• Two narrow residential roads in Hackney Central are currently carrying traffic that is rat-running to avoid main roads
• The Council already identified the need to prevent rat-running here
• Now that the Amhurst Road bus gate is operational, it’s time to act

Amhurst Road is an A-road. Dalston Lane is an A-road. Graham Road is an A-road. These are the roads designed and designated to carry significant volumes of motor traffic.

Yet two narrow residential streets, Navarino Road and Greenwood Road, are being used as through-routes between Graham Road and Dalston Lane.

For residents, pedestrians and cyclists, the consequences are increasingly difficult to ignore.

Thousands of vehicles using residential streets

Navarino Road and Greenwood Road are not designed to function as major through-routes.

They are narrow residential streets, without formal crossings, stopping restrictions, traffic cameras or signalised junctions, with people walking, wheeling and cycling along them every day.

But this isn't a new problem.

Back in 2013, a traffic survey found more than 200 vehicles per hour using Navarino Road at peak times and more than 300 vehicles per hour on Greenwood Road. Residents at the time were already calling for filters to stop motor traffic using the streets as rat-runs.

More than a decade later, the problem remains, and residents say it has become significantly worse following the introduction of the Amhurst Road bus gate.

The Council decision report for the Amhurst Road scheme states that it has permanent traffic counters on both Navarino and Greenwood Roads and that it was working on potential preventative measures should traffic levels reach an unsuitable level. 

Residents are now telling the Council that this is exactly what has happened.

A 2026 Council petition describes Greenwood and Navarino as having become through-routes for people seeking to pass through Hackney, with queues, pollution and unsafe conditions reported on the roads. The petition calls specifically for both roads to be closed to through traffic while retaining access for cycling.

The Amhurst Road transformation is an important improvement for Hackney Central

The bus gate, operating between Graham Road and Brett Road from 7am to 7pm, restricts most motor traffic while allowing buses, cyclists, emergency vehicles and certain exempt vehicles through. The Council says the changes are intended to reduce through-traffic, improve bus journeys and make Hackney Central safer and more attractive for people walking and cycling.

It's important to be clear about this: we support the principle of the Amhurst Road bus gate. Giving priority to buses, improving conditions for cycling and walking, and reducing unnecessary motor traffic in Hackney Central are all good things.

But those benefits can still happen whilst protecting people living on Navarino and Greenwood Roads.

The answer isn't to reverse the bus gate or reduce the hours of operation.

The answer is to complete the traffic management around it.

If closing Amhurst Road to through-traffic has caused drivers to find new rat runs, then the surrounding residential streets need to be protected from this. That is how a coherent low traffic network should work.

The principle behind low traffic neighbourhoods is quite simple. Residential minor streets should be places where people live, walk, cycle and spend time, not convenient shortcuts for drivers crossing the borough. Importantly, over time, low traffic neighbourhoods reduce overall motor traffic by discouraging driving in the area.

Traffic that needs to travel through an area should use the appropriate main-road network, which should be properly treated and adapted to carry it.

In the Council's plans for the area, proposed point closures on Navarino Road and Greenwood Road were explicitly described as measures to "cut rat-runs between Graham Road and Dalston Lane." 

In other words, the Council already identified the problem and identified the solution.

The question is: why hasn't that solution been implemented?

The current situation is particularly bad for cycling

Navarino and Greenwood aren't just residential streets, they are also important routes for people cycling. But unprotected cycling alongside significant volumes of motor traffic on narrow roads is uncomfortable and dangerous.

The problem becomes particularly acute when people cycling feel that the road itself isn't safe enough and start using the pavement instead.

Residents raised precisely this concern with the Council in 2025, reporting increased cycling on pavements because of inadequate cycle provision, alongside concerns about traffic, large vehicles and dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists.

This creates an awful choice:

Walk on the pavement and risk conflict with cyclists, or cycle on the road alongside heavy motor traffic.

Neither is acceptable.

A genuinely liveable neighbourhood should make both walking and cycling feel safe.

And it's not just about cyclists

The people most affected are often the people who have least protection from traffic:

• Residents should be able to step out of their front door without worrying about fast-moving traffic
• Parents should be able to walk with children
• Older people should be able to cross their street without feeling intimidated
• Disabled people should be able to use the pavement without having to navigate around vehicles, bikes and delivery riders
• And people cycling should have a route where they can ride without feeling that they are putting themselves in danger

These are basic requirements.

The Council's own recent Cabinet discussion recognised the difficulties being experienced in the area. A councillor acknowledged the current problems after cycling on Navarino Road, while residents described significant increases in traffic, queues and unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists.

Filter the roads, don't close them

There is a straightforward solution:

Install modal filters on Navarino Road and Greenwood Road to stop motor vehicles using them as through-routes.

The filters should:

• prevent private motor vehicles from travelling between Graham Road and Dalston Lane;
• allow residents to continue accessing their homes;
• allow deliveries and servicing where appropriate;
• allow emergency services through;
• allow pedestrians and wheelchair users through;
• allow cycling through in both directions.

A genuinely successful transport strategy has to look at the whole network, not individual schemes in isolation.

What Low Traffic Hackney is calling for

• Immediate traffic filters on Navarino Road and Greenwood Road, allowing walking, wheeling, cycling and emergency access while preventing through-movement by private motor vehicles
• Minor residential streets should not be rat-runs
• Investment in Graham Road, and all of Hackney Central’s main roads, to improve the pedestrian and cyclist environment, reduce speeds and increase safety and comfort
• Network-level measures to reduce traffic on main roads including rethinking parking

We believe this is a necessary and proportionate next step to make Hackney Central genuinely safer, quieter and more liveable.