{"id":11861,"date":"2022-09-10T19:03:27","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T18:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/life360\/?p=11861"},"modified":"2024-04-09T13:21:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T12:21:44","slug":"beyond-the-planters-how-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-have-become-the-hotbed-for-culture-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/life360\/beyond-the-planters-how-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-have-become-the-hotbed-for-culture-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the planters: How low-traffic neighbourhoods have become the hotbed for culture wars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

London and the rest of the UK have turned to LTNs to decrease traffic and increase walking and cycling. But claims of social and racial injustice have led to an intense clash of experiences, beliefs and ideologies.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Clair Battaglino had spent nearly 40 years of her life living in a housing cooperative on Dalston Lane. She remembers the road in Hackney, London as always being dotted with the elderly walking, kids cycling and cars driving. But when she came back from a little getaway in 2020, she noticed that something had changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe road was congested like I\u2019d never seen before,\u201d she says, assuming that maybe there was some roadwork going on nearby. \u201cInstead, I found planters and stuff saying you can\u2019t go through except on cycles,\u201d she says. \u201cIn the weeks I was away, the council had implemented something called low traffic neighbourhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Transport for London (TfL), over 100 low-traffic neighbourhoods, or LTNs were introduced in London between 2020 and 2021, the streets next to Clair\u2019s house being a couple of them. With a combination of traffic filters like planters, bollards and bus gates, LTNs restrict the movement of private vehicles. However, critics like Clair argue that they unfairly displace traffic onto the streets that do not have the privilege of being in an LTN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s been terrible to go from loving where you live, a purely residential area with social housing, to seeing that become a complete mess,\u201d says Clair over the honking of cars passing by her living room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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