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Green Travel and Safety

Amongst the key issues identified from SCF’s 2017 Common User Survey were:

April 2019 Meeting Reports and other related  information

SCF 2017 Common User Survey.

SCF Green Travel and Safety Working Group Report.

SCF Green Travel and Safety Workshop Report.

SCF Presentation on results of the 2019 Commuter Survey

SCF Presentation on report from the Green Travel and Safety Working Group

SCF  2019 Commuter Survey raw data (excel)

SCF 2019 Commuter Survey collated data (excel)

SCF and Lovers’ Walk

SCF and Hill Lane

Copyright © Southampton Common Forum - 2021

Copyright © Southampton Common Forum - 2021

Although these findings came as no surprise, they clearly needed to be addressed, and SCF is committed to supporting evidence-based, properly thought out and implemented green travel schemes in and around The Common. We therefore set up a “hot Topic” working group to explore the issues, to research how these problems are addressed in other open spaces, both nationally and internationally, and to identify possible solutions that could be explored for The Common. The working group’s full report can be found here. In parallel, we conducted an online survey of commuters using The Common, together with actual counts of numbers of cyclists and pedestrians using key junctions at prime commuting times  and their directions of travel. Southampton City Council also conducted its own surveys to inform the debate and decision making.

In April 2019, we co-hosted an open public meeting and workshop at the University of Southampton to publicise the Green Travel and Safety Report and the Commuter Survey data and to discuss the results and conclusions..

Over summer 2019, in collaboration with the University of Southampton, Southampton City Council and Philips Signify, SCF conducted trials of a new street light  system which is claimed to be “bat neutral”. This is the first trial of this system in the UK and the first in an urban context anywhere and we were delighted to be involved in this important piece of scientific research. More

In 2020, Council announced proposals for new green travel initiatives in and around The Common:

Council ran a series of public information sessions and an online survey to gather feedback on the proposals. No formal report was issued, despite repeated requests from various groups, but late in 2020 summary data was located on council’s www site and forms the basis for formal Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) that will implement the final Avenue scheme. SCF has concerns that this summary is incomplete and ignores feedback on specific aspects of the scheme which we witnessed at the information sessions. This led us to regrettably object to Council’s Section 38 application for Consent for the works on The Common to deliver so that these issues might be addressed.

The Lovers’ Walk planning application had a determination deadline of 17th April 2020, but as of  1st January 2021 was still undecided.More

In early 2020, Council installed temporary / experimental painted cycle lanes on Hill Lane running down the west edge of The Common as part of its COVID-19 response to encourage green travel, avoid public transport and facilitate social distancing. SCF had multiple, significant concerns about the scheme, its consequences and its method of installation and undertook regular survey data to assess the level of use of the lanes which were submitted to Council. In November 2020 Council agreed that the section of lane between Burgess Road and Bellemore Road had not been a success and that this would be removed in January 2021 with on street parking restored, side road junction improvements and additional disabled parking. More