Permeability in Existing Urban Areas: Best Practice Guide

Iwannahurl · 29-07-2015 2:29pm #1

The National Transport Authority has published a new best practice guide for local authorities, which aims to address the crucial issue of permeability and severance in urban areas.

Promoting walking and cycling as modes of transport is a key objective of the National Transport Authority, particularly for shorter length journeys. Historically many urban areas in Ireland have been designed without recognition of the importance of walking and cycling, which has resulted in travel by these modes being inconvenient, circuitous, and in some cases less safe than they should be.

In many locations, the preponderance of cul-de-sacs, and the lack of access links through estate boundaries, renders the walk or cycle to schools or shops significantly longer than the straight line distance and gives little choice to people other than the use of their car. This adds to local congestion, to the cost of people’s daily transport, to local air and noise pollution and it requires additional car parking at each destination. To compound all of these impacts, it also removes the potential for people to combine their trips to school, shops etc. with the health benefits of daily exercise.

https://www.nationaltransport.ie/news/permeability-in-existing-urban-areas-best-practice-guide/

This is long overdue, in my opinion. Here in Galway the norm is to make large residential areas impermeable to pedestrians, cyclists and bus users. In addition to the high walls around estates, pedestrian short-cuts are routinely closed off, bike paths are obstructed with kissing gates and car-dependent individuals and groups do their utmost to ensure that pedestrians and cyclists don't succeed in finding any shortcuts to schools, shops, bus stops or each other's homes.

I've only just seen the guide, and at first glance it doesn't appear to offer any solutions to the problem of impermeable estates closed off by high walls. I know of four adjacent estates, totalling a few hundred houses, where the only solution would be to demolish people's properties. Either that or build tunnels or elevated greenways, which will never happen.

Mrs OBumble · 30-07-2015 3:33pm

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Here in Galway the norm is to make large residential areas impermeable to pedestrians, cyclists and bus users. In addition to the high walls around estates, pedestrian short-cuts are routinely closed off,

I've always thought this was about reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.

'Tis a dreadfully tedious approach to design in my foreign eyes, but I put it in the same league as not having public seating or even rubbish bins in some places.

munchkin_utd · 30-07-2015 5:07pm

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I've always thought this was about reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.

'Tis a dreadfully tedious approach to design in my foreign eyes, but I put it in the same league as not having public seating or even rubbish bins in some places.

it was more to do with the fact that every development is like a little island (or castle) completely separate from its surrounding environment.
And of course you mark your territory by putting up a great big wall round it to make everyone feel warm and cuddly inside that this is "their" patch.
Keeping out criminals wasnt a major priority I dont think, whereas in Northern Ireland the one entrance/ exit model was deliberately followed for security reasons.

Renmore in Galway is a good example of how an estate can be very open with pedestrian walkways and passages all over the place beween streets.
So cars cannot take shortcuts, but pedestrians can.
I havent an exact date on when it was built but the main chunk of it must have been the late 70s/ early 80s

expectationlost · 30-07-2015 5:53pm

found some an interesting study done on this in Fingal -Blanchardstown

Greater Blanchardstown Initiative - examination of urban permeability in the Greater Blanchardstown Area http://www.slideshare.net/FingalOpenData/greater-blanchardstown-initiative-examination-of-urban-permeability-in-the-greater-blanchardstown-area also mentinond in http://www.slideshare.net/FingalOpenData/open-data-in-participatory-design-governance-27389418

good use of GIS, I wonder if anything was ever done with it, there the main issue was people having to walk around (or through) an industrial estate, what could they do?

the example in the NTA doc is Dargle Wood Walking and Cycling Link , Rathfarnham http://www.sdcc.ie/services/planning/transport-planning/local-permeability-projects/completed-projects

not sure what they did, put an extra entrance in the high wall of a park? along a desire line?

ah here we go https://www.nationaltransport.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Sustainable-Transport-Measures.pdf before and after photos page 20

http://www.southdublindevplan.ie/sites/default/files/documents/Pre-Draft%20Public%20Consultation%20Background%20Issues%20Papers.pdf before and after photos page 44

would like to find the full study of that

see the old maps http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,712534,727030,11,0 didn't use to have wall or paths

i don't understand how there was ever not an entrance along that wall

any pics of the Corkagh Park change?

Permeability in Existing Urban Areas: Best Practice Guide

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