North Cross Road - Kerbside Intervention

[graceduncanual]

Hello East Dulwich Residents, I am a student from UAL where myself and three other students are starting a new project called Kerbside Intervention. Kerbside Intervention is a physical design in a public space that promotes accessibility for commuters who are walking and cycling, this could be a covered area to sit, bike storage or perhaps a charging station for cellphones. The idea is to help with parking management and of course the overall safety of our commuters.

Locally within the East Dulwich area, we have chosen North Cross Road specifically. Our kerbside/design area will be directly in front of St Clements Yard. We would love to hear your opinions on what you think would benefit the area. Here are some of our goals for this Kerbside Project:

1. Minimize Congestion & Disruption

2. Improve Safety for pedestrians and cyclists

3. Promote Health & Well-being

4. Parking Management

The project aims to help with all of these central issues when looking at how we can make our Kerbside more accesible for pedestrians walking/cycling and to improve our overall commuting experience.

A few things to think about:

1. What is your main concern when travelling on North Cross Road?

2. What would you like to see less of? Could be parked cars/ bikes/ etc

3. How easy is it for you to travel on this road? Do you drive? Walk? Cycle? Can you park your bike easily and efficiently? (would be interesting to hear personal opinions)

4. How would the community feel about charging station for cell phones and devices?

5. Should the design be child-friendly?

6. How important is it for there to be parking on this specific road?

7. We want to make this space accessible to everyone, therefore we are very open to hearing your ideas and concerns surrounding the project, so please do not hesitate to respond with strong ideas and feel free to contact me on here or privately for more information via email: [email protected]

[RubyGraeme]

Hi Grace

What's UAL? What is the information you are collecting being used for? Are you wanting to collect data/email contacts from local people? Are you collating information on behalf of anyone else, eg local businesses, or local groups?

[graceduncanual]

Hi Ruby,

UAL stands for University of the Arts London, which is the university I am currently attending. The information we are collecting is purely to help with the choice of design and what would be seen as useful by the local public in the East Dulwich area. We are not storing contact information/email because we are only interested in what residents would like to see considered into the design. We are only designing a prototype as this is what our project requires, we would like to be open to suggestions as to what could benefit everyone in the area. I apologise if I was not clear enough on how we would be using the information. Please let me know if there are any other concerns and I will be happy to help. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Thanks again,

Grace Duncan

[Jennys]

Are you anything to do with eastDAG?

[graceduncanual]

Hi Jenny,

No, we are not anything to do with EastDAG. As mentioned earlier, we are a group of students who are currently attending University of the Arts London- more specifically, LCC campus at Elephant and Castle.

We are just looking for input on what the public would like to see more or less of on North Cross Road, which in turn will help us design something that is inclusive of the whole community. We would just like to know if perhaps there needs to be more bike storage, or a covered area to sit etc etc, we are just looking for personal opinions from local residents that we could include in our design. This is not a commercial or funded project but a project that we will be assessed on at UAL. The point of this post is to gain user-research into what will be useful to everyone on North Cross Road.

I hope this explanation clarifies the circumstance a little bit more.

Thanks again,

Grace

[rob01564]

Hi Grace,

We live off one of the roads which connects onto North Cross.

I think something which would allow the road to 'become' pedestrianised at weekends would be good - i know part of it is on Saturdays for the market - but this could maybe create a more social area at weekend with some nice lighting, public seating interesting planting / water feature etc.. maybe bollards on automatic timers to close off the section from the church down to the junction with Lordship Lane which could have larger pavements? This would potentially reduce congestion (or increase it depending on how it's managed), create child friendly / well lit social areas for all ages!

Good luck

[Penguin68]

This appears to be a University-led teaching/ learning project - it will have no direct impact on us in ED but will help train/ educate the next generation of designers to do a good job. Understanding that you are designing against 'customer need' and learning how to do this is a very positive approach, and I would urge those who could spare the time to give feedback. I would have been happier to see a clear questionnaire (rather than a simple set of questions) to inform this project, as I believe analysis of responses may be problematic - but this is what a learning experience is all about.

[NB I write as a former senior lecturer at a University - not this subject - and I have no relationship of any sort with the OP or her colleagues].

NB - again - Q4 - a single respondent can only talk about themselves - it is the analysis which will determine whether and how this is a community issue. I would also suggest picking up on respondent age, life stage (i.e. with young or any family etc.) and other relevant demographics - for instance there are forum participants no longer ED residents - whose opinions may be less relevant than current residents.

[nxjen]

I believe the section of the road you're looking at is due to become part of the enlarged market on a Saturday and will have stalls set up there. May not be relevant for your purposes but thought it would be useful for you to know

[Milan05]

Hi, On Saturdays there are large vans parked on a couple of the corners off NorthCross Road - on the lines too but they don't see to get tickets.. it makes the whole experience of walking and wandering about less enjoyable - most traders seem to drop off and then park elsewhere but some leave the vans so you have to be extra careful getting out e.g. crossing Nutfield and for cars coming out of Nutfield left past the church can be hairy if large vehicles are parked on the lines. I would like to see it/feel it more a car free area and I think parking has a lot to do with the concept of a car-free space on Saturdays.

[Guest]

Hi Grace,

to add my two pennyworth on the subject of questionnaires: for things like this - I hate them! They do give you a data set that you can turn into a graph. But most people's actual responses are either more ambiguous than questionnaires allow for, or there's no right box to tick. So they tick any box to get through it, giving you bad data, or they give up. Also, at the beginning of a project, you are putting out feelers looking for the right questions, not the answer. So I think Penguin68 is right, but maybe later in the project when you have a more defined idea of what peoples main issues are.

