Thread by @crisortunity

An EPIC thread on my unintentionally detailed new report investigating the very real threat posed to pedestrian space, disabled mobility and walking and wheeling targets by the national tidal wave of public on-street EV chargers needed to reach net zero: Streetspace Invaders
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Enabling motorists without access to off-street parking to switch to EVs requires a vast rollout of public chargepoints - somewhere between 300-600k by 2030 - 10x as many as now - around a third of them on-street rather than at destinations or en-route
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assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

current rates of chargepoint installation are not keeping pace with the rate at which consumers are switching to EVs, generating mounting pressure on local authorities to accelerate installation rates on public highways
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smmt.co.uk/2022/11/evs-en…

London has been leading on public electric vehicle chargepoints (EVCPs) installations, with around a third of the UK total and 2/3s of those planned for 2023. At least two boroughs, @CityWestminster & @LBHF each have more than the whole of Wales. @TfL say we need 50k by 2030.
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In parallel, government targets to increase the share of urban trips that are made by walking or wheeling rather than private motorised transport are also essential to meet UK climate goals.
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assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

"That means, where possible, redesigning towns, cities & neighbourhoods to enable more active short journeys. It means making active travel more inclusive, by removing barriers that make it harder for some to walk, wheel or cycle to their destinations."
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gov.uk/government/pub…

To this end, the govt has (to its credit) set up @activetraveleng and issued new network management guidance to highways authorities emphasising the need to reallocate space from cars to cycling & walking
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gov.uk/government/pub…

Pedestrians (inc disabled people) have been formally elevated to the top of the road user hierarchy in both the new highways code and the official design manual for streets
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gov.uk/guidance/the-h… / assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Broadly, any changes to street design are supposed to consider user needs in this clear order of priority
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The London Mayor's Transport Strategy is even more ambitious, aiming for 80% of trips to be made by walking, wheeling, cycling or public transport - originally by 2041, but this was recently revised to 2030 in line with London's new net zero target
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london.gov.uk/sites/default/…

The policies in the MTS “seek to make London a city where people choose to walk and cycle more often by improving street environments, making it easier for everyone to get around on foot and by cycle.”
11/ content.tfl.gov.uk/mts-walking-ac…

Importantly, modal shift away from car use is expected to make a similar contribution to achieving the Net Zero target as electrification of London’s private car fleet
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london.gov.uk/sites/default/…

So to recap: we cannot achieve our climate goals without deliberate policy action to support a mass switch to both *newer* cars, aka EVs, AND *fewer* cars aka more walking (and cycling and public transport)
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Reducing pavement clutter by removing street furniture & the widespread reallocation of street space from cars to pedestrians are central to achieving walking & wheeling targets. Official guidance suggests moving footway clutter onto 'kerb buildouts'
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assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

London's Walking Action Plan is explicit that “Street changes of any kind will be required to benefit people walking”, and that "crowded & obstructed streets, and pavements not being wide enough, are among the most frequent and annoying ‘pain points’ cited by people walking."
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#CutTheClutter research for @livingstreets finds that 1 in 4 of us would walk more if pavements were free of clutter, while @TfL research finds 43% of disabled Londoners report that obstacles on pavements are a barrier to walking
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livingstreets.org.uk/news-and-blog/…

@Sustrans & @TransportForAll Disabled Citizens’ Inquiry: "Objects on pavements reduce or prevent independent mobility... The transition to EVs also poses a future problem as the number of charging points often placed on the pavement rapidly increases.”
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sustrans.org.uk/media/11708/su…

Worse, @RiDC_UK research has found that the overwhelming majority of public EV chargepoints installed in the UK to date are not even accessible to disabled drivers - meaning so far the switch to EVs is making like worse for disabled people, not better
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ridc.org.uk/sites/default/…

It is clear then that the mounting pressure on local authorities to rapidly deliver thousands of new EV chargepoints on the public highways represents a serious threat to related targets to increase the share of trips being made on foot by improving the walking environment
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Installing new car infrastructure in scarce pedestrian space turns the road user hierarchy upside down, prioritising the needs of private motorists over those using the most sustainable modes
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Urban streetspace allocation is already heavily skewed towards motor vehicles. “On a busy shopping street, for instance, perhaps 75% of users may be pedestrians, but they may be confined to narrow pavements taking perhaps 20% of the space.”
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assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Despite very low car ownership, geocomputational analysis by @npalomin found that 3/4 of London’s streets provide more space for motor vehicles than pedestrians, while the typical residential street in the capital provides 2/3 of its width for vehicles
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ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/casa/…

