please empty your brain below
We live on a street which has been much improved by the addition of a LTN measure in Newham. Our street - previously a rat run for people getting from Stratford to Forest Gate and beyond - is now safe to cross. We still have cars travelling down it but in much reduced numbers. The council collected detail of the impact of the LTN round our way is shown here: pdf.

Joan | 17.07.22 - 7:39 a.m. | #

So a road paid for by all taxpayers can now be used by all taxpayers, not just groups favoured by politicians.

Plus the increase in hybrid and electric vehicles is making the pollution argument redundant (albeit overlooking the energy to make the battery and dispose of it at the end of its life).

Responding to the needs of small businesses (paying how much in business rates) is a bad thing?

Still Anon | 17.07.22 - 8:04 a.m. | #

Someone recently complained to me about an LTN. I pointed out that they lived around Tredegar Square in Mile End and the reason they enjoy such quiet and peaceful roads is because of the LTNs blocking rat running from Grove Road to Mile End Road. “It’s not an LTN,” they said. “The roads have been blocked off for years.” See also bollards at the end of Bunsen Street, which have long prevented rat running from Grove Road to Roman Road, Morgan Street and Lichfield Road, to name but a few. Even the area around Columbia Road and Old Bethnal Green Road has an old filter at Elwin Street. Will the new mayor remove all these too?

I appreciate that some people in Tower Hamlets love their cars. Many aspire to drive the latest BMWs and Audis with tinted windows and illegally spaced, 4D number plates. Pavement parking, parking on zig zags, and speeding has become the norm. The new mayor has even cited delivery drivers and taxi drivers in his reasons to remove the bollards and bus gates. Many in the borough see buses as beneath them and refuse to walk even short distances. They want larger and larger SUVs and then complain about the traffic or or not being able to fit into a parking space. Electric vehicles won’t solve traffic congestion and unless everyone is ready to ditch the SUV for a Smart car or small city car, then you’re not going to suddenly squeeze more in.

I expect more regulated pavement parking (footpath widths cut due to parking bays being widened with painted boxes over the paving slabs) and unenforced pavement parking - try walking down Bethnal Green Road one afternoon or evening and not encountering a car blocking a dropped kerb or zig zig. It fear it will soon be possible to park all day outside of your controlled parking zone again. I dread to think where all the council staff and elected representatives will park when the town hall moves to Whitechapel.

Buzby | 17.07.22 - 8:14 a.m. | #

Badly implemented LTNs are worse than no LTN as they make later implementing a good LTN much harder.

I am fortunate to live on a quiet street. I've been here for nearly a decade and it's refreshing to see people on my street just amble down the middle of the road and kids "dangerously" zig-zag around the road on their bikes. No-one's constantly checking over their shoulder for cars coming by. (Yet cars & vans do come down here)

Urban planning is a difficult balance between the needs of all users. But we shouldn't just give up and carry on with the current car-centric design of roads.

Jon Jones | 17.07.22 - 8:15 a.m. | #

Don't really know where to start, Still Anon.
You're right, healthy streets do allow all taxpayers to use the roads they pay for - people walking, cycling, or the 70% of taxpayers in TH that don't have a car. Why should so much public space be reserved for people travelling in the most damaging way possible?
Electric cars still pollute (particles from brakes & Tyres) and do nothing to alleviate congestion, road deaths and injuries or poor health caused by inactivity.
Actually, lots of businesses could be serviced by cargo bike but if not, then allowing periods for deliveries in non-peak times shouldn't be a massive problem. Also, lots of businesses do better when traffic is reduced.

Matt | 17.07.22 - 8:27 a.m. | #

I’m sure these comments will prove your point about how polarising low traffic neighbourhoods are.

For me, designing streets so residents can safely walk to their local shops, breathe clean air, or allow their children to ride a bike to school without worrying about getting run over by a 4x4 is exactly what local politicians should be doing. It’s about improving the quality of urban life for everyone, not the minority with cars.

Mike on a bike | 17.07.22 - 8:36 a.m. | #

For the last few days the text in this blog has become much wider, making it harder for me to read on a mobile.
I can turn it landscape but it's still tiny text.
Has some setting changed?
Anyone else seeing this?

dg writes: I haven't changed anything.

Joho | Homepage | 17.07.22 - 9:10 a.m. | #

The one and only reason that Lutfur Rahman (the disgraced yet re-elected Mayor of Tower Hamlets) ran his campaign to end the Liveable streets road closure programme was to further improve his chances of being reelected as Mayor, having already run a somewhat dodgy campaign within the borough that held meetings instructing those present that all Muslims in Tower Hamlets had a duty to vote only for him he then aimed his campaign towards a section of the residents that perhaps under normal election circumstances would not have chosen him as their first choice candidate, as well as being a corrupt official who is now holding high office within the local council he is actually quite clever in his manipulation of local issues, he is an utter disgrace and should never have been allowed to stand for the position of mayor again.

fishislandskin | 17.07.22 - 9:19 a.m. | #

John - Yes, I have the same problem. It's particularly bad with the comments page.

