Planning for sustainable transport or for people's needs

Abstract

This paper reviews and critiques sustainability-driven spatial planning policy from the perspective of ordinary citizens as they seek to travel, live and work, and carry out their daily lives within the environmentally sustainable, green city. The original definition of sustainability contained social, economic and environmental components. This paper argues that there has been an over-emphasis in the UK upon the environmental aspects, at the expense of social considerations, especially gender considerations, creating a dissonance between the sustainability and social equality agendas to the detriment of achieving inclusive urban design. Policy examples from transportation and land-use planning indicate that sustainability-driven planning policy is working against the creation of inclusive, equitable and accessible cities with particular reference to the needs of women. Sustainability policy is set at too high a level to engage with the realities of everyday life. It is concluded that there is a need for a more user-related, social perspective to be integrated into sustainable planning policy.