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London borough to create 15-minute neighbourhood
The programme in Newham is being financed by the UK’s Levelling Up fund and will use traffic monitoring data from VivaCity sensors to analyse road usage and behaviours.
The London Borough of Newham is partnering with transport scale-up VivaCity, formerly known as Vivacity Labs, to help implement its 15-Minute Neighbourhood programme.
VivaCity traffic monitoring data will support two of the programme’s projects: Shared Spaces and Connected Neighbourhoods. Its datasets will be analysed to understand the impact of these projects over an extended period of time.
Levelling Up fund
Newham was successful in its bid in the first round of the UK Government’s Levelling Up fund to tackle geographical inequality through infrastructure investment and has been awarded almost £40m.
The 15-Minute Neighbourhood programme aims to bring new opportunities and vibrancy to the area, as well as generating a sense of pride in the community.
VivaCity’s sensors, which provide detailed, anonymous insights on road usage and behaviours, have been specified to conduct multimodal traffic monitoring. This includes high street footfall and active travel data insights, which will be used to quantify and communicate return on investment.
15-minute neighbourhood
Central to the 15-Minute Neighbourhood approach to urban planning is creating an urban environment that’s designed for humans, rather than for cars. To achieve this, an area needs to facilitate safe, equitable and widespread modal shift towards active travel and micromobility, requiring strategic investment in cycling and walking infrastructure.
The borough is hoping a modal shift from cars towards sustainable travel results in reduced emissions and improved air quality, an increase in footfall in local high streets as well as create an improved sense of safety and wellbeing for communities.
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Shared Spaces is a regeneration project that focuses on improving the public realm and creating positive experiences on local high streets, while Connected Neighbourhoods is centred on developing a strategic active travel corridor along the busy Romford Road.
“Monitoring and evaluation is a really important part of the 15-Minute Neighbourhood project in Newham,” said Murray Woodburn, head of transport policies and programmes. “The core aim of our interventions is to create healthier and happier communities around our high streets, where people in Newham can access all the basic, day-to-day needs within a 15 minute walk or cycle from their home.”
He added: “After reviewing government guidance on monitoring and evaluation it was clear that VivaCity’s computer vision monitoring solution was the optimal technology for us to use, with its ability to provide extremely accurate insights of pedestrian and active travel behaviours making it stand out in particular.
“Sensors will be used for ongoing intervention impact monitoring and we will create regular monitoring reports using the data. We’re looking forward to sharing these results with stakeholders and local residents to demonstrate the benefits of Newham’s Levelling Up investment and show how these interventions are improving the quality of life in Newham.”
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How does VivaCity's sensor data improve monitoring of active travel behaviors?What impact does the 15-Minute Neighbourhood have on local high street footfall?How will Shared Spaces enhance public realm and community experiences?In what ways does the Connected Neighbourhoods project support cycling infrastructure?How is the Levelling Up fund investment measured for environmental benefits?
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