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Foreword

Contents

What have we inherited? 06How do we use London’s roads? 12

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Growth: How is road use changing? 16Where are we now? 20Next steps 28What are the options? 34Roads of the future 44

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Streets and roads are the lifeblood of London. We all use them every day, at every time of day: to get to and from work or school, to shop, to do business, to visit, to enjoy all the city has to offer. They are also the veins and arteries through which goods and services flow to keep the city functioning. Working well, streets and roads keep London thriving, but when they are clogged up and overcrowded, the city’s health, economy and environment suffer.

As London’s economy and population grow apace, we need thousands more homes, together with places to work, shops and public spaces. All of this affects the way that our roads operate. At the same time, we have growing expectations for the quality of the streets where we live and work. They have to be great places, as well as enabling people, goods and services to get around London safely and reliably. Streets and roads make up 80% of London’s public space. More than 80% of all journeys in London today are made entirely by road, and over 90% of all freight is transported this way. This creates a continual challenge for an urban road network that was never designed for such intensive use. Our streets and roads, and the way we manage them, have to respond to these changes to keep them fit for a world city. Some measures to improve London’s streets and roads have already been delivered, but strategic policies – not least those to help create more space and establish different ways of funding – are equally important to keep London moving.

Streets and roads make up the majority of the public spaces between buildings in the city. We probably use them more than the formal squares and places, so we should ensure they are fit for purpose in the modern metropolis.

There is a growing realisation that we need to change the hierarchy of our streets – while 20th-century policies focused on the speed of vehicular movement, today we place more significance on health and wellbeing, on safety, and on walking, cycling and public transport – while still permitting the wheels of commerce to function efficiently.

To meet the demands of future population and employment growth, the network of streets and roads in the capital need to be used differently and to function better for future generations.

‘Streets Ahead’ provides an opportunity to open up the debate about the changing nature of our urban infrastructure. The Mayor’s Roads Task Force established a range of different ways that we use our roads ranging from fast arterial connections to slow pedestrianised town squares. This ‘family of streets’ provides an excellent model for how we use our streets and roads in the future. Starting in 2020, the Ultra Low Emission Zone will improve the quality of air in the centre; but how do we reduce the number of delivery vehicles in the city? How do we coordinate public transport with walking and cycling? Should we be emulating other major cities and covering over major roadways to provide new public spaces? Can we use new technologies to charge for roads in a way that fairly reflects the use we make of them? What impact will autonomous vehicles have? Will they create a safer and more efficient use of our roads, or will we be unwilling to give up the steering wheel?

‘Streets Ahead’ raises all these issues and calls for a response from Londoners so that future strategies can properly reflect public attitudes to this key element of London’s future.

Peter MurrayChairman, New London Architecture

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As a relatively low-density, open city, London has a distinctive pattern of streets and roads built up over 2,000 years. Still traceable today are some of the great paved highways of Roman Britain, built for moving troops and supplies across the province. Later, the medieval expansion of the City of London as a major trading and commercial centre resulted in a densely built network of narrow alleys, passages and lanes, crammed with shops, houses and markets. This street pattern was preserved after the Great Fire of 1666, after formal plans for rebuilding were rejected in favour of rapid reconstruction.

Until 1888, when local authorities were given responsibility for public roads, the infrequent and often ineffective maintenance of highways by parishes meant that major roads were almost impassable much of the time. The massive increase in traffic generated by the Industrial Revolution demanded a much more reliable system. This was partly met by turnpikes that were privately run and financed by tolls collected from users. But the prevalence of horse-drawn vehicles and carts created its own problems, as London’s streets were piled high with manure.

In 20th-century London, the dominance of the motor car had major consequences for road engineering and urban planning. The London Society’s Development Plan for Greater London (1914-18) – including a revised roads plan – influenced Patrick Abercrombie’s ambitious but unrealised 1940s plans for a complete citywide reconstruction after World War II, including vast new arterial and ring roads. The ultimate expression of the car’s supremacy came in the proposed Ringways – a series of four concentric elevated motorways around the capital, planned in the 1960s but abandoned due to local campaigns and spiralling costs.

