Too many car trips

We do a lot of driving in Enfield! Our car mileage is growing every year, and so is the number of cars per household (Enfield Transport Strategy 2018). We drive to work more (47%) than the London average (30%). It’s no coincidence that we also have high rates of health problems caused by a lack of exercise, like childhood obesity and diabetes. So we need to make walking and cycling much more safe and convenient for all ages, helping people exercise just by going from A to B – without adding to congestion or air pollution. This is especially important for routes to school.

So far in Enfield…

We applaud the council’s achievements under the Cycle Enfield programme, transforming the A105 and A1010 into healthy boulevards for walking, cycling and public transport. We are already seeing people switching to bikes for transport in growing numbers, and there will be a 17-kilometre cycle network when the work is finished. But this is just the beginning – much more needs to be done.

Our ask

To open up active travel for everyone, we need three main ingredients:

  1. Safe space to walk and cycle on busy roads so that anyone aged 8 to 80 can travel safely by foot or bike. We want to see the current high-quality improvements on major routes expanding across the borough.
  2. Low traffic neighbourhoods – whole areas without through traffic that are safe for walking/cycling, not just one ‘quiet’ route per area
  3. Safe crossings over main roads, linking up 1 and 2. This creates a borough-wide network of direct routes for walking and cycling that any age or ability can use.

The Greater Manchester Beelines project is using these three ingredients to open up the whole city for active travel – we want Enfield to do the same.

Before and after the Manchester Beelines scheme. Green = easy and safe for all-age active travel