“Reasonably balanced or needlessly confrontational?” New BBC Panorama episode about low-traffic neighbourhoods raises concerns over stirring culture war

A new BBC Panorama episode, titled “Road Wars: Neighbourhood Traffic Chaos” to be broadcast later tonight on BBC One, explores the conflicts around low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) that have “set neighbours against neighbours”, and features stories and accounts from both sides of the debate; but it has already raised concerns about whether the show will offer a nuanced take or deepen the rift between both sides.

In the episode, BBC’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt visits Oxford’s LTN schemes, that have been the hotbed for several previous incidents of vandalism as well as cultural and ideological clashes lately, and in the process investigating if they are really helpful in reducing traffic and mitigating climate change.

The programme, which has previously been criticised for its investigations into "Britain's killer roads" and "Cars v Bikes", will feature interviews with Oxford residents who are campaigning in favour of the traffic restrictions as well as those who are campaigning against them.

It also looks to feature segments with LTN academic and expert Dr Rachel Aldred from University of Westminster, along with former actor, now COVID and climate change denier Laurence Fox.

> Review: Panorama – Road Rage: Cars v Bikes

Run over, beaten, bent, burnt and stolen - is this Britain’s most abused bollard?

Road Wars: Neighbourhood Traffic Chaos is on @BBCiPlayer now and on @BBCOne at 8pm tonighthttps://t.co/HxvuqijnR8 pic.twitter.com/jPeQ5mWzi9

— BBC Panorama (@BBCPanorama) April 17, 2023

A balanced approach by the BBC?

Richard Parnham is a resident who is campaigning against traffic restrictions in the city with a local pressure group called Reconnecting Oxford. He says the schemes have “torn the city apart” and are “setting neighbour against neighbour”.

Such claims and allegations against LTNs have been used long since the schemes were just beginning to be put in place, with many communities like Reconnecting Oxford forming in London to oppose them.

One such group from London, called OneEaling, claims “Ealing Council has divided our community by installing CCTV cameras, bollards and placing planters in an unsafe and undemocratic manner”.

Bollards seem to be a focus for the latest Panorama episode, with a new article on BBC’s website spotlighting the trials and tribulations of a plastic bollard on Howard Street in east Oxford which was installed last year, and labelling it as “probably the most abused bollard in the UK”.

> Vandals target LTN bollards and planters less than 24 hours after trial is introduced

Rowlatt writes: “I’ve been to meet locals there who believe the scheme will reduce congestion and pollution - and others who want the freedom to drive wherever they want.”

The article also has a small clip which sees the bollard being run over, bent, burned and then stolen. But it’s really nothing new, considering vandals have targeted not just bollards, but also planters, setting fire to them and overturning them, as well as other infrastructure to promote cycling and walking such as cycle lanes and bike racks in many places.

Oxford has introduced Low Traffic Neighbourhoods to enhance people's quality of life. But there's a small group of antisocial men who resent any restraint on where they can drive. Their tactics have become ever more extreme. Last night they resorted to arson. pic.twitter.com/zSSzhWjStw

— George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) July 4, 2022

Rowlatt also talks to Theo Hopkins, a 79-year old “human bollard” — one of the many residents who have stepped in to block the road themselves, sometimes provoking violent reactions, in tonight’s episode.

Mr Hopkins says that he has been hit twice during confrontations with angry drivers, with a car pushing him off the road one time.

> Teesside pop-up bike lanes abandoned after theft and vandalism

Another resident Zuhura Plummer, who has campaigned for the city's LTNs as part of a group called Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, has a starkly different view, claiming that these measures enable the residents to cycle safely and breathe cleaner air.

The programme also intends to explain the larger government initiatives around LTNs, such as the increased spending after lockdown to promote active travel, and how it ended up enraging even more drivers, slapping them with fines for violating the rules.

Additionally, Prof Rachel Aldred, who has been behind numerous academic papers, reports and research investigating LTNs and their effects, is also set to be a part of the show to counter the claims of drivers and residents complaining that LTNs just push the problem from side roads to main roads.

Her studies have found that the average increase in traffic flows on boundary roads is just over one per cent, with recorded traffic on the boundary roads increasing in half the LTNs she has studied - and going down in the other half.

> Study finds London's Mini-Hollands are encouraging more cycling - and especially, walking

Finally, the show is set to take a look at the conspiracy theories against traffic reduction schemes that have found their way from the dark corners of social media all the way to the Parliament, with MPs now on the bandwagon as well.

In February, conspiracy theorists and far-right groups attended a protest in Oxford against the planned 15-minute cities scheme, which aim to create neighbourhoods where residents can walk or cycle to the nearest shop, cafe, school, or any essential necessity in a short period of time.

The protest was joined by racist and neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative, Heritage Party founder David Kurten, climate change denier and anti-vaccine activist Piers Corbyn, and other like-minded people. Among those present was also former actor and conspiracy theorists’ darling Laurence Fox, who also spoke at the event.

Fox is also speaking to Rowlatt on tonight’s Panorama, about how 15-minute cities are somehow part of a sinister desire by the government “to control our movement, speech, everything”.

…or rabble-rousing for views?

BBC, long-known for its balanced coverage of the news (historically, even on topics like climate change), seems to be going for another investigative documentary on its night-time show that is at most times well-reputed for being truthful. But as transport journalist Carlton Reid pointed out, the title seems “leading and needlessly confrontational”.

> Podcast: Why is the 15-minute city attracting so many conspiracy theories? 

On the plus side the prog looks to feature specialist academic expert @RachelAldred It also looks to feature anti-vaxxer Laurence Fox and the Astro-turf org Tax Payers’ Alliance.

— Carlton Reid (@carltonreid) April 17, 2023

In 2021, we reported that a BBC News report on LTNs was criticised by a Labour peer from All Party Parliamentary Group on Cycling and Walking for ignoring evidence and “perpetuating concerning falsehoods”, as well that the broadcaster has “embarked on its own journey to stir up a manufactured culture war”.

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The TV report, which was also fact-checked by Reid to be false, was fronted by… Justin Rowlatt, who was BBC Newsnight’s ‘ethical man’ for living green and with low carbon impact in 2006, and says on his Twitter profile that he reports “from the front line of climate change - how it’s going to affect our lives and what we can do about it”.

Rowlatt, in the 2021 report had brought up the fact of fines on drivers for cutting through LTNs, and claimed that they “raised almost half a million quid” within weeks — an issue that’s going to be discussed once again by him tonight.

He had also admitted that after the piece titled “Local traffic changes ‘more divisive than Brexit’” went live, his inbox was “already filling up”.

Further, last year Panoramas' investigation of “Britain’s Killer Roads” was under fire for questioning if a reduction in police numbers, breath tests and speed cameras were to blame for the rising death rates on the UK roads, rather than holding those behind the wheel responsible.

> "The killers are the imbeciles on them": BBC under fire for 'Britain's Killer Roads?' Panorama investigation

And in November, Panorama broadcast “Road Rage: Cars v Bikes”, a curious title for a TV programme that if anything showed just how vulnerable people riding bikes are with motorists who overtake them too closely; or failed to see them altogether, as in one case highlighted in the episode that we reported on at the time.

So is the latest Panorama title provocative only to reel in more viewers, or will it actually be stirring the pot in an already heated cultural landscape?

“Road Wars: Neighbourhood Traffic Chaos” airs on BBC One at 8 PM tonight (8:30PM in Wales), and is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer right now.