In 1963, the Buchanan report Traffic in Towns made clear that a city dominated by underpasses and roundabouts would become gridlocked and unliveable if ‘there is a disregard for all considerations other than the free flow of traffic which seems ... to be almost ruthless’. Since then, the pioneering work of thinkers and designers such as Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl – as well as inspirational placemaking in other cities including Copenhagen and New York – has led to a radical shift in attitudes and a significant programme of change to the character of many streets and roads right across the capital. Today, we are more conscious of the need to balance the roles of roads as places of movement and as places of social interaction.

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The earliest map of the City of London and its immediate environs, surveyed between 1553 and 1559

London towards the close of the 19th century, depicted in the Pictorial Plan of London, 1897

Ludgate Hill – A Block in the Street, illustration by Gustave Doré, 1872 © TfL from the London Transport Museum collection

A future vision of London streets from Traffic In Towns, 1963

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London is constantly moving. Around 8 in 10 of all daily trips in the capital are made on the road. We use different means to get around: walking, cycling, bus, car, lorry, van, motorbike or taxi, or often a combination of these. Streets and roads are also places where people stop off, meet and socialise. They therefore have to do a number of different jobs at the same time. At a local level, they have to allow access for people and goods, and be enjoyable and pleasant spaces in which to live, work and relax. The need to balance competing demands is made more complex as the life of a street can change between these uses throughout the day. A busy shopping street by day can become a major social space for bars, clubs and restaurants by night. At a citywide, strategic level, the road network has to support London’s economy, health and vitality.

Private motor vehicles are still the main form of road transport in London. Each year 3.8 billion journeys are made by lorries, cars, motorbikes and taxis – more than 400 journeys for each Londoner – and a third of all daily journeys are made by car. In public transport, there are nearly twice as many trips by bus as by Tube: over 6 million journeys every day. But trips by other forms of transport, including walking and particularly cycling, are also growing fast. The growth in walking and cycling means that a quarter of Londoners get the exercise they need to stay healthy through travel alone.

The impact of such heavy and diverse use means that London’s roads need continuous repair, management and improvement, requiring intensive collaboration between Transport for London (TfL), boroughs, businesses, developers, landowners, emergency services, utility companies and users. Boroughs are responsible for 95% of the length of London’s streets and roads. TfL controls the other 5%, including 2,550 kilometres of lane carriageway (roughly the same distance from London to Moscow) and core roads carrying the highest volumes of vehicle traffic. TfL is also responsible for traffic signals and the London-wide bus network and infrastructure. Constant maintenance and improvements – including resurfacing, gritting, modernising traffic signals and renewing bus shelters – help to keep London moving. At the same time, major infrastructure improvements and innovative plans are necessary to support London’s long-term growth.

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“Providing London’s road users with a network fit to keep London moving is a continuous task for civil engineering contractors. Long-term planning, an

efficient procurement process and the promotion of collaborative working

across projects are paramount to successful working relationships between contractors, clients and utility companies.

Strengthening these relationships will support London’s long-term growth as well

as the changes in road use this brings.”

Marie-Claude Hemming, Head of External Affairs, Civil Engineering Contractors Association

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Some of the many different activities that take place on London’s streets and roads every day © Agnese Sanvito

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Growth in journey stages on selected modes, 2001 to 2014

25% of all trips in London are made entirely by foot

More than 80% of trips everyday are made on the road

Over 90% of all freight is transported

by road

The average Londoner walks

24 minutes a day

Cycles make up 25% of vehicular traffic in

the morning peak

Over 6 million bus journeys are made on London’s roads

every day

51% of journeys on a Night Bus are

people commuting to and from work

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As London continues to be the engine of the UK economy, its population is booming. The number of people in the capital is set to rise from 8.6 million to over 10 million in the next 25 years – equivalent to adding the combined population of Birmingham and Leeds. Transport capacity overall will need to grow by 70% to meet the expected massive surge in demand. The design and use of our streets and roads will be key to how we keep the city functioning, while ensuring that the quality of urban life is maintained and improved.

The area in which London’s population and employment can grow is contained within the Green Belt, which places extra pressure on existing streets and roads. Congestion is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges, as Londoners already spend 70 hours on average in traffic jams every year. In Central London, four out of five people arrive by rail or Tube during the morning peak. Further employment growth will place huge pressures on local routes within Central London as most people continue their journeys by foot, bike or bus. The arrival of Crossrail, and potentially High Speed Two, will also lead to a massive influx of new commuters, shoppers and visitors on London’s streets. Increasing competition for space is likely as the number of walking journeys is expected to increase by a third, and cycling trips are forecast to more than double in the next 10 years.