Anyway. I'll begin by giving you some info about me that might help you place me in the context of local stakeholder groups:

About me:

female, 40, local resident (10 min walk), lived here over 5 years

Why do I visit/how often/ week or weekend/ what time of day:

I walk through, usually on the way to or from Lordship Lane, two or three times a week on week day afternoons, once or twice a month in the evening. I never go there at the weekend.

Businesses I use in the street:

electrical supply shop, Londis, chemist, the Palmerston, the Actress, Blue Mountain, Rye books (I know, I know, they're in Upland Rd).

Any disability or potential mobility issues eg small children or a buggy?

No

1. What is your main concern when travelling on North Cross Road?

Getting to and from Lordship Lane quickly

2. What would you like to see less of? Could be parked cars/ bikes/ etc

Don't know, all seems ok to me

3. How easy is it for you to travel on this road? Do you drive? Walk? Cycle? Can you park your bike easily and efficiently?

I walk and it's very easy (dont own a car) but the pavements are pretty narrow for people with push chairs

4. How would [the community] you individually feel about charging station for cell phones and devices?

Maybe at the Lordship lane end? But it would have to be pretty unobtrusive as most streets have enough pavement furniture as it is and as I've said the pavement is pretty narrow. I would probably not use it, as I live nearby.

5. Should the design be child-friendly?

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you intend children to use it, whatever 'it' turns out to be?

6. How important is it for there to be parking on this specific road?

Having worked at a business where the road outside was turned into a Red Route, which made running the shop very difficult, I think it's important for the businesses to be able to unload whenever they need to without getting a fine. The current level of parking is not a problem for me.

7. We want to make this space accessible to everyone, therefore we are very open to hearing your ideas and concerns surrounding the project

This is way too vague and I have no idea what you want me to say here!

I hope thats helpful - as an occasional user I feel I'm hardly a key stakeholder. And I hope you don't mind us giving suggestions about how you should gather information! Good luck.

[Guest]

As you can see, I agree with Penguin68's final point that you need to get some personal info to give the answers some context, and a questionnaire probably is helpful for that.

[Penguin68]

Also, at the beginning of a project, you are putting out feelers looking for the right questions, not the answer. So I think Penguin68 is right, but maybe later in the project when you have a more defined idea of what peoples main issues are.

If this was a proper commercial project I would recommend some qualitative research which determines key issues and appropriate language etc., followed by quantitative research which allows scales and relationships to be statistically determined. However as a University project I suspect that this research stage will need to be truncated (unless its for a dissertation - which as it's a group project it probably isn't). So banging straight on it to qualitative research, with demographics is the right trajectory. Of course, if it was commercial research you'd be looking for a minimum of 20-30 respondents (better 60-70) for each cell - so just splitting responses into male/ female, or young/ old (with no other sub-analysis) would require a sample size double the cell size - so a minimum of 40-60 and ideally 120-140 as your sample - and for any more detailed analysis - so into male old and young and female old and young that doubles it again. Of course students won't achieve those numbers, so they need to demonstrate a research structure which would support this level of analysis without actually achieving it. In practice their likely sample size will be closer to that which would support a qualitative, rather than quantitative analysis. In writing up their results, if that is required, they need to indicate they are aware of this flaw.

[Guest]

Hi Penguin68, I'm sure youre right and we are all very impressed by how much you know about it.

However, I have been involved with a number of community co-design projects and I find tick box questionnaires frustrating - because they always ask the wrong questions - and completely inadequate as a form of communication, particularly when the designers have charged straight in to quantative research without doing the kind of preliminary research that Grace is doing here.

I think shes doing fine.

[Mick Mac]

Grace - is this a theoretical project or something that could be turned into reality? either way its a good exercise and hopefully we can see your conclusions.

Personally I'd love to see it turned into a pedestrianised area. But I don't know of what impact this would have on other roads.

The market for example falls way short of Herne Hill market in terms of ease of use. Markets are generally accessed from the inside between two rows of stalls - Could the road be raised to create an even surface for the weekend.

if pedestrianized it could become a significant draw as a shopping and restaurant space. Would be good for the area. we don't have many areas in ED where we can sit outside a restaurant that doesn't front on to a major thoroughfare!

[nxjen]

There was a consultation by Southwark Council that closed about a year ago that did in fact involve pedestrianising NCR from The Old School / Archdale Road to Lordship Lane on Saturdays with stalls on both sides of the road. I understand the suggestion was very popular but since then it?s gone very quite EXCEPT signs were installed prohibiting traffic along NCR from the old school on a Saturday. Perhaps James Barber would be able to bring us up to date?

[redjam]

I agree with Mick Mac - I'd like to see the end of NCR fully pedestrianised. I live on one of the roads off it so it would affect me negatively in terms of driving/parking but I think it would benefit the overall area so I'd absolutely support it. I also think the area round the back of Londis (with all the bins) needs prettifying/hiding in some way as it's such an ugly first impression of the street as you come into it.

I don't see the point of charging stations on the pavement or much in the way of other street furniture as the pavements already get crowded at weekends, especially with all the buggies round here - it would just create more pinch points (I'm a bit baffled by the idea of suggesting charging points when most people who visit NCR live locally anyway). I'm not sure what you mean by making the street more 'child-friendly' but certainly pedestrianising the end would make it easier to navigate with prams and young children.

Nxjen - yes, I remember that consultation too - it's a shame it wasn't followed up.