Why do we need a Low Traffic Hackney?
LTNs: The hard evidence
At Low Traffic Hackney we believe that to keep people safe, reduce harms and build healthy communities we need to follow the best evidence of what works.
A lot of research has been done into the effect of LTNs. The following isn’t intended as a comprehensive list or review of all the evidence, but aims to highlight some key studies and show that there is little doubt amongst experts that LTNs reduce a wide range of road harms.
Have a look at the headings below to see what current best evidence says in each category:
At Low Traffic Hackney we believe that to keep people safe, reduce harms and build healthy communities we need to follow the best evidence of what works.
A lot of research has been done into the effect of LTNs. The following isn’t intended as a comprehensive list or review of all the evidence, but aims to highlight some key studies and show that there is little doubt amongst experts that LTNs reduce a wide range of road harms.
Have a look at the headings below to see what current best evidence says in each category:
- Road Danger
- Air Pollution
- Noise
- Traffic Levels
- Effect on Waslking and Cycling
- Crime and personal safety
- Equality of impact
- Impact on Disabled People
- Impact on Emergency Services
- Other Benefits (community cohesion, children’s play, streetspace)
- What about people living on main roads?
- Summary
Road Danger
Studies have consistently shown that LTNs greatly improve the safety of roads without causing harms (and sometimes leading to improvements) on boundary roads.
A recent comprehensive BMJ study of 113 LTNs showed LTNs were associated with a 35% reduction in all injuries, rising to 37% for deaths and serious injuries. The study concluded that creating the LTNs prevented more than 600 road injuries that would have otherwise taken place, including 100 involving death or serious injury.
Another 2025 study showed LTNs also improve safety on main road junctions by reducing dangerous interactions from vehicles turning to and from the main road. The study showed implementation was associated with a 14% reduction in total numbers of casualties at junctions between newly filtered minor roads and surrounding major roads
Studies have consistently shown that LTNs greatly improve the safety of roads without causing harms (and sometimes leading to improvements) on boundary roads.
A recent comprehensive BMJ study of 113 LTNs showed LTNs were associated with a 35% reduction in all injuries, rising to 37% for deaths and serious injuries. The study concluded that creating the LTNs prevented more than 600 road injuries that would have otherwise taken place, including 100 involving death or serious injury.
Another 2025 study showed LTNs also improve safety on main road junctions by reducing dangerous interactions from vehicles turning to and from the main road. The study showed implementation was associated with a 14% reduction in total numbers of casualties at junctions between newly filtered minor roads and surrounding major roads
Air Pollution
A 2022 Study showed that LTNs reduce air pollution both within the areas and on boundary roads. The researchers found that concentrations of nitrogen dioxide fell by 5.7 percent within the LTNs and by just under nine percent on their boundaries, compared to the control sites. They also found that traffic dropped by over half inside the LTNs and by 13 percent at the boundaries, compared to the controls.
When people say LTNs are unfair because they make pollution on main roads worse, this is categorically not true! Main roads in Hackney have seen huge improvements in air quality since recent LTNs were introduced – have a look at the latest data on Hackney Council’s website.
Noise
By reducing traffic noise and increasing the prominence of relaxing natural sounds like birdsong LTNs make streets nicer places to live and travel through. A 2024 study in ‘Transportation Research’ journal examined the impact of LTNs in Oxford on noise within the LTN and on boundary roads. It found almost all locations experienced a significant reduction in noise after the introduction of the LTN. All locations except for the control location also experienced more ‘biotic’ (natural) noise after the introduction of the LTN. Because environmental noise is liked to health effects like risks of heart attacks and strokes, reducing noise can have population-level health benefits.
Traffic Levels
LTNs generally significantly reduce traffic within the areas without causing increases on other roads. This is because they encourage ‘mode shift’ away from driving by making it a little less convenient whilst making alternatives like walking, cycling and using the bus faster, safer and more convenient. This effect has been coined ‘traffic evaporation’ and has been demonstrated for many years by clear evidence across a variety of different situations where roads have been closed or restricted.
