Happy new year from Headington Liveable Streets!

As 2022 gets underway, we catch up on the progress of trials of Low Traffic Neighbourhood around the country

The year 2022 against a colourful background
Photo by Choong Deng Xiang / Unsplash

Back when Headington Liveable Streets started in spring 2020, the main source of information available nationally on the effects of implementing low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) came from the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

The pandemic accelerated the need for safer streets for walking, wheeling and cycling as more space was needed for social distancing on pavements and people sought alternatives to public transport. This led to the implementation of many more LTN trials around the country, including three here in Oxford in Florence Park, Church Cowley and Temple Cowley.

What’s happened in 2020-2021?

Some of the trials and consultations launched at the beginning of the pandemic have since run their course, with positive outcomes leading several more councils to make temporary LTN measures permanent in late 2021/early 2022. Here’s a brief round-up of what’s been happening:

How’s it going?

What’s next?

It’s widely recognised that LTNs are only one part of the measures needed to reduce overall traffic volumes and poor air quality in congested urban areas, which is why cities such as London (Congestion Charge, Ultra Low Emission Zone), Birmingham (Clean Air Zone, Transport Plan), Manchester (Clean Air Zone), Bath, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth, Sheffield (Clean Air Zones), Cambridge (city-wide circulation plan) and Oxford (Zero Emission Zone, zero carbon transport network) have already implemented or are working on proposals for city-wide emissions and traffic management schemes.

In Headington, we await the outcome of the Cowley trials and consultations and look forward to the start of further LTN trials down the hill in East Oxford in April/May 2022.

You can keep up to date with Oxfordshire County Council’s delivery of active travel schemes and the status of its progress regarding Headington here:

Active travel - 2020-2022 | Oxfordshire County Council
Active travel schemes to be delivered by DfT funding in 2022