David Cook | 17.07.22 - 9:24 a.m. | #

The stats on the Newham infographic are unhelpful without knowing the actual numbers involved. (19% increase on boundary streets and 76% decrease on internal ones)

The "boundary streets" are typically main thoroughfares which are likely to have much more traffic already than the side streets that would benefit from an LTN. My street has maybe 40 vehicles per hour. A 76% decrease would bring that down by 30, to 10. The parallel main road probably gets 400 vehicles an hour. A 19% increase would increase that by 76, to 476. A net increase on the two roads together of 46, or about 10%.

And gridlock in the town centre as traffic from within the LTN heading for the bypass - journeys unlikely to be suitable for cycling or walking, and not served by bus - would have to divert through the town centre.

Timbo | 17.07.22 - 10:12 a.m. | #

If I lived in Tower Hamlets I'd never dream of voting for Lutfur Rahman, but it does at least show that voting in local elections can make a difference.

Unless there are small details that may be amended, I don't really know why he's bothered with the consultation if the decision has been made.

Anders | 17.07.22 - 10:43 a.m. | #

The photo on the predictably-glossy "consultation" document makes a liveable street look surprisingly appealing, given the presumed aim of this consultation is to steer people away from any such notion! And isn't it odd that we find large box planters out of place in a "listed" environment, but accept an endless stream of trafffic in the same location as simply the natural order of things...

cau1khead | 17.07.22 - 10:48 a.m. | #

The last sentence: you get what you vote for. No you don't, you get what a majority of other people have voted for. Or what some elected person claims that such a majority has voted for.
I agree that some offences, particularly vote fraud etc, should attract a much longer ban - perhaps lifelong - from standing again.

Malcolm of Kent | 17.07.22 - 10:49 a.m. | #

Living on a main road, which would probably have at least a B classification if my borough bothered with such things, it was never going to have any LTN measures - 2 schools, 2 bus routes, major traffic lights & the only alternative access avoiding low bridges for those absolutely huge supermarket delivery lorries etc.

I wish they'd tackle the rise in not only bikes and e-scooters careering along the pavement, but recently also e-bikes and e-mopeds too! Especially when they're beeping children and their parents and other pedestrians to get out of their way without slowing down in the slightest!

With all our windows are open day and night at the moment, the noise pollution is particularly stressful, especially the horn tooting. If one beeps they all seem to have to join in!

Cornish Cockney | 17.07.22 - 11:12 a.m. | #

The present mayor stood on a manifesto of abolishing LTNs. The previous mayor did not stand on a manifesto of expanding LTNs, but rather sneaked them in using Covid (and Shapps) as cover.

Kim | 17.07.22 - 11:14 a.m. | #

Small businessmen do not pay any business rates if their premises have a rateable value under £12,000. This will include many corner shops and convenience stores in the borough.

freddie | 17.07.22 - 11:37 a.m. | #

I lived in a side street just off Fulham Palace Road when Putney Bridge was closed for 3 months. It was the best 3 months for the area! No cars whatsoever, only the buses terminating there. But it was never going to last. Once the bridge reopened, the traffic queues returned.

The problem with such LTN measures is they don't provide any alternative solutions, they just push the problem a few blocks away.

By living in a major metropolis, one of the biggest cities in the world, you accept there are cars on the street. Lots of cars on big roads, fewer on sidestreets.

In a post-pandemic world, nobody is forcing people to live in crowded cities with plenty of remote work available. And if your job cannot be done remotely, Brexit-related staff shortages resulted in unfilled vacancies all over the UK in many professions.

If you want to stay close to the capital, there are plenty of quiet villages for a 20-minute train ride from Central London, they are much more affordable too.

Greg S | 17.07.22 - 12:45 p.m. | #

Thanks for covering this, dg. It is truly heartbreaking. Tower Hamlets was already far behind its neighbours in terms of cycling and walking, and it has chosen to regress to the stone ages. Very sad stuff.

Please do cover the other things that the Rahman mayoralty gets up to, as it won’t be reported in the mainstream press. I hope some of it is beneficial to the population, or they will have been truly scammed.

Dan | 17.07.22 - 1:38 p.m. | #

You do know where there are lots of LTNs and lots of cycle tracks as well? Milton Keynes.

Sprout Eater | 17.07.22 - 2:34 p.m. | #

This is a great example of a wedge issue, and having a strong message in either direction is likely to endear you to a large group of voters.

I wonder what Rahman's actual opinion is - he probably couldn't care less either way.

