By David Harrison, Islington Living Streets
Originally published as a Letter to the Editor in the Islington Gazette.
Let’s begin 2026 with some very good news. In July last year, Jamie Furlong of the University of Westminster was the lead author of a remarkable piece of research. Assisted by co-authors from the University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Furlong’s study showed how Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods in London had saved lives and reduced injuries.
Between 2015 and 2024, 113 Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) were implemented across Greater London, though 27 were subsequently removed. The research investigated their impacts on road traffic injuries inside LTNs and on ‘boundary roads’ immediately surrounding them. This comprehensive analysis found that fewer people were killed or seriously injured (KSIs) inside London’s LTNs. Overall there was a 35% decrease in all injuries and a massive 37% decrease in KSIs, though there was evidence of less benefit in LTNs implemented in Outer London since 2020. Following the removal of an LTN, injury numbers increased back to pre-intervention levels. A shocking consequence of that decision.
Importantly, despite worries about traffic displaced from LTNs, the study found that the LTNs didn’t increase injuries or deaths on boundary roads. Indeed, there were fewer injuries for cyclists and motorbikes, and no change for pedestrians or other vehicle users. Another study found that the LTNs actually made junctions safer where filtered side roads met the boundary roads, presumably because fewer vehicles could turn from major roads into minor ones or vice versa. The benefit to boundary roads was specific to junctions where the side road had been filtered. No benefit was observed at immediately adjacent junctions where the side roads had not been filtered. This supports the interpretation that the observed benefits at the LTN junctions with boundary roads were caused by the LTNs themselves, rather than reflecting any separate general improvements to the boundary roads.
The Evening Standard and The Guardian reported on this study. Unsurprisingly, the right wing press didn’t, despite their numerous articles criticising LTNs. Even the BBC ignored it, while publishing numerous pieces with titles such as ‘Controversial Low Traffic Neighbourhood set for expansion’.
Motor vehicles can kill. Almost 21,000 road collisions were recorded in London in 2024. There were 3707 KSIs and 110 deaths; over half of these deaths (60) were pedestrians.
Road traffic injuries remain a leading cause of death among children and young adults. It’s vital that Islington Council continue its Liveable Neighbourhood programme across the borough. Lives depend on it.
