London

Starters of urban change (7) Urban toll in London

Congestion Charge, London’s urban toll system, is among the rare cases in which a politician states his admiration before a measure that has worked better than forecasted (at least that’s what he said to the BBC).

Let us use here what some urban economy teachers say. Imagine an ET hovering over planet earth, and how he could be puzzled to see our behavior on car flows; you pay tolls to use motorways that seldom have any congestion, while in large cities, which can put to test anyone’s patience, moving by car is free. The scarcity of a good (fluidity) does not influence its price.

This first idea deserves some considerations: since the introduction of parameters and (especially in Europe) air quality control measures, moving your car in a central district remains relatively free, but the moment you decide to stop and park, you are in for a step bill. This helps improve air quality, but is felt by some as a social division between haves and have not’s in terms of accessibility to urban cores; I think that this is not necessarily the case, as in a reasonably designed public transportation system fares are always much more affordable than car ownership. Sure, you have all the right to feel better in your car, as you have no need to smell other people’s smells, but you have no need to organize your trip according to parking availability and you can do many useful things (even just thinking) while someone else focuses his/her attention on steering a vehicle. I think it’s rather an issue of what you want to do with commute times that can be very long for some, and feelings, but access times are not necessarily longer for the most (sure, if you make many stops things can change, but you need to factor in the parking hurdle).

It seems the system has worked rather well; tariffs have helped boost public transport, and reduce pollution with positive effects on public health. Citizens, as on almost any other issue, are divided between pros and cons. Traffic levels have gone down 10,2% in 10 years, but travel time remains the same for motorists.

An interesting thing in this measure is that it was approved by a Labor government and presented by some as a left wing interventionist policy, but later has been maintained by Conservatives (even if they scraped the western extension), and new restrictions are being planned for 2020.

But few cities have followed that path: more often than not, the fear of losing votes.

What good do shops deliver (2) aesthetics

mercado

This is an image of a city square in a rural area of Spain, and it represents the “zero degree” of the urban retail: a street market. I’ve chosen this image, quite far from idyllic. Here we have the same urban role played by those breath-taking image of Italian markets  conveyed through cuisine tv shows, but there is no substantial contribution to the formal landscape; sure this is more than decent, but it is not elegant, as so many other things in life.

callelondres

This image corresponds to a street in London, on Mayfair, close to Oxford Street. It is a street without retail; everything is housing (or retail), even if the setback from the sidewalk changes the way in which the buildings relate to the street quite elegantly. The difference with a social housing estate is in the architecture and its dwellers, not in the way in which the building uses are organised; and in the fact that here Bond Street is just a stroll away, albeit it is not necessarily a place in which to get value on groceries…

And this third image is a street in central Mérida (Spain), a city of almost 60.000. it is not main street, but is urban landscape is marked by retail.

comercio mérida

And this third image is a street in central Mérida (Spain), a city of almost 60.000. it is not main street, but is urban landscape is marked by retail.

trassanesteban

This fourth image is a set of shops behind Stephen’s Cathedral, in Vienna. Elegant shops in a central setting in which the architecture of the building is far from bad…

You can have beautiful streets with or without retail, or they can be uninteresting on their own; you can have attractive or boring shops. But what commerce brings to citizens using the streets on a daily basis is a material expression of the evolution of the city. And to those coming from out of town retail means a clue on what sort of aesthetics mobilizes local buyers; the extent to which retail implies visual clutter is also noticed by visitors (it can be positive, but not that often). The lack of retail (including bars and restaurants) in a street has its landscape depend just on  building architecture, much more static.

London, education and location

According to the 2011 census, in London there were data on the education of 6.549.000 people. 1.152.000 of those had no qualifications whatsoever, while 2.470.000 had level 4 (first year of university) or above qualifications. As before, it is interesting to see how these conditions are distributed around the geographical space.

Level 4 or above in London. Central and southwest areas show higher figures.

Level 4 or above in London. Central and southwest areas show higher figures.

