The new DfT connectivity metrics: What do they do, and how can we use them?

Transport planners are hoping that a high profile public launch with ministerial backing for the rollout of the Department for Transport’s new Connectivity Tool will embed more sustainable travel planning into new developments. In the first of three articles about the tool and the associated metrics it can offer, Graham James describes the underpinnings of the connectivity concept, its strengths and limitations, and what it can best be used for. Subsequent articles will home-in on some technical aspects of the tool and what the results from its metrics really tell us.