Kingston's Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

For the full story please visit our website.

For the full story please visit our website.

Our latest update covers our Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes and committee arrangements for upcoming Neighbourhood Committee meetings.

The latest version of Street Talk can be found here.

The latest version of Street Talk can be found here.

Dear Resident,

Welcome to the third edition of Street Talk. In this newsletter we’ll be exploring the significant shift in travel habits driven by the pandemic, revisiting our Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) and School Street trials and taking a closer look at one of Kingston Council’s top priorities - creating a cleaner, greener borough, of which our streets play a vital role.

A pivotal moment in sustainable transport

COVID-19 has transformed the way that we travel, the use of public transport has plummeted and more of us than ever before are walking and cycling. Transport for London (TfL) data indicates that this behavioural change looks set to continue.

During the first lockdown (between April-June 2020), nearly half of all journeys in the capital were walked or cycled, a 29% increase from before the pandemic.

When restrictions began to ease, this trend continued with walking and cycling still accounting for approximately 37% of all journeys in London between July and September 2020.

And we are likely to see lasting effects, with 31% of Londoners now walking to places where they used to travel by a different mode and almost 60% now walking more for exercise.

This is incredibly positive news as walking is environmentally friendly and the cheapest and most accessible way for us to stay healthy by incorporating physical activity into our daily routine.

If you are yet to discover the benefits of walking, now is the time to get started, the weather may not be on our side, but we are working hard to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone.

This includes working with our communities to ensure overhanging hedges are maintained to help keep our pathways clear, and plans to resurface a number of uneven pavements across the borough in the coming months.

Many of you are reporting that the LTNs are continuing to provide more pleasant, quieter and safer roads for our residents and enabling more essential journeys to be safely made on foot and by bike.

Later this month we will also be introducing traffic calming measures in a number of busy residential roads to ensure our streets are safe and people-friendly spaces that support active travel, both now and in the future. More information on these schemes will be available in the coming weeks.

Recent High Court Judgement against Transport for London (TfL)

You may be aware of a recent high court case where the judge ruled against TfL in relation to a particular 'Streetspace' project in central London, as well as the guidance issued to boroughs about the London Streetspace Plan. We are studying the implications of this judgement closely, but in the meantime, the judgement has been paused to allow TfL to appeal the decision. We will continue to monitor this case and will update you on any potential impacts on projects in Kingston as the case progresses.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs)

We are now more than half-way through our trials and so far more than 550 of you have formally shared your views on the LTNs via Let’s Talk and over 300 via email, with many more providing comments through social media, your local councillors and community groups.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, your first-hand experience of the schemes is the most valuable data available to us, and will help us truly understand the impact these measures are having on the community we serve. We appreciate you taking the time out to share your feedback.

Thanks to your helpful input we have now added more advanced signage and clearer road markings to all of our schemes.

So far, feedback via Let’s Talk indicates that some respondents are supportive of the schemes and are enjoying being able to walk and cycle more safely, particularly by parks and playgrounds. Other people have said they are not happy with the changes, highlighting concerns that they may be causing more pollution and traffic in the surrounding areas.

We know that opinions can, and are, changing over time, so your feedback remains as important as ever during the trials.

Has your experience of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood changed? Have you thought of something else you would like to share with us? If so, please don’t hesitate to tell us what you are thinking.

King Charles Road Low Traffic Neighbourhood

Traffic Count and Air Quality Data

We are also gathering traffic count and air quality data in and around the LTNs to help provide a picture of how air pollution and traffic movements have changed in these areas since the introduction of the schemes.

Due to COVID-19 and the various restrictions in place over the past months, fewer children are travelling to school and many people are working from home, which is likely to lead to ‘abnormal’ traffic conditions.

To make sure we take account of this, we will be taking a look at our permanent traffic counters on main roads across the borough to understand what the wider borough traffic levels have been like throughout the pandemic and applying a factor to our data, as a reasonable proxy for 'normal' conditions.

If necessary, and dependent on lockdown conditions, we will consider collecting a further set of data in the spring.

Find out more about how we are collecting traffic data or view the data gathered so far.

