Better Streets for Enfield
Please bear with us while we reinstate our full website
Better Streets for Enfield on Instagram
Better Streets for Enfield on Facebook
What's New?
Better Streets for Enfield ask for: An end to high-traffic neighbourhoods
Why?
Ask almost anyone what makes a healthy, happy neighbourhood – and very few want a large amount of traffic.
Most people want to live in a neighbourhood with clean air and safe, people-friendly streets for themselves and their families. It has been calculated that in the UK’s towns and cities, 9 in 10 people – across all socio-economic bands – live in neighbourhoods of residential streets, whose roadways were designed primarily for access, not as through-traffic routes.
At the same time, there has been a growing awareness that our neighbourhoods have suffered under the increasing volume and changing habits of motor traffic. Sat-nav has been a boon for in-car navigation. But the downside is that it prioritises only the interests and journey-speed of the driver, not the neighbourhoods through which traffic is often routed.
As through traffic squeezes in from the classified road network, the health and happiness of those communities can be squeezed out – whether that is from the noise and pollutants from vehicles, dangerous speeding, or the sheer volume of vehicles on ‘rat-runs’ that become hostile: unviable for safe cycling, and inhospitable to pedestrians and those with disabilities.
Increasingly there is an acceptance that sustainable urban and suburban neighbourhoods – of the kind that people truly value – cannot be ones abandoned to a demand-led dominance of through-traffic, much of it, in Enfield, emanating from outside the borough.
Individuals, and their choices – if they are drivers – about when and where to drive, must play their own part in enhancing neighbourhoods. But Enfield residents also need purposeful, committed councillors to enact the kinds of policies that (a) work to solve neighbourhoods that still suffer from high traffic and (b) conserve neighbourhoods that have achieved a low-traffic status.
Where are we now?
There is good news, as shown in this map of Enfield. Large sections (shown in violet) of the borough have become low-traffic environments, whose roads provide access but discourage or prevent through-traffic.
Figure 1: Low-traffic zones of Enfield, where through-traffic is discouraged/prevented
Some were originally designed as small networks of residential roads that do not allow cut-throughs – as in various types of housing estate.
Some have experienced interventions in earlier decades. In the south-east of Enfield, for example, traffic moving to and from the North Circular Road has long been a problem for local neighbourhoods. Responses included a gate on Seafield Road (Arnos Grove) and a junction closure (with bollards and extended pavement) at Hardwicke Road/A406 (New Southgate), protecting a number of streets.
The best-designed, most comprehensive solutions tackle networks of streets in a holistic way. Enfield’s Quieter Neighbourhoods programme has included some schemes in which ‘modal filters’ (controlled by a mixture of bollards and ANPR cameras) have brought transformative protections to neighbourhoods south of the North Circular Road and north of Broomfield Park – in both cases, following years of resident complaints and active campaigns to repair those high-traffic neighbourhoods.
Nowadays, the best-designed interventions also incentivise residents to think about their own car usage. There is an implicit ‘quid pro quo’: “We will protect your neighbourhood, and please do your bit by considering switching some of your journeys away from the motor car to public transport or other modes.” This is how ending high-traffic neighbourhoods can also contribute to reducing overall motor-traffic journeys in a congested city like London.
As the map also shows, though, there is much left to do. There are Enfield neighbourhoods and streets with known issues that have been unheard; there are potential schemes to tackle the speed and volumes of through-traffic that have not progressed.
Where next? Local Elections in May 2026
Better Streets for Enfield believes in an end to high-traffic neighbourhoods in the borough – because low neighbourhood traffic is fundamental to quality of life in a community.
Between now and 5 May 2026, candidates for office on Enfield Council will be issuing manifestos and canvassing opinion. BSfE encourages residents to ask candidates of all parties:
“How will you…”
- Reduce traffic levels in my neighbourhood?
- Make my local streets safer to cross, safe to cycle through?
- Reduce vehicle speed and noise in my neighbourhood?
- Improve air quality and make my neighbourhood healthier?
- Progress any existing plans to lower my neighbourhood traffic?
And if you already live in a low-traffic environment, will candidates:
- Continue to protect quality of life and the low-traffic zone?
- Ensure that high traffic volumes will not damage the area again?
From this Friday 6th March three of Enfield's town centres will have a speed limit of 20mph.
The signage is currently going up in Edmonton, Southgate and Palmers Green as part of the first phase of 20mph.
As we've said before we'd like this to go further but understand we have to start somewhere.
Also as we've said before, we are not arguing for a 'blanket scheme' - the A10 and North Circular don't need it - but residential roads is the long-term aim.
Like any scheme it will take a little time to bed in, but as has been seen elsewhere, we look forward to the positive benefit for pedestrians, wheelers and cyclists.
You can help by sticking to 20 mph max in these areas. When it becomes the culture our high streets will be safer, healthier and more people-friendly. All of that is good for our local businesses.
As a reminder
Safety is a big issue in Enfield.
Enfield's casualty rate for pedestrians is 28th out of 32 London boroughs.
20mph schemes work - speeds fall and safety increases with it.
Car insurance companies are taking note too - premiums have been falling in Wales since the introduction of 20mph for urban/village roads.
20mph schemes save huge amounts of money too. Road injuries and deaths generate huge medical and societal costs. Even a small reduction in Enfield would save millions every year.
The constant acceleration to, and braking from, 30mph causes a lot of pollution from fuel, brakes and tyres. A 20mph limit is the equivalent of taking half the petrol cars off the road.
Electric cars are not pollution free either. They are heavier than those using petrol/diesel, and both brakes and tyres rely on friction to work. As the Daily Mail put it, tyre pollution is the 'dirty secret of electric cars'.
Then there's the noise.
Slower speeds, and less acceleration, means lower decibels. 20 mph halves perceived noise compared to 30mph as cars move at steadier speeds.
There's lots to gain.
https://letstalk.enfield.gov.uk/20mph
Transport for London consulting about redesign of key intersection on new walking and cycling route
Better Streets for Enfield have issued a statement about a consultation currently under way about the redesign of a key junction where a west-east walking and cycling route crosses the Great Cambridge Road. Transport for London's proposals, which would reduce hazard and inconvenience for pedestrians and cyclists, are controversial with some drivers.
We want to see
Safe streets
with safe space to walk, cycle and cross on busy roads and quiet, low-traffic streets in neighbourhoods.
Healthy streets
where active travel is the natural choice for short journeys and air is clean enough for children to breathe.
People-friendly streets
with lots of plants and seating, and where motor traffic doesn’t dominate – especially on high streets.
To achieve safe, healthy and people-friendly streets we campaign for
- An end to high-traffic neighbourhoods
- A complete, coherent Borough-wide network of cycle lanes
- Pedestrian-friendly high streets to boost local business
- 20mph as the default speed limit
- Traffic-free streets around every school during school run hours
We are the ‘umbrella’ group campaigning for active travel in Enfield, including walking, wheeling and cycling. Given this we have a strong relationship with the Enfield Cycling Campaign, which is the local branch of the London Cycling Campaign.
What are the local issues that concern you? Please get in touch and let us know! (but also remember we are local volunteers, we will reply as quickly as we can).
