Speaker
Description
The Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) is a recent traffic management approach to removing motorised through-traffic from residential streets in the UK by strategically blocking roads using bollards and planters while allowing passage of walkers and cyclists and other micromobilities including electric scooters. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras are also used to facilitate the passage of emergency service vehicles and public service vehicles.
Critics of LTNs argue that such schemes force traffic onto boundary roads of LTN resulting in congestion and associated traffic pollution increasing along those routes and question their impact on equitable sustainable mobility. Supporters of LTN highlight the wider benefits to the community including improved road safety and environmental quality through less motor traffic and the potential to encourage more people to walk and cycle for short journeys; increased opportunity for social interaction among neighbours; and the ability of children to play out in the street. Because of their recent implementation in the UK, studies on the impact of LTN are nascent (Aldred et al., 2024; Aldred et al., 2021; Pritchet et al., 2024; Xiao, 2023).
The focus of this paper is the city of Oxford which became the site of resistance to LTN culminating in a national protest in the central area of the city in February 2023 (Quinn, 2023). The paper provides an insight into residents' perceptions of the impact of LTN gathered through a social survey of householders at dwellings (approx.5000) within and along the boundary of the most recent ‘East Oxford LTN’. This was supplemented with static and mobile interviews (Büscher et al., 2010; Fincham et al.2010) with respondents during summer 2024.
The results of our survey (n=528) show that the East Oxford LTN has made a positive impact across most indicators (e.g. walking and cycling; social interaction; children's play) but that support for the LTN was more likely among households: located within the LTN (as opposed to along boundary roads); with children; with access to cycles; and, without access to a car. Interviews (n=30) and mobile interviews (n=15) with purposively selected householders from the survey reveal the complexity of opinion on the impact of the East Oxford LTN and nuance even within groups 'pro' and 'anti' LTN. Based on these findings, and in considering the contributions and limitations of LTN in equitable and sustainable mobility (Dudley et al.,2022) we provide lessons for policy within the context of wider interventions to support the transition to sustainable travel and liveable neighbourhoods.
References
Aldred, R., Goodman, A., & Woodcock, J. (2024). Impacts of active travel interventions on travel behaviour and health: Results from a five-year longitudinal travel survey in Outer London. Journal of Transport & Health, 35, 101771.
Aldred, R., Verlinghieri, E., Sharkey, M., Itova, I., & Goodman, A. (2021). Equity in new active travel infrastructure: A spatial analysis of London’s new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Journal of Transport Geography, 96, 103194.
Büscher, M., Urry, J., Witchger, K. (2010). Mobile Methods. Routledge.
Dudley, G., Banister, D., & Schwanen, T. (2022). Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and the Paradox of UK Government Control of the Active Travel Agenda. The Political Quarterly, 93(4), 585–593.
Fincham, B., McGuinness, M., Murray, L. (2010). Mobile Methodologies. Palgrave Macmillan.
Pritchett, R., Bartington, S., & Neil Thomas, G. (2024). Exploring expectations and lived experiences of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Birmingham, UK. Travel Behaviour and Society, 36, 100800.
Quinn, B. (2023). ‘Far right trying to infiltrate UK’s low-traffic protests, campaigners warn. The Guardian, Friday 24th February 2023.
Xiao, C. S., Sinclair, N., Saunders, L., & Panter, J. (2023). Evaluating the impact of low traffic neighbourhoods in areas with low car ownership: A natural experimental evaluation. Journal of Transport & Health, 33, 101658.
| Keywords | Low Traffic Neighbourhoods; streets; liveability; active travel; Oxford, UK. |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
