Creating both social space and movement space in Mayfair and Belgravia

The City of Westminster has a unique and historic townscape of great complexity and character. In the latter half of the twentieth century areas of the city, such as Mayfair and Belgravia which have retained much of their architectural character, have become dominated by the needs of the motor vehicle. This domination of streets by vehicles has led to reduced pedestrian and cyclist provision and safety, and has also impacted upon the visual amenity of streets. Most importantly streets have been increasingly regarded as movement conduits, forgetting their crucial social function as places where people live, work, and socialise. To help re-assert the social function of streets and places, MVA was commissioned by landowner Grosvenor to provide transport and movement inputs for a multi-million pound 20-year public realm improvement programme. A matrix-based analysis of streets' link and place status was undertaken that clearly identified particular streets where significant 'conflict' between traffic movement and social functions occurred. The full analysis methodology is outlined using a range of examples with particular focus on its benefits over a purely vehicle-based approach that has been traditionally used. The 'conflict' areas that were identified were then resolved through a coordinated range of public realm improvements including: removal of signal control at junctions, footway widening, rationalisation of parking, and also extensive street de-cluttering. These examples show how the link-place analysis can highlight areas of 'conflict' and how best practice taken from 'Manual for Streets' can help address these areas. Additionally, MVA prepared an Access and Movement framework which was a central component to a 'Public Realm Handbook' developed for the Ultimate Client. This handbook was a key policy document for how to control development and bring about public realm improvements throughout the Estate in future years. This was complimentary to the relevant policy documents produced by Westminster City Council. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999

• Record URL:
  https://aetransport.org/past-etc-papers/conference-papers-pre-2012/conference-papers-2008
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/14749122
• Authors:
  • ADAMS, S
  • HAMPTON, D
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Serial:
  • EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CONFERENCE 2008; PROCEEDINGS
  • ISSN: 1474-9122

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aesthetics; Conferences; Highway design; Improvements; Intersections; Local government agencies; Parking; Policy; Sociology; Traffic control; Traffic signals; Urban areas; Walkways
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 9107: Aesthetics; 8525: Conference; 2720: Footway; 2855: Highway design; 9108: Improvement; 455: Junction; 192: Local authority; 955: Parking; 173: Policy; 2253: Sociology; 654: Traffic control; 565: Traffic signal; 8119: United Kingdom; 313: Urban area
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Policy; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01174454
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: TRL
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Sep 30 2010 11:12AM