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ANPR protected LTN in LB EalingMP complains to BBC over claim that people in low traffic neighbourhoods cannot use their cars
An MP who is an officer of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) has complained to the BBC over a claim by Today programme presenter Nick Robinson that people living in low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) cannot use their cars, describing it as a “falsehood.”
> BBC presenter Nick Robinson criticised for claiming drivers can't use their cars in LTNs
LTNs prevent residential roads being used by rat-running drivers by blocking through routes using planters, bollards and other barriers, while still allowing access to local residents.
Lillian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, called on the BBC to report accurately on the issue, saying that “the least we can expect from a national broadcaster is a basic grasp of the facts.”
Her letter, addressed to BBC director of editorial policy and standards David Jordan, comes a fortnight after APPGCW patron Lord Berkeley wrote to him and described a BBC News report on LTNs as “shameful,” saying that it “perpetuated concerning falsehoods.”
> “Shameful”: BBC “perpetuated falsehoods” in divisive low traffic neighbourhood report
I've written to the BBC with my concerns about their coverage of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). For the second time in just two weeks a BBC journalist has presented unquestioned misinformation regarding LTNs. @allpartycycling pic.twitter.com/pHppn95yID
— Lilian Greenwood 💙 (@LilianGreenwood) March 31, 2021
In the Radio 4 programme broadcast on Wednesday, wrote Greenwood, “Robinson repeated a falsehood” that LTNs “meant you could not use a car, saying: ‘More and more councils are doing these Low Traffic Neighbourhoods where you don’t even have those exemptions do you? You cannot use your car’.
“While the interview was with a Green Party representative, the need for accurate reporting on measures to provide people with safe active travel options in response to worsening air pollution, climate change, and inactivity, is not party-political.
The MP referred to Lord Berkeley’s letter to the BBC from two weeks ago, with Greenwood noting that “all residential properties remain accessible, albeit via a slightly longer route.”
She said that the report that prompted that complaint “included clips featuring an opinion on resident access for taxis which were presented as facts, without critical challenge or fact-checking, Given that most people in the country don’t live in LTNs, it is unreasonable not to make clear that these are personal opinions rather than statements of fact.
Greenwood continued: “While I understand there are a variety of views on this subject, the debate needs to be centred on basic facts, especially with the pressing need of the climate emergency which requires responsible reporting. Scaremongering and, in the case of the piece on the 17th March, helping fuel a manufactured culture war are not roles of the BBC.
“I would ask that the BBC issues a clarification on access in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods after this worrying trend and encourages reporters to understand the facts around these measures, which have been in widespread use in the UK for well over 50 years.
“When reporting on LTNs, as you no doubt will in the future, if you fail to provide this kind of additional information to help the audience interpret what they are being told in anecdotes, we cannot expect people to navigate the issue effectively,” Greenwood added. “The prominent airing of concerns is likely to perpetuate the ‘fears expressed by many people’, by merely repeating and reproducing them.”
“We need to make cycling and walking safer and accessible to more people and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are part of that. There is ample room for discussion, debate and disagreement – but the least we can expect from a national broadcaster is a basic grasp of the facts,” she concluded.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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26 comments
The fundemental bugbear that I have about LTN's is that they are not published. They popped up almost overnight a year ago without any notification. As a courier I have to navigate these obstacles (the planters et al) without knowing where they are. I have no complaints about their creation, just the lack of information on where they are so that I can navigate them efficiently.
So yes, let's have the LTN's but tell Google Maps, Garmin and Tom Tom where they are!
But Google were informed and have updated their maps with LTNs often within 24 - 48 hours of them opening. You have to update your local copies however on your phone. Any specifics about a missed LTN from Google? Or this looks like propaganda. Not much you can do about old Tom Tom/ built in models if no map updates.
