Injuries to pedestrians on Kensington High Street have fallen more than on other London streets since guardrails were controversially removed, according to statistics released by the royal borough council.
The evidence, based on two years of ‘before and after’ monitoring, should encourage transport professionals ‘to challenge agreed street design customs and historical practice,’ according to Kensington & Chelsea council.
Its figures show that casualties fell from 71 in the period before the street was remodelled to 40 afterwards – a drop of 43.7%. The reduction, borough-wide, was 35% – from 1,202 to 781 casualties – while it was 17.5% for all London roads – from 32,904 to 27,151. For pedestrians, the reduction was almost 64%, compared with a 43% reduction on other roads in the borough, and less than 22% on local roads capital-wide. Almost all guardrails were taken out in the £4.7M scheme, prompting Department for Transport officials to advise ministers against a visit to a site breaching its design guidance (Surveyor, 25 March 2004).
‘We have never been convinced of the merit of guardrails and it is encouraging that their removal does not appear to have an adverse effect on casualty numbers,’ said Cllr ~Daniel Moylan~ deputy leader and cabinet member for transportation. The borough’s project had several aims, including improving pedestrian movement and accessibility, reducing street clutter, and more consistent materials and street furniture.
Casualty reduction was not a specific objective, but council engineers believe guardrails may reduce visibility for all road-users, increase clutter, and force pedestrians along routes where they do not want to go. Other advocates of more people-friendly streetscene design also took encouragement from the findings. ‘These results are very promising and would begin to lead us to a more integrated approach to the public realm, instead of fencing people off from vehicles,’ said Ed Chorlton, environment director at ~Devon County Council~ The preliminary results suggested improvements in ambience and road safety could go hand in hand. Full three-year results are due this autumn.
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