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news
Cyclist next to an LTN planter (image: Adwitiya Pal)“Reasonably balanced or needlessly confrontational?” New BBC Panorama episode about low-traffic neighbourhoods raises concerns over stirring culture war
A new BBC Panorama episode, titled “Road Wars: Neighbourhood Traffic Chaos” to be broadcast later tonight on BBC One, explores the conflicts around low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) that have “set neighbours against neighbours”, and features stories and accounts from both sides of the debate; but it has already raised concerns about whether the show will offer a nuanced take or deepen the rift between both sides.
In the episode, BBC’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt visits Oxford’s LTN schemes, that have been the hotbed for several previous incidents of vandalism as well as cultural and ideological clashes lately, and in the process investigating if they are really helpful in reducing traffic and mitigating climate change.
The programme, which has previously been criticised for its investigations into "Britain's killer roads" and "Cars v Bikes", will feature interviews with Oxford residents who are campaigning in favour of the traffic restrictions as well as those who are campaigning against them.
It also looks to feature segments with LTN academic and expert Dr Rachel Aldred from University of Westminster, along with former actor, now COVID and climate change denier Laurence Fox.
> Review: Panorama – Road Rage: Cars v Bikes
Run over, beaten, bent, burnt and stolen - is this Britain’s most abused bollard?
Road Wars: Neighbourhood Traffic Chaos is on @BBCiPlayer now and on @BBCOne at 8pm tonighthttps://t.co/HxvuqijnR8 pic.twitter.com/jPeQ5mWzi9
— BBC Panorama (@BBCPanorama) April 17, 2023
A balanced approach by the BBC?
Richard Parnham is a resident who is campaigning against traffic restrictions in the city with a local pressure group called Reconnecting Oxford. He says the schemes have “torn the city apart” and are “setting neighbour against neighbour”.
Such claims and allegations against LTNs have been used long since the schemes were just beginning to be put in place, with many communities like Reconnecting Oxford forming in London to oppose them.
One such group from London, called OneEaling, claims “Ealing Council has divided our community by installing CCTV cameras, bollards and placing planters in an unsafe and undemocratic manner”.
Bollards seem to be a focus for the latest Panorama episode, with a new article on BBC’s website spotlighting the trials and tribulations of a plastic bollard on Howard Street in east Oxford which was installed last year, and labelling it as “probably the most abused bollard in the UK”.
> Vandals target LTN bollards and planters less than 24 hours after trial is introduced
Rowlatt writes: “I’ve been to meet locals there who believe the scheme will reduce congestion and pollution - and others who want the freedom to drive wherever they want.”
The article also has a small clip which sees the bollard being run over, bent, burned and then stolen. But it’s really nothing new, considering vandals have targeted not just bollards, but also planters, setting fire to them and overturning them, as well as other infrastructure to promote cycling and walking such as cycle lanes and bike racks in many places.
Oxford has introduced Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to enhance people's quality of life. But there's a small group of antisocial men who resent any restraint on where they can drive. Their tactics have become ever more extreme. Last night they resorted to arson. pic.twitter.com/zSSzhWjStw
— George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) July 4, 2022
Rowlatt also talks to Theo Hopkins, a 79-year old “human bollard” — one of the many residents who have stepped in to block the road themselves, sometimes provoking violent reactions, in tonight’s episode.
Mr Hopkins says that he has been hit twice during confrontations with angry drivers, with a car pushing him off the road one time.
> Teesside pop-up bike lanes abandoned after theft and vandalism
Another resident Zuhura Plummer, who has campaigned for the city's LTNs as part of a group called Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, has a starkly different view, claiming that these measures enable the residents to cycle safely and breathe cleaner air.
The programme also intends to explain the larger government initiatives around LTNs, such as the increased spending after lockdown to promote active travel, and how it ended up enraging even more drivers, slapping them with fines for violating the rules.
Additionally, Prof Rachel Aldred, who has been behind numerous academic papers, reports and research investigating LTNs and their effects, is also set to be a part of the show to counter the claims of drivers and residents complaining that LTNs just push the problem from side roads to main roads.
Her studies have found that the average increase in traffic flows on boundary roads is just over one per cent, with recorded traffic on the boundary roads increasing in half the LTNs she has studied - and going down in the other half.
> Study finds London's Mini-Hollands are encouraging more cycling - and especially, walking
Finally, the show is set to take a look at the conspiracy theories against traffic reduction schemes that have found their way from the dark corners of social media all the way to the Parliament, with MPs now on the bandwagon as well.
In February, conspiracy theorists and far-right groups attended a protest in Oxford against the planned 15-minute cities scheme, which aim to create neighbourhoods where residents can walk or cycle to the nearest shop, cafe, school, or any essential necessity in a short period of time.
The protest was joined by racist and neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative, Heritage Party founder David Kurten, climate change denier and anti-vaccine activist Piers Corbyn, and other like-minded people. Among those present was also former actor and conspiracy theorists’ darling Laurence Fox, who also spoke at the event.
