Lydia Chantler-Hicks
One thousand extra pedestrians are walking in Stoke Newington Church Street every day – thanks to new traffic restrictions that have seen the number of cars using the road fall by 60%.
A bus gate was installed under an experimental traffic order last September, to reduce the number of cars using the trendy Hackney high street and surrounding area between 7am and 7pm.
Hackney Council says the ‘low traffic neighbourhood’ scheme has seen walking and cycling surge between those times, with cycling up 38% and pedestrian numbers up 16%.

Assembly backs ULEZ expansion & road user charging option

With a clear majority, on the 17th of November, the London Assembly backed the Mayor’s revision to his Transport Strategy opening up the option to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover all of London and later introduce ‘Smart & Fair Road User Charging’ (SFRUC). The vote was along party lines, with Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat members voting for the revision, Conservative members against.

Isabella Kaminski
A legal challenge has been launched against a road scheme that opponents say clashes with climate goals.

Changes aimed at improving car journeys between Milton Keynes and Cambridge by upgrading junctions and building a 10-mile dual carriageway on the A428 between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet were approved in the summer. The scheme, estimated to cost £810m-£950m, is listed in the government’s growth plan for accelerated delivery.

“All roads increase traffic, noise, air pollution and carbon emissions and make no sense in the current climate and ecological emergencies,” said the group’s director Chris Todd. “Rishi Sunak has firmly committed to net zero, and this is his chance to put that commitment into action.”

Spending money on new roads would swallow billions of public funds for very little return, Todd argues. “lso, building new roads in the long term makes things worse, with any congestion relief often short-lived and offset by increases in congestion on the wider road network.”