In June 2003, ISP undertook a follow-up study of the Shoreditch Triangle Traffic Reform scheme. The aim of the project was evaluate the impact that the TfL scheme has had on the pedestrian environment and in particular, to see how well the recommendations that ISP had made about the design are now working in practice. The key recommendations that we made in 2001 prior to the scheme implementation were

• an increase in the number of ATS crossing facilities
• revised placement of ATS along pedestrian ‘desire lines’
• pavement widening in some areas
• support for TfL's creation of new public spaces

In 2003, we were able to use comparable data on flows, crossings and land use before and after the intervention to objectively evaluate the effects of the scheme. The main findings of the study are:

Road crossing in Shoreditch is much safer

• Pedestrian use of assigned crossing areas has increased by 56%
• Informal crossing away from assigned crossing areas has decreased by 61%

The evidence based approach to crossing designs that we advocated has led directly to a quantifiable improvement in the quality of provision for pedestrian movement. As a result, overall accident risk has been substantially reduced.

Roads are much easier to cross (severance has been reduced)

Overall crossings have increased by 9%, despite a large increase in the number of vacant buildings (vacant footprint area doubled) and a 4% reduction in flows. This strongly indicates a large reduction in severance for local communities;

The quality of public spaces has been greatly improved

There have been substantive improvements to the physical environment in terms of widened pavements, new public spaces, improved quality of streetscape and traffic calming measures; these changes have contributed towards greater leisure use of the Triangle streetscape.

Still some room for improvement in traffic phasing for pedestrians

One issue that still could be improved is the phasing of traffic signals for pedestrians. There has been a general increase in the rate of ‘red man’ phase crossings at assigned crossing areas since 2001 and very high risk crossings have been identified by the new study. This increase is probably caused by a combination of complex traffic light phasing, provision of traffic islands, and slower traffic speeds;