Fox is also speaking to Rowlatt on tonight’s Panorama, about how 15-minute cities are somehow part of a sinister desire by the government “to control our movement, speech, everything”.
…or rabble-rousing for views?
BBC, long-known for its balanced coverage of the news (historically, even on topics like climate change), seems to be going for another investigative documentary on its night-time show that is at most times well-reputed for being truthful. But as transport journalist Carlton Reid pointed out, the title seems “leading and needlessly confrontational”.
> Podcast: Why is the 15-minute city attracting so many conspiracy theories?
On the plus side the prog looks to feature specialist academic expert @RachelAldred It also looks to feature anti-vaxxer Laurence Fox and the Astro-turf org Tax Payers’ Alliance.
— Carlton Reid (@carltonreid) April 17, 2023
In 2021, we reported that a BBC News report on LTNs was criticised by a Labour peer from All Party Parliamentary Group on Cycling and Walking for ignoring evidence and “perpetuating concerning falsehoods”, as well that the broadcaster has “embarked on its own journey to stir up a manufactured culture war”.
The TV report, which was also fact-checked by Reid to be false, was fronted by… Justin Rowlatt, who was BBC Newsnight’s ‘ethical man’ for living green and with low carbon impact in 2006, and says on his Twitter profile that he reports “from the front line of climate change - how it’s going to affect our lives and what we can do about it”.
Rowlatt, in the 2021 report had brought up the fact of fines on drivers for cutting through LTNs, and claimed that they “raised almost half a million quid” within weeks — an issue that’s going to be discussed once again by him tonight.
He had also admitted that after the piece titled “Local traffic changes ‘more divisive than Brexit’” went live, his inbox was “already filling up”.
Further, last year Panoramas' investigation of “Britain’s Killer Roads” was under fire for questioning if a reduction in police numbers, breath tests and speed cameras were to blame for the rising death rates on the UK roads, rather than holding those behind the wheel responsible.
And in November, Panorama broadcast “Road Rage: Cars v Bikes”, a curious title for a TV programme that if anything showed just how vulnerable people riding bikes are with motorists who overtake them too closely; or failed to see them altogether, as in one case highlighted in the episode that we reported on at the time.
So is the latest Panorama title provocative only to reel in more viewers, or will it actually be stirring the pot in an already heated cultural landscape?
“Road Wars: Neighbourhood Traffic Chaos” airs on BBC One at 8 PM tonight (8:30PM in Wales), and is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer right now.
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
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61 comments
And the station has 530 parking spaces;
So about the (seated!) capacity of a single large modern train given typical car occupancy...
Or to put it another way; if every passenger arrived by car, then given 8m pax/year, every parking space has to handle an average of 41 passengers/day...
So I expect they intentionally don't want people driving to the station...
Yes! The railways are just a scam to justify stealing space which could be more motorways! If you look at the average railway line it's empty 95% of the time! Railways are really expensive too - oh, and you can't carry a fridge on a train.
Of course if you do want to provide sufficient parking at the station here's what you need:
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2019/08/20/finally-fully-open-utrecht...
Or
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/a-public-transport-hub-in-...
Exactly. The "inconvenient truth" is that the allocation of public space is always a choice - it's not a limitless resource. And "public space" is not the same as "free for personal / private appropriation".
If the problem is "excessive use of motor vehicles" - which even some of the antis say they're willing to conceed* - then the solution cannot involve motoring remaining at least as convenient for at least as many people as currently drive now.
We can and should provide genuinely tempting alternatives but this restraint just won't happen voluntarily at the population level. A "pull" is not enough alone. Especially since we have made it so convenient for motor vehicle users. Also driving is a space and energy inefficient mode which tends to squeeze out other modes. And finally we should not forget some of those involved in the motoring industries are making vast amounts of cash - powerful motivation...
We all want to imagine situations which suit us will remain that way eternally. And our masters like to claim they're powerless when faced with difficult problems and a range of unpopular outcomes to choose from. Or are just "following public opinion". Of course the story of how we came to have all these motor vehicles everywhere - costing everyone money - isn't quite that straightforward / innocent.
* "of course we would like quieter streets / less pollution / the high street back again / we understand change is needed, BUT ..."
Not powerless, they just use their power in bad ways: they have a massive roadbuilding programme and cut funding for the alternatives.
Of course they didn't - selective use of facts to support an agenda is always the way with woeful programmes like this one. Why watch?
I didn't watch the programme (am not in the UK) but the picture above is almost a copy of what Brussels (tried) to implement in a number of quarters. And (imo unfortunately as I don't own a car and do everything by foot/bike/public transport) they largely failed due to small but extremely vocal groups whom I'll refer to as 'car people' for lack of a better term actually organising violent protests, intimidating local politicians to the point of assaulting them, sending letters with death threats and bullets and demolishing infrastructure meant to guide traffic.
