Low-traffic neighbourhoods: effects on motor traffic, active travel, air quality and equity

Low-traffic neighbourhoods restrict through motor traffic on residential streets to support walking and cycling, but their effects on traffic, active travel, air quality and equity remain contested. Eleven studies were included. Motor traffic fell inside schemes, by 56% and 61% in two natural experiments, with limited evidence of displacement to boundary roads. Active travel increased, by 65 to 114 additional minutes per week in the most intensively treated areas. One study reported lower nitrogen dioxide on low-traffic neighbourhood roads, and spatial analyses found schemes more likely in deprived and car-free areas of London. Low-traffic neighbourhoods reduce motor traffic and increase active travel in most settings, with thinner evidence on air quality and broadly favourable distributional patterns, although the evidence base is concentrated in the United Kingdom and relies on non-randomised designs.