Our state of the art air quality monitoring network of 40 nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube monitors and three automatic monitoring stations provide us with excellent coverage across the borough, including the roads surrounding our LTNs. We will be modelling the impact of the LTNs on local air quality in the coming months.

In March we will begin evaluating the trials based on all of the feedback received, alongside the data gathered so far. All representations will also be formally considered.

All findings are expected to be presented to the relevant neighbourhood committees in May/June 2021 and a decision will then be taken on whether to extend the schemes (up to 18 months from first implementation), make them permanent or remove them.

School Streets

Enforcement cameras have now been installed on Castle Hill, St Paul’s and Alexandra School Streets to ensure we can keep these streets as traffic-free as possible. They will be activated from mid-February and any unauthorised vehicles accessing the roads during restricted hours will be liable to receive a penalty charge notice (PCN) from that date. Advanced signage is in place to alert drivers of these schemes.

Residents are invited to share their views on these trials via Let’s Talk, all feedback will be evaluated when assessing the success of the schemes.

We are delighted to be working with a number of schools to introduce more school street trials later this year, to enable more families across the borough to travel more sustainably to and from school.

Find out more about our School Streets.

Alexandra School, Princes Road School Street

A cleaner, greener Kingston

At Kingston Council we are committed to tackling climate change, improving air quality and enabling our residents and visitors to use sustainable travel options.

We have just finished gathering feedback on Kingston’s draft Air Quality Action Plan, which sets out the actions we’ll take with partners and communities over the next five years to improve air quality across the borough.

Our streets play a major role in this plan. Alongside LTNs, School Streets, and traffic calming measures, we are continuing to invest in our cycling infrastructure network, and are introducing more electric vehicle charging points to make it easier for those who need to drive to make the switch to electric vehicles.

We are also working hard to protect our diverse habitat and aspire to become a leading borough in how we look after our local environment and biodiversity.

This winter, we are planting 540 new trees across the borough, with almost two-thirds being planted in locations chosen by our residents. And, thanks to your great input on our green spaces survey, we will be adapting our practices to further support nature conservation, with our new Green Spaces Strategy and Biodiversity Action Plan launching later this year.

Residents and their health remain firmly at the heart of our decision-making, that’s why we are acting now and introducing positive changes for the long term benefit of Kingston’s communities and generations to come.

If you have any questions about our Low Traffic Neighbourhoods or School Streets please email: streetspace@kingston.gov.uk.

Thank you again for all of your input so far.

The Highways and Transport team

Dear Resident,

We hope you are keeping safe and well.

We are now almost five months into our Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) trials and are continuing to gather important feedback from our residents, as well as collecting air quality and traffic data on all immediately affected roads and those surrounding the schemes.

In early March we will begin evaluating the trials based on all of the feedback received, alongside the monitoring data. All representations will also be formally considered.

The findings are expected to be presented to the relevant neighbourhood committees in May/June 2021 and a decision will then be taken on whether to extend the schemes (up to 18 months from first implementation), make them permanent or remove them.

Traffic data was collected before the LTNs were introduced and we committed to gathering two sets of data during the six month trial period. The first set of data was gathered in October 2020 and the next set of data will be collected next week (Monday 25 January - Sunday 31 January 2021).

These measurements will help provide a picture of how traffic movements in these areas have changed since the introduction of the schemes.

Due to COVID-19 and the current restrictions in place, we understand the constraints with less travelling to school and people working from home, which may lead to ‘abnormal’ traffic conditions - but it is looking increasingly unlikely that these restrictions will ease before the end of the six-month trial period, and it is important to have additional data to consider at the end of the trials.

Across the borough we have a number of permanent traffic counters on main roads and these record traffic on a 24 hour basis. We have been using this data to understand what the wider borough traffic levels have been like throughout the pandemic. We will use this data when we assess the traffic flows measured next week to see how they relate to normal conditions. For example if traffic was on average 40% lower on a 'normal' week, we can then apply the appropriate factor (40%) to the data we collect next week as a reasonable proxy for 'normal'.

