TfL welcomes Mayor's Roads Task Force report and sets out plans to deliver 21st century roads and streets

• New overarching strategy for London's roads and streets to tackle congestion, support economic growth and transform walking and cycling

TfL today welcomed the Mayor's Roads Task Force (RTF) report and its vision for a 21st century road and street network, to ensure the capital can cope with major population growth, support jobs and thousands of new homes, while remaining one of the most vibrant, accessible and competitive world cities.

TfL pledged to work with partners, including London's boroughs, developers, businesses and the representatives of all road users, to build on the improvements seen in the investment in and management of London's roads, streets and public spaces in recent years and to take forward the RTF recommendations.

Major new strategy

'Delivering the Vision for London's Streets and Roads: TfL's response to the Roads Task Force' commits TfL to the development of an overarching strategy for London's roads and streets:

• To maximise and enhance capacity of the road network and tackle congestion
• Support economic development and growth
• Further improve road safety
• Improve conditions for walking, cycling, the capital's environment and urban realm

It sets out how TfL will deliver improvements in the short-term and conduct further, detailed studies to assess and develop the RTF's bold, innovative, longer-term proposals.

TfL also pledged to work closely with the freight and logistics industry to ensure future proposals can best support the economy and functioning of a world city with a growing population. 

The RTF's proposals include retiming freight outside peak hours to cut congestion and improve road safety, as well as air quality. 

They also include well planned and managed access for freight and deliveries in central London, town centres and new developments to support businesses and local communities.

Shared vision

London's Transport Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy CBE said: 'We welcome the Roads Task Force's vision, as it is one we share. 

'It rightly recognises that delivering the vision requires major and sustained investment in London's road and public transport networks and we will continue to work with partners to make the case and develop innovative funding solutions.

'We'll now work with partners, including London's boroughs, to turn this vision into reality and deliver more reliable road journeys, safer, more attractive streets and town centres, and to transform the environment for walking and cycling.'

The TfL report sets out how it will:

• Tackle congestion, through better infrastructure, technology and information for customers, including 1,500 more 'SCOOT' traffic signals
• Improve London's public spaces and streets, through major schemes at Vauxhall, Waterloo, Elephant and Castle and Old Street which reflect the RTF vision and the removal of gyratory schemes, such as at Wandsworth
• Better manage the road network, with smart cameras to monitor roadworks and trials of deliveries retimed outside peak hours, learning from the successful engagement with freight operators during the London 2012 Games
• New feasibility studies to examine how London's strategic roads can be enhanced to support growth whilst reducing community severance and air quality; including the Inner Ring Road, north and south circulars; and the major arterials
• Help London grow, with 19 road schemes supporting more than 300,000 jobs, new river crossings and support for new 'car-lite' developments with good public transport, walking and cycling links
• Support London Boroughs' revitalisation of high streets and town centres, plus new cycling-focused 'mini-Hollands' in Outer London
• Get more from the existing road network, through trials of flexible lane management and additional bus and cycle 'priority points'
• Encourage more travel out of peak hours, again learning from the successful London 2012 Games experience, to reduce demand at the busiest times and encourage more people to shift shorter car journeys to walking and cycling
• Invest in technology to improve real-time customer information, by trialling and developing the use of 'intelligent sensors' on the network
• Make it easy and attractive to walk, cycle and take the bus, through delivering the Mayor's Cycling Vision, tackling pinch points on 250 bus routes carrying three million passengers and working with partners to deliver up to 3,000 more Legible London on-street walking guides
• Make streets safer, through the roll-out of more 20mph zones, improvements at 30 key junctions, upgrading safety cameras to digital technology at 600 locations and trialling Community Roadwatch schemes to cut excessive speed and anti-social driving
• Better targeted enforcement, working with the Metropolitan Police to establish a single transport and traffic policing command by 2014 and to target key locations where congestion, collisions and anti-social behaviour have a significant impact
• Make streets greener, by planting 1,000 more trees, dynamic on-street lighting, more LED and low energy lighting and delivery of the Mayor's Air Quality Fund
• Boost the use of roads and streets as public spaces, through more traffic-free events in iconic locations such as Regent Street and the Embankment
• Ensure road infrastructure is fit for the future, through high standards of maintenance and reinvesting Lane Rental revenue into innovative roadwork technologies, such as rapid hardening material, to cut the time roads are closed.

To aid delivery of improvements to London's road and street networks, TfL will work with London's boroughs and other partners to implement the RTF's new 'street-types' approach, which recognises that priorities differ depending on the location and use of a road or street and that trade-offs between the impact on different road users are sometimes inevitable.

TfL committed to improve its governance arrangements to make the organisation easier to do business with, through clearer processes, more senior champions and learning from the best and most efficiently delivered road schemes to set benchmark standards for the future.

Long-term investment

The RTF estimate delivery of their vision will require substantial, long-term investment of at least £30bn over the next 20 years, delivered through TfL, boroughs, central government, developers and other stakeholders working collaboratively. 

TfL's Business Plan already includes plans to invest circa £4bn in London's road and street network over the next decade. 

The strategic studies to be undertaken by TfL will help to further define future transport needs and TfL pledged to work with partners to identify and unlock additional sources of funding to support investment in roads and streets in future.

Note to editors:

• The full Roads Task Force report, 'The vision and direction for London's streets and roads', an Executive Summary and TfL's report, 'Delivering the vision for London's streets and roads: TfL's response to the Roads Task Force', is available to download