There will also be substantial growth in both housing and employment in Outer London. Most of London’s new housing will be in outer boroughs, particularly in the east. Around half of people who live in Outer London also work there. That will generate a significant growth in travel within Outer London, for work and also for shopping and leisure. The challenge will be to meet this growth without a matching rise in car travel.

Too much congestion can damage economic competitiveness, and further worsen London’s poor air quality and noise pollution. London also faces major health challenges as its population gets older and as the rise in chronic diseases, including obesity, means people live more of their lives in poor health. To encourage active travel for health benefits, our streets have to be more attractive, safe and welcoming. At the same time, world cities such as London must meet expectations for high-quality environments for urban living to help attract the brightest and the best employees, and to foster new sectors to drive economic growth.

The scale of London’s growth and its associated challenges means that once-in-a-lifetime changes and investment in how our roads work need to be made – to make them safer and more pleasant to be in, to support a greener and cleaner city, to unlock development potential to optimise space, and to keep London moving.

“The way Londoners travel is changing fast. With more and more people living

and working in London, we need streets that reflect the way Londoners now travel

and that make more efficient use of the limited space we have. Investing in making

streets safer for cycling creates better places for people. That does mean some tough decisions about the role of traffic.

But for the sake of London’s health, wealth and environment, these are decisions that

mustn’t be put off.”

German Dector-Vega, London Director, Sustrans

“Waltham Forest has been fortunate enough to secure £27m from TfL to develop our Mini- Holland Programme – money that we’re using

to try and change and improve the way our borough thinks about getting from A to B. Trying to change mindsets doesn’t happen overnight but with the rise of concerning levels of public health challenges due to

inactivity, increasing levels of poor air quality, congestion levels and road accidents, we hope

that our Mini-Holland programme will help set a trend for the rest of London in thinking

differently about travel.”

Cllr Clyde Loakes, LB Waltham Forest

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Design for the new Crossrail station and improved public realm at Tottenham Court Road

Map showing the build up of congestion in central London © Dr Ed Manley, UCL CASA

9 residents every hour

London is growing by...

2 buses every day

2 tube trains every week

1 car load every 26 minutes

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With so much expected growth and change, finding better ways to design, manage and maintain our streets and roads is a vitally important step towards making London a more liveable city. Significant changes have already been made to the way in which streets and roads are managed, in order to improve the operation and performance of the network, as well as to deliver improvement schemes. These include the use of real-time traffic signal strategies; managing roadworks and events on the network, such as the Prudential RideLondon two-day festival of cycling; and live information feeds to handle incidents and to get people travelling again as soon as possible.

The biggest investment in London’s roads in a generation has already started to deliver many completed schemes that are creating roads that meet users’ needs, reduce congestion, improve safety and provide better access. At the same time, measures such as redesigning, decluttering and landscaping have made our streets more pleasant and attractive places to be in. They also provide better access, with improved pedestrian crossings, and 97% of bus stops now accessible for passengers with mobility problems. A huge range of new projects underway across the capital will further transform London’s streetscape over the next decade. As well as maintaining an efficient network to move people and goods, these aim to ensure the quality of urban life, increase the accessibility of streets, and enhance the character of each of the capital’s neighbourhoods and districts. Plans are even in place to start to improve one of London’s most notoriously congested and polluted streets – Oxford Street – through widening pavements and reducing traffic, including buses, possibly as a first step to eventual pedestrianisation. Changes in ticketing and planning have aimed to improve the experience of customers, particularly on the bus network, while cleaner and bigger vehicles are helping to reduce environmental impacts.

One key to creating better streets and roads is to further encourage active travel. Cycling is fast growing in popularity, not least through initiatives such as the investment in safer streets for cycling, and the Cycle Hire Scheme (now Santander Cycles), launched in 2010. Better links through the Overground in Outer London have encouraged more people to travel by rail and walk to their local station. But while walking is a universal activity for those who are able, many Londoners are still not doing enough of it to stay healthy and active. More cycling, walking and use of buses and other public transport will deliver immediate health benefits to Londoners at an individual level. They also make a healthier city overall by improving air quality and reducing congestion through more efficient use of road space. Over the next decade, the aim is to more than double the number of daily cycling journeys from 600,000 to 1.5 million. To achieve this, streets and roads have to be safer and better for everyone to use.

