Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood - Latest Updates

September 2023

Transport, Regeneration and Climate Committee decision on Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood

On Wednesday 20 September, Sheffield City Council’s Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee considered proposals to introduce the active neighbourhood in Nether Edge on a permanent basis. 

Reports to the Committee outlined the scheme’s delivery, its impact and public consultation results, and the Committee decided that: 

• Archer Lane will be re-opened, and
• Pedestrian crossings will be made permanent at Osbourne Road close to Union Road, and on Psalter Lane close to its junction with Stretton Road

We’ll publish more information on when Archer Lane will reopen and when the crossings will be made permanent here soon. 

Traffic monitoring data document 

In order to monitor and evaluate the success of the Active Neighbourhood, we’ve conducted traffic monitoring surveys at a number of junctions around the route and the surrounding areas. These surveys capture the movements of motorised vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians between each arm of the junction. 

We have also worked with The Floow, specialists in black-box telematics data, to better understand traffic flows around the active neighbourhood. This data includes journey times, estimated traffic flows, traffic speeds and concentrations of through traffic. 

We have also included some open crime data analysis of crimes around the route, comparing 11 months before and after the scheme was implemented. 

Document 1: Nether Edge: Overview vehicle count

Document 2: Nether Edge: Overview pedestrian and cyclist count

Document 3: Nether Edge: Junction vehicle counts: Abbeydale Road, Sheldon Road and Nether Edge Road

Document 4: Nether Edge: Junction vehicle counts: Bannerdale Road and Brincliffe Edge Road

Document 5: Nether Edge: Overview: Pedestrian crossings

Document 6: Nether Edge: Traffic movement flow data

Document 7: Nether Edge: Journey times: Abbeydale Road and Ecclesall Road

Document 8: Nether Edge: Journey times: Bannerdale Road, Sheldon Road and Carter Knowle Road

Document 9: Nether Edge: Journey times: Psalter Lane

Document 10: Nether Edge: Crime data

If you would like to see the raw traffic monitoring data from which we produced the Traffic Monitoring Data Documents shared on this web page, please get in touch with us by email (info@connecting-sheffield.co.uk) or phone (0808 196 5105).

Face to face perception survey report

In order to monitor and evaluate the success of the Active Neighbourhood, we’ve also conducted a perception survey of residents, active travel route users and local businesses. 

You can view the report summarising the methodology and results of this survey by clicking here.

Online perception survey report

The face to face perception survey was also adapted and put online through the Connecting Sheffield website for anyone to provide feedback. 

You can view the report summarising the results of this survey by clicking here.

Background

The Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood aims to create a safer, cleaner and more pleasant environment for residents and local businesses to enjoy and a more attractive area for walking, cycling and spending time outdoors.

In summer 2021, we asked what you thought an Active Neighbourhood in your area could look like. Through our online survey and heatmap, you told us that you would like:

• Increased confidence to walk or cycle around the neighbourhood
• Safer streets for walking
• Improved air quality
• Less traffic
• A nicer environment for people to spend time outside

View the 2021 consultation and final report here. 

The feedback we received during that consultation helped to inform the design of the Active Neighbourhood. 

Creating the Active Neighbourhood and changes following the consultation

In May 2022, we put measures in place to create the Active Neighbourhood via an ‘Experimental Traffic Regulation Order’ (ETRO). This allowed us to hold a consultation over a six month period while we installed measures as a trial on a non-permanent basis. We asked you to share your feedback on the scheme during this trial period so we could understand how the Active Neighbourhood was working and make any changes where necessary.

The plans originally included:

• Three proposed road closures (two on Archer Lane, one on Union Road) 
• A one way restriction along Nether Edge Road
• Two controlled pedestrian crossings (one on Osborne Road, one on Psalter Lane)

Responding to feedback from local businesses, who raised concerns that the proposed one-way restriction along Nether Edge Road and the closure of Union Road would restrict access for larger vehicles, we did not implement either of these measures. In addition, the closures on Archer Lane achieved a large enough reduction in traffic for the other closure to not go ahead. We put both pedestrian crossings in place as planned.

