Developing a 20-year Local Transport Strategy for Worcester City Centre

How to make Worcester city centre more appealing and accessible for everyone

Worcester City Council wanted to develop a 20-year transport strategy for Worcester city centre, with the aim of improving the movement of people and goods around the city, while enhancing sustainability and making the city more attractive to investors.

The transport strategy would build on the recently developed city centre master plan, covering all modes of transport from private cars and public transport through to cycling and walking. Having supported work on the urban master plan, SYSTRA was commissioned by Worcester City Council, working in partnership with Worcestershire County Council to lead the development of its new transport strategy.

The challenge for SYSTRA was to find ways to create new walking, cycling and wheeling routes to improve the circulation of people around the city centre and reduce the dependency on private vehicles. The council also wanted to enhance the public realm for residents, visitors and workers, by making the most of the city’s historic waterfront location. The ambition was to create a greater sense of place, support the sustainability of the high street and build a more vibrant retail centre, while respecting the area’s cultural heritage.

Transport consultants identify core transport infrastructure objectives

To address the challenges facing the city’s transport infrastructure, SYSTRA needed to focus on the core areas for improvement. Our transport consultants identified four strategic objectives for the new transport strategy:

• River crossings: Worcester had relatively few options for crossing the River Severn. Proposals for improvements were required, including creating additional pedestrian and cycle crossings.
• Better connections: the transport strategy needed to improve the way residents, visitors and workers accessed and moved through the city, and the quality of the spaces and routes they encountered.
• From car park to destination: the environment for people arriving in the city by car needed to be improved, by enhancing the efficiency and quality of parking options.
• Sense of arrival: the city has a number of heritage assets, but they had little impact because of the poor quality of public spaces around them. Proposals were required to improve the sense of arrival at these cultural assets.

To address these issues, SYSTRA developed three inter-related work streams, the outputs of which would be combined to create the overall transport strategy for Worcester. The three work streams were:

• Traffic management study – looking at how traffic moved around the city centre, and the resulting impacts on congestion and the visitor experience.
• Car parking management study – examining parking provision and considering how this could be optimised to support the sustainability of the high street and the vibrancy of retail centres.
• Mode access study – exploring how people arrived in, perceived and moved around the city centre, and developing options to encourage sustainable movement and create a sense of place.

Analysing data, refining transport options and testing solutions

Data collection and stakeholder engagement

SYSTRA began work on the strategy by collating and analysing data from a wide range of sources, including published timetables, traffic and pedestrian counts, and data on congestion, speed and safety. We carried out an online poll to collect views on transport, car parking choices and attitudes to different transport modes.

The ultimate success of the strategy would rely on the support of stakeholders and elected members. We launched the project by holding one-to-one meetings with key officers to understand the issues. These were followed by targeted workshops for different stakeholder groups, including transport operators, retailers, tourist attractions, politicians, community and resident groups. The stakeholders were consulted at every stage, from initial opinion-gathering through to consultation on preferred options.

Generating and testing the options

The next step was to identify and test different solutions. We developed a variety of parking, traffic management and routing options for a range of different scenarios, from minimal intervention through to an ambitious scenario involving re-routing traffic, building a new pedestrian and cycle bridge and consolidating parking on the outskirts of the city.

All of these options were tested against a set of criteria, developed in consultation with stakeholders, including deliverability, strategic fit and economic and environmental impacts. The options were informed by a benchmarking exercise of comparable European cities. They included the potential for incorporating technology and innovative practices, such as e-hire schemes, smart parking systems and Mobility-As-a-Service apps to link public transport services.

We also developed options to improve traffic flow and pedestrian access to the city centre, including cycle networks, bus access routes and street realignment with appropriate speed limits.

Modelling and refining the measures

The preferred selection of measures was developed through modelling to understand their impact on traffic demand, flow, distribution and public transport routing. The modelling was carried out by the council’s framework consultant. SYSTRA was responsible for scoping the model tests and liaising with the consultant to ensure they were completed efficiently for the councils. We analysed the model outputs and presented them alongside RIBA Stage 2 concept designs, with indicative costs.

Action plan offers bright future for city residents, visitors and workers

The option packages and concept designs were brought together by SYSTRA to produce the overarching transport strategy for Worcester city centre. This 20-year strategy provides a clear rationale for selecting options, alongside a narrative explaining the alignment with both the city centre masterplan and the four strategic objectives established at the outset.

The strategy included an Action Plan, setting out short, medium and long-term priorities, as well as identifying potential funding sources. It offers an opportunity to reinvigorate Worcester city centre in the years ahead by making it easier to access via sustainable transport options, more appealing to a wider range of visitors, and more economically attractive for businesses and investors.

View the final strategy ‘Worcester City Centre Transport Vision’