Green transport and traffic promises: how do they stack up?

Congratulations to Hackney Green Party on winning the recent Council election with a landslide.  This means Hackney is now run by the Greens... In this blog post we dive into their manifesto to analyse their vision and ambition, and what they promised to deliver. To keep it clear, we’ve grouped items into four areas: the overall vision, the concrete deliverables, the more vague ambitions which may or may not be delivered, and things we feel are missing.
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Worth noting that the good news from the elections is that over 83% of votes in the Mayoral election were for parties - Labour and Greens - that very clearly support traffic reduction and active travel. The anti-LTN vote - Tory and Reform - was under 14%. So from the election we can say with confidence that the vast majority of people who voted, did so for a mayor who actively supports our aims.

The new Green mayor of Hackney, Zoe Garbett

Green vision and overall objectives

There's no doubt that the Greens put significant time and effort into the transport chapter of their manifesto, and take the subject seriously. Their overall vision and objectives are essentially pretty much in line with what Low Traffic Hackney stands for, right down to the shared objective of reducing miles driven in Hackney by 30% by 2030. 😃

The key line from their vision is this: 

"Prioritise safe, reliable, affordable options that enable people to move around Hackney without needing to own a car. A Green-led Hackney Council will be ambitious on climate, ecology and air quality, and will take bold action to reduce traffic, decarbonise our transport system and tackle air pollution in Hackney and beyond."

This is, in short, brilliant to see. We love it.

Additionally the Greens support Vision Zero, which means no-one killed or seriously injured on our streets by 2041 (bear in mind that 117 people in Hackney were killed or seriously injured in 2024, the last year we have data for).

They acknowledge that public transport needs to improve, and that there are too many large and dangerous SUVs on our roads.


The concrete promises

If we remove anything that talks about "investigating" or "seek funding for" or "lobby for" or "work with X" (i.e. anything which is not a promise, but a less-than-concrete ambition) the list of things we can expect is significantly shorter. These are items where there is a tangible deliverable, something where we can easily measure success.

These are the hard promises:

• Ensure there are formal or informal crossings every 100 metres along streets across the borough, and programme eligible traffic lights at standalone crossings to allow pedestrians to cross immediately

 

• Make school crossings a top priority, starting with the seven primary schools that currently have no safe crossings

 

• Create traffic-free School Streets for all eligible primary and secondary schools, as well as introducing them at colleges

 

• Publish an implementation plan for a cycle network that allows all Hackney residents to live within 400m of a high-quality cycle route

 

• Increase cycle training provision for global majority and Disabled residents

 

• Design and implement a Kerbside and Parking Strategy to bring new life to kerbside spaces for safer crossings, greater accessibility, public seating, climate resilience and increased urban biodiversity

 

• Introduce new car parking permit structures that reflect vehicle size, weight and emissions, to deter the use of SUVs 

 

• Relieve bottlenecks on main roads through reduced parking and our new Road Safety Premium for the largest non-commercial through traffic

 

• Develop a dedicated plan to help local businesses and charities adopt e-cargo bikes

 

• We will not reactively scrap schemes for the sake of making driving easier, as doing so may expose pedestrians on residential streets to fatal risk

All of these promises are, in principle, excellent, and we fully support them. We are looking forward to seeing the detail on some of these such as the Kerbside and Parking Strategy and cycle implementation plan. We will, of course, monitor progress on these and regularly remind the council about them.



The more vague ambitions

There are however many points in the manifesto which could be categorised as "ambitious but potentially more difficult to achieve”. 

These include:

• Partner with neighbouring boroughs to apply to the Mayor of London to create a Road Safety Premium for the largest cars driving into Hackney. The charge will not affect commercial vehicles and will only apply to vehicles entering the borough. This bold action will deter the use of oversized cars on main roads and any excess revenue will be invested back into local mobility

 

• Relieve bottlenecks on main roads through reduced parking and our new Road Safety Premium for the largest non-commercial through traffic

 

• Negotiate improved deals with dockless hire bike companies to ensure that the £93 million dockless hire bike market in Hackney brings greater benefit to residents and the council, to improve affordability and reduce pavement clutter that can interfere with Disabled residents’ mobility

 

• Demand that any roll-out of driverless cars is highly regulated, with full accountability for corporations, and lobby for maximum local control over driverless cars

 

• Lobby for the national roll-out of road charging on electric vehicles to be smart and fair

 

• Work with neighbouring London boroughs, councils and TfL to expand a sustainable system of car-share clubs, suitable for large families, and look for ways to provide child seats, adequate storage, as well as fully accessible options

 

• Work with TfL to investigate new bus priority measures on council-run roads, allowing buses to move reliably through our borough, and lobby to change bus lane operation to 24 hours a day and remove all car parking from bus lanes

 

• Investigate a sliding-scale workplace parking levy for businesses that provide a substantial number of employee parking spaces, with exemptions for Blue Badge bays

 

• Commit to improving the Chatsworth Road scheme.

Comment: The Road Safety Premium is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Without it there’s very little in the manifesto to solve Hackney’s main roads problem. The big question is: how achievable is this in practice? Our view is that it's a great ambition, but not likely to be delivered within the next four years, unless it becomes an urgent priority for the Mayor Of London. We urge the Greens to see our main roads recommendations and deliver these as fast as possible

Anything which involves “negotiation” (better dockless bike contracts), “demands” (driverless car regulation), “lobbying” (road charging), “working with” (car share clubs, bus priority measures and bus lanes becoming 24/7)  or “investigation” (workplace parking levies) are not solely within the control of the Council at all. They are fantastic ambitions, but how realistic are they? The Road Safety Premium is a key point for the Greens, and we’d love to see it implemented, but we’re not holding our breath. Prove us wrong, please!


What was missing?

The biggest omission is the lack of a plan for the roll-out of further LTNs or Liveable Neighbourhoods. We know that Dalston and Hoxton were agreed by the previous Labour council but what about the Cazenove LTN, or Stamford Hill West, for example? Of course not every decision will be in a manifesto and we hope the Greens have plans to expand LTNs in Hackney.

On Chatsworth Road, the promise to “improve” the scheme and potentially to “expand exemptions” may not be positive. Expanding exemptions may keep a tiny number of local residents who drive happy, but they undermine the point and success of bus-gates and filters, and maintain the status quo which is harmful to the majority who don’t drive.

There was nothing about reducing theft of Blue Badges to ensure they are protected for those that need them. What about reducing the problem of idling which again is a significant issue for air pollution in our borough. What about proper enforcement of the 20mph speed limit which could have a massive impact on road safety if adhered to?


Conclusion

Hackney Green’s ambition is excellent. The concrete deliverables are great. The more vague ambitions are exactly that, and nothing more. We hope the missing LTN plans don't mean a lack of ambition to expand liveable streets in Hackney.

Low Traffic Hackney will work as closely as we can with the new Green council. We will continue to counter misinformation and disinformation. We will regularly remind the council of what they promised, and we will offer alternatives if we believe their solutions are not in the interests of the majority of our borough.

Equally, we wish Zoe Garbett and her team luck and congratulations, and an offer of always being here to help where we can.