LTNs and conspiracy theories

7th Mar 2023

The co-author of a report into low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) comments on conversations and iterative change. By Rachel Aldred, director of the Active Travel Academy (ATA)

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Any kind of publication on low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) excites a lot of interest, with many people keen to hear the latest research – and many people with a lot of strong views on either side.

I expected there to be quite a lot of interest in our report, Changes in motor traffic inside London’s LTNs and on boundary roads, which was released by the climate action charity Possible, and we later produced some FAQs to answer many of the issues raised, via the likes of Twitter.

But we’ve also seen reference to LTN conspiracy theories in some of the reactions.

It’s just such a shame, because I do think that with any kind of traffic management measures, there needs to be some kind of nuanced conversation. Yes, there may be specific people who are negatively impacted – and we need to have conversations to listen to people's real problems. But these theories are just a distraction from that and it makes people’s positions more entrenched.

When you look at the population, richer people tend to own cars more and tend to drive more, so while you can say that traffic reduction measures generally tend to be equitable, that doesn't mean there aren't individual groups that are going to be particularly impacted. Their concerns then potentially don't get dealt with, because they just get seen as part of a conspiracy theory, when they’re real concerns that can be dealt with.

One of the problems with engaging with objections is about narrative and not evidence: evidence is really important, but people are understandably frightened of change. We can all appreciate that traffic management measures cause some short-term disruption, but there are also benefits, such as children potentially being able to play in the streets again, something that has been lost in a lot of areas.

I understand that there have been some comments on discussion fora along the lines of “journeys just don’t evaporate”. Journeys do change in response to disruption. Induced demand, which is the converse of traffic evaporation, is quite well proven: if you create more capacity for motor traffic, you get more motor traffic. And the same is true for other modes, such as cycling: build some amazing cycle tracks in central London and suddenly cyclists start appearing.

But it's not necessarily a like-for-like switch. It's not that somebody, instead of driving five miles to the shop, cycles instead. It can often be more iterative, so somebody combines car trips, instead of making separate trips. A lot of iterative small changes happen and people change their travel behaviour when there's some kind of disruption or change.

Finally, I’d like to make an appeal for more harmonised data that’s publicly available. There's a job for individual local authorities and other organisations sharing data to do. In London, some local authorities had decent reports that we could use, but you want that data to be available on a map and downloadable, not just for individual London boroughs, but for all of the boroughs. A job for Transport for London, perhaps?

 

Rachel Aldred was in conversation with Craig Thomas

   

Next Steps

Share your thoughts on LTNs and other highway and transportation issues on CIHT’s Connect discussion boards.

 

Listen back to the CIHT podcast featuring Rachel Aldred speaking about active travel in the UK.

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