Quietway 5 upgrade: Larkhall Rise modal filter Interim traffic analysis - April 2021 Temporary scheme context • Traffic counts completed as part of the development of the Lambeth Transport Strategy in 2019 identified that traffic flows on Larkhall Rise west of the bridge were as high as 370 vehicles in the busiest hour. Evidence from across London tells us that when traffic flows are this high many people will be put off from using the route because they don’t feel safe. • From March 2020, the COVID pandemic led to social distancing on public transport. Capacity on tubes, trains and buses reduced by up to 85%. Government instructed boroughs to reallocate space to walking and cycling to enable journeys previously made on public transport to continue to be made. • In response, Lambeth developed an emergency transport strategy which would deliver some key parts of the transport strategy far quicker than originally planned, to ensure that essential journeys could still be made. • Larkhall Rise is part of the existing Quietway 5 cycle route. The route provides a safe, accessible route connecting town centres between Norbury, to Clapham and through key locations up to Waterloo. The route serves the same route as the Northern Line and bus routes where capacity had been greatly reduced to enable social distancing and so was identified as a priority for upgrades to mitigate the capacity limits on public transport. Larkhall Rise bridge • Upgrades were delivered along the entire Quietway 5 route and included a new zebra crossing on Rookery Road and protected approaches to junctions at Union Road and Thorne Road. A summary of all the upgrades to the route can be found here. • The final component of the Quietway 5 upgrades was the introduction of a temporary motor vehicle restriction on Larkhall Rise, with the aim of reducing traffic flows which were known to be too high in the busiest times and will have been putting people off using the route. Emergency services have been permit • The trial has prohibited motor vehicles from crossing the bridge in a north easterly direction (towards Vauxhall). This restriction joined the existing no-entry for southwest (towards Clapham) vehicles meaning that motor vehicles (except for the emergency services) are no longer permitted to use the bridge in either direction. Traffic monitoring • The trial scheme development was paused following concerns being raised that traffic flows had been made worse on other parts of Quietway 5 – namely Clapham Manor Street. • Automatic Traffic Counts recorded traffic volumes between 8th December and 14th December 2020 on the following roads 1. North Street 1 3 2. Larkhall Rise west (between Netherford Road and Brayburne Avenue) 2 3. Larkhall Rise east (between Clapham Manor Street and Edgeley Road) 4. Clapham Manor Street 5. Edgeley Road 7 6. Gauden Road 5 7. Voltaire Road 6 4 • All monitoring sites have been compared to traffic data collected in 2017 or 2019 which is then projected to December 2020 - when the monitoring took place. A summary of this data is provided on slide 8. • The adjustment applied to the historic traffic data is based on the change in traffic recorded at nearby permanent monitoring sites. This adjustment means that the baseline we compare against accounts for changes in traffic flows since 2017 as well as those resulting from the COVID pandemic. • Note that Larkhall Rise east uses The Floow vehicle telematics data as the baseline traffic source as no 2017 Automatic Traffic Count data was available. Key questions for the traffic analysis 1. Are traffic flows low enough on Larkhall Rise to enable more people to choose walking, cycling, scooting, wheeling at the busiest times? 2. Have traffic volumes increased at peak times on other parts of Quietway 5, namely Clapham Manor Street? 3. To what extent has traffic been displaced on to other roads in the Larkhall ward? Change in number of cars Larkhall Rise (west of Clapham Manor Street) -3% Larkhall Rise (east of Clapham Manor Street) -59% The section of Larkhall Rise which forms part of Quietway 5 now meets the Healthy Routes Quality standard (less than 200 vehicles in the busiest hour) Clapham Manor Street +38% cars Daily traffic volumes have increased, although flows remain low during the busiest hour and continue to meet the Healthy Routes quality criteria (117 vehicles on average in the busiest hour in December 2020). North street +23% cars Increased flows in both direction. Traffic flows will be monitored again at next monitoring stage. Edgeley Road No change in traffic flows Voltaire Road +84% cars A significant percentage increase although baseline flows were very low so in absolute terms this is not a lot of extra vehicles. Gauden Road +35% cars. Increased flows northbound indicate some