| Abstract | Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) are area-wide schemes that remove through motor traffic from residential streets. They aim to make active travel safer and more pleasant (a ‘carrot’), while simultaneously making car travel somewhat less convenient (a ‘stick’). We used Google ‘live traffic’ Directions API data to quantify the magnitude of this ‘stick’, assessing how the duration of local car trips changed after five LTNs were implemented in London. In year 1, average car trip duration increased by 1.8 min for trips starting or ending inside a new LTN (95 % CI 1.1 to 2.5, range 0.7 to 3.0 across the five LTNs), relative to matched Control areas. For trips starting or ending near a new LTN, the average increase was 0.4 min (95 % CI 0.1 to 0.8, range −0.1 to 0.9). The magnitude of these effects in any given LTN was very strongly correlated (>0.9) with LTN size. Effects were also larger for trips < 1 km, and were larger in year 1 than in year 2. Only 2.8 % of trips increased by 10 min or more in year 1 (based on all five schemes), falling still further in year 2 (from 2.4 % to 0.7 % among the three schemes with year 2 follow-up). Travel time reliability was adversely affected in year 1 but not in year 2. We conclude that LTNs have a relatively modest average effect on driving convenience, particularly once they have been in place for more than a year. |
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