More recent specific evidence on LTNs includes a huge systematic review of 46 schemes and 587 count points which showed large relative falls in motor traffic inside the schemes whilst average motor traffic counts on monitored boundary roads changed relatively little. The study concludes that ‘LTNs have substantially reduced motor traffic on internal roads, without having much impact on motor traffic on boundary roads.’.
It is common to hear people allege LTNs 'just cause congestion' or 'just displace traffic to other roads'. We emphasise this is not supported by evidence. The causes of congestion are complicated but they include changes to driving habits meaning traffic is spread more evenly through the day, 'car-spreading' meaning as cars have become larger each car uses more roadspace, and the effect of roadworks and utility works on the network. At its heart the problem of congestion is one of too many vehicles on the road network and the evidence shows this cannot be fixed by prioritising access and roadspace for cars, but rather by reducing the priority for cars and designing better streets to encourage alternatives.
Any change to road layouts, including LTNs, may lead to temporary disruption. This tends to settle within a year of most schemes. Occasionally some main roads have seen longer term increases following LTNs, however evidence is very clear this is not generally the case. Main roads have been adapted over years to manage large traffic flows with signals, controlled crossings, cameras, bus lanes etc, and allowing minor roads to become used as overflows for an overloaded main road network only induces more motor traffic overall and creates far more harm.
The DfT -commissioned review of evidence on LTNs concluded ‘The available evidence from the UK indicates that LTNs are effective in achieving outcomes of reducing traffic volumes within their zones while impacts (positive or negative) on boundary roads appear to be minimal.’
Effect on Walking and Cycling
Analysis of the Walthamstow ‘Mini-Holland’ longitudinal study showed after five years, outer London LTNs have seen 62 minutes more walking and 43 minutes more cycling per week by people living within LTNs.
LTNs implemented as part of Transport for London’s Streetspace programme have significantly influenced active travel behaviours among residents.
Lambeth found that cycling increased by 51% within the Railton LTN and 32% across the area. Additionally it increased by 65% and 84% on Railton Road and Shakespeare Road, two through roads that are now filtered.
Crime and personal safety
All LTNs are consulted to the Police before they are implemented. The Police are generally very supportive of these schemes because evidence shows they lead to a 10% reduction in street crime.
Overall crime trends in and around LTNs have also been analysed by a study of 72 LTNs as more favourable than the background trend in Outer London, and similar to or slightly more favourable than the trend in Inner London.
Social equality of impact
Recent LTNs have been put in place to support more equal and more socially just streets. Research has found it is 2.5x more likely for people in deprived areas to live in an LTN implemented during March to September 2020 than people in less deprived areas
Around 90% of all groups live off the major road network and there is no significant difference in the ethnicity or economic status of those on and off main roads in Hackney. Many Hackney Council estates and other social housing blocks are already historic LTNs or located on roads that could be included in LTNs. Low Traffic Hackney supports extending LTNs to almost all minor roads to benefit as many people from all groups as possible.
The impacts of the status quo are highly unequal with poorer and marginalised groups far more likely to suffer the negative effects of motor traffic and with the most to gain from lower traffic lower pollution and more people-friendly streets.
Impact on Disabled People
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods retain car access to every address so disabled people can always drive or use taxis to access homes when necessary. Hackney’s evidence base for the draft Transport Strategy 2035 shows disabled people in Hackney are less likely to drive than people without disabilities and more likely to walk and use the buses so they are more likely to directly benefit from quieter safer roads and bus gates which improve bus access.
Most LTN filters in Hackney are camera-enforced and do not use physical restrictions. Hackney allows blue badge holders to drive through many of its LTN filters if the owners register their numberplate and gain an HAC01 Permit. This means disabled people can benefit from quieter streets and better access.
The 2021 ‘Pave the Way’ report from Transport for All into the impact of LTNs on disabled people concluded ‘with many disabled people experiencing genuine and meaningful benefits from the LTNs, ripping them out and returning to normal isn’t the solution’.
