Forum topic: Introducing Healthy Streets Bounds Green

Viola Rondeboom of Healthy Streets Bounds Green introduces the new group and its ideas for creating a healthier environment.

Healthy Streets Bounds Green

We are a community-led campaign group with the ambition to reimagine the streets in the Bowes/Bounds Green area, to create a healthy, safe, and liveable environment. We’re asking for a bus gate on Brownlow Road as part of a wider low traffic neighbourhood.

Why?

• Brownlow Road, Warwick Road and others in the area have been carrying massive levels of through-traffic, resulting in noise, air pollution, road danger, hindrance of buses, and suppression of active travel. Yet this is a residential neighbourhood.
• The way the roads are designed makes these streets the unfortunate shortcut for drivers cutting a corner off the A406. We don’t think that’s fair. Surely A-road traffic should stay on A-roads?
• Lockdown has given residents an experience of clean air and safe, low-traffic streets – Brownlow has seen hundreds of people on bikes – and they are understandably unwilling to go back. Now is the time for change.
• Local authorities are now required by law to reallocate road space so that people can walk and cycle safely as an alternative to public transport. Brownlow Road is a crucial link for those cycling instead of taking the Piccadilly Line. A bus gate would make it safe for cycling.

Low traffic neighbourhoods: before and after

Watch the transformation of Waltham Forest

How does it work?

A low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) is a whole residential area, bordered by major roads, that allows vehicles in, but not through. Bollards or planters can be used to filter off streets at strategic points, preventing traffic using the area as a cut-through to the North Circular. Such filters prevent rat running, but allow people to walk and cycle through. Every street can still be accessed by vehicle.

A bus gateis a sign-posted point on the road that bans all vehicle traffic except buses and emergency services.

Bus gates have been introduced in areas where it would be inappropriate for a high volume of through traffic, such as residential areas.

A bus gate opens up the street for families to cycle to school as well as commuters to work, forming the backbone of a healthy low traffic neighbourhood that prioritises sustainable transport. 

Ideally, ANPR camera technology would allow local residents to be on a ‘white list’ so they could drive through the bus gate rather than take a longer way round. Implementing such technology can be expensive, so we are asking for a bus gate without ‘white list’ in the short term, but will continue to push for this to be included.

TfL would also need to reinstate the right turn from Bounds Green Road onto the A406.

One of several ways an LTN could look west of Bowes Park. The principle is you can’t cut through in a car. East of Bowes Park will need filtering too.

Doesn’t Brownlow Road need to be a through route?

Yes – but not for cars. Brownlow Road’s narrow design and overwhelmingly residential status make it completely unsuitable to carry its current levels of up to 10,000 vehicles a day, often clogging up the entire road. At the heart of a low traffic neighbourhood, Brownlow Road will continue to be a through route – but one that prioritises active travel and public transport. We hope to see hundreds of school children walking, cycling and scooting along it every day on the school run to Bowes Primary, Bounds Green School, and other schools in the area – as well as hundreds of commuters cycling instead of taking the car or Piccadilly Line.

Effects on main roads

If you design a city for cars, it fails for everyone, including drivers. If you design a multi-modal city that prioritizes walking, biking, and public transport, it works for everyone, including drivers.

Former Vancouver Chief Planner Brent Toderian.

We would expect to see some traffic build-up in the early weeks of a trial, followed by a steady decline in traffic as drivers adjust back to similar levels as before.

Not all of the traffic from Walthamstow’s low traffic neighbourhood was displaced onto main roads – many car journeys simply disappeared. There are 10,000 fewer car journeys per day across the Walthamstow Village area, including the surrounding main roads – a decrease of 16%. This is known as ‘traffic evaporation’ and has been documented in similar situations all over the world.

For more information, see Evaporating traffic? Impact of low traffic neighbourhoods on main roads by London Living Streets.

How will I get to my home by car?

Every street will still be accessible by car, emergency services, delivery vehicles and refuse trucks. To stop through-traffic, some residents’ car journeys will be more indirect and may take a few minutes longer. Other journeys may well be easier as there will be no through traffic on our roads. Also, residents in LTN’s often choose to make fewer short journeys by car. For many people, any inconvenience is a price worth paying to have a quieter, safer neighbourhood, and cleaner air.

What can I do to support?

If you live in this area and share concerns about heavy traffic and pollution, e-mail your ward councillors to ask them for an area-wide low traffic neighbourhood with a bus gate.

For Enfield, Bowes Ward, write to:
Yasemin Brett –
Katherine Chibah –
Achilleas Georgiou –

For Enfield, Southgate Green Ward, write to:
Daniel Anderson –
Anne Brown –
Claire Stewart –

For Haringey, Bounds Green Ward, write to:
Patrick Berryman –
Dr. James Chiriyankandath –
Yvonne Say –

Contact Us

Find out how you can get involved! We welcome all ideas to make our streets healthy, greener, and fairer, and will do our best to answer any questions.
E-mail:

This article was originally published on the Better Streets for Enfield website.