Our 30-year history delivering travel plans for the Isle of Dogs

The Isle of Dogs in London is a unique location. The former docklands were designated an Enterprise Zone in 1981, and, since redevelopment first began in earnest in the late 1980s, the area has been dramatically transformed into one of the world’s most important and recognisable business districts.

The redevelopment of the Isle of Dogs and its associated business district, Canary Wharf, together with the isolation of the area in geographic terms (the Isle of Dogs is almost entirely bounded by the River Thames except on its northern perimeter), means the area is of special interest in research terms.

Steer has worked with Transport for London and Canary Wharf Group since 1988 undertaking the Isle of Dogs Cordon Survey - a count of all movements of people to, from and within the Isle of Dogs, as well as the Canary Wharf cordon within it.

How we helped

Since 1988 Steer has organised an annual survey (biennial since 2015) that counts the number of people entering and leaving the Isle of Dogs on a day in November and, on the same day, the Canary Wharf area.

To do this we deploy a team of fieldwork agents to count bus passengers, walkers, cyclists/taxi passengers, along with Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs) which allow traffic counts at various points on the island. We work with London Underground and DLR to retrieve passenger count data for the Jubilee Line and DLR to complete the movement picture.

We then work with Transport for London and Canary Wharf Group to refine and update the methodology for each year that the survey takes place. This ensures that the survey continues to capture the data that is of interest. For example, in 1999 we revised our method to count passengers arriving on the newly opened Jubilee Line Extension, and in 2017 we started to make a distinction between people travelling in black taxis and those travelling in private hire vehicles.

Successes & outcomes

This annual survey provides an extremely rich record of how the Isle of Dogs area has developed and prospered since it was first transformed, as well as changing travel habits over time.