If necessary, and dependent on lockdown conditions, we will consider collecting a further set of data in the Spring, before presenting results to the neighbourhood committees.

All traffic data will be uploaded to our Let’s Talk portal.

Our next edition of Street Talk will be landing in your inboxes in early February. In this edition we will be exploring the significant shift in travel habits driven by the pandemic, revisiting our LTN trials in more detail, and taking a closer look at one of Kingston Council’s top priorities - creating a cleaner, greener borough, of which our streets play a vital role.

Kind regards,

The Highways and Transport team

Welcome to Street Talk

I am Councillor Hilary Gander and I’m Kingston Council’s lead councillor for Environment and Sustainable Transport in Kingston. Kingston’s streets are really important to me. I care passionately about the air we breathe and the streets we move around in every day. Whether it’s when we’re taking our children to school, cycling for exercise or just walking to the shops, it’s one of my priorities to ensure Kingston’s streets are safer and healthier for all of us.

In this second edition we’ll be giving some further context to the healthy street schemes we have been trialling and the rationale for introducing them. We’ll also shed some light on the type of information that we’re gathering to help us with our decision making at the end of the trials. I hope you enjoy reading Street Talk. Hilary Gander

Kingston’s Air Quality Action Plan

This month, we launched our draft Air Quality Action Plan for Kingston which sets out the actions we’ll take with partners and communities over the next five years to improve air quality across the borough. The work that we’re doing to repurpose our streets plays an essential part in this action plan. You can read the plan and make comments at kingstonletstalk.co.uk/aqap

Kingston is one of many London boroughs that is taking important measures to control pollution. Across London, the amount of protected space for cyclists has tripled since 2016 to 162km (101 miles) and the healthy streets programme is repurposing thousands of square metres of roads to make it easier to walk and cycle in our streets. In Kingston we have made a significant investment in our cycling infrastructure network, with Go Cycle aiming for another 30km of new protected cycle lanes.

Some people have suggested that we’ve used Covid-19 as an excuse to push through changes. The fact is that since Covid-19 hit, many people have taken to their cars in Kingston because they feel unsafe taking public transport. Transport for London reports that use of public transport is just 25% of the level it was a year ago. So this has given us the prompt to try out new things and make changes more quickly than we may have done previously.

Covid-19 will go down in history as the disease which altered our lives more than any of us could have imagined. For the past nine months we have changed the way we live. Many of us are working from home and spending much more time in our local neighbourhoods. Social distancing has become a necessity and we’ve had to find safe ways of carrying on with our lives until we can be sure the virus is no longer a threat.

In these extraordinary times, our streets have moved into close focus as the importance of our neighbourhoods and their communities grows. Kingston has over 1,200 streets totalling 344 km (214 miles) in length and a population of over 176,000. Our streets are for so much more than just moving vehicles around - safe streets and neighbourhoods support the community. We need to ensure that streets allow efficient movement for all of us, whilst not losing sight of their other functions as places of community.

Our solutions to help us adapt to change

Our Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) and School Street trials are part of our Streetspace programme to turn our roads into healthier and safer streets. Healthy streets which are pleasant spaces for people to exercise outdoors, to walk or cycle instead of taking the car or using public transport.

What are your views?

Thank you for your feedback following our first edition of Street Talk. We know these trials were introduced quicker than usual and not how some of us would have preferred. With your feedback, we want you to know that we are going to do the best we can to involve you as much as we can in our reviews of these projects and in the development of any further schemes.

We also know that some of you have to use the car to move around; public transport, cycling or walking just isn’t an option. That gives us further reason to keep traffic levels down so that those who do need to drive, are able to, on less congested roads.

To help reduce pollution on roads further, we are making more electric vehicle charging points available so that people who have to use their car can more easily make the switch to electric vehicles. Four new rapid chargers have recently been installed at sites around the borough in collaboration with Transport for London. This year we have also expanded the ‘Source London’ fast charger network and we are working to introduce charging from lamp columns by Spring 2021. By the end of 2021 we will have over 100 new charging points available for residents on our streets.

What constitutes the ‘decision making’ process?