Polling for @centreforlondon in 2020 found that “pavements free of clutter” was the second highest priority (after trees and greenery) for street space allocation amongst Londoners - far ahead of EV charging points
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@TfL guidance recognises that parked cars currently occupy a vast proportion of the public realm, and that "converting car parking plays a critical role in freeing up space for walking and cycling"
24/ content.tfl.gov.uk/lsp-app-eleven…

Installing EV chargepoints on public highways also has the effect of consolidating the private car’s monopolisation of the kerbside, more permanently delineating kerbside streetspace for the exclusive use of car parking. As @TfL put it:
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london.gov.uk/sites/default/…

Fortunately, when it comes to EV chargepoint placement, ALL best practice guidance states that these should be placed on ‘kerb buildouts’ in the carriageway wherever practicable - an arrangement that takes space from parking bays rather than pavements.
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The national EV Infrastructure Strategy states clearly that, "Chargepoints should not obstruct pavements or highways, or present a safety risk to pedestrians [and] must be incorporated into existing street furniture or parking bays wherever possible.”
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assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

The 2021 Inclusive Mobility guide clarifies that:
“Street furniture should be positioned to leave at least the minimum width recommended for a pedestrian footway… under normal circumstances, a width of 2000mm is the minimum that should be provided…"
28/ assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

"...If this is not feasible due to physical constraints, then a minimum width of 1500mm could be regarded as the minimum acceptable under most circumstances.”
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However, as our project partners @Wheels4Well point out, “It is very problematic for pedestrians if footways drop below 2m, and the recommendations in Inclusive Mobility are not ideal for access. A 1.5m minimum pavement width can present access difficulties"
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"To encourage walking & wheeling, pavements need to give the same freedom of movement as most carriageways do for most vehicles: People should be able to pass in both directions continuously without needing to interrupt their flow of movement" 👏👏👏
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The @OZEVgovuk is the cross-departmental government agency set up to deliver its EV targets, and has commissioned & curates a wide range of guidance and standards for the EV charging infrastructure rollout. But these are overwhelmingly user-centric: the 'windscreen view'
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Its guidance on EVCP placement is nonetheless clear that locations should be chosen carefully to avoid “obstructions impacting pedestrians, wheelchair users, people with pushchairs or those with visual impairment”
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energysavingtrust.org.uk/sites/default/…

It explicitly suggests: “Where chargepoints are installed on-street, one solution to avoid reducing space for pedestrians is to place the charging infrastructure on a ‘kerb build out’ (or ‘plinth’) between the vehicles in the roadway, protected by barriers."
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"This approach reduces the number of parking spaces available but some feel this approach is more compatible with wider initiatives to reduce car use and encourage active travel.”
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This is what a standalone EV charger on a kerb buildout looks like 👏 (though this one in Camden is not properly accessible to disabled drivers - more on this later)
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Last year @BSI_UK published a new standard on accessible EVCPs - PAS 1899:2022 - saying that they must not “further compromise the accessibility of the surrounding environment, in particular for wheelchair users and visually impaired people.”
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bsigroup.com/en-GB/standard…

“Many local authorities are installing EVCPs on parking “build-outs”, i.e. provision of a concrete base in a parking bay at the same level as the adjacent footway. This can be advantageous from the point of view of reducing further street clutter caused by EVCPs on footways.”
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London’s official EVCP guidance is very explicit:
“EV infrastructure in London should complement the Mayor’s other aims around encouraging more people to walk, cycle & use public transport while seeking to reduce the number of cars on London’s roads.”
39/ lruc.content.tfl.gov.uk/london-electri…

London’s most recent Streetscape guidance again highlights that it is a key priority to “minimise street clutter” and advises that, “Charge points should be placed on footway build-outs where practicable.”
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content.tfl.gov.uk/streetscape-gu…

