Thornbury Wayfinders

Yesterday, I attended the Living Streets – Walking Summit, and I am trying to digest what I learnt.

For context, I learnt that the focus of Living Streets is on Everyday Walking as opposed to Leisure Walking as championed by the Walkers are Welcome initiative. I also learnt from Kiron Chatterjee, Professor of Travel Behaviour at the University of WoE, that as Everyday Walking is declining, Leisure Walking is up. (Maybe due to the increase in Car Dependant Housing CB.)

However, the overall emphasis on what Living Streets calls the Pedestrian Pound is similar in both cases – the message is – Investment in Walking pays. It is also clear that leisure walking is a gateway activity that strengthens Everyday Walking – making longer walks to work (for example) seem more reasonable.

Narrowly, it was stated that Pedestrianisation led to an increase in footfall, especially in the context of BIDs (Business Improvement Districts.) – a new one on me!

On another tack, Professor Scarlett McNally (who always wears pink) was all about the connection between exercise and health. Her main area of expertise is orthopaedic surgery, where she noted the importance of exercise in perioperative care, where fitness and strong leg muscles aided recovery, because more healthy tissue was available to heal wounds caused by surgery for example. The overall thrust of her talk is that sitting down is the most dangerous activity that we indulge in and unless more of us take up exercise, the aging population will swamp the NHS.

Exercise saves money as well as lives for the Country.

But listening to the detail, it was clear that a casual stroll wouldn’t cut it. What is required is getting out of breath for 20 mins a day with a couple of weight training sessions each week.

I wonder how relevant all of this would be for James Lee, who chaired the event from a power chair or for Kyrby Brown, who spoke from a similarly impressive machine on behalf of WECIL, the West of England Centre for Exclusive Living at the Vassall Centre in Fishponds.

Obviously, the interests of Wheelers and Walkers are not identical, but they converge on the need for wider pavements and usable surfaces and protection from motorised traffic.

They also share the benefits of shared Social Spaces as stressed by Seb Slater from the Shrewsbury BID (A new one on me – it’s Business Improvement District.) He was referring to the improvement in social interactions as well as increased footfall brought about by excluding traffic from the historic lanes of Shrewsbury. Christopher Martin also referred to the Conviviality Principal in the context of temporarily removing parking spaces to create a street market, which brought increased footfall to a Welsh Town. (Which is also happening in Thornbury.)

We shall look at areas of difference on part II.