Deep Motor Traffic Reduction Measures Revealed In City Of London’s Proposed Transport Strategy

Members of the City of London Corporation’s streets and walkways sub-committee meet on May 23 to discuss revisions to the organization’s transport strategy. The Corporation is the municipal governing body of London’s square mile.

The strategy seeks to reduce the number of motor vehicles in the City. When designing and managing the City of London’s streets, the Corporation puts the needs of people walking first. A statement in the revised strategy accepts that “delivering priority for people walking may result in delays or reduced capacity for other street users.”

Nevertheless, people come before cars, reaffirms the revised strategy, due to be published next year. The first iteration of the strategy was adopted in 2019.

“Street space is a finite resource,” states the revised strategy confirming that any future trade-offs are “weighted towards improvements for people walking (including people using wheelchairs and mobility scooters), and to a lesser extent people cycling, and to enhancing the public realm.”

Reversing one hundred years of providing first for motorists, the strategy recognizes that “it is only possible to give more space or priority on a street to people walking by reallocating space from or changing access for other street users.”

The City of London Corporation has a motor traffic reduction target–against a 2017 baseline–of 25% by 2030 and 50% by 2044.

Among the plans to be discussed by the streets and walkways sub-committee is a radical change to the St Paul’s gyratory. The proposal is to improve walking and cycling routes.

“A large majority of respondents were in support of plans to improve these routes,” says the strategy.

“Our definition of essential traffic,” says the strategy is “walking, cycling, buses, freight and servicing trips with a destination in the City and private and shared vehicles used by people with particular access needs.”

The City of London Corporation will be working with Transport for London on an updated version of London’s congestion charge, and this will be explicitly designed to reduce motor traffic.

“Motor traffic reduction remains key,” states the proposed transport strategy, adding that it plans to “improve the experience of riding cycles and scooters in the City.”

Cyclists are the “single largest vehicular mode counted during peak times on City streets,” said a March report to the Corporation’s transportation committee.

At peak times, people cycling represent 40% of road traffic in the City and 27% throughout the day.

In the revised strategy there will be a “particular focus” on reducing the number of freight vehicles that “pass through the City without an origin or destination in the Square Mile.”

The City of London Corporation is currently consulting on a “Healthy Streets” makeover for Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill. In partnership with the Fleet Street Quarter Business Improvement District (BID) the Corporation is developing a program to “redesign streets and manage access to make streets more accessible, engaging and safe places for people to walk, cycle and spend time.”

A statement from the City says the makeover “aims to create streets that feel pleasant, safe, and attractive and identify the barriers to movement that restrict the community, particularly the most vulnerable.

“These proposals will not only help to improve the City’s accessibility so that everyone can feel safe and comfortable as they walk around the Square Mile but also help to deliver on our commitment to reducing air pollution and making the City more attractive,” said Graham Packham, chairman of the City’s streets and walkways subcommittee.

Lady Lucy French, CEO of the Fleet Street Quarter BID, said the plans would create a “more resilient public realm for the future.”