Planters and bollards improve air quality

So called, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) were, in a recent study, shown to have the potential to substantially reduce air pollution and traffic in target areas. This without increasing air pollution or traffic volumes in surrounding streets. These results provide sound arguments in favour of LTNs to promote health and wellbeing in urban communities. LTNs are small-scale area-based interventions that use low-cost modal filters (planters, bollards or camera gates) to restrict through traffic and limit vehicle speeds on residential streets. Some stakeholders have raised concerns about the possibility of traffic and air pollution displacement to surrounding areas. However, in a well-designed study using the difference-in-differences method in a dense area of London they found no evidence of displacement of traffic on the roads surrounding LNTs.

Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2022.103536