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“Funds raised through TfL’s Lane Rental Scheme support the promotion of genuine

innovation in the field of improved road and street works – providing benefits to road and footway users as well as the

delivery organisation. UK Power Networks is investigating and seriously testing a

new method of reinstatement that would benefit public, local authorities and utilities

alike through quicker and more reliable reinstatements of the road and footways.”

Christopher Perkins, Strategy Manager Street Works, UK Power Networks

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Streetscape improvements in Bromley North Village have supported the economic activity of the area, promoting inward investment © TfL Visual Services

Leonard Circus before and after ‘shared space’ scheme, completed 2014 © TfL Visual Services

Cyclists using Santander Cycles on the Victoria Embankment East-West Cycle Superhighway © TfL Visual Services

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The Mayor’s Vision for Cycling was developed to encourage growth in cycling across the whole of London and to overcome barriers to people travelling by bike. Currently under construction are the Cycle Superhighways – including the east-west and north-south routes that will provide segregated cycle lanes. These will link to a network of Quietways: including routes through back-streets and parks, along waterways and on tree-lined streets.

From 2017, the Mini-Hollands programme in Kingston, Enfield and Waltham Forest aim to make these Outer London boroughs ‘as cycle friendly as their Dutch counterparts’ through new cycle infrastructure improvements and town centre redesign. Other strategies in place to improve safety include 20 mph limits and training programmes for different road users to raise awareness of safer road use for everyone. In addition, the London Cycling Design Standards have been updated to reflect best practice from around the world. Integrated approaches to enhancing walking, cycling and public transport facilities in places such as Hornchurch are the starting point for a more multi-faceted approach to improving town centres overall, by addressing congestion and safety and reducing reliance on cars.

Other initiatives, such as TfL’s Roads Modernisation Plan, aim to support safe access for all users while also improving London’s public realm. The concept of ‘shared spaces’ – the idea that pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles can share the road without barriers or features to separate them – has been already been implemented at thoroughfares and intersections including Oxford Circus, Kensington High Street and Leonard Circus.

The infrastructure legacy of gyratories, poorly designed junctions, roundabouts and one- way systems, for example at Aldgate, Euston Circus, Tottenham Court Road and Holborn Circus, was a response to rising traffic levels half a century ago. These are now being removed or altered to create public spaces, many part-funded by developers and through commercial support, for people to enjoy while still allowing road users to move through efficiently and safely. Spaces and streets outside major transport hubs, such as King’s Cross, are being transformed to create world-class public realm, a process that will be further realised in other locations with the opening of Crossrail in 2018. Most importantly, major improvements to the road network – such as those at Elephant and Castle – can act as catalysts for wider regeneration, inward investment and local economic growth by providing better connectivity, safer and more attractive spaces, and a healthier environment.

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Vision of Tottenham Court Road when the new two-way system is implemented

Proposal for transforming Old Street roundabout ©TfL Visual Services

King’s Cross Square, by Stanton Williams

How Elephant & Castle will look following an extensive redesign of the roundabout, creating a new public square, pedestrian crossings and cycle lanes © TfL Visual Services

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Meeting the challenges of a growing London demands imaginative thinking and approaches to planning. New policies are being developed to deal with London’s expanding road use over the coming years. Underlying these is a clear recognition that London must accommodate both ‘living’ and ‘movement’ if it is to remain successful. To encourage this thinking, a matrix of nine ‘Street Types for London’ has been developed to help inform decisions on road management and investment at a strategic and local level. Central to this is the idea that streets and roads play a variety of roles – which can change even from morning to evening or weekday to weekend – and that the relative balance between movement and place should inform their design and management. ‘Core roads’, for example, have a high movement/low living purpose, and conversely ‘city places’ such as Covent Garden are low movement/high living. This approach and categorisation, developed through collaborative working between TfL and the boroughs, rejects the established idea of a fixed hierarchy of road users applying everywhere, in favour of balancing competing needs differently according to the character and role of specific roads, to create better living environments as well as strategic traffic routes where appropriate. Street Types for London aims to ensure that form meets function.

