London Borough and VivaCity join forces for 15-Minute Neighbourhood

In order to revitalise the neighbourhood, provide new possibilities, and foster a feeling of community pride, the London Borough of Newham is collaborating with the transport technology scaleup VivaCity on its 15-Minute Neighbourhood Programme.

VivaCity - with whom we had worked in the past, aims at making cities smarter, safer, and more sustainable cities by supporting decision-making via their sensors and signal controls that gather detailed and anonymous data 24/7 on transport modes, traffic flow and travel patterns.

The collaboration between these VivaCity and the London Borough should help Newham in their pursue of their 15-Minute Neighbourhood Programme, which has been developed to foster better, healthier and happier street communities where residents can get all of their basic, daily requirements within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their homes.

15-minute city and data

While the 15-minute city concept is at times (rightfully) debated - remember: there is no such thing as a perfect idea, the creation of an urban environment that is built for people rather than for cars is a great headstart.

Two projects from Newham's 15 Minute Neighbourhood Programme, Shared Spaces and Connected Neighbourhoods, will benefit from VivaCity's traffic monitoring data: while Connected Neighbourhoods is focused on constructing a Strategic Active Travel Corridor along the congested Romford Road, Shared Spaces is a rehabilitation project that emphasises fostering good experiences on neighbourhood high streets.

VivaCity's sensors - and more specifically, VivaCity's computer vision monitoring solutions, which offer in-depth, anonymous information on driving patterns and behaviour, are going to be used to track multimodal traffic flow to support the Programme. This includes data insights on high street foot traffic and active travel, which will aid in calculating and communicating return on investment (ROI).