Camden to invest £22m in active travel, public transport and high streets

Cllr Adam Harrison

Cllr Adam Harrison

Camden to invest £22m in more environmentally friendly, healthier forms of travel and creating more welcoming streets and neighbourhoods.

The London borough's cabinet agreed yesterday evening, Wednesday 13 November, to implement the next phase of its transport strategy for 2025 to 2028.

The strategy envisages the following improvements to active travel, public transport and high streets:

• Healthy routes: A new primary and secondary cycle network. A key component of the proposed network is connectivity, ensuring that continuous links and journeys can be made. The “primary” cycle network, which currently contains 27km of main road segregated cycle routes, is planned to expand to 45km. Currently, around 56% of the borough live with 400m of a high-quality strategic cycle network route, this would increase to over 85% under the plans.
• Walking and accessibility improvements: An example is the Euston to King’s Cross Wellbeing Walk. Camden is currently developing plans for a high quality, pleasant walking connection on the south side of the Euston Road between these two locations, including better pedestrian crossings, reduced traffic, new street trees and urban greening and enhanced lighting. The whole route is expected to be completed within the next three-year period.
• Electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints: Camden has plans in place to install a further 600 plus EV chargpoints (a mixture of fast and rapid chargers) by 2026, with bids in place for a further 500 lamp column charging points. Around 50 of the fast-charging points are being proposed to support car clubs to support EV operation of car clubs at those locations.
• High Street improvement: Camden plans further neighbourhood centre enhancements in the vicinity of high streets, with public realm, urban greening, sustainable travel, and road safety measures. Key examples being the trial pedestrianisation of sections of Camden High Street and the public realm improvements on Kilburn High Road.
• Car clubs: Camden will explore options to promote the use of car clubs with the aim of freeing people from the need and cost of private car ownership.
• Timed restrictions around schools: By 2026 Camden aims to have delivered the majority of locations where it is possible to implement Healthy School Street timed vehicle restrictions.

Cllr Adam Harrison, cabinet member for planning and a sustainable Camden, said: “I am delighted that councillors agreed this significant investment. It underlines this council’s determination to improve our neighbourhoods, address the climate emergency, and alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.  This will help us enormously in our efforts to reduce air pollution, create new green and open space for all residents, and back our local high streets.”

Since the initial adoption of the Camden Transport Strategy in 2019, the council said it has:

• Cycling amongst residents has increased from 3.6% in 2017 to 6.7% of all trips and walking now also accounts for half of all residents’ trips (up from 42%).
• Motor traffic volumes on streets has dropped by 15% between 2019 and 2023.
• The number of cars owned in the borough reduced by 22% between 2016 and 2022 – the largest such reduction anywhere in London.
• NOx emissions in Camden from road transport has halved since 2013, CO2 levels have reduced by 15% and PM10 by 27%.

Cllr Harrison continued: “In the coming years we will invest further in the creation of new cycle networks and in walking and accessibility improvements.

“We plan to install 600 more electric vehicle charging points, create more safer and greener spaces outside Camden’s many schools, and work with TfL to improve bus journeys for passengers and electrify the bus network.

“We will also explore options to promote the use of car clubs to give people alternatives to car ownership while also setting targets to improve the safety of powered two-wheelers.”