Steer Davies Gleave founder Jim Steer uses Leeds (and the rejection of its plans for a trolley-bus route) as an example of a city struggling to achieve a suitable, affordable, transport system. His answer to the problem is new housing. Says Steer: “There is a helpful test to hand - Sir Peter Halls’ last book, Good Cities, Better Lives (Routledge, 2014). Subtitled “How Europe Discovered the Lost Art of Urbanism”, it offers a contemporary tour of successful planning in Europe, with a common characteristic of planning public transit systems and housing together. The lesson is that there can be no quick fix: a transport project dropped on an un-changed city does not compute.” He says that recognising connectivity in Leeds as being a key part of the Northern Powerhouse plans will help make the investment case.
- We've read it in: Transport Times, June 2016, p13