The map below shows the scheme as it currently stands. 

To view this map as a pdf, click here.

Responding to feedback 

Thank you to everyone who shared their feedback on the Active Neighbourhood trial. If you’ve sent an email, written a letter or spoken to a member of our team on the phone, please be assured that we’ve logged your feedback and our project team working on the scheme will consider it.

In July 2022, we held two community drop-in sessions where we met with residents to discuss the scheme and answer questions. We’ll also take into account the feedback from these events.

Traffic monitoring data (October 2022)

So we can monitor and evaluate the success of the Active Neighbourhood trial, we’ve conducted traffic monitoring surveys at a number of junctions across Nether Edge and the surrounding areas. These surveys capture the movements of motorised vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians between each arm of the junction.

We surveyed junctions where we anticipated a potential change in travel because of the scheme, including areas of potential traffic where traffic may have moved to another route. We also surveyed how the two controlled pedestrian crossings we implemented as part of the scheme were used.

In May 2022, before the trial began, we conducted traffic monitoring to obtain baseline data. We repeated this exercise in October 2022.

The data we captured over a 12 hour period showed some significant decreases in traffic as a result of the Active Neighbourhood. These included:

• a 34% decrease in through traffic on Nether Edge Road
• 2,592 fewer vehicles at the Archer Lane / Brincliffe Edge Road junction
• 1,902 fewer vehicles at the Bannerdale Road / Abbeydale Road junction.

We’ve also seen some traffic moving to other routes, including an additional 1,325 vehicles (41% increase) at the Brincliffe Edge Road / Bannerdale Road junction.

Overall, we’ve seen an increase in walking and cycling at all the locations we measured, including:

• 143 additional pedestrians (44% increase) on Archer Lane
• 101 additional cyclists (44% increase) at the Nether Edge Road / Sheldon Road junction.

You can view all the results of the traffic monitoring we’ve done so far here: 

Document 1: Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood Overview: Vehicle count

Document 2: Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood Overview: Pedestrian and Cyclist count

Document 3: Vehicle Count: Abbeydale Road / Sheldon Road / Broadfield Road

Document 4: Vehicle Count: Bannerdale Road / Brincliffe Edge Road  

Document 5: Vehicle Count: Sheldon Road / Nether Edge Road

Document 6: Vehicle Count: Abbeydale Road / Bannerdale Road  

Document 7: Vehicle Count: Additional roads within the Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood area

Document 8: Pedestrian Crossing Usage: Psalter Lane and Osbourne Road  

Document 9: Bus Journey Times Comparison: Abbeydale Road

Next steps

The initial six-month period for comments on the Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) for the Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood ended in November 2022. An ETRO allows measures to stay in place for up to 18 months. During the rest of the ETRO period, the scheme will remain in place while decisions are made around which elements of the trial should stay, be removed or changed.

Survey

During May 2023, we asked residents and businesses in Nether Edge for their views on how they think the Active Neighbourhood trial has changed the area. 

We wanted to know whether the Active Neighbourhood has achieved the aims of making it a safer, cleaner and more pleasant environment for people and businesses to enjoy and a more attractive area for walking, cycling and spending time outdoors. As well as conducting face-to-face surveys, we added the survey questions to this website. 

The survey closed on Wednesday 28 June at 9am. Thank you to everybody who shared their feedback. 

Decision making

We expect that a final decision on the scheme will be made by Sheffield City Council’s Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee in late summer 2023. The decision will be informed by the results of traffic monitoring surveys, feedback received during the trial period and the results of the surveys we’ll conduct in May. We’ll communicate the decision the Committee makes to the local community.

Get in touch

You can get in touch with the Connecting Sheffield team using the following channels:

Email: info@connecting-sheffield.co.uk

Freephone:  0808 196 5105 

Post: Freepost Connecting SHF

To access and complete the online survey asking about your experience of the Nether Edge Active Neighbourhood, please click here. The survey will close on Wednesday 21st June at 9am.

If you or someone you know is unable to access information online, please get in touch with us using the contact details above. We can arrange a different way to provide information and record feedback so that you or they can get involved.