A23 Streatham Hill

Overview

Update 23 March 2020

In light of the current situation with Covid-19, we have extended the consultation deadline to 19 April 2020 to enable those who may not have had chance to respond.  

We plan to publish the consultation report and the response to issues raised report in the summer 2020 however in these unprecedented times we will keep this under review as the situation develops and will update the website accordingly.

- update ends -

We want your views on our proposals to transform the A23 Streatham Hill in south London, between Sternhold Avenue and Holmewood Road to make it easier, safer and more pleasant for people to cycle and walk.

These proposals would provide benefits for all street users in the area, making it easier to cross busy roads, removing through traffic on some residential roads, offering segregated space for people to cycle and will keep buses running on time.

The proposals are an important part of the Mayor of London's Transport Strategy and are guided by our Healthy Streets Approach, which aims to encourage people to walk; cycle and use public transport and make London greener, healthier and more pleasant. The proposals are also an important part of our Walking and Cycling Action Plans. The proposals also directly contribute to the Vision Zero target to stop people from dying and being seriously injured on London’s road network by 2041.

The consultation will be open between 10 February and 19 April 2020.

Our proposals at a glance  

Transport for London (TfL), together with Lambeth Council would like to know your views on proposals for improvements which will include:

• High quality segregated cycle lanes and bus stop bypasses throughout the extent of the scheme
• Straight-across pedestrian crossings relocated to be where people want to walk and cross the road
• Zebra crossings proposed to cross the cycle lane to signalised pedestrian crossings across the main carriageway
• 2 additional pedestrian crossings
• Bus lanes maintained or implemented and operational hours extended to between 07:00 - 19:00 Monday to Saturday throughout the scheme
• 20mph speed limit throughout
• Changes to side road access including restrictions and closures, redesign and resurfacing
• New traffic signals at the Telford Avenue junction
• Improvements to public realm throughout the route, unlocking areas by removing central brick build planters and planting of new trees and landscaping
• Changes to some parking and loading provision  

To complement this scheme we have been working with Lambeth Council to develop a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in the nearby residential areas to the east of the A23. This will complement the A23 scheme by protecting local streets from through traffic and will help deliver wider objectives such as creating Healthy Routes on local roads. Visit the consultation page of Lambeth’s website from the 22 February 2020 to find out more.  

We expect that our proposals would make it easier for people to walk and cycle in the area, making it easier to cross busy roads, removing through traffic on some residential roads, offering segregated space for people to cycle and will keep buses running on time.

Before and After images showing what the A23 Streatham Hill looks like today and an artists impression of what it could look like.

Streatham Hill before

Streatham Hill after

The map below shows the route that would be improved with our proposals.

Streatham Hill improvements (PDF 1.84MB)

We want to hear from local people and all Londoners on our proposals.

We have explained our proposals in more detail in the following sections, including what effects we would expect them to have on traffic flow and the environment, and have produced a list of Frequently Asked Questions.   

If however you would prefer to let us know your thoughts now, please complete our questionnaire. 

You can also send your feedback to:

• Our email address: consultations@tfl.gov.uk, or
• Postal address FREEPOST TFL CONSULTATIONS.  

The closing date for comments is Sunday 19 April 2020.  

We have arranged a number of public drop-in sessions where members of TfL staff who have been closely involved in the development of these proposals will be available to answer any questions. Further details are below. 

Our proposals in detail  

The A23 at Streatham Hill is currently dominated by motor traffic and can be intimidating and unpleasant place for people who visit, study, live and work in the area. The section between Streatham Hill, Sternhold Avenue and Holmewood Road is a further phase of improvements to make it safer for people to walk and cycle and make the area healthier and more pleasant.

In 2017 TfL published the Strategic Cycling Analysis, Oval to Streatham is outlined as one of the top 15 potential connections recommended for further study. This corridor presents an opportunity to improve air quality, safety and active travel for people who live and work in the area. Between Oval and Streatham there are significant challenges including space constraints to overcome. Through local engagement TfL will work with the London Borough of Lambeth to determine appropriate interventions to achieve improvements in air quality, safety and active travel for the remainder of the corridor.  

