Ambulance crews can access LTNs, shows FoI requests by Cycling UK.
A Freedom of Information (FoI) investigation of NHS ambulance trusts in England, Scotland and Wales has found that none were opposed to the new pop-up cycleways or “low traffic neighbourhoods” (LTNs) installed during the COVID-19 lockdown last year.
The FoI requests were placed by member organisation Cycling UK.
The so-called “active travel” schemes were funded by the Department for Transport via local authorities to increase cycling and walking during the pandemic.
Last year, several U.K. newspapers reported that LTNs were leading to delayed response times from ambulance crews and that they were examples of a “war on the motorist.”
“Paramedics couldn’t get to patient because of covid-bollards blocking road,” claimed Metro on September 3, 2020.
“Green roads protests as ambulance concerns grow,” reported the Daily Telegraph on September 12 last year.
A Daily Mail headline said on November 14 “Bike lanes are holding up ambulances.”
The FoI requests covered the period from March to November 2020. Cycling UK sought to discover if any ambulance trust had failed to have been consulted by local authorities when the new cycling and walking measures were introduced.
Trusts were also asked whether they had raised any concerns with local authorities about schemes which might delay ambulance crews or add to emergency response times.
Of the 12 trusts contacted, only North West Ambulance NHS Trust and the South East Coast Ambulance NHS Trust failed to respond.
London ambulance. (Photo by Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
East of England Ambulance Trust indicated there was concern with a barrier-controlled access to a pedestrian area in Cambridge but the barrier in question was likely one installed for counter-terrorism purposes in 2018.
No trust indicated a lack of support for the new schemes, while four trusts—South Central Ambulance Service, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service and London Ambulance Service—expressed support.
In their response, the London Ambulance Service said: “The Trust recognises that changes to road layouts, traffic management schemes, and road closures all have the potential to impede our response to the most critically ill patients and could delay life-saving treatments or their conveyance to the nearest emergency department.
However, said the response, “the Trust does not support withdrawing funding for active travel measures.”
Low traffic neighbourhood planter in Kings Heath, Birmingham. The non-Department for Transport sign ... [+]
The reply to the FoI request from South Central Ambulance NHS Trust said: “There is no evidence of delays to patients.”
In the London borough of Waltham Forest, emergency response times have improved since the 2014 installation of LTN-style schemes and cycleways. In 2010, the average “first appliance arrival time” for a fire engine was 5 minutes and 43 seconds. By 2019, the arrival time was reduced to 4 minutes 54 seconds.
Cycling UK’s Duncan Dollimore said: “[We] would encourage councils to not let baseless allegations deter them from building a safer, healthier and greener future for us all.”
Newspaper reports that claim pop-up cycleways and LTNs are a danger to health usually fail to mention that the health and social benefits of reducing motor traffic are so substantial that at least one hospital charity is paying to install a LTN scheme.
Late last year Southwark council was given £250,000 by the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charitable Trust to install planters and removable bollards in three areas in the borough.
