I went inside a "war on cars" neighbourhood in the UK

[@sIosha]

I live on a one-way that connects the US highway to our downtown. It's great. Cars, commercial trucks, and semis speed down it at 40 MPH. I feel so safe.

[@Servergmr]

Yeah, I know a couple like that that are both one-ways right next to each other.

[@pavld335]

I've been in places like that. Fumes are so strong.

[@nunyabidness3075]

I live on a busy street. It was cheaper to buy here, so I don’t complain about the busy street or the commercial property in the residential lot next door that moved in by getting an exception (also before I bought this place). I did complain when they roped our house into the “protected neighborhood” scheme to limit our land use and likely eventually up our taxes. Exactly what is my house protected from? Traffic? Business activity? What?

[@Servergmr]

@@nunyabidness3075 I wouldn't care too much about living near shops, but noise I'd care about.

[@dwc1964]

@@nunyabidness3075 protected from multifamily housing is my guess, because homeowners have attitude about apartment dwellers

[@nickwinn7812]

I'm 62, All my life cars have dominated our cities and towns and being a cyclist, pedestrian, kid has always felt like a battle for survival against the traffic. Things are slowly getting better now. My parents played in the streets. I hope one day soon future generations will be able to enjoy that simple "luxury" again.

[@ActiveTravelTT]

I'm 63 and was lucky to play in the streets of Port of Spain, Trinidad. I even rode my bike to school until 1973, when drivers became too dangerous.

[@Redmongoose-rdm]

It's not likely they will be able to do so anytime soon, but I may be wrong. I cycle, walk, and drive. I don't feel safe sometimes even driving the way other drivers drive.

[@ksbbsk0891]

That's not gunna happen I'm afraid look at chalvey give it ten years maidenhead will be same place is a shit pit and that's cos the local demographic population they do not care

[@mrjagriff]

Yeh “playing in the street “ 😂 means vandalism and mugging in todays world !! Your lucky to be near a main road in reality

[@nickwinn7812]

@@mrjagriff Do I live near a main road? That's news to me. Why should I feel lucky if I did?

[@thecolorjune]

I’ve lived in both the Seattle suburbs and in the Netherlands. All of these traffic calming and filtering techniques have improved the neighborhoods I’ve lived in greatly. Some of them were mildly controversial when first implemented but now they are almost universally respected and enjoyed. The neighborhood I grew up in went from being car dominated and antisocial to being a tight knit community with lots of outdoor spaces, neighborhood walks, and community events. It’s heartwarming to see.

[@marlak4203]

See the thing is back decades ago, for myself, in the 90's as a child i remember how there were still very much little neighborhood corner stores just as my parents had decades before. Cars were around all those times so the changes in society aren't all linked to cars but its moress businesses and corporations changing it. Making things more extra and difficult than they should be. Instead balance but with people you unfortunately can't get that everywhere.

[@ichi3424]

The nice little park at 06:40 is near where I live. Years ago, before they build that park there was through traffic. People used to drive that street because they wanted to shun all the traffic lights on the parallel street. Almost every week we had car accidents because of the perpendicular street traffic. I haven’t seen any car accidents in a long time.

[@a1white]

It's a common misconception in UK press that LTN's "ban cars" they totally don't, as you can see it just prevents through traffic. The Tories just seeked to capitlize on this misunderstanding. I cycle in London and the LTN's make a huge difference it is soo much safer to cycle in these areas.

[@Ladadadada]

Opponents love to find two points either side of a modal filter and get Google Maps to show a 2 mile drive to get there, but the stupid thing is that it's a 50 metre walk. Why would you ever drive that distance? They'll then either claim that that they're in a taxi and the extra distance will cost them £20 or that there are now traffic jams on all the boundary roads and it will take 45 minutes to drive those 2 miles. The thing for me is that The Netherlands is covered in LTNs. I spent a bit of time plotting them on a map of Rotterdam and they cover nearly the whole city. And yet they don't have massive traffic jams or people complaining that they can't get a taxi to their front door.

[@maxine2798]

Sharing your city and cycling to work. my area has had the train numbers reduced and the same with buses. Take either in busy periods and they are packed to the point you can’t get on. There isn’t enough joined up thinking. Luckily we cyclists get our own extra traffic lights

[@grahvis]

It is much like the stupidity over the idea of 15 minute cities, where people claim it will prevent those who cannot walk far going places. They equate removing much of the need to use a car with driving being banned.

[@mrman991]

It's almost like the oil industry invests billions in propaganda and politicians capitalise on this for popularity

[@andybrice2711]

I cycle and drive depending on the journey. Obviously LTNs make it much nicer for cycling. But they do also turn a short drive into a long, slow, convoluted route. I think we do have to balance these priorities depending on the area.

[@stretchoxford7835]

LTNs here in Oxford UK have been a definite ‘media-stoked controversy’. The local newspaper has basically been saved from oblivion by running anti-LTN click bait. However, as you rightly say, the actual data shows the vast majority of residents do like them. We also have a school street here which has made a significant difference to my kids. There is still a long way to go, but it feels like the Overton window is shifting. Thanks for covering this issue, and for noticing that Sunak’s attempt to capitalise on ‘the war on motorists’ was an abject failure…!

[@JSmith19858]

It's the usual thing of a vocal minority getting the attention. Most "motorists" don't even like owing cars. I'd love to live within 15 minutes of everything I need and sell the cash eating burden that is a car

[@David-bi6lf]

​@@JSmith19858also the spreading of the conspiracies about 15 min cities. People fall for conspiracies and they are being used as a weapon by that vocal minority.

[@LightbulbTedbear2]

I work in planning and often deal with surveying people's travel behaviour. It's surprising how many people I talk to actually WANT alternatives to driving. Even residents of new-build estates, the pinnacle of car dependency, often lament that they wish they had a good bus service or they wish they had a corner shop within walking distance. It really is a small minority who fight against a shift away from driving.

[@forceninewinds]

very similar sitaution here in Exeter! the anti campaign was successful enough to get one LTN reversed against all the evidence and are now targeting bus lanes and pushing in some cases for their removal! The local newspaper...nothing but amplification for the Anti brigade and no coverage for the local cycling campaign, disability advocacy groups or pro LTN locals!

[@juliesykes6121]

The local council wanted our street to be closed at one end to cars. There was a huge back lash from local residents, so it was shelved. Such a pity, it would have been far safer for the school just around the corner and the local park.

[@mobatyoutube]

Come see Boston Massachusetts, in particular the Beacon Hill neighborhood. The streets are set up to direct cars back out of the neighborhood. A pedestrian who enters the neighborhood, will soon notice the car noises dropping off.

[@Josukegaming]

Just look at the Netherlands, my new home, and even the tiniest village has raised intersections, narrow roads, speed bumps etc everywhere. Entire city centers are pedestianized and even people who like driving would be pissed if the city center had cars driving through it constantly. The same extends to school streets, many of them are entirely pedestrianized especially near elementary schools. Its such a no brainer to make your streets safer, quieter, and more pleasant.

[@irrichman]

Exactly, a non-car-free high street just feels ancient and inadequate these days.

[@repelsteeltje90]

There is still a lot to improved, even in the Netherlands. Many towns and villages still have 50km streets running through densely populated areas. There is a lot of backlash against modal filters (Amsterdam's Wibautstraat experiment comes to mind). And school streets are still the exception to the rule.

[@kaite8371]

@@Josukegaming in Germany, now we have the first attempts to install school streets. Only for half an hour a day these streets are blocked for traffic and it's only a few schools to try that out. Even this causes discussions every time. It's so exhausting..

[@BikepackingAdventures]

​@@repelsteeltje90 I had a 10 day bikepacking trip around the Netherlands, 1600km all over, I visited most parts of the country; it was a surprise to me how bad Amsterdam is compared to say Utrecht, Groningen, s'Hertogenbosch or even big cities such as Eindhoven and Rotterdam.

[@davidsaxby5400]

From what I’ve seen the Netherlands and Denmark lead the way in healthy cycling populations. It is at the level where it is the norm to cycle to work or cafe/bar/restaurant. Pedestrians are safer and the car drivers probably cycle as well on occasions so they are considerate to cyclists. I know my comments are very general but they are just observations made on my visits to these countries. Hardly scientific evidence I know. 😊

[@maxdonaldson861]

London makes a good case study. Trying to make things work for people getting around their local area and people passing through on long commutes. Getting the cycling network to connect over long distances despite the decentralised decision making system. Dealing with pressure from national government and making it all work in a city with an ancient layout. A lot of things have been tried. A lot of progress has been made and there is still a long way to go.