The Streetscape Design Guidance (2015) outlines best practice design principles in street layout, material selection, application and maintenance, to ensure that a consistently high-quality approach to street design is implemented across London. It encourages innovation and experimentation, as also seen in projects such as the Future Streets Incubator. This programme supports on-street trials of concepts such as flexible road lanes adapting to different uses throughout the day, and repurposing parking bays to provide seating and small green spaces. Other, related guidelines advise on the design of safe and welcoming spaces for pedestrians and cyclists. Taken together, these represent a ‘whole street’ approach which aims to improve public health by promoting walking and cycling.

Alongside fundamental changes to strategic thinking and policy, sophisticated new technology and smart systems can provide better ways of helping to manage London’s road network in the short-term. Combining live data on road use with a predictive signalling system, TfL’s Surface Intelligent Transport System (SITS) will replace, upgrade and integrate tools used to manage incidents on the road and the effects of roadworks, and could halve the number of delays by delivering faster automated real-time responses to changing road conditions.

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“Every town and city has a huge range of roads, from busy arterial roads to

pedestrianised central areas. The ‘street types’ method analyses every stretch

of road for its importance both for ‘movement’ and ‘place’, and classifies it in one of nine different categories.

London has found this method incredibly valuable in shaping plans to manage and

improve the road and street network. It gives a clear basis for enhancing the

public realm where the sense of place is most important, while ensuring roads

carrying high volumes of traffic can do so efficiently without impacting on

nearby communities.”

David Quarmby, former Roads Task Force Member and Lead for the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund Study

of England’s Major Roads

“London has many roles. It’s a thriving, bustling economic powerhouse, a major cultural hotspot, a shopping mecca and, for eight plus million people, it’s a home. Every day our streets and public spaces

have to accommodate this complexity. So it’s appropriate to plan for these nuances,

rather than a one size fits all. “Street Types” is a brilliant tool to enable this.”

Patricia Brown, Deputy Chair, Mayor’s Design Advisory Group

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A digital bus shelter at Regent Street, giving live updates on public transport networks © TfL Visual Services

The matrix of nine Street Types for London, a practical way of classifying the road network across the capital © TfL Visual Services

Street Types were a product of a lengthy consultation project involving over 400 officers, allowing the matrix to best reflect both the data, and people’s expertise of what actually happens on the ground

High-quality road surface treatments help to define access for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles © TfL Visual Services

Predicted levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in 2020 with and without ULEZ in place © Interim update to London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory 2010

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Active Traffic Management strategies also dynamically control traffic signals to keep traffic flowing at critical locations such as the Inner Ring Road. The iBus system will, in future, allow buses – the vehicles that make the most efficient use of road space – to act as ‘intelligent’ sensors: to pinpoint congestion, to measure the condition of the road and tell maintenance teams where repairs are needed, and to learn more about passenger movements to help improve the service. Real-time data feeds on current disruptions and planned works – as well as traffic cameras across the road network – also help road users to plan their journeys and avoid delays, and enable the development of apps via an open-data policy. Making data available to London’s tech industries will help to provide those using the capital’s roads with the best journey planning, navigation and travel information products and services. Engaging with developers and providers, as well as the automotive industry, will help to build a better understanding of their requirements, future plans and consumer trends, and ensure that the data available now and in the future supports new products and services.

Targeted measures are also being put in place to tackle two of London’s major, interrelated road issues: congestion and poor air quality. Ahead of more radical solutions, a new team of TfL Road and Transport Enforcement Officers is being deployed to key traffic routes across London to crack down on problems that cause congestion, such as illegal stopping or unloading, as well as advising local businesses on re-timing or consolidation to reduce the impact of deliveries during peak hours.

London does not currently comply with EU-approved legal limits of pollution-causing nitrogen dioxide – estimated to lead to the equivalent of 9,500 premature deaths every year – and is unlikely to do so until at least 2030, unless steps are taken to tackle poor air quality. From 2020, the Ultra Low Emission Zone will require all vehicles driving in Central London to meet new exhaust emission standards, while new hybrid and electric buses are being introduced and older buses retrofitted. This policy could be widened to establish Low Emission Neighbourhoods: schemes to transform existing areas and shape new developments whilst encouraging sustainable living.

