The Practical Democracy Project event wrap-up: why aren't TROs trending?

A week ago, for the first time in nearly two years, we hosted a Practical Democracy Project event. It was a specially themed event on the important but under-discussed topic of UK Traffic Regulation Orders.

In the last 18 months we've seen a significant upsurge in the use of Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) particularly in their experimental variant (ETROs). They've helped local government to enact all sorts of tangible - and often contentious - changes to our streets and highways in response to short-term drivers, like pandemic-influenced active travel, through to longer-term changes dictated by climate change.

The event discussed the following questions:

• Does the public at large understand TROs?
• Is the way they're produced fair or effective?
• Does the use of experimental TROs represent a democratic deficit?
• Is the process itself usable for citizens?

If you missed it, this blog post contains everything you need to catch up. You can watch a recording of the event, and we've also linked the slide decks from each of the speakers below.

Huge thanks to our brilliant speakers: Lucy Colbeck from Playing Out; Baz Lokat from GeoPlace; and Mark Philpotts (aka the Ranty Highwayman) from Sweco.

TROs and ETROs are a topic we're really keen to explore again in future so sign up to our newsletter for updates, or follow us on Twitter to see more.

Download the speaker slides below

• Baz Lokat Senior Consultant - GeoPlace
• Lucy Colbeck, Play Streets Development Officer
• Mark Philpotts - Technical Manager, Walking & Cycling - Sweco

We hope this was useful and look forward to seeing you at the next event.