[@mdt105]

The ancient layout probably significantly helps London in this area. One of the major issues with successfully driving mode shift in the UK is that, because we're spent so long building stuff assuming people will use cars, and also moving house or changing jobs based on 'how far can I drive?' as our calculation for commuting, posts of stuff is just too far apart to be convienient if you walk or cycle. I'm lucky enough to live somewhere where I can within easy walking distance of shops, but for most people in this town that's not the case. If they need to pop out for a pint of milk, they have a twenty to forty minute walk each way to a supermarket, because we've centralised everything into a few very large shops. It's not a pleasant walk, either, you have to battle your way through loads of car-centric infrastructure that's very hostile to everything else. So everybody drives. Because that's what the infrastructure has been designed to make them do. In that situation, LTNs won't get people to walk, they'll just annoy people. You can't drive people into alternative modes of transportation when there aren't really any viable alternatives for that location. You need to make the alternatives available first, which we don't do because that's expensive and won't show a return on the investment for years or decades. London doesn't have that. The old street plan also means that it's a street plan dating from a time where people *had* to walk or ride horses. That inherently makes it much friendlier to foot and cycle traffic than somewhere that's been built or rebuilt around car traffic. When you add on the decent public transport system, you have a city where people *don't* need cars to get around.

[@sukotu23]

Just came across this channel and wanted to say I hope you do more UK/European based vids. So many cities in the UK right now are having a really heated fight against car-centric infrastructure - specifically the likes of Glasgow and Aberdeen where people are fighting against the introduction of bus gates etc.

[@OXI28101941]

The Conservatives extrapolated from the results of ONE by-election, thinking the fight against LTNs would be a vote winner everywhere. Very shortsighted!

[@a1white]

and also in that by-election it is not clear if that was the defining factor. Fact is, they had a big majority in that seat and only just clung on to it.

[@br5380]

A bit like in all the noise about Wales and it's 20mph zones, I always remind folk having a pop at Labour that where I live the Tory Council has implemented urban 20mph zones across our entire region (Scottish Borders). Bottom line, Sunak was after the Gammon vote, which had already decided to support Reform. Same game as Trump, go for the Uneducated.

[@madskier50]

UK politicians are all fools. The only certain criterion for being elected (or re-elected) is a sustained period of economic growth. All the rest stems from this! Why do pollies keep avoiding the obvious?

[@shingshongshamalama]

They extrapolated, as they always do, that everyone else is like themselves. Short-sighted, narrow-minded, self-obsessed elitists.

[@Kenny1977-b1j]

The bulk of people who don’t like LTNs are drivers from outside the area who used to “rat run” shortcut through them! It does push a bit more traffic onto the main roads, esp the snarled up intersections the drivers had previously tried to avoid. But those are better fixed by better road design, wider public transport options etc…better than rat running past kids’ schools. We were in Plateau, montreal last year…was slightly surreal how little traffic there was. (Of course, all the traffic is funneled on Decarie Highway…which looks like hell!)

[@RamonInNZ]

Keep the Hell Highways .... save the community.....

[@AnotherDuck]

And those main roads looking like hell will encourage drivers to choose other means of transportation if practical. Induced demand works both ways.

[@Kenny1977-b1j]

@@AnotherDuck yep…metro if you can, or REM if / once once it’s up and running in your area. But until then, montreal still seemed a very car-orientated city overall. Whilst londoners have choices, with the Tube, isn’t the case in most other uk cities - starved of investment in light rail, they’re reliant on buses or the national rail co’s last 3 stops into the city through their area (they don’t have States or Provinces to fund light transit, are reliant on (essentially) federal funding…from London. Who’ve already spent the money….on London!

[@AnotherDuck]

@@Kenny1977-b1j Yeah, on that front I have it easy. I live in Stockholm, and I usually take the bus or the metro, depending on what I feel like.

[@lloydwright3661]

The only time these measures are reasonable is around schools. The rest of the time you just clogg up the only route left avaliable with cars spitting way more fumes than need be while they sit in traffic that shouldn't exist. People aren't going to ditch their cars and the population is only going to rise and make the situation even worse. All that was needed was traffic calming measures on these roads.

[@Teapot-Dave]

When my son was younger, I used to take him to school on my bike with a child-seat on the crossbar. I would take him right up to the school though the staff car-park and be on my way home again before most of the car people had even parked. Some of them lived within easy walking distance to the school, but still chose to drive there and back every day in their cars.

[@C345OFR]

Sounds about right, unfortunately. Same issue in my area of North Manchester.

[@krob9145]

That's how my nephew got to school when he was younger, on crossbar seat. More parents are going back to this except most are at the back of the bike some have 2/3 children on a longtail cargo bike. I saw a pair of children face to face at the back of their parent playing a clapping game. There was a traffic line of cars but they were on their way home.

[@kamalhashmi9851]

Actually many people who drop their kids at school by car then go on to WORK and try and get there on time so they don't get told off. It would be nice to have a leisurely life to walk to school and back or on to public transport and get to work 30 or more minutes late.

[@Teapot-Dave]

@@kamalhashmi9851 I know the people involved, and believe me that was not the case. There are a lot of people on this estate for whom "work" is finding new ways to claim benefits for fictitious back problems, but they are still able to go out and play with the kids, and go on three or four holidays a year. I worked nights for twelve years, so I was able to take my daughter and my son to school in the mornings before I went home to bed. Then - if my wife was working - I collected them again in the afternoon.

[@krob9145]

@@kamalhashmi9851 Others cycle and drop their children off at school then continue on to work. Cycle commuting is their transport it's not leisure and they get to work on time.

[@malcolmdavis3282]

8:18 so true. Almost no one in London's many LTNs wants to go back to allowing cut-through traffic. In certain media circles you may hear extremely cherry-picked voices against LTNs, but the vast majority of Londoners (especially anyone with kids) are very happy with less traffic.

[@MsJk29]

I wonder if that’s the opinion of the residents of neighbouring areas, which now have much more traffic and potentially much worse air quality. People who’ve paid taxes have helped pay for the upkeep of those roads, so fair is it to deny them the ability to use something they’ve paid for?

[@alane7903]

@@MsJk29 If the balance of someone's choices causes them to choose to live on a main traffic road, that's the choice they have made. Complaining that the majority of motor traffic is sent down that road instead of down neighbouring residential streets and rat-runs, is facile and useless. People who have paid taxes also live on the quieter streets and have made their choice - so they should not be forced to give their streets over to rat-running motor traffic.

[@MsJk29]

@@alane7903 So the people who can afford to live on the quieter streets are being subsidised by the people who can’t afford to? Does that seem fair?

[@alane7903]

@@MsJk29 that is the way our society works; so unless you are going to reorganize society with collective ownership and assignment of housing according to (your own notion of) people's just deserts, then yes. It's as fair as we can currently achieve.

[@stevejones2310]

​@@MsJk29they can still use the roads...just not in a car

[@test40323]

so much of this is mindsets, people can't imagine that living with less can sometimes be more. each day, more people are cycling but are intimidated by aggressive and inattentive drivers. these neighborhoods are experiments that can inspire as well as work out deficiencies.

[@Shifter_Cycling]

I totally agree about mindsets. Changing them is, I think, the biggest barrier to these positive changes. And thank you so much - your ongoing support is truly appreciated.

[@tristanjager4112]

Most people are struggling to afford their bills and work like dogs in a country which increasingly grows distant from it's tradition and roots. For these people, it feels like they're being forced to accept less and less freedoms (owning a car is considered a freedom). Encouraging Brits to cycle more isn't an absolute pipe-dream. But for now, unless we address native British concerns seriously; there simply won't be enough people willing to make these sacrafices for a country they consider is slowly betraying them.

[@kajsan760]

In my town, Linköping, Sweden, this was built in from the beginning in many residential areas. The main road for cars goes around the area, with all the residential buildings on the inside. There are smaller streets from the main road to all the places people live, but if you want to go straight through the area from one end to another you can't take the car. If I need to go by car for whatever reason, it's not a problem, but taking the bike is often faster. Also, in many places the car park is like 100 meters away from the house, so people only drive all the way to their front door if they have heavy things to carry, making the street just outside the door safe for children to play on. Also no noise from heavy traffic.

[@harwoodae]

Another great video. Can’t wait to share with our transportation folks at the city. We just passed our Active Transportation Master Plan, so now the task is to share these great ideas and keep the plan from sitting in a binder on a shelf.