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The future of London’s roads is not yet fully mapped out. Even with current and planned policies and interventions, managing congestion will still be an ongoing problem as an extra 1 million trips per day will be added every 5 years across the transport system. This will have a potential cost to the economy, air quality, traffic noise, and Londoners’ health and wellbeing if not planned for carefully. Unless something even more radical is done, congestion is forecast to increase in the next 15 years by 60% in Central London, 25% in Inner London and 15% in Outer London. London’s road network needs far-reaching solutions to make more effective use of existing space in order to meet demand. This could be through changing how and when people and goods move through the city, as well as altering the physical nature of the roads themselves – from shared bays for deliveries and taxis, to widening pavements. The Mayor and TfL have been pushing this agenda by exploring a number of these options. London’s ground-breaking Congestion Charging Zone has made huge improvements to the quality of the environment in Central London since its introduction in 2003. It has been shown to reduce traffic, while also providing funding for transport improvements and public spaces, such as the pedestrianisation of the north of Trafalgar Square to make a world-class public realm connection with the National Gallery.

Managing our existing road space will still not be enough to meet the different needs of our growing city, and we need to investigate ways of replacing or creating new space over the coming decades. New routes act as catalysts for the creation of new neighbourhoods, by connecting communities, supporting new development, encouraging active travel and reducing journey times. This will especially be the case in East London, which is set to see some of the capital’s most significant expansion in coming years – one-third of London’s overall population growth is expected here, and many areas that were once industrial in use are now available for building new homes. New and proposed river crossings could provide improved links for pedestrians, cyclists, public transport and road users by a combination of bridges, tunnels and passenger services. User charging and funding contributions from new development could form part of the package to deliver these new crossings and help manage demand. There is also potential to expand dedicated bus priority corridors to routes such as the Old Kent Road, Upper Lea Valley and North Greenwich to Abbey Wood, to provide the capacity and reliability required for the expected population and employment growth across other parts of London.

Some of the capital’s key corridors – such as the A13 – are critical for the movement of traffic but cut directly through new areas of regeneration and growth. This results in a barrier, known as severance, across neighbourhoods. Tunnels – including orbital and

“Without radical interventions such as more sophisticated congestion charging, journey times and reliability on London’s roads will only get worse. London needs

to embrace this reality and apply its collective ingenuity to develop workable

solutions as soon as possible.”

David Leam, Infrastructure Director, London First

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cross-city routes – have great potential to reduce severance and congestion, perhaps by even up to 20% in Central London. They would also result in more reliable journeys, improve air quality and lower noise levels, and allow removal of infrastructure that blights some areas, for example in West London. The precise routing and tunnel entrances and exits of major routes are not yet identified – though they would avoid Central London – but they could open in the 2030s. Critically, these would not be intended to generate more traffic but would be part of a wider network of alternative transport modes and routes, improving connectivity as a means to facilitate regeneration while improving local conditions.

Such projects have been successfully delivered in cities around the world, in Boston (the Central Artery or Big Dig), Oslo (Hammersborg Tunnel), Madrid (Calle 30 ring road) and Munich (the Mittlerer Ring). In Hamburg, sections of the A7 national motorway west of the city are being decked over with parks, trees and allotments for the adjacent neighbourhoods.

By providing more space underground for traffic, tunnels and other strategic measures such as decking and flyunders could directly release land at surface level for other uses, including walking, cycling, housing, green space and public transport. Schemes such as the proposed A13 Riverside Tunnel at Barking and decking over the A3 at Tolworth could increase development opportunities, which in turn could provide funding. Increasing the amount of green space at surface level as part of wider developments will also have the additional benefit of improving London’s resilience to climate change and the impacts of extreme weather as global temperatures are likely to rise. Sustainable urban drainage also reduces the cost of drain and sewer upgrades and the disruption these cause to road use.

Another future option could be to reconsider the way Londoners pay for road use, in order to address congestion and air quality problems in the capital, and to respond to economic constraints. London’s quality of life has a major impact on its status as a place to live, work and invest. The cost of congestion is forecast to increase by up to an additional £800 million per annum, on top of the present £5 billion.

Nationally, the way England’s roads are funded will be changing in 2017. Under the new system of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), revenues will be ring-fenced for spending on the strategic roads operated by Highways England from 2020/21. However, London’s strategic roads were handed from the Highways Agency to TfL via the Mayor in 1999, meaning they will not, under current proposals, be covered by this new Roads Fund. VED paid by Londoners will be spent on roads nearly exclusively outside London.

