Summary
- Where: St Denys area
- When: Implemented in phases from November 2020. Final works completed October 2023.
- What: An Active Travel Zone
- Why: To create a better environment for everyone by identifying and making some small changes to the streets and roads that will improve walking and cycling for short journeys.
The Active Travel Zone implemented in St Denys has taken shape through collaboration with the residents of the neighbourhood. Southampton City Council worked with the St Denys community to address concerns relating to air quality, levels of traffic, and safety for walking and cycling in the area that were raised in the Your St Denys Your Say survey in late 2019.
Project Details
What is an Active Travel Zone (ATZ)?
An ATZ is a residential area, bordered by main roads (the places where buses, lorries, non-local traffic should be), where “through” motor vehicle traffic is discouraged or removed. Strategic road closures (like bollards or planters) prevent through traffic and rat running. Every street is still accessible by vehicles.
Why does Southampton need Active Travel Zones?
Streets in many residential neighbourhoods in Southampton are treated as short cuts by drivers avoiding main roads. This traffic often dominates, as vehicles take priority over all other road users and residents, and drivers using it as a shortcut may be more likely to speed. In some streets, traffic data and residents report speed and volumes are at unacceptably dangerous levels, making active travel scary, streets noisy and unattractive and making it hard for neighbours and children to socialize.
How was St Denys chosen?
We worked with a data specialist to identify residential areas across the city that would benefit from an ATZ. This process looked at the layout of the streets and local amenities and whether the measures which could be added as part of an ATZ would help more residents walk and cycle. The process also looked at the likely benefit that an ATZ would have on congestion, safety, health and wellbeing.
Why does St Denys need an Active Travel Zone?
Residents reported to us that several roads in St Denys have high levels of traffic and that their local streets feel too dangerous to walk and cycle, the environment feels noisy and the air feels polluted.
We also carried out traffic surveys that found that there are high numbers of vehicles using some of the residential roads
How did you decide which measures were proposed for St Denys? What consultation has there been with residents?
All St Denys residents were invited to complete the Your St Denys Your Say survey in December 2019, to identify what you like and don’t like about your neighbourhood. We received nearly 1000 contributions and the key concerns were traffic, safety and air quality.
In February and March, we held four co-design workshops, which were attended by over 100 St Denys residents who worked with our engineers to develop ideas and find solutions to those key concerns. The feedback from the survey and suggestions from the workshops were then analysed by our transport officers to identify the most popular suggestions. Our engineers also looked at which of those suggestions could be put in place, considering the budget, road widths, and other constraints. Detail on what was and wasn’t taken forward can be found in these pages