[@xxwookey]

I live on a street that got a modal filter during covid. More than 90% of the motor traffic has gone, because it was people ratrunning, and now we have hordes of bikes and pedestrians, kids on bikes, cargo bikes. It is dramatically nicer. Just occasionally it's annoying because it takes an extra minute or so to leave town in the filtered direction but this is a very worthwhile tradeoff and it just encourages us not to drive at congested times. I wish we could have a much more comprehensive scheme (circulation plan) for the whole city, as they did in Ghent (which I visited this summer by car and bike, and it was very nice to be in!) It has just taken us 4 years, 5 consultations, numerous council votes, two TROs and a judicial review to get one more significant modal filter done on a road like that nice high street in Waltham Forest. The people who want to drive everywhere _really_ want to drive everywhere and just cannot accept either the majority in favour, nor that traffic evaporation and modal shift is a real thing. They fight these improvements tooth and nail. We need to be able to move faster than a filter every 4 years and maybe GBP 200,000 in costs.

[@JanEnNiek]

the bare minimum standard of city planning in the Netherlands

[@maidbloke]

I live in Maidenhead UK where the vast majority of adults use cars daily even for very short journeys. My neighbours drive 1km to the shops. An ambitious low traffic neighbourhood was proposed but was roundly voted against by all the drivers. Meanwhile more vehicles are registered and congestion levels increase.

[@evan]

I stayed at my GF’s last place in Maidenhead for quite a bit. Was on the other side of the kidswell roundabout. Personally we walked everywhere. Never used her car except particularly rainy days to get to the Italian shop. Maidenhead does have quite a lot going for it in the cycling department though. They’ve at least invested in nice looking cycleways around the new development near the station. Place looks a bit bizarre with the new build old build look with the heights especially, but at least they’ve put in some cycle ways

[@kaite8371]

Same here in Germany Ruhr area. Apart from some urban neighbourhoods, most people have their car five meters away from the front door and they drive every way above 200 m. On the other hand, most streets in residential districts in Germany are restricted to 30 kph (normally 50). But you can drive through 90% of all streets everywhere.

[@badabing8884]

Same here up on Watford/herts. It’s like turkeys voting for Xmas.

[@talonlan]

That's why residents shouldn't have a vote. People vote for selfish reasons ( I have no issue with that you vote for what is best for you ) but the governments need to do what is best for the population at large

[@davidsaxby5400]

@@talonlanI don’t get your comment. You have no issue with people voting for what affects them, but residents shouldn’t have a vote on something that affects them. 🤔

[@danielcarroll3358]

In Berkeley, California the *STUDENTS* want the last three blocks of the main street leading up to the university to be pedestrianized (except for transit buses). And the cries of anguish from some of the merchants, even those who don't realize it doesn't affect _Their_ street.

[@irrichman]

Car lobby and ignorance are stubborn. Keep showing the examples and even in the US change can be made. Not all at once, but gradually. Car free town centers, with an adequate ring for cars and parking around it, can boost any town's local businesses. Same goes for city neighborhoods.

[@MrBirdnose]

College towns in California treat students like they're an invasive weed.

[@oglordbrandon]

It's already a nigmare to navagate around Berkeley and they want to make it worse.

[@danielcarroll3358]

@@oglordbrandon Slowly but surely the bus service is improving and quite a bit of effort is being exerted to improve the bicycle boulevards. Some effort is also being made to improve crosswalks and to improve sight lines at intersections by removing parking at intersections. These all help reduce the rate of fatalities.

[@blortmeister]

Oh man, thank you! "continuous footway" is the phrase I've been looking for, so I can describe how to think about these things to council. And "modal filters" is another. It's often difficult to piece together the language necessary to describe the infrastructure we want. So every piece of that jigsaw puzzle is important.

[@mindstalk]

"Raised crosswalk" is another phrase for the footway.

[@ErinFromSydney]

Thank you!! Yes!! My former local council has put one of these in and I’m like “a footpath where you don’t have to step down into the gutter and back up again”. “Continuous footpath” is so much more concise!!

[@johanwittens7712]

They're usually called raised sidewalks, continuous sidewalks, or raised pedestrian crossings in urban planning depending on the type of design. Another very common traffic calming measure in the Netherlands and Belgium (where I live) that is adjacent to the continuous sidewalk, is the "traffic table" or "traffic plateau". This is when the ENTIRE intersection is raised up, creating speed bumps on all sides before the pedestrian crossing and slowing drivers before they enter the intersection. Usually the sidewalk is also on or almost on the same level as the road level on traffic plateaus. On smaller low traffic intersections with a traffic plateau you'll even often no longer find zebra crossings as by law a traffic table without zebra crossings is considered one giant zebra crossing, meaning drivers always need to yield to pedestrians crossing the raised intersection. Look up "raised intersection", they're being implemented more and more in the USA and Australia too.

[@David-bi6lf]

​@@mindstalkA crosswalk can cross any road. A continuous footway in the UK is for crossings over a minor road where that intersects another less minor road that has default priority. Not sure what that is called in the US but in the UK it's called a T junction and the minor road gives way to the major.

[@ErinFromSydney]

@@johanwittens7712 I’m in Australia and my little city in an outer western suburb of Sydney have just put one in. It’s fabulous!! Penrith are really taking on these wonderful European urban design elements. We need more of this!!

[@dane4265]

living in Cambridge where this has been done, it's amazing, before cars would be speeding down our road to avoid traffic on the main routes, the worst were the impatient drivers who would be speeding at 40=50 in a 20, this was so dangerous. when it was installed we had some protestors from out of town starting trouble, trying to vandalise some of the measures put in, us residents came out and forced them away.

[@rogercmerriman]

Plenty of these filters going back to the 50’s and so on! The curve seems to be predictable ie folks don’t like change or restrictions or the idea of them, but overwhelmingly do once they get used to them.

[@raithrover1976]

Exactly the reason why I'm not in favour of local referenda on these matters. We've had our LTN measures in place here in Leith for a couple of years now and the anger and incredulity that greeted the announcement of the scheme has given way to acceptance. Edinburgh council messed up with their proposals for a congestion charge years ago by putting to a public vote.

[@johnmccrossan9376]

​@@raithrover1976 people eventually giving up because a decision is forced on them is not the same as a good idea. This is exactly the kind of thing that should be mandatory to have a local vote on

[@travcollier]

​@@raithrover1976Perhaps a compromise where measures are passed on a temporary/smaller scale "trial" basis, and made permanent with majority referendums. That seems like it would work great with model filters and "road diet" measures since a lot of them can be implemented with some paint, signs, and traffic cones. There's a big difference in perception between "give it a try" and "we are forcing this change"

[@blores95]

An LTN sounds awesome to live in and should be in more places. I grew up in an LA suburb at the end of a dead-end street, but there was no house at the end of it, just a gutter sidewalk that you could walk through so you didn't have to go all the way around but no cars could drive through. This small design saved what would be a 10 minute walk and turned it into a 30 second walk, that enabled me as a kid to be able to walk down the street (admittedly a stroad but it was doable) to the local video rental store, burger joint, convenient store, etc. I doubt I would have ever been allowed or willing to do that if I needed to walk the long way around. And because I was at the end of the street, it was easy to ride bikes or play ball in the street because it was low traffic and only one or two houses ever needed to go to the end. Conversely, I now live a couple of blocks away, and my street has no sidewalk and people regularly barrel through it past the speed limit, so even though my kid frequently walks or rides his scooter on the street with me, I don't know how comfortable I'd feel him walking alone at the same age I was able to. To walk to school from here he'd have to walk through a 4-way stop that people regularly run through also. It's a sad state of affairs and even though I like the neighborhood, I can't wait to hopefully move to a more walkable place eventually.

[@tkarlo]

I live in a “safe streets” neighborhood in Brent, London where traffic is restricted at certain hours and it’s great. They’ve proposed LTNs in our area but not yet implemented them.

[@theboring_commuter]

I love this channel! As a bike commuter in the Philippines, it is really a big challenge. Fortunately, our city government continues to build bike infrastructures. I'm uploading my bike commuting videos regularly.

[@ethanmoore886]

Hey Shifter! Loved the tone of this video. So cool to see places where positive change is happening! Hoping for more modal filters in the US. thanks for the info and sweet vid

[@Pobafett]

When you say The War on Cars, I have visions of thousands of cyclists, lining up at dawn like the Rohirrim, cycling down to charge at a bunch of orcs in cars, stuck in gridlock.

[@Chungleas]

I live in a different UK town, in an area with some of the features you looked at and a 20mph limit applied. Honestly it just reduces the volume and speed of traffic (in a very busy town) and makes our neighbourhood a nicer, safer place to live.

[@antonioiniguez1615]

Coming from someone who currently goes to college in suburban Texas, I'd give anything to live in an area like this.

