• Date: Thursday 8th February 2024 at 7.00pm
• Location: Lecture Theatre 2 - Richmond Building, PO1 3DE

Our first public meeting of 2024 will have a presentation by Lee Woods about the key changes in design standards, explored through examples in Portsmouth. Current approaches will be introduced, alongside some recent findings into research at the University of Portsmouth into the effects of priority junction design on collision rates for cyclists in Portsmouth.

Lee briefed us on his talk as follows:

“The ways in which streets and junctions are designed in the UK has arguably gone full circle as the road users, travel purposes, technologies and social/government priorities have changed.

“In the mid 20th century streets began to be increasingly designed to move large numbers of cars and commercial vehicles, long distance and at greater speeds.  Junctions and roads were made wider, driver visibilities increased and road user types were segregated in order to improve safety and minimise delay.

“The effects of these changes were only fully recognised by policy makers in the late 20th Century; specifically our increasingly car dependent lives, our public realm dominated by heavy and fast moving traffic, and persistent rates of collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists.

“Since then, design standards have shifted to revert this trend and to try to design streets and junctions that cater first for pedestrians and cyclists, minimise driver speeds, and reduce collision numbers.

It promises to be an enlightening meeting, and Lee will welcome questions throughout his presentation as well as at the end.