The Lived Experience of Our Streets sets a vision to create a more equitable and accessible street for all users across London.
During a period of rapidly evolving global trends and competing demands on street space, this vision and toolkit document aims to guide decision makers to put people first in the visioning of central London’s street space.
At the core of this commission is the need to improve the inclusion, accessibility and wellbeing of London’s street users.
The people-first vision and toolkit methodology begins with developing an in-depth understanding of the street, its physical and environmental assets and how the street is being used.
The study explores this methodology by focussing on four different street typologies; a Local Street (Atlantic Road, Brixton), a Destination Street (Camden High Street), an Office and Transport Street (Praed Street, Paddington) and a New Development Street (Circus Road West, Nine Elms).
Public Realm
THE LIVED EXPERIENCE
OF OUR STREETS
“Increasing numbers of competitors want to come in and adopt street space for services, bikes, scooters, car clubs. All of these are potentially useful but accommodating them is becoming an ever laborious task"
A core component of the study has been the findings of key stakeholder engagement sessions which captured the views of public authorities, businesses, landowners, logistics and freight organisations and emerging technology products.
At the heart of the research from this report are the lived experience interviews, where we heard from a diverse representation of street users.
The interviews are both universal and deeply personal in nature, providing a unique perspective into the needs and experiences of those that use our streets as a place of work, leisure, and transport.
The proposed visions use the street space toolkit to demonstrate four high level visions for the street typologies investigated in the study.
This includes an overarching vision for the improvement of user experience of London’s streets in order to minimise environmental stressors and improve the overall health and wellbeing of street users.
The toolkit includes a simple methodology that identifies what TfL and London’s authorities can do with different street space typologies to meet the needs of different users at various times of the day and night.