Pedestrians stopped in the cycling lane of Blackfriars Bridge making the passing motion of a cyclist a little challenging on the date of Session #2 of the Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study.

Session #2 of the Blackfriars Bridge Traffic Study was completed on Friday, June 17, 2022 between 1530 and 1800 hours. The video from 10 cameras will be copied and assembled into projects on the Adobe Premiere editting software, followed by further analysis. It will be interesting to compare these observations of a rush hour of a Friday afternoon to the original session which was completed on a Sunday afternoon. Stay tuned for more results…

Preliminary results are now available from the traffic study conducted by Gorski Consulting at the Blackfriars Bridge on May 29, 2022 in London, Ontario. A two-hour videotaping session was completed between 1300 and 1500 hours. This was a Sunday afternoon. The following are some high-lights of the analysis.

The focus of the study was in the area where the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP) intersected with the east end of Blackfriars Bridge. This is also where northbound Ridout Street terminates for motorized traffic. Four Google Maps views of the area as shown below.

This Google Maps view shows the location of the historic Blackfriars Bridge located at the north-west of downtown London, Ontario.

This Google Maps view of the site shows how Ridout Street and the Thames Valley Parkway intersect at the east end of Blackfriars Bridge. It is at this point of intersection that cyclists and pedestrians were documented interacting with eastbound vehicles crossing the bridge.

This is a view looking west toward Blackfriars Bridge with the intersection of the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP) in the foreground.

This is a view looking east from the east end of Blackfriars Bridge showing the intersection with the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP).

In total, 78 eastbound motor vehicles were documented travelling over Blackfriars Bridge. 294 cyclists were observed passing through the study area. 362 pedestrians were observed passing through the study area.

Approaches to the area were from four directions:

1. Eastbound on Blackfriars Bridge.
2. Northbound on Ridout Street.
3. Southbound on the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP).
4. Northbound on the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP).

Motor vehicles were constrained to travel just eastbound through the area. However, pedestrians and cyclists using the four directions of approach had three alternatives as to where they would go. This results in a matrix of 12 cells of different travel actions for pedestrians and cyclists. The two tables below show the frequencies of pedestrian and cyclist actions.

As an example, using the table of pedestrian actions, the first row shows the pedestrians who entered the area travelllng southbound along the Thames Valley Parkway. 143 pedestrians were observed entering the study area from this direction of travel. The table shows that 78 of those pedestrians continued southbound on the Thames Valley Parkway, 15 of those turned to travel southbound on Ridout Street and 50 of them turned to walk westbound onto Blackfriars Bridge. This should explain the meaning of the rest of the cells in the two tables.

Many issues reveal themselves once a detailed study is performed. Some of them unexpected, as demonstrated in the photo below.

For those believing that documentation of travels over the Blackfriars Bridge is a simple operation, how would you explain this method of bridge crossing by a unique pedestrian?

No further comment will be made about the results at this time. Using our methods it will be possible to calculate motor vehicle, pedestrian and cyclist speeds and thus examine any safety issues but these matters will be addressed at a future time. It is expected that at least one or two additional sessions will be performed.

If anyone is interested in participating in this study please contact me at my e-mail address: [email protected]

Two video projects have now been created from our video documentation at the Blackfriars Bridge of May 29, 2022. Each project contains a selection of five video camera views focusing on two areas of interest.

In the first project, “Users of the TVP” camera views were selected that would show how users of the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP) travelled near the crossing at the east end of the Blackfriars Bridge. A frame from that project is shown below.

This is a frame taken from the “Users of TVP” project showing the status of the site at timecode 00;26;28;30.

In the second project, “EB Vehicles”, the focus was on tracking the approach of eastbound motor vehicles as they crossed Blackfriars Bridge and approached the TVP crossing. A frame from that project is shown below.

This frame was taken from the “EB Vehicles” project at timecode 00;24;39;40.

Although additional segments of video need to be added to extend the projects to their full, 2 hours sessions, the analysis is essentially ready to begin. A great amount of detail can be pulled from these projects but the analysis is also time-consuming. As a preliminary task we will probably conduct a single analysis of counting how many eastbound vehicles have been observed crossing the bridge without conducting any analysis of their speeds. Our general observations while at the site suggested that there were a small number of such vehicles.

Conducting a count of the “Users of the TVP” is likely to be more difficult as there were far more users than eastbound vehicles. Our video cameras will allow for calculations of speed of all these users but then again this will be time-consuming so it will not be attempted in the near future.

It is expected that (at least) a second videotaping session will take place, possibly as early as Thursday, June 2, 2022. This session will need to take place near the afternoon peak hours, perhaps between 1530 and 1730 hours. The first session was conducted on a Sunday afternoon so it will be important to also obtain data from a workday.

The first official videotaping session was completed by Gorski Consulting at the Blackfriars Bridge in London Ontario on Sunday, May 29, 2022 between 1300 and 1500 hours. This photo shows a view of the various persons in the area during the videotaping session.

Weather conditions were perfect in the afternoon of May 29, 2022 such that the first videotaping session at the Blackfriars Bridge was completed between 1300 and 1500 hours. As expected a large number of users were observed on the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP) where it crosses at the east end of the Blackfriars Bridge. Ten video cameras were set up along the bridge as well as at the TVP crossing point. Once again it was our preliminary observation that there were few motor vehicles crossing the bridge.

We are now in the process of copying the videos and then shrinking the resolution so that they can be incorporated into a video project on the Adobe Premiere software. This shrinking is a time-consuming process and will likely take several days to complete. Once this is done the video segments will be synchronized in the project and we can begin to consider how analysis will evolve. If anyone is interested in being involved in the analysis please let us know.