Good levels of accessibility are crucial to enable people to participate fully in modern society - whether this involves access to shops or healthcare, schools or employment sites, community centres or Post Offices. Improving accessibility for non-motorists will, hopefully, also encourage more walking and cycling, benefitting health and reducing obesity.
Levels of car ownership are lowest in the poorest communities. So better accessibility is not only a "win" in transport terms, it helps to reduce social exclusion.
Of course, accessibility isn't just about travelling to reach services, it's about ensuring services are provided locally, are convenient for users and are in the right places. It also means ensuring that new developments have good accessibility built in from day one.
The action plans
Accessibility is one of the four shared priorities for transport identified by the Local Government Association and central government. The others are congestion, air quality and road safety. This is one of four action plans outlining how we are addressing these shared priorities across Tyne and Wear.
The plans are intended to be living documents that can be updated and modified as we take forward our strategies. In the case of accessibility, it is hoped that this plan will be of relevance, not just to transport planners, but also to the health and education sectors, and to voluntary and community groups. One key theme of the plan is the need for a holistic approach, recognising that accessibility is about more than bus stops or public transport timetables.
Comments about this plan are welcome and can be sent to info@tyneandwearltp.co.uk
The Plan
Chapters of the Accessibility Delivery Plan can be viewed at the following links:
Cover and Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Background
Chapter 3 Targets
Chapter 4 Governance
Chapter 5 Risk Analysis
Chapter 6 Sharing Good Practice
Liveable Communities and Travel Planning
Partnership Working
Community Transport
Chapter 7 Conclusions and Recommendations