Making East Withington safer for people walking and cycling
This project is being progressed following concerns raised by residents about road safety in the East Withington area, emphasizing the need of better public space and safer environments for walking and cycling.
As a result of these concerns the area was selected by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the Council to be part of a Greater Manchester Active Travel programme, which puts in measures designed to make it safer to walk and cycle. Back in 2021, TfGM and partners rolled out a ‘have your say’ engagement (that included several online design workshops) to find out what residents thought about their streets. The feedback from this was considered and led to a draft proposal that was shared with residents.
We are now accessing further funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and are getting ready to deliver this proposal as a trial. The trial will assist with identifying the best permanent solution for the location.
View a map of the proposed area
What this means for the area
The interventions delivered as part of this project will have an impact on the wider area of East Withington, so we will work with residents and businesses from beyond the project study area.
This project aims to create streets where the movement, health and safety of people is prioritised over cars. They are safe, attractive spaces for people to spend time chatting or for children to play.
This is also about stopping people using residential roads as cut-throughs. By purposefully removing ‘rat running’, we can reduce any negative impact of this on the local neighbourhood and put residents back at the centre of their communities. This is typically achieved using planters or bollards sometimes called modal filters on some streets to stop through access for vehicles, but keeping streets open to those travelling by foot, bike, wheelchair or pushing a pram.
Residents will still be able to access their homes by car and emergency vehicles will still be able to drive onto the street.
Using modal filters is not a new concept. Most housing estates built since World War Two are designed on this principle, as people don’t like living in neighbourhoods with high levels of through traffic. These types of schemes build on this idea by including better connections for walking and cycling.
What are the benefits
The proposed project approach enables residents to walk, cycle or scoot, as well as catch up with friends or play outside safely. Where similar schemes have been implemented on a neighbourhood-wide level elsewhere, they have shown to contribute to increased retail spend in local shops, more positive health and wellbeing, improved air quality and reduced traffic by 56%. Read Reference 2: Waltham Forest Study 2018
The project benefits have been defined as the following:
- Encourage people to walk, wheel and cycle rather than just travelling by car
- As people walk, wheel and cycle, they will improve their health and wellbeing
- Improve road safety
30% of all trips under 1km in Greater Manchester are made by car, so there is considerable scope to replace some of these car trips with more walking and cycling. 1km equates to a 10 minute walk or 4 minute cycle for most people. Read Reference 6: TfGM report 2020
Projects like this aren’t the whole story but they are an important step towards safer streets which are more attractive for walking, cycling and socialising.
Health and wellbeing
Those living in more disadvantaged areas are more likely to suffer from the negative health impacts of air and noise pollution from congested traffic and are at a higher risk of injury from traffic collisions even though they are less likely to own a car.
These types of schemes reduce through traffic and therefore pollution. There is evidence of an average of 56% traffic reduction on residential streets in some existing schemes. Some streets have seen 90%+ reductions in motor traffic. This creates safer streets for more vulnerable users, such as children. Read Reference 3: Waltham Forest study 2020.
Areas such as this are accessible to a wider range of people and encourage easier social interactions between neighbours as a result of people-focused streets where residents want to spend time. This also helps to improve local pride in an area. Read Reference 4: Transport for London report 2020.
They increase the amount people walking and cycling (active travel), which helps tackle inactivity. Research shows active travel enabled by some existing schemes will increase life expectancy for its residents by up to 7 months. Read Reference 2: Waltham Forest Study 2018. Residents in Waltham Forest Active Neighbourhood walk 30 mins more and cycle 10 mins more per week than before. Read Reference 1: Transportation research 2019. Physical inactivity is responsible for 1 in 6 UK deaths. Read Reference 11: Department for Transport report 2020.