Episode 19: Breaking Down London’s Low Traffic Neighborhoods with James McAsh

Emily Weidenhof (0:02)

Welcome to Curb Enthusiasm. I'm Emily Weidenhof.

Huma Husain (0:04)

And I'm Huma Husain.

Emily Weidenhof (0:06)

Our guest today is James McAsh, the Council Leader of London's Borough of Suffolk.

Huma Husain (0:11)

As Council Leader, McAsh sets the overall vision, direction, and priorities for the Suffolk Council.

Emily Weidenhof (0:16)

Since 2018, McAsh has served the Council, prioritizing walking, cycling, and street design, aimed at creating a safer, greener, and more pedestrian-friendly Suffolk.

Huma Husain (0:27)

It's our pleasure to welcome Councilor James McAsh to the show.

Emily Weidenhof (0:30)

Welcome, James. Thanks so much for joining us on Curb Enthusiasm today.

James McAsh (0:34)

It was great to be here. Thank you so much.

Emily Weidenhof (0:36)

You're joining us from South London and from a city of five boroughs. Would love to have you share a little bit about your city of a few more boroughs and the borough you represent, Suffolk.

James McAsh (0:51)

I'm James McAsh and I'm the Leader of Suffolk Council.

Suffolk is one of the London boroughs. There are 32 London boroughs plus this 33rd thing called the City of London, which is very complicated and very archaic, as a lot of things are in England in fact.

I'm trying to explain what my role is in American terms. There isn't really an equivalent in New York. I suppose borough president wouldn't be miles away from it. I guess the difference is, our boroughs have a lot more power than boroughs do in New York. So a lot of the functions that are provided at city level are provided at borough level for us. So highways, for instance, waste, social care, quite a lot of things. But then at the same time, our boroughs are much, much smaller. So Southwark represents 330,000 people of London, which is quite small proportion of the whole city.

Emily Weidenhof (1:51)

Great. Amazing. Could we hear a little bit more about Streets for People?

James McAsh (1:56)

So we started from the position of saying, our streets are publicly owned resources.

They're actually a very precious resource, and we're a densely populated part of the world. So the space we have is limited, and we need to make sure it's being rationed out in a way that's equitable and that is aligned with our values.

Huma Husain (2:15)

Yeah.

James McAsh (2:15)

It was very clear to me that was not currently the case, because we overwhelmingly advocate our streets base to private motor vehicles.

In Southwark, 60 percent of residents don't have access to a private motor vehicle.

That, for me, struck me as a point of inequity. This is a precious resource, we need to share it fairly. But it's also a point about the climate and about social justice as well. So Streets for People has four categories of or four themes running through it. So one is Streets for Community, and that's about the idea that the streets are places where people can come together, where you can connect, where you can meet your neighbors, where children can play, and which are indeed are accessible to everyone. Streets for Journeys, obviously journeys are a big part of why we have streets, and we've got a very clear hierarchy of the types of journeys you want to promote. Then you've got Streets for the Economy, which is the idea that these publicly accessible, publicly owned streets should be to encourage local business to thrive in an equitable way. And then lastly, Streets for Nature. That recognition that the way we use our space is about protecting our national environment in terms of big picture things like the climate emergency, but also much more local things. So we're looking at all the different four aspects together, is about how we reallocate space from socially harmful uses, which is private motor vehicle use, to socially progressive uses, which are more equitable. And then I guess the level below that is how we do that. And I think this links in very closely with the topic of Low Traffic Neighborhoods.

Huma Husain (3:57)

Can you describe what a Low Traffic Neighborhood is?

James McAsh (3:59)

Absolutely. So a Low Traffic Neighborhood is an area defined by boundary roads, which are the main roads where you can't get from one boundary road to the other without going on the boundaries. So you can't cut through the residential streets. We recognize that some motor vehicle journeys need to happen, you know.

So we started by looking at the map of the borough and identify what is our traffic circulation network? What are the key strategic routes that are needed to go long distances by private motor vehicle, whether that's freight or whether it's people? It's the main roads, you know. It's the busy, it's the big main roads. And we mapped all those out and then we looked at the areas within those roads.