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Zackly.
The big error is that the posh yoghurt knitting retired / never worked local politicians who can afford to live within walking distance of good sushi don’t know how to present ideas to people who are busy and stressed and running late and increasingly financially squeezed.
What you do is, you don’t.
You certainly don’t brand your ideas up as ‘15 minute middle class liberal elite tofu cities’ and create one big enemy for the gutter press to pick on.
You just tell a single street you’re going to shut one end to improve traffic flow and make it quieter, then you do it. It’s been done for decades without such substantial opposition.
All that said, I do feel for the people who live on busy roads who are going to experience even worse traffic and pollution while the (richer) people who live in side streets get nicer lives for free.
Plus I endorse any form of public unrest at the moment, it’s perhaps mis-targeted anger, but like the strikes it’s a tipping point because of all the other shit working folk have had to put up with for the last decade that’s made their lives worse.
Stick it to the man.
Hefty-
All that said, I do feel for the people who live on busy roads who are going to experience even worse traffic and pollution while the (richer) people who live in side streets get nicer lives for free.
Its not always the case tbh. This is more "fAcTs" bandied about by anti LTN protestors and not whats been observed by long term analysis of well planned and executed road closures.
https://thecityfix.com/blog/traffic-evaporation-what-really-happens-when-road-space-is-reallocated-from-cars/
https://www.rapidtransition.org/stories/reducing-roads-can-cause-traffic-to-evaporate/
https://www.hammersmithbridge.org.uk/p/179/traffic-evaporationBringing tofu into it is very Braverman / Hopkins of you ;-)
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All that said, I do feel for the people who live on busy roads who are going to experience even worse traffic and pollution
Nope. Rat running occurs because main roads are at capacity. If you remove the rat runs no magical new capacity appears on the main roads. It simply results in less driving.
I live on a main road and I would love the back streets round here to be properly LTNed. It would make zero noticeable difference to the amount of traffic going past my window but would make a huge difference to walking and cycling the back streets.
while the (richer) people who live in side streets get nicer lives for free.
There's little evidence for this either. People of all income levels live adjacent to both types of road, and most council estates were built as LTNs from day one.
MCamb
grams
It’s loony antivaxxers and anti 5G types turning up to the protests who now have a new confusing enemy to add to the list.
There’s also a load of Clarkson types who can’t understand the difference between minor restrictions on driving and draconian restrictions on movement.
Both groups have made up a whole load of imaginary new rules about the 15 minute city idea - e.g. restrictions on how often you’re allowed to leave your assigned 15 minute zone. None of which have been floated by anyone serious.