HOWEVER. All this best practice guidance is very nice, but the regulatory framework around EVCPs means that highways authorities *do not require any planning permission or public consultation* to install new street furniture on pavements, including EVCPs
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By contrast, reallocating space on the carriageway usually triggers a costly public consultation process for the necessary Traffic Regulation Order to reconfigure parking spaces in a new layout which accommodates the charging station
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Worse, the main source of government funding for on-street chargers, @OZEVgovuk 's ORCS scheme, does not feature any assessment criteria related to placement on footways, and there are no technical standards for this listed to which a proposed project must conform
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In April 2023 this was complemented in England by the new, MUCH larger, £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund, also aimed at on-street residential charging, & also lacking a clear eligibility criterion requiring placement off footways
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energysavingtrust.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

Buried in the stage two criteria on 'meeting consumer needs' is this: “Clear consideration to accessibility for charging infrastructure and built environments to the community where feasible.”
🤔
"Where feasible"???!?
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A further aggravating factor is the generalised local authority aversion to the inevitable loss of parking spaces implied by following the best practice guidance on EVCP placement. Removing any parking provision is notoriously difficult to do without triggering backlash
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Parking is also an important source of revenue for cash-strapped council transport budgets (though not, crucially, residents' parking, which is underpriced in every London borough, typically failing to even recover the costs of administering it)
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centreforlondon.org/reader/parking…

While close track is kept on the number & type (slow/fast/rapid) of public EVCPs being installed in the UK, no information has been publicly available on exactly where these new EVCPs are being sited - on the carriageways, as per all best practice guidance, or on footways
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London currently has nearly 1/3 of the UK’s public EVCPs, and nearly all of the on-street public chargepoints delivered in the UK to date are in the capital. So in November 22 I wrote FOI requests to every London borough to ask about their EV chargepoint rollout
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[brief interlude while I make dinner for the kids]
🎵🎶🎵🎶
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OK back in the room. The first thing to note about the responses is that record keeping on placement of EVCPs on public highways amongst London boroughs is very patchy, with many struggling to provide accurate data on where their EVCPs have been sited. This is not a good sign
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Only 9 of London’s 32 boroughs have clear EVCP planning policies that are in line with best practice guidance, i.e. to site new chargers on kerb buildouts in the carriageway. 15 have no policy on EVCP placement at all. Wealthy W London boroughs are outliers in Inner London
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There is HUGE variance in the rates of EVCP installation between boroughs. Only two have installed more than 1000 on-street chargepoints, while seven have installed fewer than 100 each
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Across London, at least 2,453 EV chargepoints have been installed on footways - nearly 4x as many as on kerb buildouts (620). The large majority of London boroughs’ EVCP installations to date have favoured protecting space for cars at the expense of scarce pedestrian space
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The picture is complicated by the advent of lamppost chargers - where a slow charging unit is installed into an existing lamp column. These don't introduce permanent new clutter and are very cheap and fast to roll out, while suiting residential charging patterns well
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Lamp column chargers are now dominating London’s on-street EVCP rollout in absolute terms, although many boroughs have also installed large numbers of EVCPs on pavements. Only a handful have installed meaningful numbers on kerb build-outs to date
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Lamp column conversions account for 70% of the total public EVCPs installed, but some boroughs have none at all. Of boroughs with targets for future rollout, most expect a very high share of future chargepoints to be lamp column conversions - these are now the norm
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Targets for future EVCP rollout were all over the shop. Troublingly, the fewer public EVCPs a borough had already in Oct 22, the more likely they were to have no target to install any more in the future
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More encouragingly, having a pedestrian-friendly placement policy does not appear to be associated with lower rates of EVCP installation, although the borough with most EVCPs overall on their public highways is the only one to have an explicitly cars-first placement policy
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Climate ambition is clearly driving rollout. Having set a nearer-term borough-wide target date for achieving net zero is broadly associated with installing a higher number of public EVCPs, while those boroughs with the fewest EVCPs were most likely to have no net zero target
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Likewise, declaring a climate emergency seems to focus council's minds on supporting the EV switch
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@HSscorecard scores tend to correspond to numbers of public EVCPs; ambition on the switch to EVs is correlated with ambition on supporting sustainable modal shift - though @CityWestminster & @LBHF are outliers, with disproportionately high numbers of EVCPs
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Few boroughs have installed many EVCPs on kerb build-outs & the only ones to have done so score relatively highly on the HSS. Installing EVCPs on kerb build-outs may signify a more sophisticated level of policy consideration of pedestrian space in borough transport strategies
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High car ownership is strongly correlated with low numbers of public EVCPs 🤦‍♂️
@CityWestminster & @LBHF are again outliers, with disproportionately high numbers of EVCPs relative to the average for their numbers of cars per person
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Looking at the common features and differences in their EV charging infrastructure rollout, we can group London boroughs under four headers:
😇 the good
💩the bad
🤖the ugly
🥱the rest
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The Good inc @hackneycouncil @wandbc @lambeth_council @LBRUT @wfcouncil & @CamdenCouncil who all have high numbers of total installed EVCPs, relatively high numbers installed on kerb-buildouts vs pavements & clear policy to put all future standalone EVCPs in parking spaces ✨
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nearly every borough to have explicit policy not to site EVCPs on footways also has at least one of:
1. transport objectives including reduction in car use in its climate action plan
2. integrated sustainable transport plan
3. detailed up to date walking & cycling strategy
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the borough with the most EVCPs on kerb buildouts to date is @wfcouncil , whose Climate Action Plan whose transport section is titled “A place for people not cars” 👏👏👏👌
walthamforest.gov.uk/get-involved/c…
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while @lambeth_council trailblazing new Kerbside Strategy commits to "Enable 25% of kerbside space on Lambeth streets to be allocated to uses that enhance community and business resilience to climate change" 🤩
moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/documents/s142…
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I wrote to @AdamDKHarrison to find out more about how and why @CamdenCouncil is getting this so right. The key factor is Camden's Transport Strategy for 2019-2041, brought in in response to their declaration of a climate emergency
68/ camden.gov.uk/documents/2014…

