Transport analysis is ‘programmed’ to deliver roads, says Create Streets
Transport prediction models are not sophisticated enough to “balance all the ways in which we travel around nor agile enough to adapt to changing technology and human behaviour”, argues a report by urban design group Create Streets.
In a review of how projects are evaluated, the group claims that embedded values lead to road-based outcomes.
The report’s author David Milner, deputy director of Create Streets, believes that transport prediction models must change “so we can design the infrastructure we really need”.
According to Milner, transport modelling often starts with the question, “Are you modelling for vehicles or pedestrians?” rather than “considering all types of transport holistically”. He writes: “Despite the rhetoric around sustainable transport we still think about walking, cycling and car transport as separate silos. Many planners will never touch a pedestrian transport model.”
