The Healthy Streets Scorecard ranks London Boroughs on how healthy their streets are according to ten indicators (six input indicators and four outcome). By combining the indicator scores, each borough is given a final Healthy Streets score.
This page sets out detailed results for the input indicators:
4. Physically Protected Cycle Track
5. School Provision (A) STARS (B) School Streets
Plus new input indicator:
6. Bus Priority [added to 2023 Scorecard]
Haringey has made the most progress in rolling out Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) over the last year, with three new LTNs introduced and a doubling in the area covered by LTNs, to 34% of the borough.
There has been very little progress in other boroughs in establishing new LTNs over the last year, with a focus more on embedding existing schemes. But with a focus on LTNs coming from TfL later this year and several London boroughs preparing new schemes, we are hoping to see significant shifts in the next scores.
Hackney still has the greatest proportion of the borough as LTN, with 69% of appropriate area restricting through-traffic. Waltham Forest and Islington come next with 48% and 47% respectively. Other high performing boroughs are Newham, Southwark, Merton, Haringey and Hounslow.
Hammersmith and Fulham have been introducing residential ‘Clean Air Neighbourhoods’. We look forward to seeing what impact these have on walking and cycling levels, and in reducing overall traffic levels. Until there is further evidence on the impact of these schemes, they are being awarded 33% of the score that full LTNs receive.
Five boroughs have very little (under 10%) areas of LTN. These are Bexley, Westminster, Bromley, Kingston and Kensington and Chelsea.
Some boroughs and local people provided further information on through-traffic restrictions in their boroughs, both on modal filters introduced to areas in recent years, and on neighbourhoods originally designed not to carry through-traffic when they were first built. Many boroughs, such as Barking and Dagenham, have seen increases in their scores through this.
We know many boroughs are planning more LTNs and we expect to see more in the coming year.
This map shows the LTNs as of today, based on the best information available.
Notes
The graph below shows Inner and Outer London boroughs differentiated by colour (light blue = Inner London, dark blue = Outer London). This graph helps show how boroughs are doing compared to other Inner or Outer boroughs.
The image below depicts the London Low Traffic Neighbourhoods by borough map* highlighting the borough boundaries (coloured orange) and LTNs (historic, in place before March 2020, – coloured mauve and new, introduced after March 2020, – coloured purple).
*Originally reproduced from Safe Cycling London map, produced by Safe Cycle London with support from the LCC
Once again there has been a small increase in the overall proportion of London’s roads that have 20mph limits with a rise of 1.0% from 52.2% in 2022 to 53.2% in 2023. The good news is that more recently two boroughs, Kingston-upon-Thames and Newham have announced that they plan to move to a default 20mph limit and the impact of this should be seen in the next couple of years.
In the most recent months, it is TfL rather than the boroughs that have had the biggest impact on increasing the use of 20mph limits in London with the delivery in Autumn 2022 of schemes to make all of the roads that they control (the Red Routes/TLRN) in Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Camden and more of their roads in Haringey 20mph. This is coupled with plans to deliver 20mph limits on TfL roads across Greenwich, Lewisham, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, Merton, Bromley, Ealing and Kensington and Chelsea by the end of 2023.
On borough managed (rather than TfL controlled) roads, the big change is a large rise in coverage of 20mph limits on roads in Wandsworth as the “A” and “B” roads that had previously been left out of the borough’s lower speed limits programme also became 20mph. Hammersmith & Fulham also has plans to adopt 20mph limits on the main roads that were omitted from their 20mph limits programme.
So overall, a gradually improving picture but still with a number of boroughs with much work to do. In five London boroughs, Barnet, Bromley, Hillingdon, Bexley and Havering, less than 10% of the roads have 20mph limits and, in spite of the support from TfL to fund lower speed limits, they appear reluctant to take advantage of the opportunities that 20mph speed limits offer to make the roads safer and to reduce the intimidation that speeding vehicles cause in particular for those who are walking and cycling.
