It starts off innocently enough. Two wooden planters in the road, blossoming with flowers. A bike lane you swear wasn’t there before, filled with eager new cyclists. Children scootering merrily to school, unhampered by cars.
And then you hear horns honking in the distance, and see traffic building up on the horizon. It takes you twice as long to do your weekly shop at the big supermarket by car. You are fined on a road you have always driven down.
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“Planters were tipped over and daubed with graffiti reading ‘abuse of power'”
“There are other, more deprived places that could have done with less traffic”
“Across London as a whole, low traffic neighbourhoods are more often in parts that are more deprived and have lower car ownership”
“I know so many more of my neighbours now – it’s changed the way we interact”
“Public opinion will flip – no one ever wants traffic back”
“They’re dividing us: ‘Now entering Hither Green East, get your avocadoes ready’”
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