Bank junction, in the heart of the City of London, is formed from the intersection of six main historic streets including Cornhill, Threadneedle Street and Cheapside/Poultry, surrounding the world-famous institutions of the Bank of England, Royal Exchange and Mansion House. Bank junction is also the location of London’s 3rd busiest underground station, serving Central, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, as well as the Docklands Light Railway. Some 25,000 people pass through the junction in a single hour during the morning and evening peak periods, mostly on foot. The Bank station upgrade and the growth of the City will increase pedestrian footfall, and there is a significant and growing proportion of cyclists.
City of London Corporation has recently commissioned a series of studies of the traffic conditions, public realm and safety at the junction, including the Bank Area Enhancement Study and the Bank Junction Feasibility Study. The junction is controlled using traffic signals, yet is notoriously complex, with numerous traffic islands, conflicting and potentially hazardous traffic, cyclist and pedestrian movements, and sometimes long delays. Studies show that the vast majority of pedestrians do not wait for the green man signal when crossing, and so put themselves and others at risk, and the priority nature of some traffic movements can lead to confusion.
NRP engineers assisted City of London Corporation to develop a strategy to reduce considerably the traffic demand through the junction, with the aim of improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists at the Bank junction, but also providing the opportunity to develop a significant public realm enhancement. NRP was commissioned to assist with the design for the Bank on Safety Experimental Scheme, which is an initial trial intended to form the development of more permanent change not only to the layout of the Bank junction, but also to the traffic management arrangements within the surrounding area of The City. The trial is planned to commence in 2017. Services provided include local traffic modelling (TRANSYT and LinSig) and microsimulation traffic modelling (VISSIM), with all modelling subject to the exacting standards of the Transport for London Model Auditing Process.
