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Making streets in Camden safer and healthier since the first lockdown

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic we have been working hard to make streets across Camden safer and healthier both to respond to the pandemic and to make positive changes for the future.

We've made a huge number of trial changes across Camden and you see a summary of some of these in our new summary sheet below or y ou can view the summary as a PDF.

We'd like to thank everyone who has made a comment on one of these schemes on Commonplace so far - your views are helping to shape these trials and ensure that we are creating plans to support walking, cycling and safe and healthy neighbourhoods in the future.

Do keep adding your thoughts as the trials continue. If you would like to comment on any of our Streateries we have a new Streateries commonplace.

You can read more on these changes in our press release.

Kind regards

Safe and Healthy Streets Team

Text transcript of Images:

In the year since lockdown started we...

Supported you to cycle more

• Added 150 cycle hangars providing space for 900 bikes

• Added 20 new trees

• More than doubled the length of segregated cycle network to a half marathon length of 21km!

• Added over 100 new dockless bike hire bays to provide dedicated spaces for hiring bikes and removing street clutter

• Delivered 19 new cycle permeability schemes making it easier to get around by bike

Made roads quieter and safer

• To help support social distancing we temporarily widened the pavements on 15 busy streets

• Now more than streets in the Borough are protected from traffic using them as cut through routes

• Set up 15 Healthy School Streets

• Added 4 new pedestrian crossing points

• Created over 3,500 square meters of new or improved public realm for pedestrians

• Upgraded 640m of existing bus lane to running 24/7, helping to improve bus journey times.

• Collisions are most likely to take place at junctions. To help make these safer, across Camden we have made it harder to park on corners. We've also improved sight lines for pedestrians by making changes such as replacing single yellow lines with double yellow lines

Supported local businesses

• In the summer/autumn of 2020 8 new Streateries were added creating new space outside for socially distanced eating and drinking

Improved local environments

• £6.8m won from TfL and DfT and £2m from Camden spent on making streets safer and healthier

• Safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians. All these changes mean that our streets are safer. Jan-Oct 2020 vs Jan-Oct 2019 in Camden saw:

o 10% reduction in pedal cycle Killed and Seriously Injured collisions (in London these rose by 9%)

o 43% reduction in pedestrian Killed and Seriously Injured collisions (in London these dropped by 40%) #

• Over 300 Electric Vehicle charging points now in the Borough with 175 added since the first lockdown

Our 2021 plans for Safer and Healthier Camden Streets

The way people travel is changing. People in Camden are cycling and walking more than ever. With around half of all Camden’s residents trips now made by walking and cycling we’ve been working hard to help support this change by investing more in cycling and walking infrastructure and have lots more plans for 2021 and beyond.

Safe and pleasant walking

Residents in Camden are walking more with the percentage of trips made all on foot rising by another 8% last year to just under 50% in 2020. We want to make walking a safe and pleasurable experience, so this year we are:

• Adding 16 pedestrian crossing points

• Adding 1,500 sqm of public realm space

• Removing 300 parking bays and replacing 7-9km of single yellow lines with double yellow to improve walking and cycling safety

Safer and Healthier Neighbourhoods

Many of us have been spending more time closer to home, making quieter and safer neighbourhoods more important than ever. Whether it’s an essential journey like taking your children to school, getting to work or just popping out to enjoy your local park we want you to love where you live, and to love Camden.

More of you than ever are walking your children to school rather taking the car – up to 47% of families now walk. In the last decade there has been a 72.2% increase in traffic using residential streets to cut through in London since sat-navs were introduced. So this year we are:

• Adding 11 new healthy school streets

• Protecting 14 new residential streets from traffic cutting through

• Changing 100m of existing bus lane in Camden to 24/7, and adding over 400m of new bus lane helping improve bus journey times

Safe and pleasant cycling

Bikes are increasingly used by both visitors and residents in Camden and in 2019 bicycles made up 15% of traffic flows on our streets, up from 12% in 2016. Despite many more people working from home, on Royal College Street we saw an amazing increase in cyclists with between 250% - 350% increase at weekends in the summer months of 2020 compared to 2019. So this year we have plans to add:

• 75 cycle hangars providing space for another 450 bikes

• 10km of new segregated cycle lanes with over 10 extra cycle permeability schemes designed to make cycling easier

• Around 100 new dockless bike hire bays providing dedicated spaces for hiring bikes and removing street clutter

Posted on 11th June 2021

by Steffi Dance-Groom