Background
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham’s priority was to transform their congested school roads into safer, healthier and more pleasant environments for residents and pupils during the school-run.
Our engagement and traffic teams proposed and designed School Streets measures, supporting the Council to:
- Mitigate the pollution and danger caused by excessive numbers of cars on our roads
- Create pedestrian and cycle-only zones outside school gates at pick-up and drop-off times
- Reduce rat-running and through-traffic for children
- Reduce car travel as a way of encouraging parents and students to use healthy transport modes, like walking and cycling
Process
Our engagement team kicked off the project by speaking with residents, teachers and taxi firms, among many other stakeholders. All our methods foresee the crucial importance to keep the community engaged throughout the process.
The team crafted key messages, created and issued letters, leaflets and banners to schools, parents, and residents. Additionally, they managed a website with tailored online engagement tools, including interactive maps, surveys and a question-and-answer page. The residents’ feedback shaped the designs, as our teams ensured the exemption policy, restriction times and any proposed supporting measures were reflective of their needs and concerns.
Our traffic and design teams led on the design process throughout all stages, from the preliminary and detailed designs to supplying construction plans and the required Traffic Regulation Orders.
Working together, they performed desk studies, collision analysis and site visits. These involved pedestrians, vehicles and parking counts near school entrances. Using the collected data, the team produced feasibility, concept designs and costings for implementing our School Streets measures.
Innovations and best practice
Design and traffic:
“We carried out extensive desk studies and site visits before developing the concept design, which gave us a detailed understanding of existing problems and how to solve them. We carried out pedestrian, vehicle and parking counts to analyse which school entrances were most affected by traffic congestion. We also undertook collision analysis to identify roads with the most safety issues. This was essential in deciding where School Streets should be implemented.”
Ilyas Tekin, Civil Engineering Apprentice
Engagement:
“What was unique about this project was the extensive, tailored engagement we undertook with the community of Barking and Dagenham. Residents, parents and businesses had multiple channels to engage with, which yielded high participation results. The combination of face-to-face, telephone
,digital engagement and communication ensured consultation was inclusive and kept the community closely informed of important developments in the project.The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Be First have both agreed to fund the Living Streets’ WOW scheme in some schools, an award-winning behaviour-change scheme. This encourages and rewards pupils for walking, cycling and scooting to school. Policies like these will help to lock-in and embed, in the long-term, the positive impacts of School Streets.”
Chris Harrison, Regional Director
Impact
We have now installed our School Streets measures in five schools in Barking and Dagenham, with two more at the planning stages. The changes are transforming congested and polluted school roads into safer, cleaner and more pleasant environments.
Across the School Streets, an average of 75% of residents were in support of the introduction of these measures. Our accessible communication channels boosted the participation levels quantitatively.
Quotes and testimonials
“I think we have had a very nuanced and subtle approach here in Barking and Dagenham. This has helped to make sure we don’t have some of the problems that other areas have had. So again, I want to commend the officers that had the wit, creativity, and imagination to come up with some of the exemptions that you have put in the report.”
London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Council
“The Project Centre team helped us to deliver very thorough and successful consultation on our School Streets programme. We are very pleased with the work they did. They are a good team and provide good value.”
Be First
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