[@antonioiniguez1615]

@crowmob-yo6ry I've been to San Antonio. The river walk is kinda cool. There's basically nothing else there though. I live in the DFW area which is the king of sprawl. And I'm certainly thankful for where I live. It's an upper middle class area with beautiful neighborhoods. I'm very blessed. I just want to be able to live somewhere safe for walking, cycling and close to high quality public transportation.

[@michaelstratton5223]

​​@crowmob-yo6ry I lived in San Antonio for a year. The Riverwalk is beautiful, but it's not an accurate representation of the city. You can only access about 10% of the city using it. Most of the jobs are in suburban commerce plazas. Beyond downtown, there's a couple walkable/bikeable neighborhoods but the overwhelming majority of the city is car dependent chain store corridors and single family suburbs. And the big box/plaza stroads aren't even well manicured in San Antonio like they are in most cities. It's unbelievable how San Antonio discovered a way to make stroads even uglier than they are by default. But they succeeded. And the massive, complicated freeways throughout the city are dystopian looking (though every Texas city aside from maybe Austin has this problem). And as long as they keep building endless new neighborhoods in the style of Stone Oak and Balcones Heights (which they are), I don't have much optimism for San Antonio's future. And a depressing thing about the Riverwalk I didn't notice at first is it's only tourists. I felt like the only local who walked anywhere. You get two blocks away from the Riverwalk and suddenly there's nobody on the sidewalks. Being the only person on empty sidewalks with a parade of cars going by left me with a weird feeling of alienation that I've never felt before. I've since moved to Pittsburgh and I've never been happier. Our sidewalks are full of people (not just tourists) and University of Pittsburgh's campus is actually alive, unlike the ghost town known as UTSA, where there's not a soul in the campus quad, just cars coming and going. Also the bartenders in Pennsylvania don't have an attitude. I never could get used to that in Texas.

[@repelsteeltje90]

​​@crowmob-yo6ryI looked it up on the map. Do you mean the partially pedestrianised area of around 400 x 500 meter? In a city of around 1000 km2 that’s 0,2% partly pedestrianised. Impressive.

[@michaelstratton5223]

@@repelsteeltje90 They're also staunchly against any talk of rail transit, despite a lot of the bus routes often being full to capacity and refusing more passengers. They'd rather spend more money on The Alamo instead. The people running San Antonio are clueless. A metro from La Cantera to downtown running through the medical center would sell tickets like hotcakes. The city is ground zero for immigrants who can't afford cars.

[@jonayling6307]

No really, you wouldn’t.

[@krob9145]

Oh, you're riding a Brompton! How was it? Some filters allow that particular street residents to go through. Some can also allow carers and disabled badge owners to go through. Older filters existed before the LTN label started. We're so used to the older ones that have been around probably before we were born that it's just the way the street is. Some of the public figures who opposed the LTNs were found to be living in Historic LTNs where their streets were nice and quiet.

[@Shifter_Cycling]

That was one of the points I was trying to make too. A lot of initiatives like this are already widespread and we don't even think about them. They just become part of the background. Also: Jakub showed up to meet me with that Brompton for me strapped to the rear carrier, so I was thrilled 👍🏼

[@krob9145]

@@Shifter_Cycling That's how I and my crowd also carry extra folding bikes around for friends except ours are bigger folding bikes like the one you got. We just use a compact trailer attached to our bikes to carry the spare.

[@Pensées_depuis_mon_balcon]

While not the case here, there is an inexpensive and easy to use Brompton rental program available in London.

[@simonmandrakejones]

I am glad that I wasn't alone in wondering how the Brompton was to ride as compared to the Tern.

[@keelferm]

I've never ridden the tern but I love my Brompton...not rational, but there it is...​@@simonmandrakejones

[@Alvio64]

Elevated walkways/footpaths/pavements (whatever you want to call them) really should be made a design standard for side roads. It's such a minor change but they alter the psychology of motorists, making it obvious that they're crossing a footpath rather than pedestrians crossing a road

[@hughmarcus1]

The biggest issue with them though is drainage. You effectively put a dam in the middle of the road, they’re not a simple as imagined

[@Alvio64]

@@hughmarcus1 Drains exist. If the Danes and Dutch have managed to implement them successfully without issues then I'm sure there's a way of solving that particular problem

[@ssj3gohan456]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I can't think of a single neighborhood in the Netherlands that isn't an LTN. This shouldn't be a controversial thing, this is just good urban planning. And just to hit this home: it's better for cars, too. You actually get around faster if the modal routes are planned properly.

[@Ladadadada]

This is very evident when you ask Google maps for driving directions within Dutch cities vs cycling directions. The driving directions take you the shortest route out to a main road, use the main road for most of the journey then drive in to the LTN where your destination is. Cycling directions tend to be a much straighter and shorter route and often result in the same time taken. In British cities mapping apps driving directions will take you through all the backstreets trying to avoid traffic lights and potentially save 1 minute on a 20 minute journey (unless everyone else using the same app does the same thing).

[@iamclaus]

Lethbridge converted a street through an older residential area into bike boulevard to provide a corridor for cyclists between downtown and the largest park, Henderson Lake. It saw a lot of opposition, but was warmly embraced by cyclists and pedestrians. A variety of modal filters were put in to either control, reduce, or stop traffic flow through various sections of the bike boulevard.

[@dlarge6502]

In my experience cyclists and pedestrians mixing is just increasing the danger

[@iamclaus]

@@dlarge6502 that’s very true, but the ‘bike boulevard’ is still very much a residential street with cars parked alongside the sidewalk and bikes travelling on the street. Vehicular traffic was reduced to make it more inviting for cyclists.

[@patrickfitzgerald2861]

Old dude in San Diego County here. I am so envious of those neighborhoods, though I'm far from an avid cyclist. The domination of the private automobile is slowly coming to an end, but the US will surely be one of the last holdouts. So what do I do right now? I've taken a lesson from the kids, and I ride my bike - carefully and courteously - on the sidewalks.

[@pappaslivery]

I drive for a living, I enjoy driving, and I drive a lot. That said I do love neighborhoods that let you get out walk around comfortably and bike to and from places. To me the biggest thing with features such as these is getting them effectively and understandably implemented. Boston has been dealing with a hodgepodge bicycle and bus lanes that increase conflict instead of separating modes

[@alexseguin5245]

Hey! I often pass through that little park / modal filter on Roy street in Montréal when I come back from work on my bike. It's very pleasant, sometimes I'll just stop for a couple minutes there and lay on the bench to listen to the birds. There is also an outdoor mini book shelves where people pickup and drop books for other people. I hope to see more of that all throughout Montréal in the future!

[@dcb8531]

I agree, we need more of this in Mtl. One problem, is that in other parts of Mtl, the West Island, fir example, these areas are years behind. Often, there's nothing or very little in the form of non-car- centric infrastructure. Laval is in a similar situation; there have been some improvements recently, especially with the present mayor. But there are still whole areas that have non-existent infrastructure; you are forced to use your car, because no-one wants to be a statistic.

[@me12722]

From attending city council meetings that some people who are against these kinds of changes are willing to change their minds once they talk to a neighbor who wants the changes. Not all but plenty.

[@macmurfy2jka]

I’m surprised you didn’t mention sidewalk bump outs that constricts motor traffic and shortens the pedestrian crossing length. They do wonders for helping to slow through traffic and helps organize parking as well. Their only real drawbacks come with snow removal, but most are put in places where plows don’t plow to the curb anyway; instead, opting to plow the cars in.

[@marcomcdowell8861]

I wish they'd do this on my street. It's a residential street that connects two main thorougfares. Literally bumper to bumper 24/7. The majority of us have opted to cycle because you can't get your car out of your own drive. The shortcutters get enraged that you'd possibly want to leave your home. It'd be a blessing to have one end restricted.

[@michaelstratton5223]

"the shortcutters get enraged that you'd want to leave your own home". This is so true and so mind blowing. I used to live on a residential street leading to an industrial area. No reason for anyone to be going through there but locals. Non locals would zoom through there believing it was a short cut. Once I was carrying my laundry bag back to my house from the laundromat, crossing my street, and this old lady in her car (not a local) was acting like I ruined her life by making her wait a couple seconds. Like b****, you don't even live on this street, go drive your car somewhere else intruder.

[@lawksalordy4405]

LTNs were tried in my area and 90% have now been removed. One of the arguments for them was relief from fumes for families with kids. I witnessed more traffic forced onto already busy larger roads where people also live. I felt particularly sorry for people living adjacent to a specific junction with traffic lights which became a perpetual snarl up. I also felt this was socially unjust as it was apparent that traffic had been shifted from a higher income area to a lower one. The planters, barriers and such appeared overnight during the pandemic, insensitively compounding a difficult and worrying time for everyone. The locals rebelled, LTN infrastrucuture was vandalised, and things came to a head with a march on the town hall. All that was missing was flaming torches and pitchforks. The council, thankfully, had a rethink, launched a belated consultation, and most of them were removed. I'm all for making things better for cyclists, I am one, but this scheme in my locality was ill thought out and was certainly not supported by the majority.