Level 4 or above in central London, with a rather scattered pattern. Whitehall and Belgravia have high numbers, but also some areas south of the Thames

Level 4 or above in central London, with a rather scattered pattern. Whitehall and Belgravia have high numbers, but also some areas south of the Thames

No qualification persons in London. The East, and especially north-east, show the higher figures.

No qualification persons in London. The East, and especially north-east, show the higher figures.

In central London the East shows the higher figures, altough some areas north of Hide Park show also high numbers.

In central London the East shows the higher figures, altough some areas north of Hide Park show also high numbers.

London, gender and location

According to Census 2011, in London that year there were some 4 million jobs, of which 2,1 millions (53,4%) where of males. In the Managers, Directors and Senior Officials there were 300.000 men and 164.000 women, while professional occupations had 461.000 men and 436.000 women. In administrative and secretarial occupations the ratio was 127.000 men for 286.000 women.

The interesting thing is how these jobs are geographically distributed by gender. As yesterday, red lines are the tube.

Distribution of managers, directors and senior officials, both male and female

Distribution of managers, directors and senior officials, both male and female

 

Managers, directors and senior officials. Blue areas have more men than woman, pink ones the opposite

Managers, directors and senior officials. Blue areas have more men than woman, pink ones the opposite

Distribution of professionals

Distribution of professionals

Professionals. Blue areas have more men than women, pink ones more women

Professionals. Blue areas have more men than women, pink ones more women

 

Secretarial ocupation distribution

Secretarial ocupation distribution

Secretarial ocupation. Blue areas have more men in the job, pink ones more women

Secretarial ocupation. Blue areas have more men in the job, pink ones more women

 

 

 

 

London and population density

Lond-denspop

Is London a dense city? Well, related to what?.  The map represents the population density (persons per hectare, UK Census 2011); it is striking to see that the scenic central London, seen by tourists, is a sort of void. The red lines are tube lines, and the names are those of some stations.

Belgravia
Eaton Place, 25 m of street between main façades

Eaton Place, 25 m of street between main façades

Belgravia is a district of London, southwest from Buckingham palace. As in most parts of the West End, it is an area developed by a family development corporation, with long term leases at the end of which the real estate good reverted to its original owner, here the Grosvernor Group. It is a space associated to the richest in London. And it shows, as many other in the West End, a particular street design in which the lot line courtyards are an essential feature.

There are no retail venues on the street, just mansions that follow a common architeral model. The intimacy of the ground floor comes from the setback from the street allowed by the courtyard that brings light and air to the service spaces underground (this is where “Upstairs, Downstairs”, the BBC series, was staged).

Today many of the original houses have been transformed in apartments, and others have become offices for businesses lucrative enough to pay the rent… no trees in sight, and wide, but not too much, sidewalks; it is not a street in which to live, interact or chat, rather an exhibition and connection space. The on-street parking is completed by the backyard mews, discretely closed by some parking doors.

The architectural quality of the buildings is good, but depends mainly on the serial effect. The architectural difference with some social housing projects in peripheral areas, which are not as well in socio-economic terms, is rather quality (as well for the dimension of elements as for building materials) and maintenance, than the project itself (and I do not dislike the area)

How many cars are moving in the city?

London congestion charge

Why would you want to count the cars in the city? To be able to dimension properly your street traffic lanes, either to enlarge them or to keep them in such a state as not to increase congestion by appealing more traffic, as often is the case in enlargement projects. Usually measures are taken on a limited number of streets which have a structural role and concentrate most of the cars, without deeming relevant the traffic in smaller streets.

But there can also be a clearer incentive: to levy a tax for using the public space, a rare commodity, and so subvention public transportation. This is the policy instituted in London in 2003 with the Congestion Charge. The system works from 07.00 AM to 06.00 PM, Monday to Friday, with some holidays being exempt. There is 90% reduction for residents. The system depends on 197 cameras along the area’s border, integrating a plate reconnaissance software that allows the charging and fining; as vehicles are bulkier and follow more predictable rules when moving, the cameras are more reliable here than to count people. There are similar charging systems in Singapore and Oslo, and despite the problems that prevented a similar option to be enforced in New York, San Francisco is on the way to apply a charging system.

