A Liveable Neighbourhood is a group of residential streets that are bounded by the kind of main roads that buses, lorries, and non-local traffic should really be on, and discourages or prevents through-traffic.

Residents and local businesses still have full access and can get deliveries, but the only way to pass from one main road to another is on foot or by bike.

The schemes rely on traffic filters, which can be bollards or planters, for example. The filters are placed at strategic locations inside the neighbourhood so that no useful through-routes remain and rat-run traffic isn’t displaced onto other streets within the neighbourhood.

In Liveable Neighbourhoods, the streets are for locals, not through-traffic.

With through-traffic gone, the streets in Liveable Neighbourhoods see dramatic reductions in motor traffic, and often in traffic speeds too.

As you might expect, there isn’t a simple answer to this!

1) The impact of displaced traffic to main roads is likely to be less than the impact of removing through-traffic on residential roads. That’s because the rat-running traffic may not be a huge volume. Enough to spoil residential streets, but maybe imperceptible when added to main roads, which are designed to carry high volumes efficiently.

2) Any displacement to main roads may not be adding new traffic to roads that never used main roads before, but rather taking away the increase in rat-running traffic that has come about over the last decade or so from use of satnavs. Studies have shown that traffic on residential streets has increased massively over the last few years with the advent of sat navs. If you told people on residential streets several years ago that this was planned there would have been uproar, yet somehow this situation has embedded itself as the status quo.

3) The impact on traffic varies between schemes. Whilst small-scale road closures lead to traffic displacement, this may cause minimal disruption on the nearby main roads, as discussed above. Larger-scale or strategic closures may cause more disruption initially, but It can take months for traffic patterns to settle. Studies have shown that over time traffic levels reduce. Around 15% of displaced traffic may disappear from the area entirely as drivers adjust routes and behaviour – avoiding the area, changing modes or even cancelling journeys. The result is a couple of minutes’ extra on some resident journeys as they have to drive further round the edge of the cell before entering, but little substantive change to main road congestion.

4) It is important to look at the wider picture. Liveable Neighbourhoods are just one element of transport policy. Other elements of transport policy include reallocating space on main roads to free up buses and make walking and cycling safer, and that will reduce the number of motor vehicles on main roads, improving the environment for those who live on main roads.

5) There may be some increase in traffic on main roads in the short-term, but does that mean that Liveable Neighbourhoods are the wrong thing to do ? Is that a reason not to bring the benefits of healthy streets to everyone who does not live on a main road, for instance to make roads safer for children?

To summarise, displacement of traffic is a genuine concern – but the impact on main roads may be less than you would expect, and may just be a return to how things were a decade ago.

In London, several boroughs have introduced Liveable Neighbourhoods. Westminster University studied them after the changes had been in place for one year. The research compared people living in the parts of these boroughs that had been changed the most to favour active travel with those living in similar but unchanged areas. In the changed areas, people were, on average, walking and cycling for 41 minutes a week more than the other areas.

Researchers calculate that in Liveable Neighbourhoods, life expectancy increases by 7–9 months, due to improved air quality and residents’ increased activity.

Liveable Neighbourhoods are a great opportunity for businesses to get higher footfall and increase trade.

A wealth of evidence shows that schemes friendly to pedestrians and people on bikes are a real gift to high streets. Improvements to the pedestrian environment have led to average increases in footfall of 32% and retail turnover by 17%.

This makes sense. The rise of internet shopping means that high streets need to do more than just sell things. They need to become destinations where people enjoy spending their time and will keep returning.

Liveable Neighbourhoods have been implemented successfully in the UK. Despite some initial opposition, they have proved popular with residents and been widely hailed as a huge success.

The best-known is Waltham Forest in London, and this gallery of before-and-after photos of the borough – as well as our own Bristol slideshow below these FAQs – shows what we could have in our city, with enough popular and political support. (See also the video of Waltham Forest above these FAQs, and this fascinating 12-minute video presentation and tour of Waltham Forest by expert local Dan Kelly.)

The Draft Local Walking and Cycling Infrastructure Plan for the West of England identifies St Werburgh’s and Southville as two areas of Bristol where Liveable Neighbourhoods could be implemented. But the plan covers the period 2020-2036 so that means only two Liveable Neighbourhoods over the next 15 years.

Councillor Kye Dudd, Cabinet Member for Transport, and Councillor Nicola Beech have both shown an interest in Liveable Neighbourhoods by touring the scheme in Waltham Forest. And Councillor Dudd has said that the council will bring forward initial proposals for liveable streets as soon as possible, and that it will be keen to engage with communities.

But any new scheme affecting traffic is often controversial, and it will be important for us local people to show our support for Liveable Neighbourhoods for the council to take the political risk of implementing the schemes.

Liveable Neighbourhoods can initially be trialled for 12–18 months before they are made permanent if they are popular (and they almost always are). This way, local residents and businesses are in control of the process and if the scheme is unpopular then it can be altered or removed entirely.

Liveable Neighbourhoods won’t happen without popular support from local people in their local area. So please sign our petition and then use the search tool above to find a Liveable Neighbourhoods group in your area and start convincing your neighbours, local councillors and the mayor that the time for change has come.

Our open letter to the mayor and each councillor – also for the attention of all Bristol candidates in the upcoming 2021 local elections – is below, and has been co-signed by organisations that support the request.

‘We are writing as a network of Bristol organisations to ask you to work with local people to create Liveable Neighbourhoods across the city, starting now and completing by the end of the next mayoral and council term in May 2024.

‘As you will know, Liveable Neighbourhoods are residential areas that contain traffic filters to stop cars, vans and lorries using the streets as rat-runs. Residents can still drive to their homes, residents and businesses can still get deliveries, and pedestrians and bikes can get through freely.

‘In Liveable Neighbourhoods, the resulting reduced traffic has many benefits. Air quality improves. So does road safety. Social distancing is easier. There is safe space for play areas for children, and room for outdoor seating for businesses. Tree-planting and landscaping can be done, making the streets greener and more pleasant.

‘Residents’ life expectancy improves because the air is cleaner and they walk and cycle more. High streets in Liveable Neighbourhoods become attractive destinations where people want to spend their time again and again, and so footfall and trade increase.

‘As well as these benefits for citizens, Liveable Neighbourhoods would help the council meet its One City plans for a healthy and sustainable city, including its goal for a carbon-neutral Bristol by 2030.

‘We are encouraged by the statement by Councillor Kye Dudd, Cabinet Member for Transport, that the council will be bringing forward initial proposals for liveable streets with less traffic on local roads as soon as possible, and that it will be be keen to engage with communities.

‘To this end, Liveable Neighbourhood Facebook groups have been set up in each local area in Bristol, and we invite you – the mayor and current councillors – as well as prospective councillors, to join the discussion in your local groups.

‘We have also started a petition that people in Bristol can sign to ask for Liveable Neighbourhoods to show their support for this policy. More information, and signposting to local Liveable Neighbourhood Facebook groups, can be found on our website.

‘The extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic present a perhaps once-in-a-generation opportunity to build back better. We hope that we can help each other to do this.

‘We look forward to your response.’