A TRANSPORT VISION FOR CROYDON CROYDON OPPORTUNITY AREA TRANSPORT VISION | 1 2 | TRANSPORT VISION FOR CROYDON Croydon has public transport connectivity unrivalled in outer London. Yet we are ambitious for more. We want a borough with improving connections between Croydon places and important places beyond, and even better infrastructure. We are determined to make Croydon’s connectivity strengths a driver for growth but we are also ambitious for the people and places of Croydon, determined to ensure that is easy and pleasant to travel within Croydon by a variety of modes of transport. We know that growth will bring transport challenges, but we also know that it will bring just as many opportunities. Well managed change means grasping those opportunities and ensuring that we use them to deliver for Croydon and its people. As Croydon changes and the numbers living, working and learning here grow, it is vital that we have a clear vision as to how we all will continue to access the jobs and services we need, and how the spaces we move through will be shaped and used. This Transport Vision is intended to guide our plan and programme making, taking us towards more attractive, healthier and safer neighbourhoods where it is easier to get around on foot, by bike, bus, tram or train. KATHY BEE Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment March 2015 MARCH 2015 | 3 ‘IF YOU PLAN CITIES FOR CARS AND TRAFFIC, YOU Croydon and in particular its metropolitan centre, one GET CARS AND TRAFFIC. IF YOU PLAN FOR PEOPLE of London’s Opportunity Areas, is on the cusp of a AND PLACES, YOU GET PEOPLE AND PLACES.’ renaissance. The plans are in place for a transformative Fred Kent, Project for Public Spaces programme of regeneration over the next twenty years bringing change on a scale not seen for several generations. This presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to rethink our approach to transport, to enhance our public space, to improve residents' experience and quality of life and to develop a truly unique Croydon solution, which will reshape the way that people travel in the borough. These plans coalesce in the Croydon Promise which sees Croydon’s powerful connectivity advantages, enabling it to fulfil its potential to be south London’s economic and cultural hub and achieve our ambition of growth for all. Our Vision explains how we will make ‘transport work for Croydon’ and how we will make it happen. It has people and places at its heart. By providing safer, more accessible routes; a safer and more pleasant environment; and more interesting places to draw pedestrians and cyclists back to Croydon's streets, we will help to change people’s decisions around how they choose to travel. Over the twenty year Vision period we will work with our partners to ensure Croydon has a transport system that ranks alongside the most sustainable and ‘liveable’ cities in the world, where it is easy to get around by tram, train, bus, bicycle or on foot. There is not a ‘one size fits all response to achieving our objectives. Instead it will require a joined up approach, drawing together the five key themes of: ’Increasingly Connected’, ‘Better Places’, ‘Safer and Calmer’, ‘Mixed Modality’ and ‘Healthy City’, into an integrated vision for Croydon as a liveable, vibrant city full of brilliant people. 4 | TRANSPORT VISION FOR CROYDON NG PUTTI PLAC E A ected - T conn att ra le - cti v T b e H ea - w E liv a lk H ACTIVEL a G Y A b E IN N le V D - A O fe - ef cient s - sa S a R M e U f ti v e T c S N a - - T e A c O O l v e ti D c IN a F e n Y l l P o A - O c h - B R R e a e O l L l C b Y t i h P g y e O G l - - s u N S d I s t e A t a P i c n L e a E b S n l e E n o K c I N V a c E c e S s s T i b I l N e - G r e l i I a N b l e C - c R o m O f o Y r t a D b l e O - o p d N ti e K m s i l i s a e n ’ d o - ti a r R S O T R W A T E N N S P T O R MARCH 2015 | 5 This document sets a vision of how people will move The scale of change facing Croydon raises questions in a growing Croydon over the next twenty years. It regarding the role of transport, the role of our streets sees transport as a fundamental part of creating more and other public places and how we move through liveable places and improving prosperity, health and those spaces in the future in order to access the jobs wellbeing. Transport, access and quality of place are all and services we all need. In its current form, Croydon's critical to achieving our ambition of Croydon being the patterns of car use are unsustainable and often place where: incompatible with our place based objectives. They erode the quality of town centre environments, and • people choose to live; impede the realisation of our potential to be a world class destination. • companies and entrepreneurs choose to invest; and The Transport Vision sets the agenda for the future, • the metropolitan centre is a vibrant mixed use district focusing on a careful balance between effective and with 20,000 new residents. efcient transport networks and influencing the demand for travel to ensure Croydon’s transport system works Croydon and the Croydon Opportunity Area in particular with, rather than against, our wider regeneration is entering a period of growth and renewal. A growing objectives. It builds on the substantial body of work residential population and workforce pose potential already undertaken through the Local Plan, the challenges for the borough’s transport system, street Opportunity Area Planning Framework, the five town network, quality of environment and ultimately quality centre Masterplans and the Croydon Promise, to set of life. Fortunately growth also presents opportunities. out a clear agenda for the future of Croydon as a high By managing and guiding growth, more people will be quality, high functioning place. living close to and supporting the services they need and living by Croydon’s public transport hubs providing ready A shift towards more sustainable, accessible, active and access to the places of Croydon and beyond. healthy travel will be central to building a sustainable future for Croydon. Car ownership in parts of Croydon is This Vision will guide Place Plans, transport plans and high relative to inner London. There is the expectation actions that will shape how we all move around, gain that people can and will drive, with a disproportionately access to and use streets and other public spaces. low number of people walking and cycling. The Vision The Vision builds upon the Croydon Promise, and our sees attitudes and behaviours changing. We can see ask to government to support the reinvigoration of from the success of other cities that transport networks the metropolitan centre. It draws together Croydon’s can be effectively harnessed to work with the urban transport aspirations, including our plans to become a environment, rather than movement working against the more sustainable borough. quality of place. Cities like New York and Copenhagen are leading the way through strong leadership and a clear focus on sustainable and integrated systems. Croydon's Vision looks to these examples setting our aspirations high to become a world leader in transport network operation, safety and quality of place. 6 | TRANSPORT VISION FOR CROYDON IN CREA Crystalected S Y onnPalace IN IT gly C G C sin L Y rea Y H Inc C LT Norbury ON A N E E H C South Norwood T E Thornton Heath D Addiscombe CROYDON METROPOLITAN Shirley CENTRE B Y E T I T L Selsdon New addington T A Purley E D R O P M L A D C E E X I Coulsdon S M S A R E F E M R L A A C N D MARCH 2015 | 7 London’s Livea ble City kin! oydo C r i r cr roydon London’s Liveable City ca u o BUS STOP Croydon Tramlink CROYDON TROLLEY BUS frui an ve 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 RAILWAY TRAMLINK CONNECTED CROYDON STRATEGIC CYCLEWAYS On a number of levels, ‘movement’ and ‘place’ are and remodel it as a modernist 'City of the Future'. inextricably linked. Croydon is a prime example, People would no longer need to rely on walking, cycling, originating as a strategic trading location on the route buses or trams to get to and though the town centre; between London and the south coast ports, emerging as rather they would speed direct to their destination by a market settlement in the 12th Century. car. One of Croydon’s perceived new strengths, the wiping away of important places in the town centre and By the Mid 19th Century, canal then rail transport multifunctional streets to be replaced by large single reached Croydon, creating new connections in function roads, urban motorways and flyovers, resulted to inner and central London and leading to rapid in an environment which has become one of its defining urban expansion.