Author: Joanne Stewart

Overview

This session provides an introduction to green and blue infrastructure, why it is important, and how it can be successfully integrated into the design and delivery of active travel networks.

You will see successful examples of rain gardens, sustainable urban drainage systems, and other innovations in the field. In addition, the webinar will cover how green and blue infrastructure is currently being embedded in Scotland, as well as common delivery challenges and mitigations.

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Useful Resources and Links

If you want to read more about this webinar’s topics, check out the resources below:
Susdrain
First Steps in Urban Water: Managing Water as a Resource
Tools for the design and evaluation of Sustainable Drainage Systems
Landscape Institute article
Sheffield case study
UN Sustainable development goals

Presenters

Jon Rowe CMLI is an experienced landscape architect, with over 14 years of experience, who has worked in a range of global consultancy and third sector roles. His interest and experience predominantly lies in leading projects involving movement. This has included projects on the Thames Path, railway stations and travel hubs, and – more recently – active travel.

Jon is currently the head of Sustrans Scotland’s Design, Engineering and Mobility department with responsibility for the design and delivery of active travel infrastructure projects throughout Scotland. He has a particular interest in the integration of green and blue infrastructure into active travel networks and is currently working on Sustrans design guidance for publication later in 2025.

Overview

With new housing underway in towns and cities around the world, local authorities are in a unique position to influence developers to create opportunities for sustainable mobility and behaviour change. The City of Rotterdam is doing just that with targeted frameworks to meet the city’s climate and mobility goals.

This webinar will chart Rotterdam’s approach to standardising sustainable mobility within housing developments, and how the council influences developers to make it easier to choose active travel and public transport. This webinar will start by setting out the political and strategic context in the Netherlands and the greater Rotterdam region, followed by a case study to show how these principles are working in action.

Feedback Survey

We would appreciate you taking a moment to complete our short feedback survey after you’ve watched the recording.

Useful Resources and Links

If you found this webinar useful, see our previous Rotterdam case study Rotterdam: Moving Ahead Safely, or see our webinar series Gender and Place in Europe, for more European case studies. If you want to read more about this webinar’s topics, check out the resources below.:

How ‘sponge city Rotterdam is adapting to climate change

Mobility calculator for developers

Woonvisie – Rotterdam’s housing strategy

Loopt 2025 – Rotterdam’s strategy for pedestrians

Mobiliteitsaanpak – Rotterdam’s mobility strategy

Please note, some web pages appear in Dutch and can be translated using a translation widget.

Presenters

Thorsten Willemstein is a Mobility Advisor at the City of Rotterdam, where he specializes in traffic safety and urban mobility initiatives. Since February 2023, he has led projects to enhance traffic safety around schools and improve overall traffic safety in the city with different stakeholders. With a background in built environment from Breda University of Applied Sciences and previous advisory roles in the City of The Hague and ABG-councils, Thorsten applies his expertise to make Rotterdam’s transportation systems safer and more efficient.

Overview

Safety by Design: Crossings and Junctions is an introduction to designing junctions to provide good conditions for active travel for all. Junctions can be major barriers that deter people from walking and cycling and are where most collisions occur. The training covers safe and compliant design approaches for junctions and tools such as the Junction Assessment Tool and the crossing selector tool.

Feedback Survey

We would appreciate you taking a moment to complete our short feedback survey after you’ve watched the recording.

Useful Resources and Links

Check out these other Showcase pages on Crossings and Junctions:

Trial of Protected Junctions finds cycling numbers double along South City Way: Sustrans’ Research and Monitoring Unit publishes latest findings after Protected Junctions trial.

Preventing Child and Pedestrian Casualties

Or check out the recommended resources mentioned in the training:

Inclusive Mobility Guidance

Cycling By Design (2021)

Active Travel England scheme review tools

Presenters

Julie Plichon – is Head of Design and Engineering for London. Julie has worked extensively in the private and public sector, primarily in London in areas covering urban design, inclusive design, urban planning and transport projects. Her focus is on projects that reallocate road space for people centred uses through designing spaces that make streets safer, green and healthier. She has worked on the design, delivery and monitoring of LTNs in Islington, north London.

