Getting rid of cut-through motor traffic in residential areas means people walk and cycle more and use their cars less, helping communities thrive.
We successfully campaigned for £30 million for the UK’s first modern LTNs – a term we popularised in our seminal 2019 report on this topic. Waltham Forest is nicknamed a ‘mini-Holland’ after our 2012 ‘Love London Go Dutch’ campaign where Boris Johnson pledged the money and support to make it happen. Low Traffic Neighbourhoods work brilliantly for cycling – but are even more vital for walking, for kids playing outside, and our communities overall.
You can see all of London’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods today on the Safe Cycle London Map, run by a volunteer linked to London Cycling Campaign.
By removing through-traffic, the streets in a Low Traffic Neighbourhood see dramatic reductions in motor traffic levels. This means less noise, air pollution and less road danger. Children can play out, neighbours can catch up and chat, and people feel safe to walk and cycle around their neighbourhood.
Vehicle miles driven per year in London
UK children are allowed to play outside. 50 years ago that was 8 in 10.
Of London's vehicle traffic miles are currently driven on residential streets ('rat-running')
LTNs: a history
The funny thing is, since the 1960s in the UK we’ve built cul-de-sac housing and dead-end estates where traffic rates are barely one car an hour - LTNs by default.
But these neighbourhoods have no permeability for anything – pavements are grim, there's no space between houses. They’ve very hard or impossible even to walk through, let alone cycle.
But the idea of stopping traffic cutting through a residential neighbourhood isn't new...
Pompeii, 79AD
Wheeled vehicles like chariots were banned from the central plaza of Roman cities where public life was centred.
We can see this law enforced by physical barriers, like these three stone blocks preventing carriage traffic travelling into Pompeii's central plaza.
The Netherlands, 1960s
Dutch urban planning originates in the ‘STOP DE KINDERMOORD’ (which translates as ‘Stop the Child Murder’) movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
It means almost all Dutch neighbourhoods today cannot be driven through by car.
We interviewed the co-founder of the Stop De Kindermoord movement, Dr Maartje van Putten.
Hackney, 1970s
A famous London example is De Beauvoir Square in Hackney – now a very chic area with multimillion pound pads, but previously a notorious red-light district.
In the 1970s the local council decided to filter traffic in the whole area to try and stop kerb-crawling and drug-dealing.
But our local cycling group, Hackney Cycling Campaign, saw how good it was for cycling and embraced it. Hackney is now one of London's leading boroughs for LTNs.
Barcelona, 2010s
Barcelona today is famous for its 'superilles' or superblocks.
The city is built on a 3x3 grid system with the inside of each block not permeable to through-traffic.
Residents have famously spilled over their greenery, planting, conversations and communities into the streets. The city is famously easy to cycle too.
Waltham Forest, 2015
'Mini-Holland' neighbourhoods were created in the north-west London borough of Waltham Forest thanks to our 'Love London Go Dutch' 2012 Mayoral campaign.
These were modelled on Dutch infrastructure and contained many Filtered Permeability Cells: areas which allowed people and bikes through, but not cars.
But Filtered Permeability Cells wasn't a very catchy name so we changed it to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods...
...and the rest is history.
LTNs for policy makers
Very short handbook and introduction to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods for policy makers, produced in association with Living Streets.
LTNs reduce traffic
A 2022 review of data from Low Traffic Neighbourhoods across London from Possible showed LTNs create a substantial overall reduction in traffic and that LTNs do not tend to massively impact main roads either – traffic doesn’t just shift from one road to another, a lot of it just isn’t being driven any more.
This 2022 study from Imperial College London uses data from Islington, north London to show LTNs reduce traffic without displacing it to nearby streets.
The average road within the Waltham Forest LTN saw a 44% reduction in vehicles and motor traffic levels also went down by over 5% on the main road nearest the second LTN scheme.
LTNs reduce air pollution
This 2022 study from Imperial College London uses data from Islington, north London to show LTNs reduce nitrogen dioxide pollution both within LTNs and on boundary roads.
This 2018 report (and below image) compares nitrogen dioxide pollution across Waltham Forest between 2007 and 2017, pre- and post- London’s earliest LTNs. The only intervention during this ten years was Waltham Forest’s Mini-Holland project which introduced LTNs across the borough alongside main road protected cycle lanes. Note that both before and after are prior to the introduction of ULEZ in London.
LTNs improve health
A 2024 longitudinal review of the Waltham Forest LTN programme found it generated over £1 billion of health economic benefits for a cost of just £100 million.
LTNs reduce vehicle speed
The average road within the Waltham Forest LTN saw a 2mph drop in average motor vehicle speed.
LTNs increase retail spending
Low Traffic Neighbourhood high streets in Hackney have shown an increase in retail spending of 200%, with footfall up and cycling up.
In Waltham Forest, overall retail vacancy has fallen 17% and the high street currently has zero vacant units.
Data from Living Streets study ‘The Pedestrian Pound’ shows that people who walk or wheel to do their shopping spend more money and pedestrianised high streets see bigger sales.
LTNs increase children's lifespans
Children born in Waltham Forest are now predicted to live longer as a result of reduced pollution levels – an average of 6 weeks longer over their lifespans.
Note that in London LTNs are often used with School Streets. These are roads next to schools that are closed to motor traffic around pick-up and drop-off times. Currently mainly used around primary schools, we are seeing them expanded to secondary schools in some boroughs like Hackney. They often have resident and disabled exemptions and are enforced by anything from numberplate recognition cameras to volunteer staff and parents with pop-up bollards. School Streets create places ideal for walking, scooting, cycling and play and have been shown to reduce the proportion of families doing the school run by car. Increasingly School Streets are being used in conjunction with Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes to disrupt cut-through traffic, boost bus routes and enable walking and cycling for children and families across an entire area – not just the last 100m of a child’s journey to school.
LTNs increase people's exercise
People living in Waltham Forest Low Traffic Neighbourhoods do on average 1-2 hours more walking a week, and 15-20 minutes more cycling per week.
LTNs reduce street crime
Waltham Forest has seen an 18% decrease in total street crime.
Debunking
We’ve debunked misleading representations of London’s LTN data in The Times, which in 2022 claimed boroughs that put in LTNs during the pandemic had higher motor traffic rises. We worked through the data to show that they didn’t.
A note on traffic speeds
Both within Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and on and main roads, we need lower speeds. If you are hit by a car travelling above 40mph, there’s a more than 50% chance you’ll die. At 20mph that chance falls to less than 2%. We campaign across London for lower speed limits and 20mph as default.
As of summer 2024, 11 London boroughs now have 20mph limits as a default, including the majority of inner London boroughs. Transport for London, which owns arterial roads, is also increasing the amount of its roads that are 20mph. This TfL map shows the progress of speed limits across London, in part thanks to our ongoing campaigning.
Road behaviour needs both design and enforcement. We have pushed the Met Police to a target of 1 million speeding tickets issued per year by 2026. In 2024, the number of speeding tickets issued exceeded 500,000 for the first time.
Below: Orford Road before and after, at the location of one of London’s first new Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Waltham Forest built thanks to our campaigning. 2008 photo thanks to Google Maps.
Increase in average life expectancy for children born in Waltham Forest since the changes
More cycling per week done by people living in the new Waltham Forest Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
Vacant shop units on the Low Traffic Neighbourhood high street of Orford Road (pictured above)
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