“Our experience of the use of tunnels in Stockholm has been a good one –

they have provided capacity, a national city park, new dwelling areas, reduced

congestion and, at the same time, reduced the impact on the environment and enabled development of the city”

Hans Ek, Researcher, Trafikverket, Swedish Transport Administration (Planning Region Stockholm)

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The Central Artery (‘Big Dig’), Boston – before and after © David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Urban greening and sustainable urban drainage are integral to delineating routes for different road users in the proposed scheme for Vauxhall Walk © erect architecture

Proposed decking over the A3 at Tolworth could create more open space, reduce noise and air pollution, and a better link between the station and the town centre © TfL Visual Services

The ‘green canopy’ over the new A7 motorway (autobahn) tunnel in Hamburg

Fore Street Tunnel, subject of a major programme of refurbishment in 2014–15 © TfL Visual Services

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Crossing 3.BelvedereCrossing

Belvedere

Greenwich

Rotherhithe

CanaryWharf

A2016

A13

A13

A13

A2

A205

A207

A102

A118

A11

A12

Barking Rd

40 41

the surface above and it could bring income and investment to those areas. I have worked hard to make progress on this exciting agenda and can confirm that we have now identified

potential alignments for those tunnels as well as a number of smaller scale tunnels and ‘flyunders’. This kind of transformation cannot

happen overnight and with that in mind we have also been looking at quicker ways of bringing big improvements to our roads. One of those

would be for the Government to devolve Vehicle Excise Duty to London so this revenue could

be spent exclusively on our roads. It would be an entirely reasonable decision and one that I am lobbying hard for. I have also asked TfL to explore whether that revenue could ultimately

be integrated with other charges to form a single, far more sophisticated way of paying for

the use of roads in our great city.

We must also consider whether new measures to manage freight traffic in our city could reduce congestion and emissions, and improve safety.

I have asked TfL to begin work on looking at the potential benefits and challenges of a ban

or charge on HGVs coming into central London at peak times. This is vital work and it must begin right now if we are to ensure London remains the best place in the world to work,

play, live and study.”

Boris Johnson MP, Mayor of London

“The number one challenge facing this city is the amazing boom in the number of

Londoners. They need jobs, they need homes and most importantly they need a superb

transport network that provides a quick and convenient way of getting from one place

to another. That is why considering how to improve our roads is so vital. They are the veins and arteries that keep this city alive.

Making serious improvements requires serious investment, and we are in the midst

of a £4bn roads programme – the biggest investment in our roads in a generation. That work includes the delivery of a world-leading

cycling programme. And it includes consigning out-dated gyratory systems

such as the ones at Elephant & Castle and King’s Cross to the past. We are improving our streets for pedestrians and for cyclists, and we are providing fantastic new public

spaces. At the same time we are doing our utmost to cut congestion and delays through the use of innovative new traffic

light technology and Transport for London’s pioneering Lane Rental Scheme.

But as London continues to grow, so must our ambitions for our roads and

streets. Providing two cross-city tunnels to divert traffic away from the Inner Ring Road could reduce congestion by up to 20 per cent in central London, it could

dramatically improve the quality of life on

42 43

Unlike public transport, which generates revenue from fare payers, very little of the cost of maintaining roads can be recovered. With schemes such as the Congestion Charge and Low Emission Zone (LEZ) already in place, the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) being implemented in 2020, and the proposed charges on the Blackwall and future Silvertown tunnels, there could be an opportunity to simplify payments as part of an integrated plan for the road network. New technologies could allow charging based on the time at which, and places where, people drive. As well as improving congestion and air quality, this could improve road safety, health and the public realm by freeing up space for people walking and cycling and reducing reliance on private cars.

In addition to personal travel, the growth in freight and servicing in London will put an ever-increasing demand on, or next to, the road network. Freight and servicing are essential to the economic success of London, and although options to improve their operation are needed, these should not prevent the city from functioning. To deal with the increasing volume of freight on the roads, further options and incentives could be explored to reduce the overall demand for freight road trips, and to redirect trips to a time and place when the network can best accommodate them.

One potential solution for freight and servicing is through targeted and more extensive use of consolidation, in which deliveries are made to a centre outside London, and put onto one vehicle for delivery. Better regulation is another option, and these could all be linked to potential new ways of paying for roads. With the exception of the Congestion Charge, the existing and planned regulatory and charging regimes – such as the Safer Lorry Scheme, the LEZ and the ULEZ – principally address safety and environmental issues, but do not solve congestion. Furthermore, concerns remain about safety. Many cities, at differing scales, are grappling with these challenges and could offer potential approaches for London to consider. For example, Paris, Warsaw and Madrid have introduced bans for heavy goods vehicles within their central areas. The largest scheme, in Paris, was introduced in 2007 to tackle poor air quality, and operates between 5pm and 10pm.

