London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has been urged to say whether or not he was involved in a decision to suppress a TfL-funded study which found that low-traffic neighbourhoods do not reduce car use.
The schemes, which have been backed by the mayor, have led to an increase in cycling, according to the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy. But the Travel and Places study found they failed to “show a significant association between the proportion of LTN roads and minutes of past-week car use”.
TfL opted not to publish the study, which cost £82,000, and halted work on it after two years.
Emails between TfL and the institution were published under freedom of information laws in May and reported by The Times on Wednesday. They included one researcher saying the findings were “a bit underwhelming”, offering to create a “suitably contextualised and caveated summary” that TfL could publish.
TfL has said the data did not offer “sufficient new insights” to justify spending money on continuing the survey. Conservatives at City Hall have asked Khan, who is chair of TfL, to ask whether he was involved in burying the report.
The Tory transport spokesperson, Keith Prince, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Sadiq Khan has spent years telling us LTNs cut traffic use and now it turns out covered-up data suggests otherwise. He needs to correct the record immediately.
“The mayor is the chair of the TfL board. He needs to come clean on whether he ordered this cover-up. If he did not then he must pledge a full investigation so he can tell Londoners exactly who did. If it was, in fact, his decision then Londoners will rightly see that as an utter disgrace.”
Neil Garratt, another Tory assembly member said:, said: “TfL paid University of Westminster £82,000 to research the impact of LTNs on car use. But when they didn’t like the results, they asked them to stop work and refused to publish the report. 4,500 Londoners spent time answering a survey about their travel habits but their efforts were thrown away because the results weren’t what TfL or the mayor wanted to hear.”
In 2023, Khan said LTNs were a “longstanding tool to reduce through traffic in neighbourhoods and provide a better environment for walking and cycling, to reduce traffic and road danger, tackle the climate crisis and improve air quality”. Last year, he said he was “supportive of the important benefits that LTNs provide, including safer streets, enabling people to walk or cycle more, reducing car use and reducing crime”.
But he also criticised an LTN last year, speaking out against a “well-intentioned” scheme in Streatham that he said was “causing huge problems”, saying he had contacted Lambeth Council about the issue.
A part-time low-traffic neighbourhood has been in place in parts of Greenwich and Blackheath since last November, blocking north-south through traffic in streets either side of Greenwich Park during rush hours. Critics say it has shifted traffic into nearby neighbourhoods, including Charlton. A consultation on the scheme ended in June.
The clampdown is aimed at tackling traffic queues and antisocial behaviour from drivers seeking to avoid the A2 by using residential streets. An initial attempt at an LTN in 2020 covered just streets west of Greenwich Park, but it was blamed for problems shifting east and scrapped before the 2022 council elections.
In May 2020, a low-traffic neighbourhood was introduced by Lewisham Council in parts of Lee Green and Hither Green, but was amended a few months later following problems in neighbouring roads. The remaining restrictions have remained in place. Lewisham says its monitoring has shown a cut in traffic both in the area and on neighbouring roads.
A spokesperson for TfL said: “We are committed to supporting high-quality research that helps us understand how our policies and programmes are working. This particular study was initially funded to explore the impacts of LTNs but following a review of the second year’s findings, we concluded that the data didn’t offer sufficient new insights to justify further investment in continuing the survey.
“We remain confident that LTNs can reduce traffic levels in the area, making streets safer and enabling more walking and cycling.”
The mayor’s office was contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.
Kumail Jaffer is the Local Democracy Reporter covering London’s mayor and assembly. The Greenwich Wire is a partner in the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which is a BBC-funded initiative to ensure councils are covered properly in local media. Additional reporting by Darryl Chamberlain.
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