MRCMH's chairman, George Hazel, has been invited to be a member of the Cambridgeshire Quality Panel- which is being established by Cambridgeshire Horizons to provide a consistent approach to design review for the major growth sites in Cambridgeshire.
The principal purpose of the Panel is to provide ongoing scrutiny of the emerging master plans and design codes of the major growth sites in Cambridgeshire, and to assist officers and members in upholding and reinforcing the high quality aspirations set out in the Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth. The Panel will also support and challenge the in-house design and planning processes of the authorities, in order to ensure that the best possible outcomes are achieved. It may also support local authorities in their own procurement and development processes, for instance on the design of schools or community facilities.
To find out more information about the Cambridgeshire Quality Panel visit Cambridgeshire Horizon's website (www.cambridgeshirehorizons.co.uk), where you can read about their Quality Charter for Growth and the Quality Panel.
MRC Europe has recently completed the first stage of a Mobility Plan for the International School of Brussels (ISB – www.isb.be). They have worked closely on this project with ‘ConSideR’, a consultancy who specialise in sustainable solutions for business and local authorities. The Mobility Plan will be an integral component of ISB’s current campus developments and aims to support the School’s educational mission and business objectives.
As with many campus developments, the school is challenged by excess demand for car parking space when parents enter the site to drop-off, or pick-up, their children. Within the project a “Mobility Scan” was completed consisting of traffic flow counts, parking counts and three behavioral surveys (one each for parents, staff and students). This provided the team with a detailed understanding of the current nature of school-related traffic. Using this knowledge, a range of Mobility Options have been presented to the school. Each has been scored within an Evaluation Matrix based upon the School’s own objectives. ISB now has the tools it requires to move on to the next stage of creating a world-class sustainable environment for its students & staff.
The South East England Partnership Board have appointed MRC Mclean Hazel to develop an approach for creating the Regional Delivery Plan, this consists of identifying regionally and sub-regionally significant investment and actions, devising criteria to identify the critical/essential elements of the framework and then applying the criteria to form an initial version of the Regional Delivery Plan.
This work is being carried out in parallel with the LTP DaSTS Study.
MRCMH and MRC Europe, along with a number of partners based around the world (UK, Belgium, Italy, Spain, China and Brazil), are set to undertake an exciting project for the EU Commission which aims to develop a knowledge platform which will become a public information system for mobility related greenhouse gas emissions reduction advice. The project, known as CATCH (Carbon Aware Travel Choices in the climate friendly world of tomorrow), will develop a holistic platform to provide travellers, businesses, planners and other mobility stakeholders with the tools to play their part in creating a new mobility culture promoting timely and informed climate-friendly travel choice and policies.
CATCH will involve a number of cities and global constraint professionals from mobility and related fields to identify and assess climate friendly travel scenarios in order to develop a mobility knowledge engine, which will drive a virtual environmental travel assistant that can be accessed via a dedicated internet web site. By further disseminating and marketing the project through publications, workshops, advertising, and conferences, CATCH aims to apply large scale demonstrations of integrated solutions to guarantee at least neutral impacts on climate change for cities in Europe, regional and interregional mobility.
The CATCH project is funded under the European Commission 7th Framework Programme and the Directorate General for Research. For more information see the project website at www.carbonaware.eu, contact the project coordinator Steve Cassidy at steve.cassidy@mrcmh.com or James Bonner at james.bonner@mrcmh.com.
MRC is currently involved with the research and policy evaluation work-streams of the European Commission supported CIVITAS+ project RENAISSANCE. One of the tasks for the research work-stream is to prepare ‘State of the Art’ reviews on a number of topics relating to different innovative transport measures being implemented across the five RENAISSANCE cities. These reviews include the topic areas of cycle hire schemes, city car clubs, awareness raising, public realm, bus stops environments, alternative fuels, telematic strategies, urban planning processes, demand management, and urban freight.
Rather than merely preparing academic documents reviewing best practices across the different RENAISSANCE measures, the Project decided that State of the Art Clinics should be held. These clinics take the State of the Art Reviews further, promoting conversation around measures, mutual learning, and importantly supporting the filtering and adoption of best practice lessons emerging from the literature.
Through collaboration between MRC Europe in Belgium (Steve Cassidy) and MRC McLean Hazel in Edinburgh (Ralph Anderson and Tim Cupitt), the State of the Art Clinics were held on the 9th and 10th July in the MRC Brussels office. As well as MRC representatives facilitating, the clinic was attended by representatives from the cities of Szczecinek (Poland), Perugia (Italy) and Bath (U.K.). A number of internal nationally and internationally recognised experts attended the clinics, providing useful input for the further implementation of the RENAISSANCE measures. Particularly for cities that are not as advanced or experienced in developing sustainable transport.
Initial briefing papers, presented at the clinic in Brussels, are being expended following input from the clinic and will be completed following the 3rd RENAISSANCE consortium meeting held in Szczecinek in September.
Following this MRC will continue work on the policy evaluation strand of work, which involves evaluating the wider policy implications of the sustainable transport demonstrations being carried out through the project. This is also a joint task between MRC Europe (Steve Cassidy) and MRC McLean Hazel (Fiona Blackley).
Further Information:
http://www.civitas-initiative.org/news.phtml?id=582&lan=en&read_more=1 and http://www.mrcmh.com/project.asp?id=11
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