Rob | 17.07.22 - 2:41 p.m. | #

It could be tempting to wonder if any of this might have anything to do with a long-term grudge between Rahman and a guy by the name of Andrew Gilligan... in which case it could be a great illustration of the saying 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'
In the years around 2010 Gilligan, in his role as a journalist, was ripping into Rahman at any chance he could. In 2013 he was appointed as the Mayor of London's 'Cycling Tsar' and can be looked back on now as a prime mover in the expansion of the cycle highways network and the pro-cycling (and walking) movement.
Maybe it's just a way of erasing as much trace as possible of the legacy that Gilligan tried to leave.

RogerW | 17.07.22 - 2:53 p.m. | #

Greg S: except they do provide a solution - reduce road capacity (which, by forcing through journeys onto the same main roads, is what you're effectively doing) and the amount of traffic overall will fall. It's known as 'traffic evaporation' and is well documented. People will find their journeys - especially short ones - have been made that bit more inconvenient to make by car, so they'll make them by another means. It is a bit indiscriminate, and those who have no alternative to go by car are also inconvenienced, but it soon balances out when people find new routes that work for them and the overall traffic drops.

martin | 17.07.22 - 2:59 p.m. | #

"help local residents to drive around more easily"

If you're local, you shouldn't need to drive anywhere. Half of all journeys in London are under two miles, the plan should be to make these trips easier to be walked or cycled. I know some may find it difficult to walk or cycle any distance but if we get the people we can out of cars and onto public transport or get them using active travel in safer environments that can only be a good thing.

Wild Edric | 17.07.22 - 3:08 p.m. | #

Joho – Reckon that’s the result of the split-but-still-wide Google Street View URL in Friday’s post “which…essentially [also] broke the comments box”

Rich G | Homepage | 17.07.22 - 7:14 p.m. | #

Just to say, I am also having to turn phone to landscape as for the last few days my favourite blog has appeared to expand just slightly off screen.

Cottonsocks | 17.07.22 - 8:07 p.m. | #

Yes Rich, thanks, it was the 334-character Streetview URL which, although I chopped it into much smaller chunks, still managed to be too wide for certain mobile browsers.
(it looked fine on mine, which is why I didn't notice)

Should be fixed now. I blame car drivers.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 17.07.22 - 10:16 p.m. | #

Fixed for me!
Thanks DG.

Joho | Homepage | 17.07.22 - 10:23 p.m. | #

Having read the history of Arnold Circus, and negotiated/discussed problems in the area relating to my work I believe that there will be fireworks when the planters are removed.
I will also agree with them.

scrumpy | 17.07.22 - 10:34 p.m. | #

Just curious, while responding to consultations is a *must*, if it gets ignored or dodgingly rejected by another "majority", are there any groups planning to escalate the resistance by something like a judiciary review or even a protest demonstration?

I suppose this Rahman guy would rethink his position if something makes him look very bad.

Patrickov | 18.07.22 - 12:57 a.m. | #

Very sad. I'd be furious if I lived on Old Bethnal Green Road. I'd describe this as urban vandalism.

Whopping fine? VG, full marks.

Lorenzo | 18.07.22 - 12:22 p.m. | #

To those saying John Biggs’ LTN plans were ‘snuck’ in under Covid, you are 100% wrong. He was elected in 2018 on a manifesto promising to introduce LTNs in Tower Hamlets:

From pg.5 of the TH Labour Party 2018 manifesto:

“Through-traffic should by and large stick to these main roads but many of our residential neighbourhoods have seen huge increases in rat-running traffic, making them more dangerous, noisy and polluted. We will create low traffic neighbourhoods, keeping through-traffic to main roads, in any residential area where residents want them, with an ambition to have started on at least half of the borough’s neighbourhoods by 2022.”

FairfieldRoadResident | 19.07.22 - 1:00 p.m. | #

By living in a major metropolis, one of the biggest cities in the world, you accept that road space is limited and there will be restrictions. Lots of cars on big roads, fewer on side streets.

In a post-pandemic world, nobody is forcing people to live in crowded cities with LTNs, with plenty of remote work available. And if your job cannot be done remotely, Brexit-related staff shortages resulted in unfilled vacancies all over the UK in many professions.

If you want to stay close to the capital, there are plenty of villages without LTNs and cars as the main (or even only) transport option. Some have a 20-minute train ride from Central London, they are much more affordable too.

Not Greg S | 20.07.22 - 12:28 a.m. | #

I can't have (Not) Greg S having the last word. The suggestion that people should have to move away because they don't want to be polluted or knocked down is ridiculous.

We live on a street that's long been used as a rat run for drivers to avoid a fairly major junction with traffic lights. The cars that do this have to negotiate a narrow road and a sharp corner and frequently endanger pedestrians and cyclists crossing there and on the market. We've been campaigning for a long time to get this closed and now don't have a hope in hell.

We've just seen the hottest day on record and transport is a key contributor to climate change. Still, the vast majority drive and fly as though it's not their responsibility.

Colin | 22.07.22 - 8:17 a.m. | #











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