Low Traffic Hackney recognises that cars are essential for some journeys. We are keen to ensure LTNs are made fully accessible and work for disabled people.
Impact on Emergency Services
Evidence shows LTNs do not make emergency services slower (and may slightly improve response times). This was true both in LTNs that predominately blocked motor traffic using physical barriers (e.g. planters) and in LTNs using camera enforcement.
Emergency services are consulted on all new LTNs and mostly in Hackney they use open filters enforced by cameras, or ‘fire gates’ which emergency services can open with a special key.
Other Benefits (community cohesion, children’s play, streetspace)
Donald Appleyard’s famous studies starting in the late 1960s showed that streets with more traffic have fewer social interactions and less community cohesion. Streets with less traffic have more social interaction and stronger communities. Traffic kills communities.
The ability of children to ‘play out’ and travel independently has been massively eroded over recent decades. The biggest reason for this is the huge increase in vehicles on our streets and the effect this has on safety and parents’ willingness to let children play out. LTNs reclaim streetspace from cars and allow children the freedom to play and travel.
What about people living on main roads?
A lower traffic Hackney can benefit all residents, including the 10% who live on main roads or high streets. Research quoted above has shown that LTNs do not routinely increase traffic on such roads.
Firstly, main road residents can benefit from safer and more pleasant walks to parks and other facilities. Secondly motor traffic reduction can be applied to high streets. These are roads busy with local shoppers which also see a lot of non-local through traffic, putting residents and shoppers at unnecessary risk. Hackney has filtered several main roads and High Streets including Shepherdess Walk in Hoxton (the B144), Church Street in Stoke Newington (the B104) and Broadway Market in London Fields (a key High Street).
For the arterial roads like Kingsland High Street, we want to see motor traffic reduction by reallocating space to cycle tracks, wider footways, greenery, and/or 24-hour bus lanes. These measures will reduce the number of private cars using such roads and provide a buffer between homes or pedestrians and polluting motor traffic.
The extension of the ULEZ is helping to get many of the most polluting diesel vehicles off our roads, with particular benefit to busy roads which have seen dramatic improvements in air quality since recent LTNs were introduced.
DfT figures show overall main road traffic in Hackney has been reducing steadily since 2019. We feel the pace of this reduction is nowhere near fast enough and much more needs to be done, but LTNs have categorically not led to a general increase in traffic on main roads in Hackney. We are pushing for much more action on main roads and this is a key priority for Low Traffic Hackney.
Summary
Most Hackney residents do not own a car yet many areas are still totally dominated by the danger, noise, pollution and other harms caused by motor traffic.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods have been shown by a strong and growing body of evidence to reduce harms and provide huge benefits to safety health and quality of life whilst maintaining the ability to drive for those that need it.
Although Hackney residents are driving less, before LTNs motor traffic was increasing in the borough. The distance driven in or through the borough grew from 301 million vehicle miles in 2013 to 340 million in 2019. Most of this is cars or taxis (a rise from 225 to 250 million vehicle miles).
This means Hackney residents were increasingly ‘travelled-upon’, suffering the consequences of other people’s travel.
In 2019, 1002 people were injured in traffic collisions on Hackney streets (149 seriously or fatally), most in collisions with motor vehicles. Nearly half of those injured were people walking (228) or cycling (219).
It is estimated that one in twelve deaths in Hackney (8%) are due to long term exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5), one of many pollutants from motor vehicles.
We don’t have enough safe space to play or to exercise. Hackney residents often lack gardens, with most (84%) living in flats. One in twelve households (8%) live in overcrowded accommodation.
With a lack of gardens and with car-dominated streets, many children and adults don’t get enough exercise.
Among Year 6 children in Hackney, one in every four (27%) are obese. Walking and cycling for transport and play are great ways to be physically active.
We simply can't go on allowing these totally avoidable harms to our communities and we can have a safer, healthier Hackney. LTNs have a crucial role to play in improving these issues.
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