It's bizarre, top 50 BBC stories about "our planet", not a single nod towards bicycles. 1st two stories are about motorsport saving the planet, three more about airports, and so on.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c4y3wxdx24nt/our-planet-now
It's the same with their progs about health; everything except cycling, despite NICE saying incredibly positive things about it.
Seem the problem has been going on for a while:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2015/jul/17/the-bbc-ha...
Double ridiculous as the BBC has large numbers of people who get to their London workplace by bicycle and is a multitude winner of the annual cycle to work competition in London. Does moving people to Salford and other locations mean instant corporate amnesia.
Fundamental editorial standards must mean getting the facts correct and being able to tell fact from opinion, clearly stating which they are broadcasting.
They have to update any bike blog more first, Guardian's also a very low priority on their list:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog
Extreme-E being dubbed as "green" is hilarous. What about all the environmental damage caused by tearing your car round places? What about the environmental impact following transporting all these vehiucles to far flung places? And so on and so forth.
So it's true in the same way as "I am not a crook (if you don't count ordering the break-in and bugging of my opponent's offices and indulging in a massive cover-up to hide it as making me a crook)"? Well that's ok then...
You can call it shorthand if you like but it's not sensible shorthand, it's misleading shorthand at best. The cynical side of me would argue that Robinson was either lying as part of a personal vendetta against LTNs, perhaps there's one in his neighbourhood that takes away his favourite shortcut, or he's being inflammatory, or it's just lazy journalism.
That's true but it's not what this discussion is about. I didn't hear the story myself but Robinson is clearly quoted as saying "You cannot use your car [in an LTN]" which is just not true. You can drive everywhere in an LTN except through the barriers.
I know he has a place in Suffolk, though might have multiple places he can call home, most of the media types who buy property in the countryside generally do, but there arent any LTNs round there.
This is clearly wrong. Let's call my house in the centre of an LTN point B, and for the purpose of the following demonstration we will consider 2 other locations, A and C
I can:
The only thing I can't do is guarantee that my drive from point A to point C is as direct as a through route when going via point B. I could digress into routing theory and demonstrate that even this is only an issue for less than half of the time, but that's another lively discussion.
The above ≠ being unable to use my car, not even in the most fevered anti-LTN numpties' most rabid dreams following a bad acid trip, topped by a munchies-induced Stilton feast and Port chaser.
The only people this might affect are those living at point A who wish to use point B as a short cut/rat-run to get to C, (or vice versa) when Point B is in a direct line between the two, which is a minority of cases! But even they can still use their cars to get to point B or C.
Mr Robinson lied. LTNs only affect a small proportion of situations and don't prevent any access at all
More of this please!
I'll see what I've got at the back of the fridge. I can't guarantee it's Stilton, though you'd be forgiven for assuming it is by the look of it. However I would be very surprised if it wasn't hallucinogenic...
If you thought what he said was perfectly sensible, then why not quote what he said:
"many people live in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods where you cannot use your car."
This is patently nonsense.
"You can't use a car (to drive straight through the LTN), that's just a fact."
You and Nick Robinson need to look up the definition of rat run and then read about how the primary function of an LTN is to reduce rat running.
An LTN doesn't stop anyone living in one using their car or anyone else driving to their address.
We all know the BBC hates cyclists, but running a campaign against LTNs is carrying it a bit too far. Kudos to Lillian Greenwood MP for her action, and hopefully that and the avalanche of complaints from road.cc members will get them to change their collective minds.
Who am I kidding; no amount of facts, pressure or anything else over forty years has managed to get the BBC to swerve one iota from its rabid anti-cycling agenda.
They turned me into a newt.
Did you get better?
😁
That's debatable..
You do axolotl questions
Very good! Chapeau, sir, chapeau.....
The British Brainwashing Corporation are a bunch of overpaid, biased fuckwits.
But able to string enough words together without swearing
Work for the BBC then, I take it? Just speaking the truth.
It's the way they generalise that really bugs all of us...
Not by any means perfect, but have you ever tried to get sane news in the USA? Much tougher.