Street mobility and network accessibility project

The project was led by a multidisciplinary UCL team from Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (CEGE), the Epidemiology and Public Health Department, and the Bartlett School of Architecture.

The project developed tools for assessing and overcoming community severance. Community severance (also known as the ‘barrier effect’) happens when transport infrastructure or the speed or volume of traffic acts as a physical or psychological barrier to the movement of people.

Busy roads may lead to people avoiding journeys, whilst mitigation measures like footbridges and underpasses may increase distances or be considered inaccessible, unsafe or unpleasant. Residents living on busy streets may have smaller social networks; people with fewer social contacts tend to have worse physical and mental health. All these potential impacts are worse in older groups, for whom mobility and social ties are fundamental to good health and wellbeing.

The project also developed a policy toolkit comprising linked tools such as a survey that can identify suppressed travel and the wider consequences on health and wellbeing. Methods to estimate the level and type of community severance in an area and to estimate the economic value of solutions to the problem were also developed. The tools were developed in four case study areas in the UK – areas surrounding busy main roads in London, Birmingham and Southend - using a multidisciplinary approach and engaging with local communities and other stakeholders. The toolkit can be downloaded from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/epidemiology-health-care/research/epidemiology-and-public-health/research/health-and-social-surveys-research-group/toolkitby practitioners, community groups, or by the general public.

The research provided an empirical, evidence-based approach to analysing community severance. It will contribute to an increased understanding of how busy roads impact local communities.

This project developed tools to understand the problems pedestrians face when attempting to cross busy roads, and the potential effects of these roads on health and wellbeing.