The graph below shows Inner and Outer London boroughs differentiated by colour (light blue = Inner London, dark blue = Outer London). This graph helps show how boroughs are doing compared to other Inner or Outer boroughs.
This year we have significantly updated the way we measure Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) coverage.
Overall, it’s very disappointing to see very little movement on this metric. Much more action is needed. Controlling parking is one of the most important tools councils have to reduce car journeys, especially short trips, in favour of walking, cycling and public transport, and it is cost neutral to the council.
This map shows CPZs by borough as of today, based on the best information available.
The graphs below shows Inner and Outer London boroughs differentiated by colour (light blue = Inner London, dark blue = Outer London). These graphs helps show how boroughs are doing compared to other Inner or Outer boroughs. The first graph shows suitable percentage coverage, the second shows CPZ coverage final scores.
The image below depicts the London Controlled Parking Zones by borough map* highlighting the borough boundaries (coloured black), area excluded from analysis (in grey) and CPZs (in colour).
*Map created by Will Petty (@Microlambert), overseen by the Healthy Streets Scorecard coalition
While the past year saw three-times more new cycle tracks than 2022, progress was still slow, mainly due to a lack of funding from Transport for London (TfL). TfL reached a funding deal with the government in autumn, but many of the funded schemes are just being consulted on (HSS measures new cycle tracks from April to March).
There have been surprises from a few boroughs that aren’t known for championing cycling and active travel. At the top of the list for rollout of cycle tracks in the last year are Redbridge, Croydon, Lewisham and Ealing. Redbridge installed wand protected lanes near the Wanstead Flats, Croydon installed wand protected lanes on a few of its corridors, and the Lewisham section of Cycleway 4 was implemented in the last year. Increases in cycle track Ealing are not attributed to new schemes, just ones we hadn’t counted previously. Despite this these boroughs still have a long way to go to match the top boroughs.
This year also saw the removal of schemes or sections of schemes, mostly ‘temporary’ schemes implemented during the pandemic by Barnet, Bromley, the City of London, Croydon, Hackney and Merton. Net removals put the City of London and Bromley at the bottom of the list for new schemes in the last year. However, The City still leads our list with the most cycle tracks per km of road.
Waltham Forest, Enfield, Hounslow and Camden also top the list. These boroughs all continued implementing new schemes and will no doubt introduce more as funding is available next year.
We’re already seeing councils consult on new schemes so we’ll likely see more progress for the 2024 Scorecard. But boroughs and TfL will need to increase pace to that at the beginning of the pandemic to meet the Mayor’s climate targets.
This map shows Protected Cycle Track as of today, based on the best information available.
Note: The indicator is calculated as kilometres of protected cycle lane as a percentage of overall borough road length. Cycle tracks can be delivered both on borough-controlled roads and TfL-controlled “TLRN”/ Red Route roads. The percentages reflect the overall scale of cycle tracks each borough is delivering compared to how much roadspace there is in the borough (it doesn’t reflect a “true” percentage of road use and should not be quoted as such).
The graph below shows Inner and Outer London boroughs differentiated by colour (light blue = Inner London, dark blue = Outer London). This graph helps show how boroughs are doing compared to other Inner or Outer boroughs.
The image below depicts the Safe cycling in London map of the cycle network in London.
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The School Provision metric is made up of two parts. Half of the score is based on boroughs’ rankings on the Transport for London STARS programme, which gives each school a Gold, Silver or Bronze depending on how many actions they have taken on aspects such as cycle training, bike storage and healthy walking promotion, and on what proportion of the trips made to school are sustainable. The other half of the score relates to the proportion of schools which are School Streets (i.e. where general traffic is not permitted to enter a street in front of a school during drop-off and pick-up times).
Islington has made significant improvements to its STARS score over the year, with the proportions of Gold, Silver and Bronze schools increasing by 16%. Greenwich, Harrow and Lambeth all saw declines of over 10%.
