Low-traffic neighborhoods

Launch the tool in your web browser

Try the new version

This free tool lets anybody study existing and proposed low-traffic neighborhoods (LTNs). Experiment with modal filter placement, and examine the impacts on drivers trying to cut through residential areas.

The software runs faster if you install it. No mobile/tablet support. Unzip, then run ltn.exe or ltn.

Contact dabreegster@gmail.com with any feedback or file an issue on Github.

Use this in your area

A number of individuals and campaign groups have been using this tool around Islington, Brighton, Hyde Park, Nottingham, and Lyon. Bristol City Council has used it in a public consultation to co-design a liveable neighbourhood with residents.

Want to start doing the same in your area? You can use the downloadable version and import an area yourself. If you want help, or if you want to deploy the tool for a consultation or campaign, please email dabreegster@gmail.com. Users will be able to anonymously upload and share their proposals.

Videos

How modal filters affect shortcuts and cells:

How filters affect driving routes:

Credits

Main team:

Alumni from A/B Street (the LTN tool is built upon past work):

  • Michael Kirk
  • Yuwen Li

None of this work would be possible without OpenStreetMap contributors.

Inspiration / early testers giving great feedback:

This work was expanded from an initial prototype while Dustin worked at the Alan Turing Institute, where he's funded by the UKRI grant for the ASG program.

Concept art

Our hope is that this tool makes it easier for communities to come together and collaboratively design neighborhoods that work well for everyone. Special thanks to Scriberia for illustrating this idea:

This image was created by Scriberia for The Turing Way community and is used under a CC-BY 4.0 licence for reuse. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3332807

Documentation

Features

  • Editing
    • Place new modal filters (including bus gates and diagonal filters)
    • Switch the direction of one- and two-way streets
    • Specify custom neighbourhood boundaries
    • Create new unsignalized or signalized crossings
  • Analyze
    • Calculate likely shortcuts drivers may take through an area. Visualize individual paths and a heatmap of all traffic.
    • Visualize whether filters successfully split an area into smaller cells, making a "water-tight" scheme free from shortcuts
    • See how edits affect individual routes
    • Based on crossings, see porosity between adjacent neighbourhoods
    • Quickly get a sense of where traffic may detour outside the neighbourhood in the short-term, using travel demand models. Browse through individual example trips that change route due to edits.
  • Collaborate
    • Save proposed edits and quickly swap between multiple options, comparing them
    • Upload proposals anonymously and share a URL