Tom, I think you are missing the point here. The issue is less the actual incidence of crime rather than the perception of risk.For years I've cycled once a week in the early evening along Staveley Road. There is no doubt that since the introduction of the barriers this journey feels a lot safer on a bike but, now that the clocks have gone back, pedestrians have more or less disappeared from the road at this time of day. There was a regular stream of people walking here even during the winter before the barrier was put up.A friend who is a regular commuter used to walk home via Staveley Road after arriving at Chiswick Station. She now takes a longer route along Burlington Lane and she says many of the people who are regularly on the same train as her do the same thing. I know you habitually dismiss anecdotal evidence but that is all I have I'm afraid.You may be right than walking by busier roads does not make women safer and that drivers rarely stop but, as I said at the start, this is about perception. People, and women in particular, feel less safe on roads on which they are isolated. This isn't an argument against LTNs as such but it has to be recognised that if restrictions are successful they will, in some cases, create an elevated sense of risk on roads for isolated pedestrians.Today is White Ribbon Day, which is meant to mark the struggle against violence on women and girls. Perhaps for once you could not turn your formidable powers of data wrangling to proving women who say they feel unsafe that they are wrong and accept that a well implemented LTN scheme should account for their concerns.
Francis Rowe ● 1764d