Hackney,
20
November
2020
|
15:29
Europe/London

LTNs have not caused a rise in nearby main road traffic, early analysis shows

The introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods in Hackney has not caused a rise in traffic levels at nearby monitoring sites on five main A-and-B roads, early analysis of Transport for London (TfL) traffic data shows. 

The analysis uses data from five TfL traffic count monitoring sites in the borough: Mare Street at its junction with Brenthouse Road; the A10 at its junctions with Richmond Road and Walford Road; Homerton High Street and Albion Road. 

At each, data points to a significant drop in traffic levels during the first lockdown this year, which rose again from May 2020 and reached near 2019 levels by August, largely before the introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods in Hackney. 

  • At the Mare Street junction with Brenthouse Road, numbers of vehicles have remained largely below 2019 levels throughout the year, with a further drop after the introduction of the London Fields low traffic neighbourhood 
  • At the A10 (Kingsland Road) junction with Richmond Road, traffic levels are largely in line with those from last year, with no obvious impact caused by the introduction of the London Fields low traffic neighbourhood
  • At the A10 (Stoke Newington Road) junction with Walford Road, traffic has remained below 2019 levels, with no obvious impact caused by the introduction of the Hackney Downs low traffic neighbourhood or filters in the Walford Road area
  • On Homerton High Street, traffic levels remained broadly in line with 2019 levels. After a slight increase following the introduction of traffic filters in the area, traffic dipped back below 2019 levels in October 
  • On Albion Road, traffic levels were already higher than 2019 at the start of the school-term, but then dropped to near 2019 levels after the introduction of traffic filters in the Walford Road area and on Clissold Crescent.

In addition to this early monitoring, the Council is also installing over 270 automatic traffic counters this month to monitor traffic over a 7 day period. This will be repeated early in the new year.

It will also be installing approximately 20 permanent, continuous counters on strategic roads to supplement existing TfL counters in order to monitor longer term trends.

A number of these traffic monitoring sites have been vandalised in recent days. The Council will be working closely with the police to address this issue.

Cllr Jon Burke, Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste, Transport and Public Realm
While we’re encouraged by these initial findings on five key main roads in the borough, which show no significant change in traffic levels after the introduction of the new low traffic neighbourhoods, there is more work to be done to measure traffic levels on other roads to identify if changes have taken place. That’s why we are also rolling out more monitoring equipment to locations across the borough that do not currently have it.

In recent days, a number of traffic counters and cameras across the borough have been vandalised, causing tens of thousands of pounds of damage, by people seeking to overturn the decisions of councillors elected to run the borough by its residents. We cannot obtain the information we need about LTNs when these acts of outright criminality take place, yet this information is essential to measuring the performance of LTNs. We will now be working with the police and on design solutions that seek to address these very attacks on public property.

I’d urge residents to continue to have their say at rebuildingagreenerhackney.commonplace.is so we can continue to adapt and improve schemes, while creating cleaner, greener neighbourhoods and supporting local people to walk, cycle and shop locally during the pandemic.
Cllr Jon Burke, Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste, Transport and Public Realm

While the data shows no effect on daily traffic levels, it does not measure fluctuations at certain times of the day. The Council is working closely with TfL to understand these in more detail, and making changes to signal timings to improve traffic flows. 

The full data can be viewed here

download
Cllr B - traffic monitoring