Low Traffic Neighborhoods - LTNS? Opinions?

chic

chic

SF VIP
Location
U.S.
LTNS have become a serious reality where I live and it's not just neighborhoods but entire towns and cities that now boast reduced speed limits of 25MPH in areas where, during my lifetime, the speed limit was 35-40mph., and all this during a time when energy prices have never been higher. The only way to escape LTNs is to either use the highway or travel to the rural areas where things remain pretty much as normal. I never voted for this nor did I ever see it on a ballot, but here they are, the LTNS, slowing you down deliberately, forcing you to share the road, - ALL of it, with bicycles because that is the whole point of LTNS and 15 minute cities. It's to force people to go carless in the name of climate change but that is not the real reason. I think the real reason is to control/limit our movement.

Are there LTNS where you live? How do you feel about them?
 

It's a terrible idea.. whole neighbourhoods are up in arms about it in large towns and cities here. In fact last night some Large blockades which were put in place in roads in Manchester in the north of the UK were burned and destroyed by the people who live in the area..
 
hollydolly said:
It's a terrible idea.. whole neighbourhoods are up in arms about it in large towns and cities here. In fact last night some Large blockades which were put in place in roads in Manchester in the north of the UK were burned and destroyed by the people who live in the area..
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Yes, it's closer to reality for many in Europe. In the U.S. this is n
 
Has there been speeders or accident’s recently in your neighborhood? Our’s hasn’t changed in the 9 years I have lived here. Our speed limit through the community is 25 mph. Most of us abide by that. I may go off my rocker if I hit a child, which we have plenty of here and they like to ride their bikes all over, meaning back and forth diagonally across the street.

I heard the hoa was talking about putting up speed bumps.
 
hollydolly said:
It's a terrible idea.. whole neighbourhoods are up in arms about it in large towns and cities here. In fact last night some Large blockades which were put in place in roads in Manchester in the north of the UK were burned and destroyed by the people who live in the area..
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It's something more people in Europe are experiencing than here in the u.s. But it's everywhere where I reside. The roads are always torn up and disfigured. The roadscape isn't the same. They've put speed bumps in without warning to slow traffic deliberately which is not good because you can hurt your car if you don't see them in time. We can use the highway to escape LTN or travel to rural areas where we deal with horses instead of cyclists and I do prefer this because horses are better controlled and more predictable. But this should have been voted on by residents. It never was. They started this road project during the pandemic lockdowns and have never stopped.

I don't think most people in the U.S. are fully aware of LTNs and 15 minute cities because it isn't happening where they live.
 
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We don't have LTNs here, thankfully. What we do have in our old downtown area is 4 lane roads, 2 lanes each direction. The city council decided to turn 1 lane on each side into bike lanes leaving only 1 lane each direction for cars. We do have people here who ride bikes, particularly in that area, but there are not nearly enough of them to keep those lanes busy, especially in the winter. The car lanes are always clogged.

There was no vote on this issue here either. There seems to be an epidemic of politicians at all levels trying to force people out of cars and onto bikes. Then there are the city owned e-bikes but I won't go there.
 
The "Speed Bumps" aren't a bad idea, but it's how they surface them, front and end that bugs me. I'll hit it at 20 (they're supposedly set for 25 mph) and the rear of the van bounced like 40 mph. Plus, the end of the bump becomes cratered quickly, not the front.

The roundabouts are great to prevent traffic jams, but the drawback is when you have a mile of roundabouts, then a streetlight which then creates the major bottleneck.

Then there's P-town which has gone insane towards bike lanes, restrictions on cars and other idiotic improvements but only for bikes, pedistrians. Bike paths, a freaking bridge ONLY for those two.
 
Myrtle said:
We don't have LTNs here, thankfully. What we do have in our old downtown area is 4 lane roads, 2 lanes each direction. The city council decided to turn 1 lane on each side into bike lanes leaving only 1 lane each direction for cars. We do have people here who ride bikes, particularly in that area, but there are not nearly enough of them to keep those lanes busy, especially in the winter. The car lanes are always clogged.

There was no vote on this issue here either. There seems to be an epidemic of politicians at all levels trying to force people out of cars and onto bikes. Then there are the city owned e-bikes but I won't go there.
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we have 2 lane roads mostly, and the council in their infinite wisdom have made one side cyclists only..how about that for madness?...
 
Myrtle said:
We don't have LTNs here, thankfully. What we do have in our old downtown area is 4 lane roads, 2 lanes each direction. The city council decided to turn 1 lane on each side into bike lanes leaving only 1 lane each direction for cars. We do have people here who ride bikes, particularly in that area, but there are not nearly enough of them to keep those lanes busy, especially in the winter. The car lanes are always clogged.

There was no vote on this issue here either. There seems to be an epidemic of politicians at all levels trying to force people out of cars and onto bikes. Then there are the city owned e-bikes but I won't go there.
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We had the city owned bikes for people to rent but when the pandemic came they disappeared and never came back. They're trying push us towards bikes too. But we have mostly two lanes with one way traffic on each lane and cyclists can use the entire lane which is terrible!
 
chic said:
We had the city owned bikes for people to rent but when the pandemic came they disappeared and never came back. They're trying push us towards bikes too. But we have mostly two lanes with one way traffic on each lane and cyclists can use the entire lane which is terrible!
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I agree, it's just madness. The councils here are literally trying to ban cars in favour of pedestrians and bikes.. bikes are a menace they cause a lot of accidnets, they carry no insurance... and because a whole lane is dedicated to them it causes traffic to be backed up for miles causing huge environmental problems..
 