Camden has crafted a bespoke engagement process developed through a detailed dialogue with residents around the borough’s ‘Healthy Streets’ schemes. This dialogue elicited a holistic vision for life in the borough in 2025 from residents
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democracy.camden.gov.uk/ieDecisionDeta…

Since 2019, Camden have installed 106 chargepoints in the carriageway, with a total of 142 dedicated parking spaces for EV charging. In addition to their rollout of ‘slow’ chargers in lamp column conversions, this has focused on delivering ‘fast’ chargers of 22kW capacity
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Camden’s kerb buildout programme is focused on pursuing comprehensive borough-wide coverage by siting fast chargers on streets where lamp column conversions are not possible due to compatibility or other issues
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They told us that a rule of thumb is that for every two new dedicated EV charging bays, the loss of up to three general parking bays would be expected, and the typical cost for an island buildout is approximately £2,500
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Importantly, Camden report that they have had “no difficulty in justifying the extra cost for island buildouts” from @OZEVgovuk. 60 of their pavement EVCPs use the innovative @TrojanEnergyLtd flush-to-pavement design trojan.energy
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All of Camden’s new kerb buildouts will meet the new BSI standard for accessible chargepoints, but they told us they already adapted their island design in March 2022 following feedback from disabled residents 👏👏👏
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The Bad councils inc @LBofHavering - alone in having 0 public EVCPs on its highways! - & @Hillingdon @harrow_council & @LBofBexley each with fewer than 100 EVCPs, no target for installing more & no policy regarding whether they should be sited on pavements or carriageways
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@RedbridgeLive @LBofBromley & @lbbdcouncil all have fewer than 100 and no policy on siting, but do have formal targets for more
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The clear theme here is that the boroughs with fewest EVCPs also have the lowest climate ambition & poor track records on supporting active travel. Most of them are also suing @MayorofLondon over the #ULEZExpansion 🤪😵‍💫😷
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These are also the worst connected boroughs in London for public transport, and therefore the most car dependent. Arguably, EVCPs should be being prioritised here, rather than in Inner London where often only one in ten residents travels to work by car
centreforlondon.org/reader/fair-ac…
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Bexley council had managed to install just 26 EV chargepoints on its public highways by October 2022, 100% of them on pavements. The council has no targets to install any more, and no policy on where EVCPs should be placed
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At the time of writing, Bexley council is refusing TfL access to its highways to install ANPR cameras to enforce the ULEZ
bexley.gov.uk/news/coalition…
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The council has sought to save car parks in town centres from housing development, but to build over Bexleyheath Bus Garage instead. Bexley seems almost uniquely disinterested in buses; just 1% of the bus routes on its highways benefit from priority lanes, the least in London
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Bexley is also one of only two London boroughs not to have introduced a single School Street, while just 3% of its roads have protected cycle lanes.
Bexley is failing on green transport in every way it is possible to fail
healthystreetsscorecard.london/results/
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The Ugly boroughs are where it gets interesting: these are the outliers - those that have installed very high numbers of EVCPs overall, but taken the least care of the pedestrian environment in the process. They're doing well on EVCPs - but badly on modal shift
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@CityWestminster & @LBHF jockey for first place in the whole of the UK for the number of public EVCPs installed on their streets. Both boroughs have told me they now have well over 2000, though in Oct it was more like ~1600
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@RBKC ranks third with nearly 700 chargepoints, but nearly 400 of these are on their pavements, and they have no targets for more and no policy on where they are sited
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All three 'ugly' boroughs have set near-term Net Zero targets & declared climate emergencies. But K&C has the least protected cycle lane of any London borough (none) & their decision to remove their only cycle lane 7 weeks into an 18m trial was subject to judicial review
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Westminster's 2011-2015 ‘Neat Streets’ programme proactively removed 1000+ objects from their footways, & the council says that
“The lessons learnt have resulted in all Westminster’s transport and public realm schemes now seeking to reduce street clutter, wherever possible.”
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Since then, @CityWestminster has installed 214 EV chargepoints on pavements & zero in kerb buildouts in the carriageway, even installing an EVCP on the pavement directly outside the entrance to the @transportgovuk whose own best practice guidance specifies kerb buildouts
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Happily, the council changed hands in 2022 & the new administration is much more serious about active travel. I spoke to @RyanJudeGreen & @maxpsullivan about how things are changing
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They signed @London_Cycling 's #ClimateSafeStreets pledge in 2022 and are now cracking on with delivering policies to meet it - including £35m for active travel in a comprehensive programme with all things we love to see in it ✨

