Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
"LTNs are popular, effective and here to stay"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/15/ignore-myths-low-traf...
"The myths of freedom for the motorist – painted vividly in advertisements that show Land Rovers cruising through completely empty city centres – must make room for the real-life and realisable freedom of kids to breathe cleaner air in their playgrounds, people to walk and cycle with less risk, and for all of us to get to where we need to go without being stuck in congestion."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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THANKS for posting this Dan77.
As obvious as it sounds, the root cause of congestion is that there are simply too many cars on the road.
This is the basic truth that some rabid car-owners cannot or will not acknowledge. And, a simple truth that Haringey Council is unwilling to address with sufficient political will.
Likely, out of fear of hysterical anti-LTN zealots who are a tiny noisy minority, themselves a sub-set of the minority of Haringey car-owners. Any roll-out of LTNs has stalled in Haringey and the council has no plans for any more.
The council talks about promoting walking & cycling, but there has been overpromising and under-delivery. Their endless chat, PR and publications lacks credibility and their "strategy" is effectively dead in the water.
In this context it is also worth noting that before the election, Keir Starmer said that his Labour Government would be on the side of drivers. That was doubtless intended to neutralise Conservative claims to be on the side of drivers. That he continued to say this after the election as PM, suggests it was to meet the challenge of the Reform Party (same motivation as the Prime Minister's Island of Strangers speech). It seems that Mr Starmer is ready to say anything that seems expedient at the moment.
Opposing a single LTN may or may not be about a "culture war".
Opposing all LTNs in London is likely to be the real agenda of the Reform and Conservative Parties, and it may indeed be about a culture war.
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Permalink Reply by Amit
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To be fair to the current council, they spent a huge amount of political capital putting in the St Ann's LTN yet in the recent by-election there were ousted by the Greens. What's their incentive?
More widely it's worth recognising that LTNs essentially just transfer utility from one group (motorists) to others. Irrespective of whether you agree with them or not, it's important to recognise that some people are worse off because of them.
That said, we've been here before. I somehow doubt that many people are clamouring to go back to the days of smoking in restaurants.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh
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In the context of Haringey, tell this all to Ladder residents and you'll get a resounding guffaw, a shrug or a sigh.
After 20 years of receiving excitable freshly-minted borough traffic supremos at local meetings promising to finally deal with the cut-through traffic on the Ladder; after 20 years of seeing them slink off into the undergrowth when they find the issue too tough; after 20 years of thunks as the Ladder traffic file lands yet again on the too-difficult-to-handle pile, most Ladder residents have an extremely low expectation of a traffic boss who can actually deliver; most Ladder residents don't expect a resolution to the Ladder traffic issue any time soon.
What would the Greens promise?
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Permalink Reply by Dan77
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It is dispiriting - and many of us outside the Ladder would support action to reduce the burden of traffic on Ladder roads. Is it time to invite the Greens to a Ladder community meeting, to see what they would, in fact, promise?
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Hugh, I don't speak for the Greens and am not a member of any Party. I recognise the points you make and would make these observations:
- Lack of Leadership
- Intense bureaucratic sclerosis
- A Highways Department hidebound, conservative
- Aging Councillors who only understand a need for more car parking
- There is not a single example of world-class cycling infrastructure anywhere in the Borough.
- The tree planting scheme could be called the pedestrian Pavement Width Reduction Programme;
Following the Declaration of a Climate Crisis by the council six years ago, Transport has probably been the biggest single failure.
With others, I have been invited to yet another council Transport Forum (in September). Haringey's Transport Forums have been going on for years. The talking goes on and on and goes around in circles. Residents' time is wasted with the endless hand-wringing.
On the present trajectory, the rest of this decade may well be filled with more Transport Forums; more Strategies, more press releases, more claims to "Greener" and more Action Plans. But no action.
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