Project Lead: Lawrence Durham
Most recent update: April 10th, 2025
This post is an ongoing account of how Strong Towns London is moving forward with its first Crash Analysis Studio. We will be updating this blog post regularly as we collect more data and move forward with our analysis.
The crash
On the morning of June 6, 2024, a car struck a Grade 3 student crossing Kilally Road on his way to school. At the time of the crash, there weren’t any traffic signals or pedestrian crossing lights at the intersection of Kilally Road and Webster Street.
Watch a 1-MINUTE VIDEO CLIP OF THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL highlighting the dangers of the intersection, just one week after the collision.
Unfortunately, even as late as today, the city STILL has not made any changes to the intersection, not even implementing any TEMPORARY traffic-calming measures to make the intersection safer for vulnerable road users.
What is a Crash Analysis Studio?
Starting in 2023, Strong Towns conducted Crash Analysis Studio sessions in 18 cities across North America. After analyzing the results, Strong Towns produced a comprehensive report and template that interested people in cities everywhere could use locally to conduct their own Crash Analysis Studios.
With that in mind, in March 2025, the local chapter of Strong Towns London began applying the template to a crash site at the corner of Kilally Road and Webster Street.
Is this intersection REALLY that dangerous?
The intersection of Kilally Road and Webster Street has been flagged as a dangerous corner for pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicles alike. With no traffic lights to slow down high-speed motor vehicle traffic travelling rapidly along Kilally Road, crashes keep occurring. And without doing anything to address road design issues, crashes WILL KEEP occurring.
Even before the June 2024 crash, the City of London had announced its plans for a two-year construction project (from 2025 to 2027) to widen and improve Kilally from Webster Road to Clarke Road. Construction goals include adding bicycle lanes and sidewalks, IMPROVING INTERSECTIONS, realigning the road, and doing underground utility and drainage work.
Unfortunately, the project ran into some design issues in 2025 that will delay construction by one year. That means that the reconstruction of the intersection at Webster and Kilally Road won’t be completed until the end of 2026.
However, we really can’t sit on our collective hands and wait until late 2026.
We need to get started right away
Here are the guidelines we will be following:
- Take Measurements at the Crash Site
- Include widths of sidewalks, bicycle paths, turn and traffic lanes, and the intersection as a whole
- Take Photos and Videos
- Include photos and videos
- from both the perspective of a car and the pedestrian/ cyclist
- from each corner of the intersection
- from surrounding blocks (to give context and perspective)
- Include photos and videos
- Collect and Process Speed Data
- Purchase a radar gun
- Clock 250 cars travelling on Kilally Road, OR record 2 hours of data
- Choose a way to display the data collected
- Access the Crash Report from the Police
- Contact the London Police Service
- Identify and Recruit 4 Experts
- 2 technical experts
- 2 local experts
- Prepare the Experts and set the Agenda for the Crash Analysis Studio session
- Get their reactions to the material we’ve gathered so far
- Review the role of the moderator
- Ask experts to
- develop a list of design factors for discussion
- group their recommendations into three buckets
- what can be done immediately
- what can be done within 12 months
- what can be done beyond that 12-month period
Next steps?
Once the preparation for the Crash Analysis Studio is complete, we will:
- Conduct a Crash Analysis Studio session in the community
- Present the facts and recommendations
- Record the session
- Translate the studio session into action
- Put together a report
- Publish and distribute the report
- Follow through with local officials
What can YOU do to help?
We want to hear from you! Please leave your reply in the “Comments” section below.
Or for those of you who want to be more “hands-on,” but are not sure how we can best use your talents, please reach out directly to Ben Durham at absolutelyben@gmail.com.
About the author
Lawrence Durham is a writer, bicycle tour guide, and retiree living in London, Canada. When he’s not inside typing away on his computer, he’s outside happily touring around London on his bicycle. Not bad for an old fart!