https://twitter.com/CityWestminster/status/1659514579922157568?s=20

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@LBHF had installed the highest number of EVCPs overall by October 2022 - more than the bottom fourteen London boroughs combined. They told us 454 of these are sited on pavements, & were the only borough to report a clear policy to always site EVCPs on pavements
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@LBHF has a highly ambitious 2030 net zero target for the whole borough with a focus on EV switching, but no overall sustainable transport strategy, no explicit traffic reduction or modal shift targets, and no walking or cycling strategies
lbhf.gov.uk/sites/default/…
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@LBHF suffered the biggest drop in sustainable mode share of any London borough between 2019 & 2021, and it is one of only two London boroughs to have implemented no School Streets at all, the other being Bexley
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since 2019 car ownership has fallen in every borough except Tower Hamlets (which is in the process of reversing all of its active travel measures at the time of writing), but it has fallen less in H&F than almost anywhere else - just 1.5%
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Plans to roll out 'Clean Air Neighbourhoods' which block out of borough traffic from rat running (but not residents) are accompanied by plans to roll out free parking to residents to encourage short car trips to local shops
lbhf.gov.uk/articles/news/…
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The council so far also remain adamant that #HammersmithBridge MUST reopen to cars, even though data shows H&F residents barely drove over it, four years have passed since anyone did, and the estimated cost of bringing back cars is entirely infeasible

https://twitter.com/crisortunity/status/1639596110003023875?s=20

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The double decker bridge thing melts my brain, so taking a break before finishing the final installment of this EPIC EV chargepoint thread. If you are appreciating it, then I appreciate you! It wound up being a real down-the-rabbit-hole project this, but so important!
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Overall, the ‘Ugly’ boroughs are characterised by high levels of ambition on the climate crisis, accompanied by a broad suite of strongly pro-car policy and spending priorities and practices. This is what prof @ianwalker has termed ‘Motonormativity’
doi.org/10.31234/osf.i…
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Motonormativity is a major issue for the general public, but it also skews policymaking towards the car-dominated status quo

