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
6. Bus Priority
Lambeth and Kingston have both increased their proportion of streets with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) by 4% this year, and Waltham Forest has also seen a 3% improvement. Waltham Forest now has over half of its suitable street area as LTN and so joins Hackney for that milestone.
Lambeth’s increase is largely due to the trial introduction of the Brixton Hill LTN, while a campaigner in Kingston has provided more data on existing schemes. Waltham Forest has also added schemes.
The roll-out of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods across London has stalled over the last couple of years, and more boroughs need to be more ambitious if they are to support London-wide modal shift targets.
A total of 17 boroughs have less than 20% of their suitable street area covered by LTNs, which shows the scale of both the challenge and the opportunity. Every borough should be moving further each year, if the full benefits that LTNs offer in terms of reduced road danger, increased active travel, more sociable spaces and reduced emissions are gained.
This map shows London’s LTNs as of today, based on the most accurate information available.
Note
The City of London’s result is skewed by its small size and the fact that much of it is ‘not suitable for an LTN’ according to the methodology, because it focussed on residential areas. It’s score reduces by half if all the City were considered suitable.
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 blue and new, introduced after March 2020, – coloured purple).
*Originally reproduced from Safe Cycling London map, by Safe Cycle London.
Map now updated and produced by the HSS coalition.
The previously little-regarded area of 20mph limits burst into the headlines last autumn when, mixed in with the ULEZ expansion in London and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, it became part of an unholy trinity that was bundled up as the ‘War on the Motorist’. The trigger, in the case of 20mph limits, was the move by the Welsh Government to reduce the default speed limit in built-up areas in Wales from 30mph to 20mph.
In London, the impact of all this has been very limited as in the 2024 Scorecard, we see the proportion of borough-managed roads that have 20mph limits rise from 53.2% in 2023 to 58.9% in 2024. This is partly due to the implementation of a default 20mph speed limit in Kingston-upon-Thames which has seen the proportion of 20mph roads in the borough increase from 43% in 2023 to 98% in 2024. In Hammersmith and Fulham, 20mph has been rolled out to include its main roads and 100% of borough managed roads are now 20mph. Elsewhere the proportion of roads that have 20mph limits has been reassessed in a number of boroughs and, as a result, there have been substantial year-on-year increases in Brent (45% to 60%), Harrow (25% to 37%), Hounslow (60% to 90%) and Waltham Forest (78% to 97%).
While there are now 16 London boroughs where 95% or more of the borough-controlled roads have a 20mph limit, there are still four boroughs, Bromley, Hillingdon, Bexley and Havering where less than 5% of the roads have a 20mph limit. These boroughs are failing to take advantage of the significant research that has been published about the beneficial impacts of 20mph limits on road casualties (and even the value of insurance claims) that has been published in the wake of the introduction of 20mph limits in Wales and on TfL controlled Red Route roads in London.
As well as the boroughs, there has been a great deal of activity by TfL whose delivery of 20mph limits on the TfL network (TLRN) in Autumn 2023 now means that 215 km of TfL roads (136 miles) have a 20mph speed limit. This includes all of the TfL roads within the Congestion Charge zone and almost all within the north and south circular roads.
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.
Once again, it is disappointing to see very little movement on this metric and more action is needed. Controlling parking is one of the most important tools available to councils to reduce car journeys, especially short trips, in favour of walking, cycling and public transport, and it is cost-neutral to the council.Â
There is still a stark difference between boroughs which have embraced parking controls and those which have not. Of the inner boroughs, Lewisham has by far the lowest CPZ coverage, even lower than many outer London boroughs.Â
Some small changes are the result of corrections reported by boroughs rather than new CPZs following the creation of the London-wide map by a Healthy Streets Scorecard volunteer last year. Note that last year we updated the way we measure Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) coverage.
This map shows CPZs by borough as of today, based on the most accurate 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.Â
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
There’s no soft way of putting it; it has been a very uneventful and worrying year for the amount of new cycle tracks implemented, a miniscule 13.5 kilometres across all of London. Only 11 boroughs delivered any new cycle tracks, and of those, most were very small improvements to existing schemes (relative increases on the graph from the previous year are due to changes to the length of road in the borough, this is most apparent in the City of London which did not install any new protected cycle lanes). Even boroughs known for being ambitious on active travel struggled, which shows that the issue isn’t with the boroughs themselves, but with TfL.
Schemes of note include the long-awaited Lower Road section of Cycleway 4, finally filling in the gap at the border of Southwark with Lewisham, the Lea Bridge Roundabout in Hackney (though sections of track linking it to the rest of Cycleway 23 in Waltham Forest are still in construction) and Cycleway 50 in Islington, which is currently implemented as a trial arrangement using temporary construction materials. Ealing tops the chart for new cycle tracks, but much of this isn’t new, it just hadn’t been included in previously.
Next year we intend to have a more dependable way of tallying the cycle track numbers with a new map that will allow us to directly calculate distances. This may result in some fluctuation from previous years as we will be auditing our cycle track data in all boroughs, but it will be more accurate.
This map shows Protected Cycle Track as of today, based on the most accurate information available.Â
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 (TfL) Travel for Life (formerly called STARS) programme, which gives each school a Gold, Silver or Bronze rating 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 metric 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).
Engagement with the TfL Travel for Life Scheme has been declining in recent years. Reduced funding for borough school travel officers, and a more challenging educational environment post-Covid, has reduced the ability of boroughs and schools to support active and sustainable travel. The London-wide average score has therefore fallen in each of the last three years. Some boroughs increased their performance over the year, though, including Bromley (the leading Travel for Life borough), Islington, Redbridge, Southwark and Hounslow. This means that they have increased their proportion of schools with Gold, Silver or Bronze ratings.Â
Travel for Life measures are only likely to be effective at increasing active and sustainable travel if they are complemented by School Streets and the other physical changes to streets leading to schools. So, some high-scoring Travel for Life boroughs, such as Bromley, Havering and Redbridge, may need further infrastructure changes to complement their schools’ work in order to create meaningful change.
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.
Over 100 new School Streets were introduced across London in the last year, according to data gathered by Mums For Lungs and the Healthy Streets Scorecard. This is good news and demonstrates the popularity, effectiveness and deliverability of School Streets.
The biggest increases in numbers of School Streets over the year were in Hounslow and Lambeth (both with 10 new School Streets), Camden (9), Croydon (8), and Lewisham and Ealing (both 7).
As a proportion of all schools, Lewisham now has the highest number of School Streets, with 54% of schools having School Streets. Islington and Hackney follow close behind. The leading Outer London boroughs for School Street implementation are Hounslow, Merton, Croydon, Waltham Forest and Ealing, all of which have at least a quarter of schools with School Streets.
School Streets are a good way to reduce traffic outside schools and improve air quality both on the street and in the school itself, improve safety, increase walking and cycling to school, and provide a positive 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).
Hackney has over half of its bus routes travelling through bus priority routes. Islington and Lambeth have 48% and 44% respectively.Â
The highest-performing Outer London borough is Barking and Dagenham on 20%. The borough has introduced both the Wood Lane and Longbridge Road bus priority routes since last year.
Some boroughs have provided us with more and improved data this year, which means some boroughs’ scores have increased. It has been good to see this engagement from boroughs.Â
Bexley, Bromley and Redbridge all score very poorly, and we hope to see some action from them in the coming year.
This map shows London bus priority and bus routes as of today, based on the most accurate information available.
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 are 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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