Fed up with rat-run traffic making your neighbourhood unsafe? Here’s a few ideas about how to petition the council to install a Low Traffic Neighbourhood or other filtering options.
Get local support
Find other neighbours who are keen to do something about it. You’ll most likely find this from people who are already walking and cycling. Check out the surrounding roads as they are probably suffering equally.
Record traffic & ‘accident’ levels
The council will be swayed by evidence. Record traffic levels by vehicle type. You could do this either by counting manually (use this template) or installing an automated traffic counter such as this Telraam model.
Visit the Crashmap website to discover crashes that have occurred in your neighbourhood. If you live on a rat-run road, almost certainly there will be a great many accidents recorded at the junction of the main road with the residential rat-run road.
Make the case
With evidence of traffic levels and neighbourhood support, request action from the Council. Try these:
- Log your request on the council’s website Suggest a new Streetspace scheme
- Email your councillors. Find your Councillors by Ward
- Contact the Highways Improvements Team: highwayimprovements@croydon.gov.uk
- Write something for this website
Case study Sylvan Hill
My tip would be: facts are your friends, the information we gathered certainly hit home with councillors and their traffic engineers. What we did:
- Counted vehicles, including heavy vehicles, through the day. We did 15 minute samples each hour from early to late. A bit of a chore, but we had 6-8 of us involved so it was manageable and some of it could be done from upstairs windows.
- Via a household survey, collected impact on how the traffic was affecting people – fumes, noise, road safety, damage to homes, childrens’ safety on the street and way to school, and knock-ons like sleeplessness, asthma and mental health.
- see this example: Traffic Surveys and Report.
Also, obviously, helpful to show the scale of support for making changes.
More information
- Check out the Resources page on this website
- Sustrans: Making the case for a low traffic neighbourhood
- Croydon Living Streets
Shape Better Streets Croydon & Bromley 