https://twitter.com/ianwalker/status/1615248206123745281?s=20

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Motonormativity is clearly prevalent amongst the ‘Bad’ grouping of boroughs too, but they are also united by VERY low levels of ambition on climate change. Motonormative policies appear to be the key differentiator between ‘Good’ & ‘Ugly’ boroughs in our analysis
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There are ongoing attempts to innovate our way out of the car / pedestrian conflict inherent to installing chargepoints on pavements. By far the most important and successful so far have been lamp column conversions like this one
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Lamp column conversions are a pragmatic solution for rapid, low cost, low disruption deployment of slow chargers in residential areas which does not contribute to permanent clutter 👍
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However, work is urgently needed to ensure these chargepoint designs are accessible to Disabled drivers - at minimum, suitable flush kerbs to allow access between car & socket, plus the height & weight of the cable & plug design should be accessible too
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As @Wheels4Well warn, "If the key attraction of lamp column conversions is that they can be done cheaply, this flags an obvious risk that additional works to ensure they’re also accessible will be de facto ruled out of scope for delivery"
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Other innovations have emerged from the Subsurface Technology for Electric Pathways (STEP) project, such as Trojan's proprietary 'lances' for resident car charging, in use in @CamdenCouncil @Brent_Council & now @BarnetCouncil trojan.energy/uploads/files/… current-news.co.uk/barnet-council…
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In Oxford, trials of the Gul-E private charging fix are underway; this cuts a narrow gulley into the pavement to enable charging cables to run from homes to the kerbside. These are eligible for LEVI funding so I expect to see a lot of them very soon! oxford.gov.uk/info/20185/ele…
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Ultimately the hope is that wireless charging through induction technology will become the standard method of charging EVs in the future. This uses induction pads which are able to provide a wireless charge to a vehicle parked directly over them
107/ autocar.co.uk/car-news/elect…

This (costly!) tech is in the early stages of commercialisation but *could* solve for both pavement clutter & disabled access. It is not hard to imagine a near future in which induction pads are part of the mandatory design specification for designated disabled parking bays
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Back in the present, we wanted to assess how much of a problem all of these new pavement EVCPs are in practice, which largely depends on how much clear footway width is retained after their installation. NB: 2m is the minimum standard for disabled access & pedestrian comfort
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Well over 1/3 of Britain’s urban residential streets have a pavement width of less than two metres to begin with - meaning many roads have inadequate footway space even BEFORE the addition of further clutter such as EV chargers
sustrans.org.uk/media/10527/su…
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The UK’s leading highways authority in terms of on-street public EVCP deployment, @LBHF offers an opportunity to assess what happens when aggressive EV charging targets are adopted in the absence of clear policy to protect pedestrian space or reduce car use by residents
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In January we used @zap_map to identify every publicly accessible on-street EVCP of 7kW capacity or higher within the area defined in the map below. This excluded lamppost chargepoints from our search query, allowing us to visit and inspect a sample size of over 50 sites
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These photos show typical EVCP pavement site layouts. Usually the transformer is set back from the kerb while the chargepost and new signage notifying motorists of the charging bay rules is set forward, creating a chicane for pedestrians on the footway
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The clear footway width measurement data is even more troubling: three quarters of H&F’s pavement EVCP sites leave less than the 2m standard - thus failing the key accessibility test.
Worse, around 40% leave less than OZEV’s absolute minimum guidance specified of 1.5m 😬
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Chargeposts at the worst site we inspected all leave less than *one metre* clear footway width - ironically, directly adjacent to a disabled parking bay with no dropped kerb 🤦‍♂️
This pavement cannot now be navigated *at all* by wheelchair users👨‍🦽
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SO to conclude (🥳⌛️)
What this report reveals is that a battle is now getting underway over the scarce space remaining to pedestrians - one that is going to escalate very, very rapidly over the next few years. The field of conflict is heavily stacked towards the aggressors
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@LBHF pavements offer a glimpse into the near future for towns & cities all over the UK unless urgent action is taken to remedy the perverse incentive framework that governs the on-street EVCP rollout
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London has the lowest car ownership levels & the best public transport of anywhere in the UK. Yet even its boroughs are still largely ignoring best practice guidance about the siting of EV chargepoints, & have placed four times as many on pavements as on carriageways so far
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Motonormativity and car dependence are even more prevalent outside the M25. Can highways authorities where cars are very much still king be expected to prioritise pedestrian comfort & disabled access over parking spaces?
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Street space reallocation is now happening at scale in London - but in the opposite direction needed to support modal shift to walking. Space is being taken from pedestrians and given over to serve private motorists
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EVCPs on pavements create double discrimination, rendering the pavement inaccessible for Disabled pedestrians, while the chargepoints themselves - at least as delivered so far - are not accessible for Disabled drivers. Equality Act, much?
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The colonising of pedestrian space by a new breed of private motor car in the name of the environment is an important physical manifestation of a more fundamental philosophical challenge to our societal response to the climate crisis
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electrification of our road vehicle fleet will not be sufficient to meet our national climate commitments on its own; a large and rapid absolute reduction in vehicle miles driven on our roads will also be required

