School Street enhanced gateway features

We have designed new enhanced gateway features for our School Streets to make them more visible, recognisable and compliant.

Aims of the new gateway features

We believe in the potential for School Streets to improve road safety, encourage active travel and create a calmer start and finish to the beginning and end of the school day.

Signage restrictions and lack of identity prevented some of our more complex schemes from reaching their full potential. This pilot was created to increase School Street recognition and awareness.

The aims of the scheme are to:

• Standardise Richmond School Streets, 
• Make Richmond School Streets more recognisable
• Alert drivers to a new section of the road ahead
• Encourage drivers to be more aware of their surroundings by taking note of local signage
• Further increase compliance, whether ANPR enforced or not

St John the Baptist pilot

A School Street was launched along Lower Teddington Road in October 2020 and operates Monday to Friday from 8.15 to 9am and 2.45 to 3.30pm, during term time only. It was managed by volunteers and barriers at the start.

• CCTV ANPR enforcement was installed when volunteer fatigue set in and barriers were no longer sustainable
• Advance warning signs were added at a number of approaches throughout the process 
• New larger School Street signs with yellow backing boards and permit holder identifiers were installed
• Flashing school safety wig wags installed to support the School Street

These additional measures saw a steady decrease in PCNs over the months, but we felt School Streets should be more recognisable and uniform in appearance.

Traffic reduction

Since the introduction of a School Street, traffic has reduced through Lower Teddington Road during School Street hours by approximately 95%. Since the entry treatments were installed, traffic has reduced by a further 25%.

PCNs issued on Lower Teddington Road

Item	Week commencing	Daily average PCNs issued for the week
Before the introduction of  the School Street	14/09/2020	458
ANPR start	10/05/2021	65
New signs installed	01/11/2022	16
Entry treatment installed	09/01/2024	25
atest data (six months after)	03/06/2024	19

Design specification

The enhanced entry treatment was designed to make Richmond School Streets more visible, recognisable and compliant.

A simple design was agreed for each entry point:

• Five-metre deep bold red surface treatment band across the carriageway
• Three brightly coloured pencil bollards on the footways either side
• Four white triangular 'dragons' teeth' to capture the drivers' attention and warn them of the restriction either side

Not all School Streets may benefit from a road and footway layout that will allow this exact formula, and we appreciate some may require a similar variation.

What's next

We are prioritising new entry treatment for School Streets where:

• We feel contravention levels can reduce
• Cameras have been relocated elsewhere
• Road surface is acceptable, or due to be resurfaced prior to installation
• The School Street has been made permanent with an approved Traffic Management Order