The system has reduced around 30% vehicles accessing central London, according to Transport for London. The company knows how many cars use the system each day, and results are published monthly on http://data.london.gov.uk/datastore/package/vehicles-entering-c-charge-zone-month. The sharp decrease in users from 2011 is due to the removal of the toll in the western extension

camaras congestion london

Biblio (34) London Housing Supplementary Planning Guidance

Biblio34- London housing planning guidance

Up until now this blog has been about landscape, heritage, aesthetics, urban agriculture, you name it… but seldom about the one architectural product nearly everyone uses on a daily basis, that configures most of the urban fabric (whatever that means, especially in some areas), and that impacts the most in the quality of life: housing. It seems to be time to talk about that, so in the following series of post there will be some references to that question in different places and contexts. This means that I often do not know first hand the places or the buildings I talk about (unfortunately I travel less than I would like), and I would thank the feedback from anyone knowing firsthand the buildings, neighborhoods or policies and their results as direct users

The Supplementary Planning Guidance is a supplement to the housing policies of Mayor Boris Johnson’s 2011 London Plan (itself an iteration of the 2004 London Plan, passed under Labor Mayor Ken Livingstone). Its aim is a qualitative approach to the quantitative housing targets of the London Plan.  It is not a bylaw or binding rule in the sense usually understood in contries in the tradition of the roman law, but it aims to orient the policies of the city in that matter. The document also integrates the results of a public participation process.

The London plan estimates a housing provision target per year of at least 32.200 units. New housing should be built in all boroughs, mainly on brownfield sites, and with a good link to public transportation networks. There is no “one size fits all” solution, but a will to adapt to the local conditions of each area, be it on terms of architectural typology or in terms of access to housing by households.

The document is organized according to the following points:

  1. Housing supply. A spatial distribution of growth and goals by kind of urban tissue are defined. Optimizing the preexisting housing stock use and the urban land are priorities, linking density to accessibility by public transportation.
  2. Housing quality. Comfortable homes and updating of the existing housing stock for technical and environmental reasons (including climate change) are presented in parallel to safety on the public space.
  3. Housing choice. A growing diversity of ways of life requires a diverse housing stock, and the possibility to go from one to another.
  4. Affordable housing. One of the most complex issues in any plan.
  5. Preexisting stock and the needs to invest to update its conditions to current standards.
  6. Social infrastructure (health, education and sports)
  7. Mixed use development, avoiding the configuration of new housing-only neighborhoods. A complex issue, as the businesses usually tend to group following logics that are not those of housing units.

World Heritage (4) Westminster
The site and its surroundings, according to the 2007 Site Management Plan proposal

The site and its surroundings, according to the 2007 Site Management Plan proposal

Westminster-delimitacion

The Abbey and Palace of Westminster, together with the Saint Margaret’s church, were inscribed in the World Heritage List in 1987. The Universal Outstanding Values recognized to the site are the fact that the Abbey represents the evolution of the English gothic style, its influence on the XIXth century gothic renewal through the project for the Houses of Parliament, and the illustration of the specificities of a parliamentary monarchy for nine centuries.

The area is subject to several complex issues: on one site the safety ones. According to the State of Conservation Report prepared by UNESCO in 2012 some security measures deemed un esthetic have been recently replaced by street furniture of bomb-proof quality, and a diversion of traffic away from Parliament Square is being studied to turn it into a pedestrian area. There is also the location at the center of London, a city with a dynamic real estate market, so the chances for a conflict between heritage preservation and  new architecture are a real issue: the 2012 UNESCO document shows concern about the Elizabeth House project, by David Chipperfield. And in many world sites the London Eye, in such a nearby location, would raise debate.