Politicians of other parties caved in. Or better, those that were not on the barricades encouraging the protesters, that is. As a consequence, at the moment the scheme's half implemented and nobody's happy.
Next year is election year and the greens -whom I applaud for their initiative in this case but detest for many other points in their program-are set to take a serious beating. We'll see where it goes. This in a city where less than half of the population owns a car. Salvation will come through ever increasing (electric) car prices and taxes that will simply make car ownership prohiitively expensive for most.
Interesting article in the guardian at the weekend
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/15/cars-dog-poo-and-del...
Thanks for sharing. I always find that the gammons on Facebook want us to believe that kids don't play because computer games. They have no evidence for this they just want something to blame. It's much more convenient to ignore the inhospitable nature of streets and believe that kids don't want to be outside playing with their mates irl.
One of the reasons I moved here, is that there were kids playing in the street.
BBC impartial?
They've had thousands of items on electric cars, but I've never seen/heard anything about electric bikes, and vanishingly few mentions of bicycles, despite more thousands of articles about pollution, congestion, climate change, obesity and health, to which bikes are one of the best answers. If it was impartial bikes and ebikes would be mentioned many more times than electric cars.
I take exception to all their royal coverage too - they never show the flip side of the coin whereby we pay huge amounts of money to them and they hide as much as possible from us.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/17/bbc-accused-of-lacking-impartiality-in-royal-coverage
I'm sure they'd be happy to air the views of some moderate UK republicans as soon as they've managed to get Ivan the Terrible or Vlad Dracul on for "balance".
You mean a few millions out balanced against 10s-100s of millions back in tourism. One area, amongst others, where the repub movement (if there actually is even one) falls over. You should be happy now that there is a woke King, who actually reads the Grauniad too. You look but cannot see.
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/20186723.fact-check-monarchy-reall...
I doubt I'll watch this nonsense. The BBC are using hyperbole to sell their programme without actually fact checking.
“set neighbours against neighbours”
Neighbours are people that live next door or in a VERY close proximity. They are not people that live on an entirely different street that want to rat run along your road.
Why do so called journalists not realise that language is incredibly important.
I doubt I'll watch this nonsense
Well, I will! The close association of Anti-LTN nutters with Covid deniers (presumably anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers as well) should make it good for a laugh
Cheers- much appreciated and you can take this one for the team in that case. My blood pressure wouldn't stand up to it.
On the one hand, we have an esteemed professor who has done the most recent and best research on the topic
To present a counter-view, we have a noted conspiracy theorist who lacks any qualifications, never held political office, and who got fewer votes in the elections for London Mayor than someone whose manifesto promised to reduce the price of Freddo Frogs.
I have no idea why the BBC insists of giving these people airtime.
Just spotted that it also includes contributions from...... Katie Hopkins.
Fine if it is to illustrate a point that extremist nut-jobs have turned traffic management into a conspiracy theory. Not so fine if they are intervieweing her as someone with a worthwhile view.
Emily Maitliss has already pointed out, in no uncertain terms, that this is NOT impatiality.
The BBC should address her criticisms rather than carrying on like nothings wrong with that approach.
understandable, the price of chocolate is going up fast, it's a big issue.
If the naysayers weren't included, it wouldn't be a balanced program.
As you say, the counter view comes from conspiricy theorists & driving addict dinosaurs, with little facts to back up their side. Even the cafe owners are probably suffering short-term, as motorists haven't changed their behavior i.e. induced demand reduction, which Waltham Forest has proved is possible.
The question is how to detox the driving addicts? The ones who in the future will spend 26mins to travel what is now a 12mins drive through Oxford (when walking or biking is already no slower & free).
I don't think you can. They're (and probably we're) fanatical, they (/we)'ve made their (/our)mind up and they (/we)'ll look for evidence to support their(/our) view, and ignore anything contradictory.
(I'm just glad that didn't include any genders!)
Local restaurants down the road from me generally struggle to explain how the free parking can be critical to there business given there is only enough parking for ~1/5-1/10 of their tables; They don't have 50 parking spaces, they have 2-5 (because the other 45 are used by customers/staff of other restaurants with exactly the same usage pattern...)
And this is why the country is f*cked.
For the last decade the BBC has platformed the extremists as part of of their "alledged impartiality". Just like they did to help enable Brexit.
They could have at least found an elected swivel-eyed loon such as Rupa Huq but no - they went full retard*.
*See Tropic Thunder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6aaQ_VAMBk
Please don't use the r word - it is extremely offensive.
which is precisely the point the film makes.
Watch tropic thunder, but prepare to be offended!
It smacks of false balance, as in the BBC's climate change coverage over a long period.
I liked the joke about the death of Nigel Lawson, who was frequently on the BBC to provide "balance" in debates wiht climate scientists. Apparently the BBC announced his death, but needed to find someone else who claimed he was still alive, to produce balance.
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