Many of you have asked how we will decide whether to make the experimental schemes permanent or not.

People and their health are at the heart of our decision making and these schemes are for the long term benefit of Kingston residents. It takes time for us all to develop new habits and adapt to new environments and that applies to our travel habits too. So it will also take some time before we can say that our data is meaningful for the long term. We will be using evidence of people’s experience of their streets and how this is improving, or not, over time.

At this stage, about halfway through the trials, while we are not drawing any conclusions, we are sharing with you some of the data that we have gathered so far in the three LTN trials. It will give some insight into how our professional engineers observe the streets and shape the schemes that will make our streets healthier to move around in.

What are we measuring and why?

First and foremost, an important part of any consultation is how people are thinking and we are monitoring what you tell us very closely. This will be a fundamental part of our review process at the end of the trials.

Road traffic levels

Reducing the number of miles driven by petrol and diesel vehicles is one of the best ways to reduce air pollution and will contribute to our carbon neutral target for the borough by 2038.

We already maintain a network of permanent vehicle count devices which monitor traffic patterns on the main roads across the borough. So we have a lot of existing knowledge about traffic flows in the area.

When we introduce new schemes, we supplement the permanent network with temporary local vehicle count tubes which are installed in and around the trial schemes. These monitor vehicles entering and leaving the affected areas. In August 2020, we collected ‘before’ data, ahead of implementing the schemes. Halfway through the trials we have collected ‘during’ data and that is shown in the graphics which we are sharing with you at this stage. Towards the end of the trials we will collect ‘after’ data at the same locations again.

You asked about measurement and data

We have uploaded plans showing traffic data on the survey pages of our Let’s Talk engagement portal. These charts give an average of the number of vehicles passing through the roads before and after the barriers were installed at the three LTN sites.

Air quality

We monitor traffic and air quality in the borough all the time. It’s generally acknowledged all across London that the air we breathe isn’t good enough. We already know polluted air is damaging to health but recent studies have also linked air quality to how Covid impacts us, particularly long Covid, so the emergency simply deepens.

Air pollution levels can be both modelled and measured.

In Kingston, we measure our air quality with a monitoring network of 40 nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube monitors and three automatic monitoring stations. We also have local diffusion tubes at key points in all of our LTN trials. These give a very good measurement of air pollution across the borough and around the roads surrounding the trials.

The way we ‘model’ the air pollution level is a little more complex. Each diffusion tube provides an air quality reading or ‘concentration value’ for that location. The reading taken can then be used to ‘model’ an average level for a wider area. When we compare the data gathered before, during and after the new LTN trials, we hope to get a picture of the impact of any traffic displacement during the trials. We will publish these results before taking any decisions on the future of the trials.

There are a wide range of factors that affect air quality - for example, local weather conditions and variable traffic situations including roadworks - and it may be difficult for us to isolate the impact of the trial schemes alone. But we are committed to sharing the data with you.

We are aiming to improve our air quality monitoring capability and we have purchased some additional air quality monitors that will improve how we measure particulates. We aim to use these on our future schemes.

What will happen after the end of the trials?

We are legally obliged to consider all representations to the consultations received during the first six months of the trial schemes. The quantitative data on air quality and motor traffic will be analysed and reviewed alongside residents’ views gathered from councillors, emails received and feedback submitted via our Let’s Talk engagement portal.

When all this has been taken into account, the council will be able to decide, from an informed perspective, whether the changes should be extended for a period of time (up to a further 12 months), made permanent or removed.

Air quality and traffic data is just part of the story, residents’ and users’ views are also an essential part of any trial, so that's why it’s so important that as many people as possible register on the Let’s Talk consultation portal and share their thoughts.

Your feedback is more important than ever. Even if you have already sent us comments, it may be that your experience has changed or you think of something else you would like to tell us about, so please tell us what you are thinking.

We will continue to keep you up to date with developments. This Street Talk update is one of the ways that we want to keep you informed, so please let us know what else you want to read about.

If you would like to tell us anything about our healthy street schemes, please email us at streetspace@kingston.gov.uk

Thank you again for sharing your views.

The Highways and Transport team