The project involves an innovative partnership between the RAC Foundation for Motoring and the Environment, The Civic Trust, the County Surveyors' Society and the University of Westminster (Transport Studies Group, in conjunction with the Environment Resource Information Centre). The aim of the project is to give practical advice to local authorities and other organisations, and to encourage public and private sector initiatives in the areas of transport and land use that improve the quality of urban life. This involves first establishing a set of qualities that define a civilised city, next identifying the contribution that best practice in transport and land use planning can make to improving city life and then devising, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating a number of pilot schemes in different settings in the United Kingdom, to demonstrate and document what can be accomplished. The paper reports on the first phase of the work, which has involved four stages: (1) Reviewing past work on city visions and quality of life indicators, which has been used in conjunction with an expert seminar and focus groups to define a set of core indicators of a `civilised city'; (2) Assessing the role that a wide range of transport and land use measures can make to improving the quality of life in urban areas; (3) Establishing criteria for pilot projects, ensuring a mix of city type, urban size, geographical area (city centres, radial corridors, etc) and population characteristics; and (4) Preliminary development of a monitoring and evaluation framework.
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