We have worked with local stakeholders and communities in the area to develop the scheme and we are proposing a number of features along the route to make it safer and more pleasant for people cycling and walking, whilst keeping buses running on time. These include some significant changes and various small changes to the street layouts.  In order to make it easier for you to comment on our proposals we have split the scheme into sections, features that apply across the entirety of the scheme includes:  

• New high quality segregated cycle lanes and bus stop bypasses to improve safety and encourage more people to cycle
• New 20mph speed limit to improve safety for people walking and cycling, and to reduce traffic dominance in the area
• Straight-across pedestrian crossings relocated to be where people want to walk and cross the road
• Zebra crossings proposed to cross the cycle lane to signalised pedestrian crossings across the main carriageway
• 2 additional pedestrian crossings
• Improvements to public realm throughout the route, unlocking areas by removing central brick build planters and planting of new trees and landscaping
• One lane is provided in each direction for general traffic, the existing 3 lanes of general traffic northbound at the junction with the A205 South Circular is retained
• Bus lanes maintained or implemented and operational hours extended to between 07:00 - 19:00 Monday to Saturday throughout the scheme
• Relocation of some bus stops and the introduction of bus stop bypasses
• Changes to some parking and loading provision

The links below describe each section of the proposed scheme and will take you to a new page where we explain our proposals for that section in more detail.

Streatham Hill proposals - section 1 

Streatham Hill proposals - section 2 

Streatham Hill proposals - section 3 

Streatham Hill proposals - section 4

We are proposing changes to side road access from the A23 to try and minimise vehicle movements across the path of cyclists in the segregated cycle track, this will improve safety for those who cycle and also help to reduce rat-running traffic through residential roads. We are also installing new pedestrian crossings and/or repositioning crossings, which also impacts on the access to side roads. Alternative suggested routings are available here. 

To complement this scheme we have been working with Lambeth Council to develop a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in the nearby residential areas to the east of the A23. This will complement the A23 scheme by protecting local streets from through traffic and will help deliver wider objectives such as creating Healthy Routes on local roads. Visit the consultation page of Lambeth’s website from the 22 February 2020 to find out more.

The effects of our proposals

We have tested the effects that our proposals for the A23 Streatham Hill between Sternhold Avenue and Holmewood Road would have on traffic in the area.  We have also assessed the equality impacts of our proposals and undertaken a ‘Healthy Streets’ check.   

Environmental surveys are taking place as part of our ongoing evaluation of these proposals the results will be taken into consideration alongside the response to consultation when considering next steps.

How would these proposals affect journey times?  

Transforming street layouts is not without impacts and there are difficult choices to be made in determining the layout for streets. One impact could be that these changes mean that some journeys through this area may take longer.  

We have carried out detailed modelling to understand how our proposals might affect journey times for people who are driving or using buses. To do this we assessed how London's roads would operate in 2021 (taking into account factors such as population growth, developments that are committed to happen and other road improvements). We then tested how London's roads would operate in 2021 with the changes that are proposed as part of this scheme. Doing this allows us to isolate the predicted impacts of this proposed scheme from other changes which are not part of this consultation. 

Traffic modelling has been carried out to study the traffic impacts of the scheme at the busiest times of the day and results are presented for both the morning and evening peak hours. We would actively monitor and manage the road network following implementation to ensure impacts were balanced. 

Potential Impacts to Bus journey times

The A23 is a very important road for bus routes, with 15 routes and over 80 buses per hour running through the proposed scheme area during peak times.

Morning peak times

Traffic modelling predictions indicate that the journey time for the majority of bus routes that travel along this section of the A23 in the morning peak will increase or decrease by up to 30 seconds. There are some routes which experience a more significant change in journey time.  

• Bus routes going south along this part of the A23 in the morning peak are expected to achieve journey time savings of between 1 and 2 minutes 
• Southbound buses on route 45 are expected to achieve a journey time saving of between 2 and 3 minutes 
• Buses on route 319 southbound are expected to experience a journey time increase of between 1 and 2 minutes  

Evening Peak times

Traffic modelling predictions indicate that the journey time for bus routes on this section of the A23 in the evening peak will increase or decrease by up to 60 seconds, with no individual bus route expected to see a change in journey time over one minute.  

