The City of London Corporation has commissioned a joint team comprising transport & traffic specialists Norman Rourke Pryme, our consultancy and transport planning specialists Markides Associates to undertake the City of London Traffic Reduction Study.
The City’s economic performance is vital, not just for London but for the UK, and motorised vehicle access has played a role in its success. Yet the design and management of the City of London’s streets helps the City maintain its position as a world-leading place to do business and as an internationally significant cultural destination. The recent ‘Bank on Safety’ experimental scheme at Bank junction (LINK) has demonstrated how carefully managed traffic reduction schemes can bring about significant air quality, safety and bus priority benefits. Ever-growing travel demand that stems from economic growth and new developments indicates that now is the right time for the City to reconsider its transport priorities, understand the extent to which the level of motorised traffic can be reduced, what potential benefits and issues might result from traffic reduction, and the mechanisms by which this can be successfully and sustainably achieved.
Keith Forth of Norman Rourke Pryme said ” In recent years, we have seen how increasingly difficult it is to introduce important safety, cycle, pedestrian, air quality and public realm schemes across central London when overall traffic volumes are not reducing at a fast enough pace to avoid potentially significant impact on traffic capacity, network resilience and accessibility and rat-running through quieter streets. This affects a range of issues – such as bus operations, the region’s commercial viability, road safety and possibly even emergency vehicle response times. This is an exciting opportunity for us to take a step back and assess what targets might be set in the City of London and how best to achieve them.”