displacement from vehicles no longer crossing the bridge. Site will be monitored again at next monitoring stage. Change in number of cyclists Larkhall Rise (west of Clapham Manor Street) +134% increase Larkhall Rise (east of Clapham Manor Street) +88% Clapham Manor Street +174% cyclists. North street +23% cars Edgeley Road -3% cyclists Voltaire Road +84% cars. Gauden Road +74% cars. Note: cycle flows are compared against flows in 2017 without being adjusted for impacts due to COVID as we do not have continuous cycle monitoring data to adjust. This means recorded flows are likely lower than we would see without COVID. Change in number of goods vehicles NOTE: most goods vehicles will exceed the existing 2m width restriction on the bridge. This means the majority of the changes recorded below are not attributable to the trial. Larkhall Rise (west of Clapham Manor Street) +29% Larkhall Rise (east of Clapham Manor Street) -62% Clapham Manor Street +95% North street +49% Edgeley Road +23% Voltaire Road +12% Gauden Road +28% Larkhall Rise traffic data summary Site Historic Baseline December 2020 Traffic counts from either 2017 or 2019 Historic data projected to 2020. Raw data from traffic counts collected as part of previous projects Historic data in adjusted based on permanent monitoring sites to account for background trends since the historic data was collected as well as the reduction in traffic flows due to COVID Goods Goods Goods Car Cycle Vehicle Car Cycle Vehicle Car Cycle Vehicle North Street 8,340 278 721 6,500 278 562 7,982 364 837 Larkhall Rise west (between Netherford Road and Brayburne Avenue) 3,833 292 300 2,987 292 234 2,911 682 302 Larkhall Rise east (between Clapham Manor Street and Edgeley Road) 4,825 353 455 3,626 353 342 1,470 665 130 Clapham Manor Street 1,443 112 106 1,125 112 83 1,553 307 161 Edgeley Road 1,304 132 123 1,016 132 96 1,019 128 118 Gauden Road 2,885 99 305 2,248 99 237 3,028 172 303 Voltaire Road 477 86 113 372 86 88 683 81 86 Key questions for traffic analysis 1) Are traffic flows low enough on Larkhall Rise to enable more people to choose walking, cycling, scooting, wheeling at the busiest times? Yes – flows on Larkhall Rise have been reduced significantly and more people will now feel safe to walk, scoot, wheel and cycle on the route. 2) Have traffic volumes increased at peak times on other parts of Quietway 5, namely Clapham Manor Street? Although there has been an increase in the number of vehicles using Clapham Manor Street each day, the volume of traffic at busiest times remains low enough that people will feel safe walking, scooting, wheeling and cycling. 3) To what extent has traffic been displaced on to other roads in the Larkhall ward? Traffic flows have increased on North Street, Voltaire Road, Gauden Road and Clapham Manor Street. All sites will be monitored again after enforcement of the restriction has begun and the longer term impacts of the scheme on surrounding roads. Next steps: Experimental Traffic Order • The temporary scheme is now moving to the next phase and will become a formal trial under what is known as an Experimental Traffic Order. • An Experimental Traffic Order is a way of trialling changes to the road network to see how they work in practice. If the trial is successful then an experimental traffic order can be made permanent. • Unlike a temporary traffic order, an experimental traffic order allows camera enforcement of the motor vehicle restriction to begin. • For the first 6 months of the Experimental Order objections can be submitted in writing to the highway authority. All objections have to be considered as part of any decision to amend, remove or make the scheme permanent. Trial feedback Let us know things which have worked, or the challenges experienced as part of the Larkhall Rise modal filter trial. All feedback is recorded.​ You can share your comments via email:​ [email protected] Formal objections to the Experimental Traffic Order Objections to the experimental traffic order can be submitted for the first 6 months after it is made. Objections must be written and include grounds for the objection and submitted to: [email protected] Due to the number of emails received, we may not always be able to respond to each email with a personalised response but all emails are logged, comments recorded will be considered as part of the ongoing monitoring of the trial, and considered when a decision is made on whether to amend, remove or make the scheme permanent. Community engagement followed by a full public consultation will be taking place as part of assessing the scheme and be used to inform a decision on making the scheme permanent or not. Details on this will be published shortly – please sign up for news updates on the Commonplace engagement site.