Organisation
Bannerman Road PTA
Amount awarded
£56,950 + £20,585 to Sustrans for evaluation
Completed
April 2022
Uploaded to Knowledge Centre
17 May 2022
Safety is a significant issue on UK roads and a barrier to encouraging higher levels of walking and cycling, particularly for children travelling to school. In 2015, 40% of safety-related incidents involving children occurred in the morning or evening of a school day (DfT, 2016).
The closure to traffic of streets around schools is becoming an increasingly common intervention used by local authorities across the country. These closures can be either permanent or timed to meet morning and afternoon drop off and pick up. It is hoped that restriction of access to cars around the immediate vicinity of a school will discourage the high volumes of vehicles typically experienced at the start and end of the school day. The broad objective of such a road closure is to create a safer environment that will in turn encourage higher levels of walking and cycling.
Despite the potential benefits of restricting traffic around schools, road closures are often seen as contentious within local communities. The approach is considered as just moving congestion to other parts of an area, causing an inconvenience to local journeys.
In 2017, Bristol City Council identified a road junction in the Bristol neighbourhood of Easton to be closed to vehicles. A parent and teacher group, Friends of Bannerman Road, were commissioned by the Road Safety Trust to deliver a community design process with the aim of engaging the school and local community in creating a new pedestrian space around the closed junction. Sustrans were commissioned to evaluate several aspects and potential impacts of the road closure and associated co-design project.
This report investigates the impact of the closure of the junction between All Hallows Road and Albion Road, focussing on comparative changes in several behaviours associated with the closure. This includes potential traffic displacement, road safety impacts such as changes in traffic speeds and volumes, changes in walking and cycling to and from the school and the changing perceptions and levels of support for the road closure.
Click the link below to access the full project report, and the technical evaluation report, on the Road Safety Trust website:
https://www.roadsafetytrust.org.uk/funded-projects/18/albion-green-all-hallows-road