Bromley and Waltham Forest now both have scores over 60%, Havering has 50%, and Redbridge, Islington, Barnet and Haringey all have over 40%. Boroughs like Waltham Forest, Islington and Haringey are implementing infrastructure improvements around schools as well as STARS, which makes STARS more effective.
Every London borough is engaged with STARS, although five boroughs have scores below 15%. These are Hackney, Kingston, Bexley, Hammersmith & Fulham and Barking & Dagenham.
We look forward to seeing a holistic roll out of infrastructure measures, supported by strong people-focussed STARS measures, in many boroughs over the coming year.
The graph below shows Inner and Outer London boroughs differentiated by colour (light blue = Inner London, dark blue = Outer London). This helps show how boroughs are doing compared to other Inner or Outer boroughs.
It is positive to see the continued roll out of School Streets across London, and just under 20% of schools in London are now on safe School Streets, according to data gathered by Mums For Lungs and the Healthy Streets Scorecard. There are just two boroughs that do not have any school streets: Bexley and Hammersmith & Fulham.
Boroughs such as Islington and Hackney, which score well across a lot of metrics, score well on School Streets. But School Streets are much more widely implemented than some other infrastructure measures, and boroughs such as Lewisham, Merton, Brent and Hounslow all score well and have over 30% of their schools on School Streets.
It has been a big year for school streets in Croydon and Havering, which have both increased their scores by 12%. Lewisham, Wandsworth and Ealing also continue to roll out School Streets at pace.
School streets are an excellent way to improve safety, increase walking and cycling to school, and provide a stress-free start and end to the day for young people. We look forward to their continued roll out next year.
The graph below shows Inner and Outer London boroughs differentiated by colour (light blue = Inner London, dark blue = Outer London). This helps show how boroughs are doing compared to other Inner or Outer boroughs.
This indicator measures the proportion of the bus routes in each borough that have been given priority over other motor traffic (through bus lanes or bus gates). This is the first year that the Bus Priority indicator contributes to the overall score for each borough. We have used the scores collated last year, as it has not been possible to update borough maps for this year.
The data shows a wide variation in the proportion of bus route prioritised in each borough. Across all boroughs, most of the priority score is delivered by bus lanes. In some boroughs, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (both newly delivered and historic ones) also provide a contribution where they permit entry to buses but not general traffic. Among the Inner London boroughs, there are three boroughs – Hackney, Islington and Lambeth* – where 40% to 50% of routes are prioritised. In Haringey, Lewisham, Wandsworth and Camden around 30% are prioritised; but only around 20% of routes are prioritised for buses in Tower Hamlets and Westminster, and just 5% in bottom-of-the-table Kensington & Chelsea.
Among the Outer London boroughs, Ealing, Barking and Dagenham, Merton, Waltham Forest, Hounslow, Brent and Greenwich score well with between 10-20% priority. But many boroughs have little or no priority for buses: Bexley, Bromley, Redbridge, Barnet and Sutton all have under 5% priority.
The Scorecard coalition has issued a call to action, asking boroughs and TfL to work together to introduce more bus priority measures, especially on roads which have been identified as needing urgent action.
In addition to updating bus priority measures for next year, boroughs that have dedicated portions of their roads for use by trams will receive scores for those sections of route, as buses do.
This map shows London bus priority and bus routes as of today, based on the best information available.
*Excluding City of London
From 2023, the bus priority scores contribute to the overall Healthy Streets Scorecard scores
Our aim is to publish data showing how much action has been taken. A higher score may be allocated for action taken on sections of roads which have been identified by TfL as needing urgent action. Borough and TfL roads will be included in scores.
Mapping and data updates and corrections
The map and data are correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication but we welcome contact from anyone, including boroughs and TfL, if corrections are needed. We are aware that bus services may change and our aim is to reflect this in future years’ data and mapping. We will issue an annual call for amendments around March of each year.
The graphs below shows Inner and Outer London boroughs differentiated by colour (light blue = Inner London, dark blue = Outer London). This helps show how boroughs are doing compared to other Inner or Outer boroughs.
The image below depicts the Bus Priority map of the bus network in London.
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