‘Mixed priorities’ boost high streets’ fortunes

18 June 2008

Ten pilot projects to test ways of maintaining traffic access to high streets, while improving safety and amenity for pedestrians and cyclists, have reduced casualties by 24%-65%.

The 10 ‘mixed-priority route’ demonstration projects have also reduced average speeds by up to 18%, but not at the expense of local retail trade. More businesses had opened, and more money had been invested in properties, reported Jacobs Consultancy.

The Department for Transport is to produce good practice guidance on the lessons learned by the local highway authorities behind the projects, on both project management and design.

Patricia Hayes, the DfT’s director of road and vehicle safety and standards, told a conference that the projects had been ‘very successful, demonstrating that it’s possible to improve the street environment without conflicting with economic objectives’.

John Barrell, associate director of Jacobs Consultancy, said it was ‘never envisaged that we’d get 10 successful schemes’, but it had been ‘a long road and a hard road’. The pilots, in areas such as Liverpool, Leamington Spa and the London borough of Lambeth, had all overrun their completion dates – by between four and 32 months – and budgets, by between £59,000 and £2.4M, or up to 240%.

The DfT’s summary leaflet on the pilots stresses the need for councils looking to follow suit to ‘enhance the project-management capability of your team’. Hayes said setting realistic budgets was also important. But Barrell, also speaking at the Institution of Highways and Transportation conference to mark the pilots’ completion, said most of the projects had overrun their completion dates because of the extensive consultation processes.

The projects involved narrowing carriageways – down from 10m to 6-6.5m for Hull’s project – widening footways, removing guardrails, rationalising parking, and simplifying the placing of street furniture. The DfT intends to publish the full guidance document later this year.

English Heritage has published what it considers to be the 10 best case studies of how to remove clutter and improve street design. The group, which launched a Save our Streets campaign in 2004, is publishing the best 10 ‘how to’ examples from around the country, under the title Streets for All: Practical case studies.

In separate leaflets, it has published examples of councils which have taken the initiative to deal with a particular aspect of street clutter, and shows how to follow their approach with step-by step practical advice. Examples include reducing sign clutter in Erith, south east London; tactile paving in Guildford, Surrey; traffic calming in Petersfield, Hampshire; and guardrails and crossings in Prince of Wales Road, Norwich.

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‘Mixed priorities’ boost high streets’ fortunes

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