburn, Sally Cairns, Martin Frearson and myself. The task involved searching for relevant literature and systematically assessing the evidence, as well as identifying suitable case studies demonstrating what is possible from high quality investment in the walking environment. Workshops were organised and held in England, Scotland and Wales to understand the different contextual circumstances across the three countries. I had a particular responsibility with Martin Wedderburn to produce the evaluation briefing. This required being aware of current practices for assessing walking interventions across different professional domains and recommending how to enhance these based on cutting edge research.
What are the key messages from the Pedestrian Pound?
We found a substantial body of evidence that public realm improvements improve economic, health, community interaction and environmental outcomes. We concluded there is a need to shift away from viewing high streets simply as places for shopping, and instead to see them as public spaces for socialising and connecting people. To achieve this requires more joined up decision making and funding across policy departments, particularly between transport and health.
There are 12 detailed case studies (evenly distributed between England, Scotland and Wales) which accompany the Pedestrian Pound report and illustrate how public realm investment can make a difference to local economies. One example I have witnessed myself is the weekend road closures in the centre of Shrewsbury which have been found to result in a higher growth in sales in the area covered by the weekend pedestrianisation trial than in the rest of the town centre. I have seen for myself that the High Street in the centre of Shrewsbury is teeming with life and how the town in general does not have the empty premises seen in many other towns of its size.
Shrewsbury High Street / Photo credit: Shrewsbury Business Improvement District
How did the launch go?
Well, first, I should note that Scotland beat England in launching the report on 14 November at Edinburgh City Chambers, 11 days before the launch in the House of Commons.
The launch at the House of Commons was hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Cycling & Walking and chaired by Fabian Hamilton MP who was fulsome in his praise for the Pedestrian Pound. He said on X after the event that he was “Delighted to host this important report launch today. We must do more to make our streets safer, cleaner and more accessible.”
An overview of the Pedestrian Pound was given by Living Streets’ Chief Executive Catherine Woodhead after which Minister for Local Transport, Simon Lightwood MP, expressed his gratitude for the work and highlighted how a walkable environment supports the outdoor market in his constituency town of Wakefield. Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School, Dr Linda Yueh CBE, was invited to give her reflections on the work and said what was particularly important was the third edition evidenced the multi-dimensional benefits of high quality public realm.
Speakers at the Pedestrian Pound launch in the House of Commons / Photo credit: Living Streets
After the main speakers, a few observations and questions were offered by MPs present from the APPG for Cycling & Walking. One concern raised was that visitors to town centres from outlying areas had little alternative but to drive and needed convenient parking. In response it was suggested that a small compromise to the convenience of parking could make a big difference to destination quality for everyone.
What I look forward to seeing in the coming years is how the Pedestrian Pound helps those with responsibility for our high streets and town centres to implement schemes which raise the quality of public realm to the benefit of walkers, wheelers and local communities in general.
The blog was written by Prof Kiron Chatterjee (Professor of Travel Behaviour at CTS) who contributed to the third edition of the Pedestrian Pound alongside Lisa Hopkinson, Beth Hiblin, Martin Wedderburn, Sally Cairns and Martin Frearson.
Kiron Chatterjee is Professor of Travel Behaviour in CTS at UWE Bristol. His research looks at how travel behaviour changes over time and how people’s access to transport affects their life opportunities and wellbeing. Kiron is currently responsible for a number of evaluation projects for Department for Transport, as well as UKRI projects on walking school buses and Demand Responsive Transport.