[@zivkovicable]

Which area, and how long was the LTN allowed to stand? I lived in the very first LTN in London (Waltham Forrest), and we had the same kind of pitchfork rebellion, with councillors getting death threats. Thankfully they didn't cave, and now nobody wants to go back to the way things were. When the protests were looked into, rather than a purely grass roots rebellion by the people, they were promoted by "think tanks", funded by the oil and motor industries.

[@lawksalordy4405]

@@zivkovicable It was Ealing. I don't recall the exact length of time the LTNs stood but it was substantial. The council only removed them after the time consuming consultation process, they'd been operational for at least six months I'd estimate before that even started (although I'm pretty bad at recalling timescales). That's obviously wrong and criminal that councillors received death threats, I don't recall that happening here, and I don't know of any oil and motor industry involvement, although I wouldn't put it past them. I think a lot of people here were genuinely furious and felt that the council had become undemocratic. I'm glad that people in your area are happy with LTNs, perhaps they make more sense than they did in this neck of the woods. I'd actually love to see a sharp reduction in traffic, cycling during lockdown was brilliant, I just thought the LTNs here were iniquitous, taking the issue from some people's doorsteps, exacerbating it for others and actually causing longer journeys and more queues of traffic producing fumes.

[@MathieuTechMoto]

Thanks for sharing, great to see more and more improvements for bicycle and pedestrians

[@mikeolund5189]

In Surrey, British Columbia, nearly our entire city has been developed in a way that prevents cut-through traffic. However, unlike other cities, this happened accidentally due to the way land has been subdivided over the past 100 years-from 40-acre parcels to 5-acre parcels, and then further subdivided into single-family lots. When my parents moved to Surrey as teens in the 1960s, everyone owned a 5-acre lot. Today, very few of these 5-acre lots remain. As the 5-acre lots were transformed into subdivisions, developers found it most advantageous to build roads with many cul-de-sacs. The issue now is that there aren't enough connections between these cul-de-sacs for bicycles and pedestrians to move freely when they are off the main vehicle grid, so we end up riding on busy roads.

[@simon7790]

Walthamstow and nearby Hackney which also has LTN's are relatively poor neighbourhoods for London and have lower car ownership rates. Some of the traffic is from people just driving through the area from outer areas further into London. It's quite popular to try to restrict that, no-one wants someone else's noise and pollution in their area. An improved quality of life for the majority means putting in an LTN often causes house prices to rise faster than other areas.

[@MattBasch]

As someone who occasionally drives in London, it can be confusing at times of where, when, and how fast you can drive. Some of this is likely do to how London’s boroughs are defined, but I think it would go a long way to standardize signage, speeds, bus lanes, and LTNs. I’ve driven through LTNs in fear that I may have misread the sign, hoping I won’t get a ticket. Even things like the congestion charge… you’ll see a sign with the letter “C” and “Did you pay?” Pay what? Where do I pay? This bus lane is 24/7 enforced, now it’s not, and it’s back again. Here is a cycle protected lane and now it’s a shared bus lane that cabs and motorcycles can also use. I enjoyed the video and hope that London can continue down a path to more pedestrian friendly environments but also consider the driving experience.

[@mariospenard5125]

Excellent initiative!❤

[@cis84muz]

Dziękujemy.

[@mikoshnanasi4366]

These are great initiatives however what doesn't get mentioned is that a lot of the LTNs In London have condensed the traffic onto the main roads that usually have lower household income residents thus increasing the pollution and noise for those residents. It may feel less busy for some but for others it has become more congested and polluted. Its just redirecting the flow.

[@keelferm]

Yes I was waiting for someone to make this point. Personally, I don't see how this can be avoided without wider policy changes which make public transport feel easier and cheaper to use then a car, perhaps introducing more "private spaces" on these modes would attract car users out of their cars. Having the car insured instead of the driver, making car-sharing much easier, are a couple of examples, but I'm sure there are other policy changes (at a national level) that might help. Suggestions anyone?

[@devnev]

I feel like this video missed the main drama that happened around LTNs, which occurred mid-pandemic when quite a few of them were set up in a short period at a push from the mayor of London. Immediately there was a very _loud_ outcry (but not necessarily large). Complaints were about increased trip time to local shops (by car?!), accessibility for the elderly and less ambulant, and emergency service access, and went on for quite a while. IIRC polling a few months after the setup indicated significantly more support than opposition, but the opposition seemed much louder (I particularly noticed it on Nextdoor), and started suing councils for not going through a proper consulting period and other such complaints. A number of councils ended up removing them (these early versions were often just planters), while others have left them in. Also, minor nitpick, there is a difference between LTNs and modal filters in that the former is a neighbourhood-level scheme while the latter is a local piece of road infrastructure that is one way of accomplishing schemes like LTNs. LTNs notably also included making roads one-way as a mechanism for limiting through traffic.

[@CyclingSteve]

Nice, welcome to the neighbourhood, hopefully more east London content to come?

[@urbancargobikes4930]

LOL loved the coffee anology. Spot on mate! I just wheelies right through that Mtl intersection. Love your videos!

[@lyssasletters3232]

Thank you, again, for your advocacy❤

[@richardhasler6718]

I live in Waltham Forest and the LTNs are great for cycling, the roads in LTNs are much quieter. The local council are spending quite a lot on cycling infrastructure. Hopefully, this will encourage more local people to cycle to work, school, shopping or for pleasure. The neighbouring borough of Hackney has done the same and air quality has also improved.

[@spidermike3]

So you had better pay your way, and pat £100, for all this infrastructure and up keep of the roads, just like other vehicles do.

[@juliansadler6263]

​@@spidermike3I expect Richard pays his Council Tax like everyone else.

[@sneekz07]

@@spidermike3 yawn, be quiet.

[@phoffen3829]

The fact is, that there are more people. You can fit a lot more people if you don't have the whole lot in cars. Business does not decline when you remove cars; the contrary is true. Sometimes the car is necessary (depending on the public transit situation), but sometimes it is just an expensive, inefficient way to get around, that also happens to be extremely bad for our health. The car and oil industries had their way for a long time, and now it is time to change that.

[@enbydeadly]

honestly i really wish the stretch of bank street between gladstone and Wellington in Ottawa were car-free, segmented at the intersections with Somerset and Laurier for cars to cross in between. It would allow for a much more bustling area than it already is and would be similar to Sparks Street and parts of the Byward Market

[@tomburton8239]

Nice to come across such a balanced assessment of LTNs, clearly stetting out why residents’ opinions are so bitterly divided, interviewing people from both sides of the argument, and showing why millions of residents in London are utterly opposed to having LTNs in their neighbourhood.

[@harribo54321]

Your channel is fantastic. Really interesting content (a fellow cyclist)

[@shm5547]

I lived in an LTN in the 1990's and didn't even realise that's what it was! I think it had been like that for years too. I cycled everywhere, used the metro and occasionally the car (which did spend days unused parked up on the street). I can't imagine that when these streets were blocked off to through traffic there was the hysteria we've seen more recently. What's changed? Perhaps the car was less dominant back then? (For reference, the about 10 terraced streets between Christon Rd and Church Rd in Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK). I used to regularly cycle out of 'The Grove', across Church Ave and into Church Rd using what I would now call a modal filter, but back then it didn't even cross my mind that's what it was there for! 🤣

[@raithrover1976]

I've always detected an element of class with these things. You'd need to be a millionaire to afford property in Edinburgh's New Town and they've had their grand Georgian streets bollarded off for decades. Try to do the same in a council estate and people are up in arms.

[@briancollier5145]

Nice to see this. I live in Victoria BC, where the first improvements for cyclists were very controversial. It is getting easier, and more and more people are using the protected bike lanes and enjoying the other improvements that make life better for those not in a 3 ton SUV.

[@Shifter_Cycling]

For those asking: Jakub is an American working for the London Cycling Campaign, which explains his accent. Jakub loaned me the Brompton for the afternoon, but I was only on it for a few hours so I'm reserving my thoughts until I get more saddle time. I did, however, feel very British riding it in the rain.

[@georgeg7840]

I live in Montreal near Saint-Patrick and Monk, unfortunately this is a high traffic area but there are a few bicycle pathways, there is a painted bike lane on De L’église but the separated bicycle pathway on the Lachine canal is quite nice and makes it easy to get to the Atwater market.