https://twitter.com/DrGregMarsden/status/1658458970267197443?s=20

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This reduction will by necessity have to be led by cities, where other mobility options are viable & in many key ways, preferable. EV switching should, in carbon terms, be focused on high-mileage vehicles in rural/suburban car-dependent households
nao.org.uk/other/transpor…
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The implications of this are profound, leading some experts like @KevinClimate to argue that EV charging infrastructure should not be being extensively installed on city streets at all
decarbon8.org.uk/the-solution-i…
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I might not go quite this far. But it is clear very pavement installation of an EVCP represents another step backward, not forward, in the fight against the climate crisis, further concreting in car dominance of our public realm
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A key finding of this investigation is that lofty aspirations to put pedestrians at the top of the road user hierarchy are very, very far from having been operationalised in actual regulatory or spending terms
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Treating the road user hierarchy as if it were real would mean that not only is motor vehicle infrastructure installed exclusively in motor vehicle space; but that infrastructure which primarily serves pedestrians, such as street trees and benches, is also installed there
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Likewise, the failure to make public EVCPs accessible to Disabled drivers means that the social demographic that may be MOST dependent on private cars, and has most legit case for ongoing car use, is least able to electrify
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The UK is still taking our first steps on this big transport decarbonisation journey, so it is not too late to ensure that the principles of a just transition are honoured when it comes to supporting EV switching
gov.scot/groups/just-tr…
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To this end, we have identified some immediate key priorities for the different public bodies involved in delivering this transition - the local highways authorities who make street changes, and the government agencies set up to support them
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Local authorities should adopt holistic, integrated sustainable transport strategies which include short & long term targets for both public EVCP rollout AND reductions in traffic & car use - alongside explicit policies to presume against siting EV chargepoints on pavements
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Local EV charging strategies (required in England as part of Local Transport Plans) must support access to both the pedestrian realm & to EVCPS for Disabled people. Lamppost chargers are a quick win, but need dropped kerbs for access
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@activetraveleng should bring assessing local EV charging strategies & deployment into its scope, withholding support for access to wider transport funding where standards are not being met
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The biggest lever is of course funding. @OZEVgovuk should include assessment criteria on placement & public realm impacts for all on-street chargepoint funding awards, with a clear presumption against funding councils to put EV chargepoints on footways
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@IsabelleClement & I have written to @activetraveleng & @OZEVgovuk to ask them to meet with one another to agree to a set of common principles going forward, ensuring that all their vital transport decarbonisation work is complementary rather than contradictory
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We also wrote to @LBHF offering to meet to discuss how to improve EVCP rollout policy and practice, and I am DELIGHTED to say they have responded very constructively, and we will be meeting them in June. I know the council wants to get this right, and we can help them do this
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H&F also told us that the figures they originally gave us for pavement installs to date were not correct, and many fewer EVCPs have been placed on footways than this. No new EVCPs will go on their pavements in 2023 & they are already "moving towards kerb buildouts" 👏🙌✨
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FINALLY: I was APPALLED at the near-total lack of mainstream media interest in these findings & recommendations. It got virtually no pickup anywhere, which is difficult to read as anything other than media indifference towards issues which affect disabled people. srsly wtaf
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The full report is at the link below - but to be perfectly honest, if you have made it to the end of this thread, you have basically read the whole report now anyway 🤪🤓
THANK YOU for your time - and do write to your own councillors about this!
wearepossible.org/streetspace-in…
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