In 2019, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) was the first region in the country to declare a Climate Emergency. This saw the launch of LCRCA’s ten-year Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, to make walking and cycling the modes of choice for people across the city region, recognising that enabling safe and efficient active travel – especially for short journeys – is key to the climate-conscious step change.
In light of this, Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram, proposed a 600km active travel network of new and upgraded safe and segregated cycling and walking routes, working with all six local authorities to connect boroughs across the region.
A rollout at this scale needs significant investment to fund the project. Alongside other grants allocated to support active travel, such as the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement and European Regional Development Fund, LCRCA applied for funding through the Active Travel Fund.
Early stage evidence building with high quality data
To secure this funding, a key requirement from Active Travel England (ATE) was for local authorities to demonstrate how they are monitoring and evaluating schemes, building an evidence base of how these schemes are increasing walking, wheeling, and cycling (ATE Guidance). To maximise their funding allocation, LCRCA took a serious approach to robust data collection by drawing on multimodal transport data collected from VivaCity’s sensors, evidencing their bid with a highly accurate picture of road use modality across all six boroughs.
With these datasets, not only were LCRCA able to evidence multimodal trends – including cycling volumes and flow, turning movements and the paths which cyclists and pedestrians take across junctions – they were also able to use the information gathered to support longer term planning initiatives, such as the region’s ‘Green Bus Route’ bus prioritisation project and overall traffic management.
Data gathered by LCRCA’s sensor network supports the ‘build it and they will come’ notion, with an
impressive modal shift from cars to active travel already recorded; notably a 42.43% percent increase in cyclist activity on a key cycle corridor before and after installation (2021 – 2023), with a 8.13% decrease in the total sum of cars on the cycle link.
This data-led evidence underpinned LCRCA’s successful Active Travel Fund 4 bid, and was reflected in Active Travel England’s Active Travel Capability assessment of LCRCA in 2022: Rating 2: ‘Strong local leadership, with clear plans that form the basis of an emerging network with a few elements already in place’.
A total of 86 local authorities received tranche 4 funding, with LCRCA amongst highest receivers alongside West Midlands Combined Authority, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
LCRCA secured £16m from the Active Travel Fund 4, with a bid so persuasive it won nearly three times its indicative allowance. This took the total active travel committed spend to £70m, from Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram.
“It is fantastic to see this new funding being unlocked, to really help us push forward with our plans to help create a network of walking and cycling routes that befits our region… The kind of schemes that will be delivered by this money give us an amazing opportunity to help change the way we think about travelling around our local area.”
Simon O’Brien, Liverpool City Region Walking and Cycling Commissioner
Data accessible for all
With continuous, downloadable data collection available through VivaCity’s cloud-based dashboard, local authorities are able to log in from anywhere and view both live and historic data being generated by each sensor. This data can be accessed through VivaCity’s API providing 3rd party system integration, giving a holistic view of the network in an easily shareable format. For both early stage evidence building and longer-term monitoring schemes, these valuable insights can be the key to unlocking essential funding needed to make impactful network improvements.
LCRCA & VivaCity Continued Collaboration
With nearly 200 sensors installed across the region, and further monitoring schemes being deployed this year, LCRCA and VivaCity continue to work side by side on other projects and initiatives. This includes expanding the Region’s school streets, and initiatives such as Bikeability and the Mini-Roads cycle track, co-funded by Liverpool City Council and British Cycling. VivaCity data is also being used to help LCRCA communities make informed active travel decisions; powered by VivaCity sensors and environmental sensor network data, the ‘Smart Green Journeys’ app was launched in October 2021, supporting active travel by allowing users to plan safe, direct routes that best suit their needs.
Going forward, it’s the case that government increasingly require that funding for active travel
infrastructure be allocated to those schemes which authorities can demonstrate provide the clearest
benefit to the public. Being able to tap into the wealth of data provided by the VivaCity’s AI sensors, is
helping the LCRCA and its Local Authority partners make the strongest possible case for sustained
investment.
For too long road safety assessment, planning and decision-making has been based on analysing the causes of incidents after-the-fact. This cycle needs to be broken, if Vision Zero goals are to be achieved. Road safety decision making must shift from being a reactive process to a proactive one.
“We have made significant investments in walking and cycling, much of which have been granted from central government. Key to attracting that money has been our relationship with VivaCity, and being able to draw from a very rich source of data from the sensors installed across the network.
57% of people want to see more protected cycle lanes, but that in itself doesn’t mean a huge amount unless we can demonstrate that these schemes are having an impact. One of the real powers of the data is the ability to take average daily counts of pedestrians and cyclists in the period before the scheme is introduced, and again 12 months later to analyse the impact of the scheme once it’s been completed.
Ultimately, with the help of this data it gives us the confidence as a combined authority to develop and implement well designed schemes. Having this robust evidence is enormously beneficial to show the work we’ve done, to encourage further investments. The data that you collect in advance of an upcoming scheme is absolutely crucial to demonstrating its success.
We know it takes time for these schemes to embed, so we need to adopt this longer term approach to data monitoring and evaluation. Large scale change will not happen overnight, data is required and patience is key.”
John Smith, Principal Projects Officer, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Watch the exclusive webinar session by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and VivaCity to learn more about how the combined authority has been building a strong evidence base using AI-powered smart traffic data, which has been central and key in evaluating the success of Active Travel schemes and in applying for further and bigger funding.
Get more from your technology with VivaCity’s 3-in-1 solution
With ongoing pressure on budgets it’s important to make the most of any technology you deploy. Versatility is key. VivaCity sensors can be used for three purposes: road safety, signal control and traffic monitoring. VivaCity sensors are always connected, so there’s no need to add all features at the point of installation – you can add them as and when they’re needed. When used in combination, the datasets unite to provide holistic and fully comprehensive insights and performance metrics, all from the same sensor.
Explore VivaCity’s range of capabilities:
Discover What Makes VivaCity’s AI-Powered Computer Vision Sensor Technology Unique
Like our content? Sign up to our newsletter and receive the latest updates in your inbox.