[@Iskandar64]

The Stretham Vale LTN, here in South London became a National scandal in the months before the General Election, (I live next to it). It is a large urban area bounded by three connector roads, and had a number of cut throughs. Once it was imposed in October 2023, the traffic increased on the connector roads to such an extent that it was taking an hour for Buses to traverse the 1.5 miles of Streatham High Street. The situation was so dire that TFL and the London Mayor intervened and caused so much hostility from locals and businesses that it was abandoned In March 2024. I personally support LTNs. My take on what happened is that the council imposed a far too big a scheme in one go without giving people the time to change their behaviours. There are a lot of schools in the area and people still tried to drive their children to school as usual instead of walking for instance, which was now safer because of the LTN. Also, I don't believe the council did a proper impact study. I think if the scheme was introduced incrementally it would have little push back and people would adapt. Some roads in the zone had already had filters introduced in the years before the LTN and this has not caused any reaction. So I expect it will be re instated, albeit in a more measured way.

[@mdhazeldine]

The missing piece is a high level, city (or country) wide strategic plan. In the UK individual local authorities do things in a hap-hazard way without joined up thinking or national standards. We need to learn from the Dutch. They have strategic road and cycle routes. All roads are categorised in to 4 categories and re-designed to strict standards. All bike lanes are red and signage is consistent. It's silly that we try to reinvent the wheel when our neighbours have 50 years experience doing this.

[@Iskandar64]

@@mdhazeldine I do broadly agree with you, but the right wing governments we get in the U.K. would never support such a tier of government bureaucracy to have such wide reaching powers. Until we have a political system which stops gifting the Conservatives an absolute majority with a minority of the votes. They will always dismantle any progressive changes when they get into power.

[@dcb8531]

Personally, I agree that incremental application of these changes in infrastructure is extremely effective. In my city, this is the strategy that is used: first-painted bike lane in car" door zone" (doesn't take any space away from parking or road use); then painted bike lane, then painted bike lane using cars as a barrier, then real barriers like planters, finally a real bike lane, either sidewalk level, or with real cement, or plants as a barrier. By the time the last level is achieved, everyone has gotten accustomed to the gradual changes. Less opposition, takes several years, but gets the needed infrastructure.

[@Ladadadada]

I've come to a similar conclusion even in the areas where it hasn't had such a severe negative side effect. They tend to put in 5 - 10 modal filters all at once which is very noticeable, requires the biggest adjustment in people's understanding of the road layout and maximises the size of the protest group and the negative reactions on social media. If they were to put the changes in one at a time and leave them 6 months to a year before putting in the next, there would be barely anything for anyone to complain about at any one time and plenty of time for people to adjust to the new road layout. It would, of course, take 5 years to actually fully implement an LTN but each neighbourhood would enjoy the incremental benefits along the way and we could do this to more neighbourhoods in parallel reducing the "unfairness" complaint.

[@mdhazeldine]

@@Iskandar64 Strategic planning and setting design standards is not "bureaucracy". It's just sensible. However, I agree about your last point. The Conservatives are great at ruining good things. *COUGH* HS2.

[@anthonygood1335]

Thanks for the video. 🙂

[@BikeFlips]

I think you've got the vast majority of this right, good job. It's just a shame that the incoming Labour government have been extremely lacklustre in their approach to walking and cycling, and have failed to implement any obvious policies to discourage driving everywhere all of the time. Disappointing.

[@giri1478]

This!

[@teckendrums]

i live direct at a big street that used to have two car lanes in both directions. now its just one lane for cars and one for bikes, it got so much more quiet and the use of bikes increased very much. definetly improved the quality of living around here...

[@NineEyeRon]

I travel between two LTNs often, by car. Comparing before and after my journey time has more than doubled! It could be just 10 minutes but it’s closer to 25 now due to the excess traffic. The benefits they being is immeasurable, they are, to put it simply, wonderful! I want more LTNs and other similar solutions to the car use issue.

[@bike-ride-beats]

Great vid. I’m in greater Toronto area, one of those small suburban towns. Think we could convince town council and the local BIA to close the Main Street at least for the summer? Nope. Same claims as you noted here for the commercial street in London. We have a great downtown where I love, many patios and great vibe. And cars that tear through it!

[@seanoreilly6551]

When Caple street was pedestrianised in Dublin the shops benefited from extra footfall. Most people hate driving to the City centre.

[@bonjovi1612]

They’re all crazy just crazy. A few yards from my street the council allowed a development of an open field to meet the usual housing requirements. The redirected a 10 yard stretch of road and used the now spare piece of land to create an approximately 20 foot combined cycle/pedestrian footpath complete with signage and safety barriers at each end. I have no idea how much money was spent to create this completely useless stretch of tarmac but I’m sure it got exaggerated and added to the total length of supposed cycle routes. What was that movie, yeh, it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world!

[@jasonschubert6828]

As someone who has lived on busy streets much of my life, especially as a child, I find it kind of ironic that these people are happy to keep their own (often more upmarket and expensive) streets quiet and free of traffic whilst simultaneously barreling down _my_ street at 20km/h over the speed limit.

[@robertcartwright4374]

Minimizing motor vehicle traffic in residential areas has been a goal of planners for a long time. The traditional solution for North American suburbs was to lay them out with curvy indirect roads and lots of cul-de-sacs. This discouraged through traffic, but because the routing was so inefficient for unmotorized traffic, it also mandated car use by the residents, worsening congestion everywhere else. A very selfish approach!

[@-2103]

@@robertcartwright4374 I have seen neighbouring cul-de-sacs connected by paths, which is a great solution.

[@lorjon68]

You have to ask or you don't get. LTN's don't appear by magic.

[@robertcartwright4374]

@@-2103 It is: I've seen that too, in the newer subdivisions.

[@doghous3]

funny how people seem to miss your point. this is exactly how people are - 'I agree, but not down my street!' And, I don't just mean these LTNs.

[@grahambonner508]

Yes, change is coming, all be it very slowly. Where i would like to see improvement is in routes between towns, currently we have to mix with motorists wanting to travel at 60mph, many of whom perceive us as just holding up traffic and causing congestion.

[@danielcarroll3358]

This was something I had to look up, "albeit" is a conjunction meaning "although", or "in spite of what was just said".

[@michaelstratton5223]

​@@danielcarroll3358 Standardized language is overrated. People spelled with a lot of variance in the 1700s, yet their subject matter was so much more interesting.

[@dcb8531]

I agree. Where I live, there has been a lot of progress with bike infrastructure, but as soon as you leave the city, there's nothing. Often, the next town is less than 10 or 20km away. With the correct bike infrastructure, it would be possible to travel these distances by bike. Right now, the only choice is to use a car. It's a shame because these are distances that are possible to travel by bicycle.

[@grahambonner508]

@@dcb8531 your country?

[@dcb8531]

Québec

[@MassiveChetBakerFan]

Brilliant!

[@notl33t]

I love LTNs and school streets! The idea to save kid's lives is fantastic. The longer it takes for a car to pass a store, the more likely the person in the car will be to think about buying something is what I think.

[@Shifter_Cycling]

School streets are such a no-brainer. I don't know why this isn't the default everywhere.

[@scopie49]

Mildly disagree with the car part. Cars don't buy things. People do. People in cars have a destination and passing through, even slowly, isn't going to make them decide to pop in to a random shop. It's dangerous to be looking away from the road so you can't window shop or read shop names. People walking have all the time in the world to look around and enter random places. That's why walkable shop streets flourish and the business owners that hate the idea need to be educated.

[@noisepuppet]

What good are alive kids without the freedom to blast a multiton vehicle down the street at freeway speeds

[@KyrilPG]

​@@scopie49Sure, but slow, "pacified" streets with narrower car lanes that create slower but steadier traffic allow the drivers to better mentally take note of their surroundings and notice a shop, café, or place to come back later. The slower and steadier the traffic is, the wider drivers' peripheral vision gets. Of course, pedestrian streets are better, but if the choice is between faster yet intermittent (accordion) traffic and slower, steadier traffic, the latter is better for businesses. I think that's what the other commenter was implying.

[@scopie49]

@@KyrilPG I mean fair. Slower traffic is better regardless. I just think any business street serious about wanting to maximize customers should completely eliminate cars from passing through. Roads should be for moving cars. Streets should be primarily for people. In a more ideal world the vast majority of people wouldn't need or want to drive because public transit would be everywhere and connected to everything you could want or need.

[@paxundpeace9970]

In Germany it is pretty common that city centers have pedestrian zones stretching over most of it's city center.