Ellie Holliday – A Principal Engineer, Ellie has over 10 years of experience leading design of transportation schemes across UK and Ireland, ensuring buildability and delivering accessible designs that meet the needs of all users. Her focus is promoting active travel. She has led the design of major and local cycling, walking and wheeling infrastructure, LTNs and healthy routes. She has working knowledge of best practice and implementation in constrained conditions and has delivered LTN 1/20 training to local authorities across England, including training on junctions and crossings.

Overview

This webinar is an introduction to the principles and design of low traffic neighbourhoods. The training covers LTN design in its stages, from understanding the street network, to agreeing boundary roads, placing modal filters, to activating streets and wider interventions that support walking, wheeling, and cycling. The webinar also touches on other key aspects of Low Traffic Neighbourhood delivery like in depth engagement and robust monitoring, with a primary focus on design.

Feedback Survey

We would appreciate you taking a moment to complete our short feedback survey after you’ve watched the recording.

Useful Resources and Links

Check out these other Showcase pages on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods:

Active Travel in Europe: Low Traffic Neighbourhoods: In the second edition of the series Active Travel in Europe, we explore low traffic neighbourhoods, also known as superblocks, across Europe with practitioners from five different cities – Barcelona, Utrecht, Vienna, Berlin, and Edinburgh.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods-an introduction: Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTN) are when private cars can access local homes and businesses, but can not cross through, reducing traffic volumes.

Diving into Low Traffic Neighbourhoods: As part of the Places for Everyone event programme – Engage · Inspire · Learn – partners from local authorities and organisations around Scotland were invited to hear from a variety of voices on the challenges of Low Traffic Neighborhoods.

Or check out these other useful resources:

Sustrans for Professionals: An introduction to Low Traffic Neighbourhood Design: We’ve created this introductory design guide to outline the approach, tools and techniques needed to design a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN).

Transport for all: Pave the Way: Pave The Way is the only independent and in-depth research into how disabled people have been impacted by Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, and the barriers to Active Travel.

Presenters

Julie Plichon – is Head of Design and Engineering for London. Julie has worked extensively in the private and public sector, primarily in London in areas covering urban design, inclusive design, urban planning and transport projects. Her focus is on projects that reallocate road space for people centred uses through designing spaces that make streets safer, green and healthier. She has worked on the design, delivery and monitoring of LTNs in Islington, north London.

Rajiv Ratan – A Principal Engineer, Rajiv has delivered projects across a wide range of areas with particular focus on active travel and highways, from feasibility and concept design through to detailed design and supervising construction. This has been for local authorities in London and more widely in the UK. In London, Rajiv has worked on the feasibility, design and delivery of a number of LTNs in the London Borough of Haringey, as well as on quality assurance for the design of interventions in Lambeth LTNs. Rajiv has brought extensive technical knowledge and construction experience and has delivered projects on site that required contract administration, site supervision and providing design solutions on site.

Overview

In this knowledge-sharing Webinar, Thorsten Willemstein discusses how Rotterdam wants to improve road safety, with specific examples of projects Rotterdam is conducting. Topics discussed in this Euroean city case study include:

• How to get more children cycling and walking to schools,
• Educating children about traffic,
• An annual tour around high schools,
• Cycling lessons for children and adults,
• Providing bicycles for people with a low-income.

Feedback Survey

We would appreciate you taking a moment to complete our short feedback survey after you’ve watched the recording.

Useful Resources and Links

If you found this webinar useful, see our webinar series Gender and Place in Europe, for more European case studies. Or check out the recommended resources mentioned in the training:

Rotterdam Safely Ahead (Veilig Vooruit) Mobility strategy

Licht Aan – interactive game to raise awareness about the importance of lighting on bikes

There are translation tools on both pages.

Presenters

Thorsten Willemstein is a Mobility Advisor at the City of Rotterdam, where he specializes in traffic safety and urban mobility initiatives. Since February 2023, he has led projects to enhance traffic safety around schools and improve overall traffic safety in the city with different stakeholders. With a background in built environment from Breda University of Applied Sciences and previous advisory roles in the City of The Hague and ABG-councils, Thorsten applies his expertise to make Rotterdam’s transportation systems safer and more efficient.