1

• Acorn Road is 170 metres long and, for most of its length, about 11 metres wide from front-to-front.

• The street width comprises an approximately 8.2m carriageway and two approximately 1.4m pavements

• About 75% of Acorn Road’s surface is for vehicles and about 25% for pedestrians.

Acorn Road now

• There are 29 entrances to shops and other premises, including three at first floor level. 14 are on the north side and 15 on the south.

• There are about 34 parking spaces on Acorn Road – 17 on each side

2

• Members of the Acorn Road group have undertaken several surveys of the usage of Acorn Road by shoppers, pedestrians and motorists.

• There has been an independent street survey (shoppers and others)

• The purpose of these surveys is to inform broad judgements about the way Acorn Road is used with the aim of creating potential scenarios for change.

How do people use and think about Acorn Road?

3

What has been your main means of travel today?17 July-7 Aug 201229 Oct-20 Nov 2012

Polling machine survey

  Walking Cycling Car Bus Metro

All337 (35%)229 (52%)

88 (9%)44 (10%)

401 (42%)126 (28%)

42 (4%)14 (3%)

89 (9%)31 (7%)

Tesco137 (31%)74 (44%)

28 (6%)15 (9%)

209 (47%) 62 (37%)

20 ((5%) 2 (1%)

52 (12%)15 (9%)

Waitrose191 (40%)155 (56%)

53 (11%)29 (11%)

183 (38%) 64 (23%)

21 (4%)12 (5%)

32 (7%)16 (6%)

library 9 (29%) 7 (23%) 9 (29%) 1 (3%) 5 (16%)

4

Trader survey

5

Traffic survey: entering Acorn Road

167 (45%)

81 (22%)

21 (6%)

19 (5%)

30 (8%)

55 (15%)

6

Traffic survey: leaving Acorn Road

110 (29%)

82 (22%)

35 (9%)

24 (6%)

31 (8%)

88 (24%)

7

• Vehicle use of Acorn Road, the general flow of movement is east to west.

• 79% of traffic was observed to enter and leave Acorn Road within a 10 minute period, suggesting significant use for through movement.

• Total movements were 5.5 vehicles per minute, about one every ten seconds.

Traffic survey

8

Street survey: mode of travel

9

Street survey: daily spend

  ShoppersMean spend per

shopper Total spend

All 290 £25 £7,112

Car/van 94 £41 £3,827

Walk 167 £16 £2,686

Cycle 13 £19 £244

Bus 5 £7 £37

Metro 10 £29 £294

How much do you expect to spend today (shoppers only)?

10

How many times a month do you usually visit Acorn Road? How much do you usually spend when you come shopping here?

Street survey: monthly spend

 

Mean monthly

trips

Total monthly

trips

Mean spend

per trip

Mean monthly spend

Total monthly spend

% total monthly spend

All 15.9 4,593 £

20.12 £

319.91 £1,469,337 100%

Car/van 12 1,117 £

28.07 £

336.84 £376,250 26%

Walk 18.6 3,104 £

16.62 £

309.13 £959,546 65%

Cycle 12.7 165 £

16.31 £

207.14 £34,178 2%

Bus 15 75 £

16.75 £

251.25 £18,844 1%

Metro 13.4 132 £

11.30 £

151.42 £19,987 1%

11

Street survey: quality of experience

12

• Most people come wholly on foot (56%), with 30% arriving by car/van

• Total spend is much higher among walkers than car/van users because trips are much more frequent.

• Most important is reduction in traffic, better conditions for pedestrians, better disabled access, environmental improvements and sufficient parking within walking distance .

Street survey: key findings

Trader survey summary• Most important is sufficient provision of parking within walking

distance, more events to raise awareness of Acorn Road, better marketing of Acorn Road as a shopping area and environmental improvements to encourage visitors

Traffic survey: summary

• 79% of car movements through Acorn Road were within the same time period suggesting significant use of Acorn Road for through movement.

• Total movements equate to about 5.5 vehicles ‘through’ Acorn Road per minute, or about one every ten seconds.

13

• Acorn Road’s centrality sustains mixed use, with vehicles using it both for local access and through traffic

• Acorn Road shops serve both a local walkable catchment and a wider visitor group including more car-dependent people. The latter tend to be higher spenders-per-trip but the former are the more frequent and numerous visitors.

• People want both a better pedestrian environment – less traffic, more pavement space – and better car parking.

• Survey suggests that car-based custom accounts for 26% of spend and 75% of street space. Walking-based custom is 65% of spend and 25% of street space.

• Traders and street users have different priorities. Who is “the customer” for Acorn Road improvement?

Conclusions

14

Acorn Road: The Future

• Become a truly outstanding public space

• Improve the pedestrian experience

• Reallocate space on the street so it may better serve the needs and interests of pedestrians and other slow-moving users

• Increase the multi-functionality of the space