[@matthewcleathero4685]

I always like to question resistance to these by asking if people would prefer the alternative as a High Traffic Neighbourhood?

[@foxquirk]

In Sweden, we sometimes have signs that restrict motor-traffic that apply only to through-traffic. Although most neighbourhoods are designed to not allow through-traffic, using modal filters. (At least in the part of the country I'm from)

[@hydrocharis1]

Brussels is a real battlefield in this and maybe a cautionary example. The regional government agreed with the municipalities to gradually introduce more modal filters and one-way streets, but then lots of violent protests broke out, mainly organized by rich car-owning francophones but spreading poorer mainly immigrant communities (who often can't afford a car/garage but dream of one?), and then the local communist party joined this war against bicycles and also public transport. This very curious coalition was succesful in halting the execution of these circulation plans, by physically destroying modal filters, bike paths and new traffic signs, and also intimidating minicipality officials by intruding the town halls while in session. Now in the recent regional elections the French greens got obliterated, probably because French-speaking Belgium has a lot less cycling culture than the Dutch-speaking part and the other parties succesfully turned into a French-speaking identity culture war issue. Greens won on the Dutch-speaking side which according to the constitution should form its own majority in the Brussels government, but now the French-speaking side is threatening to throw that overboard and make a purely French-speaking coalition which vows to turn back everything the previous government did for the modal shift, Sunak-style. A lot of the modal filters, bike lanes and altered car lanes are quite easily removable and were not made durable with roadworks that often get vetoed by pesky municipal governments, so this reactionary plan might be quite succesful. To achieve this he needs the cooperation of the municipalities though, for which the elections are this sunday but it's not looking good. Brussels got SO much more pleasant the last ten or so years and undoing all that progress to return it back into the car gutter it once was seems utterly insane to me, and the way my hopes for this city get crushed is taking a mental toll on me.

[@Lunarl4ndr]

In Southern California the bushes on that modal filter would be long dead and the curb itself might even be heavily destroyed. It's not nearly threatening enough.

[@naxxtor]

In the London LTNs there are still quite a few "STOP THE ROAD CLOSURE" signs up and vandslism of the signage. But its less and less over time. There sre definitely some boroughs that weapnise them as a way of genererating income , like Croydon - which is legit bankrupt - who have tried making a couple of short sections of road "school streets" that are nowhere near a school and install the bare minimum of signage, just to catch people out. Most of these shenanigans have been rightfully contested and amended at this point, though.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

Do bascially the people who live in LTN's like them the most and the one's that don't like them the least. And people who have never seen one in their lives are the most vocal against them. You can apply that to a lot of political issues.

[@tripleseis81]

Hey, that's my neighbourhood - even my street! Hope you enjoyed your visit. We really love where we live now. Looking forward to Waltham Forest's future plans.

[@nicktulloh]

We moved out of Oxford because of the asinine LTNs there. I had to drive an extra 17 blocks to get to my house from the south and almost that from the north. While I get the intent, the implementation was absolutely ridiculous. They then removed a huge amount of parking spaces making the remaining ones even more crowded, just displacing cars from more affluent neighborhoods to less affluent neighborhoods. Roads like Crowley are parking lots at rush hour (about 4 hours each day) making it much more dangerous for bicycles. The random implementation of 20mph speed limits was the icing on the cake as bicycles routinely (and legally) flew past 20 mph car traffic at much higher speeds. The frustration of 20mph limits in ridiculous stretches of road was mind-boggling. The problem here, as almost every single problem in modern society, is overpopulation. Mankind will NEVER deal with that so provisions like LTNs are simply kicking the can down the road, or back and forth across the road as the idiots in Oxford have done.

[@Pensées_depuis_mon_balcon]

Falls Church and Vienna, Virginia, USA (near DC suburbs) have had restricted cut-through streets for decades, but only during "rush hour".

[@tiborsipos1174]

The problem it aims to fix is the induced traffic. People will always pick the more convenient path. If the collector roads are full, they will take shortcuts, ratrunners or whatever you want to call it. People in cars will oppose this idea because you take their "time" away when they should focus on making the main road better by giving more options. Love when businesses complain about taking car traffic away. Its been proven so many times that 1 car length space can be like 6-10 seatings for a catering unit that is dedicated to THAT business, while the car space is for 1-5 people who could just park for any business in the district... Not to mention who would actually want to sit down drinking a cuppa next to traffic and smoke generators... Yes, businesses need parking because people are lazy in general. But the parking needs to be in walking distance, not right at the door. Deliveries can be done at the back door or dedicated times.

[@LillyP-xs5qe]

The idea that LTN and pushing cars out of living areas and replacing them public transport and cycling is unpopular is only in people who don't live in them, people are forced to be car dependent and they are scared of change. It's a car dependency "Stockholm syndrome" basically, only unlike the case that led to the Stockholm syndrome (bonus: bystander effect) hypothesis, this isn't nonsense argument.

[@Atamanxxxvii]

It's worth noting that there isn't as much a 'war' on cars, but motorists are seen as a cash cow since so much of British public infrastructure is car dependent. Indeed, in my city they also wanted to introduce the '15 minute city' which would bring in zoning controlled by ANPR, but with no ring road, and the only cycle routes into the city being so prone to flooding that they're unusable for 2 months of the year, this would have been largely unworkable. Walkable cities initiatives also have a slightly more nefarious side when you consider how city access has been changed over the decades. After all, the 'suburbs', to borrow an American term, were born for a reason.

[@GavinDavies-tc6yn]

What has added to the problem is satnavs. We all use them, but may not realize that they are taking us off trunk roads, and onto a minor road sometimes, and obvousely this effects the residents on the roads with cars zooming through.

[@ErinFromSydney]

An interesting case along these lines to look at would be the City of Sydney and the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore. So, Clover Moore is quite a polarising figure in Sydney. Some love and applaud her, some are… not fans… and label her initiatives as “leftist” and “wasteful”. Whatever your thoughts on her, she was just elected for a historic sixth term as Lord Mayor in the council elections in NSW in September. In the inner city, she has brought in a lot of cycleways, shared pathways, pedestrianised some of Sydney’s busiest streets (Sydney is one of Australia’s biggest cities in terms of population. I think Melbourne has recently eclipsed us, but still, at least one of the top two, if not the biggest). There is A LOT of criticism over this, but I think it’s great. The NSW Government has recently opened the Sydney Metro, a fast rail network to get across the city, which also has a lot of infrastructure incorporated to allow for cyclists, places for bikes on the metro trains, secure storage sheds and the like. Sydney is shaping up to be an amazing walkable city. It always was pretty well-connected, but it’s getting a lot better.

[@dcb8531]

Sounds similar to the situation in Montréal; the mayor, in the first term , made many changes that encouraged less car use. Now, during her second term, even more progress is being made. There is a visible increase in bicycle use, even during the winter.

[@ErinFromSydney]

@@dcb8531 that is amazing!! That’s the thing with most parts of Australia, we don’t have worries with snow or even with rain most of the time. Our concerns with weather are at the opposite end of the spectrum with overheating and skin cancer from sun exposure, and Sydney is fairly moderate compared to the outer west where I live, plus you get the ocean breezes there in the afternoon which we don’t get. In a lot of ways, Australia is the ultimate cycling country when it comes to weather. But, alas, there is still heavy opposition within the general culture towards cyclists, who are all being lumped together as “MAMILs” (middle-aged man in Lycra), rather than cycling being seen as a mode of transport. I hope we will get there one day with the work of Clover Moore and councils like Penrith City Council.

[@Ladadadada]

@@ErinFromSydney Funny thing about that, I just saw a thread on Facebook where Australians were complaining that no one will cycle in winter. As an Australian who cycles all year round in London I find that hilarious. But I guess it's a relative thing, once you've cycled while it's snowing, cycling on a chilly 10° day seems very easy, but if 10° is the coldest you've ever experienced maybe it feels a bit more daunting.

