Consultations are to start next month on creating Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in five areas, which would add to the 19 LTNs already in operation, most of which use ANPR cameras rather than physical filters to manage traffic. LTNs currently cover about half of the borough, and the new schemes would increase this to 3/4 of streets, the council estimates.
The council says the chief aims of LTNs in the borough is:
• Improved bus journey times with reduced traffic volumes on a local bus route

• Low traffic walking and cycling routes created to nearby green spaces

• Low traffic walking and cycling routes for secondary school students to travel independently along

• New public spaces created for the community to use, for instance, pocket parks or parklets

• Pedestrians are able to cross the road in a town centre or residential area safely and with ease 

• Streets for People: Have your say on the Bruce Grove West Green LTN trial
Tell us what you think about the measures the council has introduced to help make the Bruce Grove West Green neighbourhood safer, cleaner and quieter.
Consultations open from Monday 30th January to Friday 10th March 2023.
https://bit.ly/3HCg71A link to original article

Rhodri Clark 8 February 2023
 Workplace Parking Levies and road user charging will be considered by the North Wales Transport Commission before it produces its final report. Recent experience in Snowdonia is a possible precursor.
“Financial constraints will always limit the progress that can be made in improving transport and making it more sustainable. This is a national issue that impacts locally,” says the commission in its progress statement.
It says the UK Government is considering road user charging…

6 Feb 2023

In the old district council building on the Soho Road, Sandra Green, a car-free campaigner, is busy squeezing as much information into a presentation about a car-free vision for Birmingham icons – including the Hockley Circus.

“A car-free city is free of the dangers of pollution and emissions caused by mass private car ownership,” she said. “It’s not a city with no cars at all.
“There are many people – including some disabled people – who can’t get around without a car, but reducing the number of cars in cities will make their lives easier.”

A Conservative MP has criticised the concept of ‘15-minute cities’, citing known conspiracy theories about the schemes which aim to create neighbourhoods where residents can walk or cycle to the nearest shop, cafe, school, or any essential necessity in a short period of time.

Nick Fletcher, the first Tory MP to represent Don Valley in Doncaster, said that the concept stems from socialist ideology and is an infringement on individual freedom.
Speaking on Thursday, he demanded a debate on the “international socialist concept of so-called 15-minute cities”, and said that the schemes could “take away our personal freedom”.
“Sheffield is already on this journey and I do not want Doncaster, which is also a Labour-run socialist council, to do the same,” he added. Fletcher’s demand for the debate is yet to be realised and he was greeted with laughs and jeers in the House of Commons.

Cycling UK says that transport project promoters will be motivated to think more deeply about their rationale if in-house teams are required to prepare a “case for change” at the outset of all projects.

The group was commenting on changes to the Welsh Transport Appraisal Guidance (WelTAG) which may prove to be a pathfinder for changes to appraisal guidance elsewhere. The Welsh Government is overhauling WelTAG so that the guidance better reflects its commitments on climate change and in other policy areas.

The appeal was made in their response to a consultation into removing the low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) scheme around Arnold Circus on the fringes of the popular night-time area of Shoreditch.
The Arnold Circus Liveable Streets initiative was put in place in 2021, along with similar initiatives elsewhere in the borough, with the council controlled by Labour at the time.
In last May’s local elections, however, the Aspire Party won 24 of the 45 seats and since then the borough’s pro-car Mayor Lutfur Rahman has been rolling back initiatives aimed at reducing motor vehicle traffic and promoting active travel.