I did a quick traffic count on Tonbridge High Street a few days ago.
It showed that at about 17:00, there are about 1,360 motor vehicles per hour using the road.
Using the rule of thumb, 10x hourly peak traffic = day traffic, that gives 13,600 motor vehicles a day using Tonbridge High Street.
Putting this into perspective for cycling,
- London Cycle Design Standards give a critical failure to any street where total volume of motor traffic is > 1,000 vehicles/hour at peak and cyclists are not separated. Green is <200 vehicles per hour at peak.
- The Welsh Active Travel Guidance gives a critical failure to any street where total volume of traffic is > 10,000 vehicles per day, and cyclists are not separated. Green, is 2,500 vehicles per day.
- The UK LTN2/08 says that for > 10,000 vehicles per day, cycle lanes or tracks are required.
So, Tonbridge High Street is not a place where many people would find it comfortable to cycle.
(My data is available here – Tonbridge High Street Traffic Count 1st March 2017)