If you live in a big town or city, especially London, there’s a chance you will have come across something known as a ‘low traffic neighbourhood.’ The name is pretty self-explanatory, but these local authority-imposed moves to ban drivers from certain areas are seen by many as removal of basic rights and an attack on those who rely on a car for transport. Those in favour of low traffic neighbourhoods cite cleaner air and safer streets as just some of the benefits.
What is a low traffic neighbourhood (LTN)?
Simply put, it’s an area in a town or city where a majority of traffic is banned from using the roads. Some of them are only temporary measures while others are here to stay. The government pledged £2 billion to ‘create a new era of cycling and walking’ in May 2020 – slap bang in the middle of the first COVID lockdown – with £250 million of that devoted to specifically to making safer spaces for walkers and cyclists, which included building bike lanes and widening pavements. LTNs fall under this budget.
How does a LTN work?
The infrastructure is simple: smaller roads are physically blocked off from bigger, connecting roads, preventing cars from entering them. Some barriers are basic, such as a bollards or planters, but some LTNs use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to rise and lower the barriers. That’s because residents of LTNs are still allowed to come and go using a car, and delivery drivers can also enter LTNs. Some LTNs are restricted to a single lane with signs warning only residents and delivery drivers can enter.
Why do we need low traffic neighbourhoods?
Depends who you ask, but there are a few reasons the proponents of LTNs want them. The first is cleaner air in the inner-city areas in which they are based, which is easy to understand. The streets are also made safer for cyclists and walkers, which is the motivation from the government’s perspective – it wants more people to travel via foot and bike. The pandemic has meant people quite rightly have become wary of using public transport, so the government wants to encourage those people to find green, COIVD-safe ways to travel, rather than add more cars to the already-congested roads.
Another reason is because smaller, traditionally quiet roads have become more congested and busier since the advent of sat nav and sat nav apps like Waze, which can identify ‘rat runs’ in towns and cities which motorists were previously unaware of. Quiet, safe and less-polluted pockets of cities are becoming congested with cars more so than ever before.
What do those oppose low traffic neighbourhoods say?
On a practical level, opponents of LTNs say cutting off rat runs only increases traffic on the bigger roads so simply replaces the lower pollution in LTNs with higher pollution in areas with main roads, where plenty of people still live and visit businesses. There’s also an element of confusion as each council imposes LTNs differently, so delivery drivers often don’t realise they are allowed down a road and other motorists innocently enter a LTN and risk a fine. Some critics have pointed out that LTNs make it harder for emergency vehicles to access certain areas.
Many see LTNs as another attack on drivers, and one based on wobbly theory, much like the ban on petrol and diesel new cars sales in 2030. Millions of people in the UK rely on their car to work or visit sick friends or relatives, and LTNs only serve to make it harder and longer to get to those destinations.
What happens if I enter a low traffic neighbourhood?
If you are caught entering a LTN either by the police or ANPR cameras, you could be fined up to £130 – which is why many see this as just another tax on the motorist and a revenue stream for local authorities. It is being enforced too: Lambeth Council in London alone has already issued £1 million in fines to drivers using LTNs.
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Keyword: Low traffic neighbourhoods: good idea or an attack on motorists?