Caroline took part in a street audit with London Living Streets on Friday 6th August as part of her investigation into making walking safer and easier in London. (Go to the London Assembly website for more about the investigation.)
Caroline and the team from City Hall joined Jeremy and Phillipa from Living Streets to walk around the centre of Peckham looking at challenges to walking in different areas. Living Streets is a UK charity which works with local people and government to create safe, attractive, enjoyable streets where the needs of people are prioritised over traffic, where local people are involved in decision making and where walking is the natural choice for short journeys. As part of its work to help improve local environments, Living Streets carries out community street audits.
It was quite clear that Peckham Town Centre is overcrowded and busy and the pavements in many places cannot cope. Whilst there are some good spaces such as the new lay out on Rye Lane, there are still many other pockets where there are crossings which do not allow enough time to cross the road, or even junctions with no green man crossing available.
“Around the bus garage in particular the environment is very difficult for pedestrians. There are also issues with the new cycle contraflow on Rye Lane where there are no clear markings making the space rather confused” commented Caroline.
Photo – Caroline looking at pedestrian crossings in Peckham