As a Doctor working through the COVID-19 pandemic I have witnessed first-hand how quickly, and brutally, nature can wreak havoc on human life. Who doesn't look back on the pandemic warnings (see Bill Gates's TED talk from 2015) and wonder how we could have been so ill prepared when we had so much warning?
Yet, still so many of us ignore the warnings that are presented to us now – there are crises that we can avert if we take immediate action. We know: (1) air pollution is bad for our health; (2) climate change is an imminent danger to us all; and (3) we need to be fitter and healthier as a society.
It's in this context that I assess Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs).
LTNs reduce air pollution; slow climate change and increase physical activity for most of the population.
To me it seems to be a simple choice when you look at the big factors. If we drive less then we slow climate change and we protect each other's health. Using my car less seems a small cost to pay to help avert another COVID-19 sized crisis and to try and keep as many Islington residents as healthy as I can, for as long as I can. Islington residents have taken personal responsibility to ensure we are at the lowest level of COVID-19 cases per population in London, let's do the same for air pollution, activity levels and climate change.
Published in Islington Gazette on 6 March 2021 and in Islington Tribune on 5 March 2021