Nathan said:
? What would be the "real" purpose?
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The real purpose is constant surveillance of our movements. This is what will happen in 15 minute cities of which I have not seen one yet nor heard of one proposed. I hope it never happens here. It sounds like a ghetto from world war II or something similar. :oops:
 
chic said:
Are there LTNS where you live? How do you feel about them?
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We live in a rural LTN...on 1000 acres of forestland shared by about 18 residents....on a gravel road....a Real LTN. Sometimes an hour passes without a vehicle going by. Most of the people just go 20 or 30 MPH.

I remember a time back in the '70's when the highway speed limit was 55MPH....took forever to get anywhere.
 
hollydolly said:
I agree, it's just madness. The councils here are literally trying to ban cars in favour of pedestrians and bikes.. bikes are a menace they cause a lot of accidnets, they carry no insurance... and because a whole lane is dedicated to them it causes traffic to be backed up for miles causing huge environmental problems..
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Same here. I know this is the plan. Where I live there are lots of colleges and universities so they may feel we will be more receptive to the idea but the disabled are already up in arms about this. How will they get around? This may be ok for healthy young students. But for seniors and people with disabilities it will be a horror show. I heard Oxford is planning to test the 15 minute city idea idea. I hope there is a lot of pushback on this.
 
Don M. said:
We live in a rural LTN...on 1000 acres of forestland shared by about 18 residents....on a gravel road....a Real LTN. Sometimes an hour passes without a vehicle going by. Most of the people just go 20 or 30 MPH.

I remember a time back in the '70's when the highway speed limit was 55MPH....took forever to get anywhere.
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Yes. I remember that too. It's 65 now on the highway where I live.
 
We have bike lanes in the nearest 30k city, but the reality is that they only get used 5 moths out of the year, and then only lightly. The speed limits have not been reduced however.

But yeah, there seems to be a move to force folks off the roads in some areas of the country. The electric car laws in CA are especially coercive since many can not afford these cars and their short range will make long trips difficult.
 
chic said:
Same here. I know this is the plan. Where I live there are lots of colleges and universities so they may feel we will be more receptive to the idea but the disabled are already up in arms about this. How will they get around? This may be ok for healthy young students. But for seniors and people with disabilities it will be a horror show. I heard Oxford is planning to test the 15 minute city idea idea. I hope there is a lot of pushback on this.
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Oh Oxford was the first... it's being trialled in many more cities now, including Manchester , which is the sixth largest city in the UK ..hence they're uproar last night
 
Michael Z said:
We have bike lanes in the nearest 30k city, but the reality is that they only get used 5 moths out of the year, and then only lightly. The speed limits have not been reduced however.

But yeah, there seems to be a move to force folks off the roads in some areas of the country. The electric car laws in CA are especially coercive since many can not afford these cars and their short range will make long trips difficult.
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That's probably part of their plan also. :confused:
 
Michael Z said:
We have bike lanes in the nearest 30k city, but the reality is that they only get used 5 moths out of the year, and then only lightly. The speed limits have not been reduced however.

But yeah, there seems to be a move to force folks off the roads in some areas of the country. The electric car laws in CA are especially coercive since many can not afford these cars and their short range will make long trips difficult.
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My next nearest town is a dormitory town.. 51,000 pop... traffic gets built up there all times of the day but especially in the AM and the 5/6pm rush hours.. the roads are only 2 cars wide...some years ago the council in every town including this one built cycle lanes.. but no according to some that wasn't enough.. so they had to commandeer one half of the hole of one side of the road.. essentially making the road, only 1 and half cars wide.. depsite the fact that you could have a sleep while waiting for a single bike to come along and use it..while the traffic is nose to tail trying to get through a tiny gap..
 
hollydolly said:
we have 2 lane roads mostly, and the council in their infinite wisdom have made one side cyclists only..how about that for madness?...
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You win, Holly!! Please don't let our city council hear about this or they will want to do it. Seriously, that sounds like an awful mess. :(

chic said:
We had the city owned bikes for people to rent but when the pandemic came they disappeared and never came back. They're trying push us towards bikes too. But we have mostly two lanes with one way traffic on each lane and cyclists can use the entire lane which is terrible!
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They rode them on the sidewalks, rode them out of downtown and abandoned them there. I think they are all gone now but I wouldn't be surprised if they try it again.
 
Michael Z said:
We have bike lanes in the nearest 30k city, but the reality is that they only get used 5 moths out of the year, and then only lightly. The speed limits have not been reduced however.

But yeah, there seems to be a move to force folks off the roads in some areas of the country. The electric car laws in CA are especially coercive since many can not afford these cars and their short range will make long trips difficult.
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...just curious where you heard that, I actually live in CA and see no evidence of that which you speak.
 
chic said:
The real purpose is constant surveillance of our movements. This is what will happen in 15 minute cities of which I have not seen one yet nor heard of one proposed. I hope it never happens here. It sounds like a ghetto from world war II or something similar. :oops:
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...had to google "LTNS", sounds more like traffic and pollution control....shrugs.gif
 

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