As part of our project we ran a survey (152 responses) to find out what residents think about getting around here; to understand what already works and what changes need to be considered.

In general the survey showed overwhelmingly that the volume and speed of traffic is negatively impacting the experience of living or working in Chorlton, with wider pavements and better footways the most requested change.

How do people travel around Chorlton?

Our survey demonstrated that most people (95%) walk, wheel or cycle on their local journeys to shop, access services or visit hospitality and leisure venues. 

Public transport is the second most common mode of travel for shopping and accessing services outside Chorlton, but is the preferred choice for visiting café, bars and leisure venues outside the area.

What do people think about travelling?

Those that travel actively described their journeys as easy, convenient, and fast. However, the dominant feelings are that active travel is unsafe and provokes feelings of fear.

Most of these are about pollution (24%), congestion (21%), danger (12%) noise (11%).

Those who travelled by car found it largely unpleasant – for example – slow and stressful – those who travelled by walking or cycling enjoyed it more – and used words like healthy, fast, convenient, easy – but also found their journeys very badly impacted by traffic with ‘dangerous’ being the most common word associated. 

Why do people use cars?

The main reason that residents use cars is to carry goods (57 per cent). People said that journey time, flexibility and taking passengers are other main reasons for using vehicles instead of walking or cycling.

For those that use cars, half of the respondents (50%) want to use motor vehicles a lot less. A further 34% want to reduce their car use a little less.

What do people want in Chorlton?

People in Chorlton said they believe that walking and using public transport more and using air travel less makes the biggest impact on tackling climate change.

70 per cent of people want better transport connections in Chorlton and 57 per cent want public transport to be cheaper to encourage less car use.

The majority of residents want segregated cycle paths (74 per cent).

What would help people walk, cycle or use public transport more in Chorlton? 

Well-maintained pavements (72%), safer roads (66%), safer crossing points (57%) would encourage people to walk more.

Better connections (70%), cheaper (57%), more reliable (51%) more frequent (49%) public transport would enable people to use public transport more than vehicles.

Segregated cycle paths (74%), safe cycle lanes (72%), well maintained road surface (68%), and safer roads (67%) would encourage people to cycle more.