Routes 109, 118 and 133 travelling northbound in evening peak are expected to have journey time delays of between 30-60 seconds, with buses travelling southbound on these during the same period expected to experience delays of between 0 and 30 seconds.

Potential Impacts to peak traffic

The modelling predictions suggest there will be a minimal impact on general traffic heading north in the morning and evening peaks because three northbound lanes are being retained at the junction of the A205 South Circular.

People cycling north and south will be able to move at the same time as right turning traffic from the A205 eastbound into the A23 southbound.

Traffic going south on the A23 is expected to have delays between two and three minutes in both morning and evening peaks. This is because traffic is moved into one lane at the southern end of the scheme, at Leigham Court Road to accommodate the cycle lane and bus lane.

Information on predicted changes to journey times for people driving and using buses is here.  

If you have any questions or clarifications with regards to our traffic modelling please email trafficmodelling@tfl.gov.uk for more information.

Changes to parking and loading

Our proposals include changes to parking and loading provisions across the route. Analysis was undertaken of current parking and loading bay usage and is available here. Surveys were undertaken on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 May 2018.

For more information on locations of proposed changes to parking, waiting and loading provision please view the individual section maps. 

During the consultation we will contact premises we think could be affected by the proposed change to provision. If you think the proposals could affect you or your business, please contact us to let us know. We encourage you to discuss these proposals with your suppliers and to view our toolkits on efficient deliveries.

Environmental impacts

Although our scheme will not increase amounts of traffic, our proposals would change how traffic moves around the area, which may result in localised changes to air quality and noise levels.

Our proposals aim to improve the quality of life in the area by:

• Reducing the dominance of traffic allowing people to better enjoy the area
• Improving pedestrian crossings and cycle facilities, which includes cycle lanes and cycle parking, to encourage people to walk and cycle through the area
• Protecting bus journey times to encourage people to use public transport
• The implementation of bus lanes throughout the scheme, in operation from 07:00 - 19:00 Monday to Saturday, will improve environmental performance by enabling a more consistent motorised traffic speed with less accelerating and braking that is associated with higher emissions. This is in addition to the implementation of a Low Emission Bus Zone  on the A23 improving the emission standards of the bus fleet.

If you are interested in reading about our Healthy Streets assessment of the proposals, or our Equality Impact Assessment, please see the links below. 

Healthy Streets Check 

Equality Impact Assessment

Frequently Asked Questions

A list of Frequently Asked Questions has been produced which provides further detail on the rationale for proposals, this may be added to during the consultation and if you wish to be notified of updates please register your email address when completing the online survey.

Have your say

We will be holding public drop-in sessions where you can view the proposals, speak to members of the project team and ask questions. Details of events are as follows:

Thursday 27 February, 10:30 - 18:45 Streatham Tate Library, 63 Streatham High Road, London SW16 1PN

Wednesday 4 March, 15:15 - 20:30 Streatham Space Project, Sternhold Avenue, London SW2 4PA

Saturday 7 March, 13:15 - 16:15 Streatham Tate Library, 63 Streatham High Road, London SW16 1PN

We would like to know what you think about our proposals. Please tell us by Sunday 19 April 2020 by completing our survey below.  

Alternatively, you can:  

• Email us at consultations@tfl.gov.uk
• Write to us at FREEPOST TFL CONSULTATIONS
• Call us on 0343 222 1155*  

*Service and network charges apply. Visit tfl.gov.uk/terms for details. 

You can also request paper copies of all the consultation materials and a response form, copies in Braille, large text or another language by emailing consultations@tfl.gov.uk or writing to FREEPOST TFL CONSULTATIONS.  

If you would like information in another language or format please let us know as soon as possible. 

Next steps

Following the completion of the consultation we will assess all comments received and use this feedback to inform any necessary design changes. We plan to publish the consultation report and the response to issues raised report in the summer 2020.

Subject to the outcome of this consultation, and approvals, we would aim to start construction in summer 2021.