[@ErinFromSydney]

@@Ladadadada I find it crazy!! Where I live, it’s a bit colder than that, I mean nowhere near London cold, but it’s Blue Mountains cold. I’d ride in minus degree temperatures quite regularly in the winter. I also wonder if Australian clothes / riding kit comes into play as well. I’d wear three sets of gloves, a pair of leggings under my pants (I don’t wear kit, I wear casual / work clothes), several jackets, tops and layers and I would be absolutely frozen when I got to work. My hands would be so painful, aching because of how cold they were. I wonder if this is because our gloves, our garments, our jackets, etc, are just not made for riding in colder weather? One would expect that European gloves, etc, would be made to cope with that sort of weather? Maybe? Just a theory of mine. I have also ridden on days where the temps are well over 40° and with very little shade on my route (in Penrith, NSW, it’s better when I get to the Blue Mountains), and that is far easier because my clothes are made for the weather. My main concern then is skin cancer on my exposed skin and dehydration / heatstroke. I tend to wear these sleeve things to protect my arms from the sun, the all important SPF 50+ and I need to work out a hat situation for under my helmet…. It’s interesting though. I stand by the fact that Australia, with the right shade provisions (skin cancer capital of the world), is the ideal place to encourage cycling. Yet somehow, we are lagging behind. Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Metro areas are coming up… integrating public transportation and active transportation (I don’t know as much about VIC and QLD, but I understand a bit on the periphery), but we have a long way to go. Every time I mention innovations in community groups, I get shot down as a “crazy lefty MAMIL” “Mate, 1) While I am middle-aged, I am not a man and 2) I don’t wear Lycra. I’m talking about bikes for transport, not for racing or recreation. This is how it could ease congestion, improve accessibility and pedestrian access…” “ MAMIL” “I see there is no getting through to this group of people…” I do think, in time, we will get there though… I may be racing around in my wheelchair, plagued by age-related dementia, forgetting I ever campaigned for this by then, but we will get there.

[@matthewcreelman1347]

There was something about this that weirded me out, and it took me a moment to figure it out. I got it eventually: Jacob the London cycling guy doesn’t seem to have a British accent. Very suspicious! I’m going to have to keep an eye on you, Shifter, by liking and subscribing.

[@Shifter_Cycling]

Lol. He's an American living and working in London.

[@Trevor.Adams640]

Jacob sounded like he has a bit of Scottish accent, to me.

[@brettmeikle]

What's NJB?

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

​@crowmob-yo6ry Huh?

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

​@@brettmeikle NJB: Not Just Bikes. Watch Not Just Bikes, Flurfdesign, About Here, Oh the Urbanity, and Yet Another Urbanist.

[@byebyehamas1987]

I used to live in Waltham Forest during the time this scheme was being rolled out. I have no problem with the LTN idea as a whole, but there were some serious issues with its implementation. Firstly, it seems that the town-planners missed the fact that if cut-through traffic is forced to follow the major roads that would mean that the capacity of these routes would need to be expanded. This was not done in most cases and traffic on the main roads become much worse. It seems that the assumption was that many car journeys would be replaced by bicycles and there would not be any increase... this was not true, certainly not in the short term and it caused chaos. Secondly, the elevated walkways, called "blended crossings" are an absolute menace to pedestrians and motorists alike. If you look a the crossing behind the guy in the red t-shirt, you can see that the give-way line is set way back from the junction. This means a motorist emerging from the side road cannot see clearly from that position, and so has to move forward onto the pedestrian walkway anyway in order to emerge safely. Many drivers will instinctively continue to this point, the ramp and markings are often completely ineffectual and easy to miss. Combine this with the fact that the crossing has no distinguishing features to tell pedestrians that this is a road crossing; especially with today's habits of walking whilst looking at our phones (and lets not forget visually impaired people!), you have a recipe for disaster. I feel very unsafe as either a pedestrian or a motorist whenever I go back and have to negotiate them. TL;DR: LTNs are a great idea, but be careful of causing more problems with poor planning and implementation.

[@JoeBManco]

It would be nice if my city would take pedestrian initiatives seriously.

[@themroc8231]

You should do a "rate my commuter bike" video where viewers send you a picture of their bike and you review them, suggest improvements, etc.

[@BartvandenAkker]

Many measures seem like cheap short-term solutions. If they work, that's fine. Then the nice solution comes when maintenance is due. It is very important to show that the measures are good for everyone, including drivers.

[@humza890]

My town (Bedford in England) has 2 modal filter I can think of, which are small bypasses for bus (and cycle) only. They are placed in very specific places to stop cars taking shortcuts and congesting local roads, and for those purposes I think it's great! However, I do have concerns for really long high streets. For example, Oxford street in London may get converted to pedestrian and cycle only, however my grandma already has struggles walking on the street. Maybe an in-between solution is to have reasonably priced "cycle passenger taxi's" where a bike has a rear carrier holding passengers (this already exists). Alternatively, switchung to have occasional sideway roads on oxford would allow taxis to stop closer to a passengers destination, reducing stress on elderly legs.

[@Shifter_Cycling]

Some cities also limit the types of automobiles permitted on some streets. For example, allowing only buses and taxis alongside cyclists and pedestrians.

[@liamness]

The best solution for Oxford Street would be to maintain surface transit by putting trams down it. Trams work really well in pedestrian-first spaces, as they have a massively better safety record than buses.

[@krob9145]

I also wonder how it will work since there isn't really a parallel road for cycling to be directed down. They won't have cycling during the day time only at night. Some people who struggle to walk use bicycles as their mobility device/wheelchair and that includes some pensioners. That's why there's an association called Wheels for Wellbeing to bring attention to how bikes/trikes help some with disabilities. If the disabled have to dismount they won't be able to make it down the new Oxford walkway unless there's some sort of alternative for them like mobility scooter loans etc.

[@barvdw]

or maybe permit traffic to cut Oxford Street, so you still have to navigate 2 or 3 intersections, but that's already an improvement to having to watch your back at every moment. A circulation plan where you only drive through Oxford Street if you need to be *on* Oxford Street might also cut traffic.

[@ChristiaanHW]

in The Netherlands we have almost every "high street" (we call them the city center or shopping district/area) pedestrianized. but they are still accessible by motor vehicles, because emergency vehicles still have to be able to reach every building. often we have streets on the backside of the buildings in these area's where residents can park their cars. and people with disabilities can ask the city for a parking pass to be able to park where others can't. this way people with disabilities can still live in these area's and also have their car close by. and of course (almost) every place is reachable by bicycle, and that includes tricycles for the less mobile people. those tricycles give the rider the freedom and mobility of cycling without the danger of tipping over.

[@nigelgb8408]

In my area of London they had to suspend a LTN because traffic levels on the surrounding main roads became unbearable resulting in poor access in and out of the neighbourhood for residents, unreliable bus services (due to long tailbacks at traffic lights) and even videos of ambulances stuck in the traffic chaos. In principle more safe streets for walking and cycling is a good thing but shutting off a large neighbourhood overnight may have unintended consequences.

[@zivkovicable]

Which area?

[@benmlee]

I always say best of both worlds is elevated bike lanes. As a bike rider, you will never be safe unless there is total separation between bike and car.

[@dcb8531]

I agree completely. We have a number of mobility scooters and they also feel much safer on "raised " bike lanes that are completely separated from car traffic. These "bike" lanes are useful for a wide variety of the population, not just bicycles.

[@StefanDrake]

The way i see car future is outside of cities at least in europe. Banning Cars from entering the cities, giving streets 2ways only (One each direction) Building underground or above ground parking lots at the edge of the city and leave the car there and go into the city by public transportation or bicycle, only cars allowed in the city will be service cars such as Ambulance, firefighters, police, deliveries etc... if you MUST enter the city by car and you're not in need of medical attention you must pay a daily tax of 650 bucks/day as long as your car is INSIDE the city If you have a locomotory handicap then you're allowed to enter the city by car if you have the sticker in your windshield that says "i am medically handicapped" and lets you park on the handicap parking lots This won't only make cities safer but also less poluted and more open towards people then cars, is Not normal to have a 6 or 8way (3 or 4 each direction) street inside the city and its dangerous for everyone How many people have lost there pets, there fluffy friend because it got hit by a car ?

[@dcb8531]

Many people can and do use mobility scooters on these "quiet" streets; this type of infrastructure benefits every one, not just cyclistes; people who don't drive can benefit as well: people using motorized wheelchairs, mobility scooters, people with disabilities, etc.

[@Scott-ll2rl]

I'd really like to see Calgary add this kind of traffic calming and filtering to the city, but I'm not optimistic that this is on the radar. It was so distressing that city hall was 100% onboard with allowing the destruction of an entire block of Stephen Ave and restoring full-flow traffic to build another office tower. They were blinded by jobs and revenue and oblivious to quality of life issues and the destruction of one of the very few walkable streets in the city. It was only public outcry and ultimately the dropping rental need that killed the project. I mention that case specifically to highlight how much of an uphill battle it is to convince the current city hall group to not pull a Rishi Sunak here.

[@itstimeforham]

Also the part on Orford Road - it’s nice but for whatever reason they still allow a bus down the street which rather messes things up. Also, ironically as far as this video is concerned, the Eat17 you were stood outside of just announced it was shutting down. Genuinely nothing to do with the traffic rules given they came in years ago but still a notable closure.