Dare To Dream: Outer London town centres

Outer London on the horizon

“More cycle lanes, less litter, cleaner toilets”. William, 10, Woodford

Outer London has the biggest potential to grow and diversify cycling. But it’s often more car-dominated and the distances to ride to and from work can be longer than most will ever tackle, even on an ebike. But we know what to do in outer London.

The Dutch have for decades been planning suburban cycling around town centres and amenities. And that’s what Waltham Forest did with their award-winning ‘mini-Holland’ schemes that started rolling out during previous Mayor Boris Johnson’s reign.

As a result of ten years of those schemes, it’s not at all unusual to see families with children in cargo bikes, or riding alongside parents, it’s not even unusual to see older kids riding on their own without a parent in sight. Imagine that happening in Croydon town centre, or Bromley, or Hillingdon!

New journey types

“More trees because they give us Oxygen.” – Nia, 6, Palmers Green

Families and children are a key part of outer London’s demographic make-up and we know that if you build conditions for families and children to cycle, this unlocks huge amounts of cycling for everyone. But these aren’t your ‘traditional’ long-distance rides into central London to work (journeys which are changing anyway for many reasons).

The types of journeys outer London need are clustered around the denser town centres. The Dutch plan for a 6km ring for cycling and a 2km ring for walking – after those distances, most of these journeys transfer to other, mechanised modes.

But even if outer London boroughs planned tighter rings around their town centres, that would enable tens of thousands of people to walk and cycle more and ditch the car, for health, to bust congestion and to revitalise those town centres.

That’s the Waltham Forest experience – of folks ambling to restaurants, of kids cycling to schools, of families going to the swimming pool and parents to the shops, or nearest tube or train station.

Everyday journeys done in an everyday way, but this needs enabling actively and it needs far more than a solitary cycle track on the nearest main road that gives up 400 metres from the actual town centre or the odd School Street that makes the last 100 metres of a child’s journey delightful – it needs intense investment and coherent delivery to a high quality across an area around the town centre.

That is one of the key differences that sets Waltham Forest’s schemes in Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone apart from the other boroughs that received ‘mini-Holland’ or ‘Liveable Neighbourhood’ funding.

It’s also worth pointing out that even without funding, some bits of outer London are following in Waltham Forest’s footsteps anyway, such is the recognition of the need for this approach – Enfield, Hounslow, Newham and others are all making strides in this direction.

Set the quality bar, Sadiq

“A Lego shop, more cycle lanes, less thieves, more protection, more bike racks, sunny and warm”, Edgar, 10, Aldersbrook

It took circa £27 million from TfL across 5 years to kickstart the family cycling revolution visible in the southern two thirds of Waltham Forest.

Since then, he’s funded much smaller schemes in town centres for less money, and the quality bar has been lower too.

We’re asking for a return to a bid-for process for outer London town centres that demands a super-high-quality bar for schemes and is intensely focused and coherent, as well as delivered by councils hungry to do so.

We want more of outer London to get what Waltham Forest families have – where you see cargo bike parents and kids riding independently frequently on the cycle tracks and in the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

And we think ensuring these schemes are co-designed by kids and families will help make sure locals really ‘buy in’.

Family-first town centres…

“Less potholes, wider cycle lanes and no cars on Sunday”, Logan, 11, South Woolford

One way to get more people supporting the schemes, but also one way to make schemes more coherent and successful is to ensure they’re designed for families and, to some extent, by families.

Co-design workshops with kids and families have been used in some parts of London already to circumvent the usual cries of ‘no one cycles here’ and designing for kids and parents to be independently mobile and active in an inactivity crisis is an approach that will not only dampen some opposition but force a further quality bar on councils.

When officers design for a 12 year old to be able to cycle to school on their own or an 8 year old safely with their parent, you’ve got a town centre that looks radically different – as Walthamstow already does. So why not ask families what they need and help them help councils deliver it?

We have spent the last few months asking kids across London what they want for their town centres.

While we may not be able to deliver on the Lego shop or sunny weather, Edgar, we do think it’s not wildly surprising that kids want to be active, independent and safe – as do their parents. So come on, Sadiq, let’s get cracking on making all of outer London amazing!