People-friendly streets continue to make positive impact, Canonbury West data reveals
Islington’s people-friendly streets neighbourhoods are continuing to have a positive impact, with data showing that the Canonbury West scheme has helped make streets cleaner, greener, and healthier.
So far, seven people-friendly streets neighbourhoods have been introduced as 18-month trials, as part of efforts to create a more pleasant Islington that can achieve net zero carbon status by 2030.
A report published today reveals that the Canonbury West scheme, which was introduced in November 2020, has improved streets for local people. This follows similarly positive reports from four other Islington neighbourhoods: St Peter’s, Canonbury East, Clerkenwell Green, and Amwell.
Comparing data from July 2020 – two months prior to the start of the trial – with figures from June 2021, the report shows that local people have enjoyed more pleasant streets, with traffic falling on roads within the neighbourhood by 46%.
The positive impact of this is reflected by cycling within the neighbourhood rising by 58%, showing that the scheme helped local people switch to this more active, greener mode of transport. Meanwhile, traffic also fell on boundary roads surrounding the neighbourhood by 14% overall.
Cllr Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Environment and Transport, said: “Our people-friendly streets neighbourhood trials are part of our borough-wide ambition to create a cleaner, greener, healthier borough, where all can travel easily and the toxic effects of air pollution are reduced.
“The monitoring reports that we have published so far on the trials reflect their positive impact in creating more pleasant and safer streets. The Canonbury West report is no different, and reflects the positive impact of the scheme in making it easier for everyone to walk, cycle, and use buggies and wheelchairs.
“We know that local people know their streets better than everyone, and we will continue to listen to their feedback and to review the impact of the scheme on them.”
Other developments from the Canonbury West monitoring report include:
- Traffic on Clephane Road, one of the roads within the neighbourhood, dropped by 83%, while cycling rose by 241% on Canonbury Square
- Air quality data showed that nitrogen dioxide levels in Canonbury West fell in line with borough-wide trends
- London Fire Brigade response times remained within the service’s targets and were not affected by the scheme
- The scheme had no impact on rates of crime or anti-social behaviour
Local people are at the heart of everything the council does, and public consultations will take place approximately 12 months into each trial scheme to help decide if they should be made permanent, changed or removed. To help local people participate in the Canonbury West consultation, a second monitoring report will be published before the start of the consultation.
Public consultation on one of the council’s people-friendly streets neighbourhoods, St Peter’s, is currently open. Local people can find out more about how they can take part on the council’s website.
Notes to editors
Notes to editors
To account for the significant impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on transport in London, traffic figures in the monitoring report have been adjusted through a process known as “normalisation”. Further details on this process, which involves using Transport for London figures to estimate the effect of the pandemic on transport, can be found in the report itself.
On two of the internal roads, Canonbury Park North and Compton Road, gas works were in operation when baseline figures were collected in July 2020, which affected traffic. For these particular streets, data from November 2020 was compared with data from June 2021. This means that figures for the overall increase or decrease in traffic and cycling on roads within the neighbourhood do not include these streets.
Contact information
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