There is no one solution which tackles all of the challenges. To deliver improvement in the future, there is a need to work with all road users and decision-makers at a strategic level to explore effective options for managing the timing and movement of freight and servicing to, from and within London.

“The street has become a new type of contested space – one where people,

private cars, and public transit now jostle against disruptive technologies like ride-hailing services, networked micro-transit, and delivery robots, all arguing for right-

of-way. We must ensure we have the right environment to get the best out of technology that will improve our cities.”

Greg Lindsay, Senior Fellow, New Cities Foundation

“The movement of goods and provision of services are at the heart of London’s

economy and well-being. I am delighted we are working collaboratively to find the solutions to London’s future challenges.

Partnerships are key to behaviour change in servicing and delivery. Together, we can create new ways of using data to

drive efficiency and harness new vehicle technology for a greener, cleaner, safer

and more pleasant London.”

Michael Browne, Chair, Central London Freight Quality Partnership

44

The next 50 to 100 years could see a revolution in how we design, use and manage our streets and roads. New technologies and data-sharing are already shaping a smart and sustainable future of transport, with smart fare collection for cashless bus travel already in place. Part of this revolution will involve increasingly autonomous vehicles, which are already being trialled in London. They can potentially offer many benefits: reduced numbers of road deaths and injuries, optimised use of road space to reduce congestion, and extended access to mobility. But there could be downsides, including assessing liability in the case of an accident, increasing the attractiveness of car travel, issues in integrating road infrastructure, potential systems hacking, and managing the way they interact with other road users. The question for the next Mayor is how to make sure these new technologies are taken up in a way that provides the maximum benefit for London and are part of the overall solution for how people will live, work and travel around the city in the future.

Technology can also make for a safer and cleaner London. Proximity sensors on buses, for example, could drastically reduce the risk of collisions with cyclists and other vulnerable road users. If small drones become a viable proposition for delivering packages, as well as inspecting utilities, this could have an impact on the patterns of freight and serving traffic. The commercial drone market is predicted by some to grow by up to £7 billion in the next decade, though concerns remain about safety, security and privacy. How we get around is also changing: an ageing population is partly driving a 10% annual increase in mobility scooter sales.

Materials engineering research is also generating pioneering ideas for greener, interactive roads through temperature-sensitive road markings, solar-powered carriageways, self-healing surfaces, asphalt mixtures grown from microalgae, photo-luminising markings, and plastic markings that can be easily removed and replaced. Ultimately, technology needs to help us to tackle our biggest strategic challenge of improving the quality of life for Londoners while ensuring people, goods and services get to their destinations safely, easily and reliably.

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“Billions of un-connected datasets are being created through the unprecedented use of mobile and connected devices. At

Atkins, we believe London has a fantastic opportunity to harness these together, from

freight delivery to parking to healthcare appointment management to lifestyle

choices, in order to deliver a dynamic and personalised transport solution. This will

help optimise the network, manage growing user expectations and drive efficiencies in

resources and budgets”

Dr. John McCarthy, Technical Director, Intelligent Mobility – Transportation, Atkins

“Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are coming, and they will be transformational. They will

support a better quality of life, economic growth, improved health and broader social

connections by offering convenient and affordable mobility to all of us, regardless

of where we live, our age or ability to drive. They will also improve our places and

streets, allowing us to create better quality places alongside an increased density of homes and jobs. London’s decision makers must start preparing for these

technologies now to take full advantage of their potential.”

Rachel Skinner, Director, Development WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Chair, ICE London

Transport Expert Panel

46 47

‘Smart Highway’ project by Studio Roosegarde for interactive road markings

Concept design for a drone delivery corridor over Westminster Bridge © Bizzby

Google self-driving car prototype, planned to be available to the public in 2020 © Google

Example of how a Google self-driving car prototype assesses the road activity in transit © Google

III

This catalogue has been produced by New London Architecture (NLA), in support of a free NLA exhibition at The Building Centre, London WC1, on show from 28 January – 24 February 2016.

© New London Architecture 2016

Curated by:

Supported by:

Designed by:

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