Walking hasn't figured too prominently in national transport plans, but one council has taken the lead in getting people out of their cars and onto the streets. Nick Warburton reports on a local scheme that has become a national template

British people may not be quite as wedded to the car as the Americans, but, as the recent fuel crisis proved, we're not far off. The benefits of the car are well known - personal freedom, extensive mobility and in many rural areas, the only workable option for travel. But in large cities traffic is bringing major thoroughfares to a standstill and has had devastating knock-on effects on the local environment.

In London, many streets experience near-constant gridlock, and with this in mind, one borough has taken the initiative and launched a walking strategy, to remind city dwellers that there are healthier, more environmentally sound and indeed often quicker alternatives to the car.

Linked with a cycling plan and better public transportation, the Camden walking plan forms a major part of the council's Green Transport Strategy. The stated aim is simply to create a "cleaner, safer borough, healthier for people and environment, and a better place to live, work and visit".

"Car usage has slowly crept up to a level that motorists can't move," explains Sam Monck, Camden's senior traffic planner. On the Finchley Road, for instance, the council measured an 18-hour peak flow. "Only between 12pm and 6am did car levels die down," he adds.

getting started
Camden thoroughly researched walking in the borough before making its plans and uncovered some interesting facts. Walking accounted for 29 per cent of complete journeys, including 82 per cent of journeys less than a mile and 61 per cent of journeys under two miles. This excluded the walking element of other journeys, such as public transport use. Interestingly it seemed walking had declined less in Camden than in London as a whole.

Statistics for car journeys were equally revealing. Journeys for less than two miles counted for 51 per cent; suggesting that the potential for moving people out of their cars was good. The 1991 census had revealed that only 44 per cent of households in the borough were car owners and although that may have increased since then, car owners are still in the minority in parts of the borough.

Any shift from car use to more pedestrians on the street however, needed to overcome public misgivings over the state of the pedestrian network. A Mori poll in 1997 had indicated that Camden would need to upgrade and improve facilities, if it wanted more people to use them.

THE WALKING PLAN
The original walking plan, published at the end of last year, included proposals for discouraging car use through speed and parking zones and introducing safe routes for children. Camden is committed to halting a decrease in walking by 2002 and wants to increase the proportion of walking trips by 1 per cent each year from then to 2005.

Proposals for the partial pedestrianisation of Camden High Street formed one of the council's main projects. Safety was another key concern and lay behind Camden's determination to introduce 20mph zones in the borough. The DETR report, New Directions in Speed Management revealed that nationally, most injuries at 20mph are slight - 30 per cent have no injuries at all, with only 5 per cent fatally injured. Yet at 30mph - the usual urban speed limit - nearly half of all accidents are fatal, and at 40mph almost all result in death.

As public support grew for the initiative, the council carried out an audit of pedestrian access and crossing facilities at all 80 schools in the borough, and promised three pilot 20mph limits outside them. They also asked schools to identify main walking routes and set aside specific funding for the programme. Besides increasing safety, Camden believes that such a policy would introduce children to a culture of walking, which might increase the likelihood of them continuing such a pattern throughout life.

In addition, the plan recognised the importance of the aesthetic aspect of the street environment. Camden made targets to reduce unnecessary and obstructive street clutter and improve street lighting. Such measures would directly reduce the number of footway falls - an issue that particularly affects the elderly - and hopefully could reduce claims to the council, thereby freeing up resources for other walking projects.

PROGRESS
Given the Government's delay in publishing its own strategy guide to local authorities, the Camden plan came to act as a de facto national guidance. Even when the Government did finally publish a walking document in March, it failed to eclipse the London borough's efforts.

But how is it working on the ground?
"We set a range of targets and performance indicators to monitor the success of the strategy," says Sam Monck. The annual review published in July showed that although not all targets had been met, many had been updated and become more ambitious in scope. In the first 20mph zone, accidents have already been reduced by 56 per cent. As a result, rather than planning for five such zones, the council has doubled the number to 10, with three to come into operation by April 2001, and the rest by 2003. Additional funding for Safer Routes to School, agreed in June by the Environment (Streets and Transport) Subcommittee, will now allow proposals for 20mph zones at six locations.

Improvements in the pedestrian network have been accomplished too. Over the last year, four new zebra crossings and three new pelican crossings have been installed. New pedestrian crossing facilities have also been installed at nine existing signal junctions and the facilities at 18 other zebra crossings have been upgraded. Camden has committed itself to ensuring that all pedestrian crossings have dropped down kerbs and tactile paving by April next year.

Last year, Camden won an award for a lighting project in Hampstead and has also introduced new experimental pavement slabs as part of the Camden Town Streetscape study project. The new slabs are more robust and should cut down on footway falls.

One of the council's main achievements is its scheme to improve the pedestrian environment in West End Lane. The Subcommittee allocated £150,000 of the Supplementary Credit Approval Settlement for 2000/2001 to finance its improvement. A new pedestrian and cycle link is being established. Finally there is the council's important three-year programme to improve the pedestrian environment in the borough, the Boulevard Project, for which an additional £20m has been set aside.

CONCLUSION
Camden proposes to review targets and indicators on an annual basis. So far the walking plan has attracted widespread support and Camden officers have been involved in an initial meeting to discuss a possible Central London Walking Strategy, with a common aim of improving the pedestrian environment.

Next year the horizons will broaden again, as London authorities will be compelled to follow transport policies laid down by the Greater London Authority, under Ken Livingstone, and early indications suggest that walking will form a strong element of this. Camden is a good example of what can be achieved; concludes Sam Monck: "The walking plan has a long way to go, but the council has made a good start."

Getting people out of their cars is never going to be easy, but walking has the obvious advantage of being free, and in cities, if walking can be made easy and pleasant, two legs may yet become the transport mode of choice.

For further information about the walking plan contact:
Sam Monck on 020 7974 5803.