Mindell, J;
Scholes, S;
Vaughan, L;
Haklay, M;
Jones, P;
Groce, N;
Stockton, J;
... Anciaes, PR; + view all
(2017)
Development of a toolkit to measure and value local impacts of community severance due to heavy or fast traffic.
Presented at: Public Health Beyond Borders - Driving Change With Evidence (FPH Annual Conference 2017), Telford, UK.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Heavily motorised roads can interfere with individuals’ ability to access the goods, services, and people they need for a healthy life. This community severance also reduces use of streets as social spaces and young and older people’s independence. AIM: There is a lack of tools to identify, measure, value and study community severance caused by busy roads. This project aimed to develop a suite of tools and validate them through triangulation of findings from different data sources. METHODS: New tools include: a) participatory mapping - engaging local residents to provide qualitative data on the locality; b) a health and neighbourhood mobility survey to collect data from a random sample of local residents; c) a community severance valuation tool, based on data from stated preference surveys; d) walkability models; and e) video surveys, to determine pedestrian and motorised traffic flows and pedestrian crossing behaviours. Spatial analysis using space syntax and street audits were also used. These were all tested in three case studies. RESULTS: Despite its high walking potential, the high traffic levels, the associated air and noise pollution, and the lack or poor quality of pedestrian crossing facilities make Finchley Road unpleasant for pedestrians. This has a negative impact on the overall mobility and accessibility of local residents and on the quality of their walking trips. The analyses showed coherence between the findings from the different measurement tools applied individually and revealed interconnections between factors which contribute to severance. CONCLUSIONS: Coherence of qualitative & quantitative findings from the different approaches support the validity of the tools. The toolkit will be available online in 2017 from www.ucl.ac.uk/street-mobility for use by local communities, practitioners, and researchers. By providing valuations of the impacts of community severance on the local community, policy-makers and practitioners can prepare business cases for expenditure to reduce severance.
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